There are 7 ways to avoid paying this fee… Including mailing them a check via US Mail. So either we are to believe that the process of receiving mail, opening mail, finding check, depositing check, applying said check to correct account, etc is somehow less expensive or Verizon hates you.

Being a former customer, I choose to believe that latter.  Read more from ABC News.

Tropo Go Global

Tropo, a voice application platform, announced yesterday availability of local numbers in more than 40 countries. Tropo previously had offered local numbers limited to the United States, but now launched the program internationally.

Need to test an app that makes calls? Those have been 100% free in development for calls to US numbers. We’re expanding that support internationally as well. In addition to the free calls to US mobiles and landlines that you’ve always had, our developer program now supports free calling to landlines in 17 other countries.

Although SMS may still be limited to US numbers, the availability of International local numbers to developers makes testing voice applications incredibly easy and affordable (as in free).

More information can be obtained directly from their release announcement.

Phone Power, LLC acquired VoIP.com

VoIP.com and Phone Power, LLC have merged. According to Phone Power, the two companies became one on October 1st, 2010.

On Friday, Phone Power sent out an email to current VoIP.com affiliates stating:

From: “voip.com” system@voip.com
Date: October 8, 2010 7:27:04 PM EDT
Subject: Important Annoucement Regarding The Voip.com Affiliate Program

Attn Affiliates:

On October 1, 2010, VOIP.com merged with Phone Power LLC. The official announcement will go out next week, but we wanted to reach out to all Affiliates beforehand.

The VOIP.com Affiliate program will be discontinued and all affiliates are urged to migrate into the Phone Power Affiliate program. Effective Tuesday October 12, 2010, existing VOIP.com Affiliate URLs will no longer work for tracking sales. You are encouraged to join the Phone Power Affiliate program on the Commission Junction network.

Phone Power Affiliate Program highlights:

- $75 one-time commission per sale, for any active plan. High volume programs can go as high as $110/sale.

- The lowest price VoIP service in the industry. No activation fees, and free adapter with purchase.

- 60 day chargeback period.

- A wide range of banner sizes and text links provided.

- No affiliate program fees or costs. Commission Junction is free to join.

- Dedicated Affiliate program support.

To sign up for the Phone Power Affiliate program, click here: link

If you already have a Commission Junction account, you can use your existing login. If not, it will setup a new account for you in a few clicks.

If you have questions about the program, feel free to contact us.

Thanks,

Jim Murphy
Affiliates@phonepower.com
Phone Power / VOIP.com
818-264-4405

I spoke with Phone Power’s Jim Murphy on Friday who confirmed the acquisition. Mr. Murphy advised that official word will be released on Tuesday October 12, and that Phone Power would be taking over the domain as well as the 800-TRYVoIP phone number.

Update: Phone Power released the following statement:

Phone Power Announces Acquisition of VOIP.com

Winnetka, CA, October 11, 2010 – Phone Power LLC, one of the fastest growing telecommunications providers, announced that it has acquired VOIP.com, a Voice Over IP service provider headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. Phone Power has built a solid reputation in providing cutting edge communications solutions to both residential and business customers. This is the third acquisition for Phone Power in the last twelve months. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition grows the Phone Power customer base over 25%.

“VOIP.com is an excellent fit for Phone Power as we continue to grow,” said Ari Ramezani, CEO of Phone Power. “We are very pleased to welcome VOIP.com customers into the Phone Power family. We look forward to utilizing our combined synergies to provide all of our customers the most advanced features that technology has to offer and a world class customer service experience. The Voip.com brand will contribute significantly to the company’s organic growth potential.”

Moving forward, the VOIP.com brand will co-exist independently with the Phone Power brand. Phone Power plans to manage the VOIP.com brand by continuing to invest in marketing, infrastructure and customer support.    Voip.com clients will gain access to Phone Power’s advanced features such as their free softphone, mobile apps, and free international calling.

About Phone Power

Phone Power is a next-generation telecommunications company, headquartered in Winnetka, California. A privately-owned company founded in 2005, Phone Power’s residential and small business phone service provides outstanding communications to tens of thousands of customers in North America, processing millions of minutes of calls each day, from all over the world. For more information about Phone Power, visit http://www.PhonePower.com

About VOIP.com

VOIP.com is an internet-based phone service provider serving both residential and business customers. Their service provides its customers with a wide array of included VoIP features and low prices on both domestic and international calling. http://www.voip.com

Media Contact Information:

Enne Michael
Phone Power LLC
Media Relations
818-264-4404
media@phonepower.com

Oh… you heard it here first.

G-g-g-g-g-g-google.

I love my Droid. That being said… my love for Google wanes like a loveless marriage from a white, suburban utopia. I’m comfortable with Google, but the love affair is over. Both of us want different things from our relationship.

I want Google to be a kinder, gentler corporation. The one that doesn’t scream M-M-M-Max Headroom and make me think that the next leader of Google, Inc. may indeed be named Darth Vader.

One of the products that I loved from Google was GooG411. Using it was simple.

1. Call +1 800 GooG 411
2. Speak what thee wants.
3. Repeat as needed.

Great service. But… the service will soon be no more. Good bye dreams of a kinder, gentler Google. Somewhere, Yahoo is smiling; getting ready for a comeback.

From readwriteweb.com:

Google just announced that it plans to shut down 1-800-GOOG-411, its voice-powered directory assistance service, on November 12. GOOG-411, which launched in 2007, was the company’s first foray into voice-powered search. According to Google, GOOG-411 “provided a foundation for more ambitious services” on smartphone platforms like Google’s own Android and Apple’s iPhone. Interestingly, today’s announcement also notes that Google plans to put all of its resources “into speech-enabling the next generation of Google products and services across a multitude of languages.”

For those who relied on GOOG-411, Google suggests using the company’s text message-based search service (466453) for finding local businesses.

And here’s the official word from Google:

Back in 2007 we launched 1-800-GOOG-411, a voice-powered directory assistance service that connects you quickly to businesses across the U.S. and Canada. On November 12, 2010, we will shut down the service.

GOOG-411 was the first speech recognition service from Google and helped provide a foundation for more ambitious services now available on smartphones, such as:

• Voice Search – search Google by speaking instead of typing.
• Voice Input – fill in any text field on Android by speaking instead of typing.
• Voice Actions – control your Android phone with voice commands. For example, you can call any business quickly and easily just by saying its name.

Our success encouraged us to aim for more innovation. Thus, we’re putting all of our resources into speech-enabling the next generation of Google products and services across a multitude of languages.

If you don’t use a smartphone, and you’re trying to call a business, you can send a text message with the name and location of the business to 466453 (“GOOGLE”) and we’ll text you the information, or on Gmail you can use the new phone-calling features to call any U.S. business free of charge. Also, if you don’t have the free voice search app pre-installed on your phone, you can download it here.

Thanks for all the calls, and keep an eye out for all the innovation to come.

The GOOG-411 Team

RIP GooG-411. RIP.

Keep these simple rules in mind:

• No one from the IRS or the Census bureau will ever email you about your taxes or the Census. Ever.
• No one from the IRS or the Census bureau will call you and ask for your address, social security number, and bank account information. Ever.
• No one from the IRS or the Census bureau will ask for money, a donation, passwords, or pin numbers over the phone or via email. Ever.

If you get a phone call from the IRS and do not feel comfortable with the questions they ask to identify you, the real IRS is always willing to accept a callback. Their phone number is 1-800-829-1040 (800-TAX-1040). Doing this callback will (almost) always ensure you are talking to the IRS.

This is a good rule of thumb for any unsolicited phone call. If the questioning or “verification process” makes you feel uncomfortable or involves revealing sensitive information such as a mother’s maiden name, social security number, driver’s license number, bank information, or credit information, get a callback name and number. Anyone can spoof an outgoing phone number, so caller id is no protection here. In the case of official agencies, it’s fairly easy to verify the listed phone number before making the callback, and legitimate businesses will never try to goad you into giving information.

If you are struggling with confrontation, all legitimate businesses will also be willing to conduct business via mail. Specifically in cases of debt collection or IRS matters, request the correspondence be provided via US mail instead of the telephone. Legitimate agencies will comply with this request, anyone who doesn’t you can safely hang up on.

Further Reading:
Census on Scams
IRS on Scams

As  of this posting (3/10/2010), the provider has not posted these announcements on their website’s press releases, press, or newsletters page. And, although the email indicates the terms of service had been updated, the public version did not include the “regulatory fee” as of this posting.

The announcement follows:

As most of our customers are aware, Voice over IP technology has been the subject of scrutiny by federal, state and municipal bodies for the past several years. During this time, VoicePulse has remained fully compliant on all levels of regulation while providing our customers with high quality, low cost phone service.

Unfortunately, costs incurred by compliance on these inquiries and corresponding legal obligations continue to grow. Each instance of regulation requires more resources on the part of our telecommunications company resulting in increased legal and compliance related expenses.

CHANGES TO YOUR ACCOUNT

Beginning on your next monthly bill cycle (3/12/2010 12:00:00 AM), we will be including a Regulatory Compliance Fee of $2.95 on your VoicePulse for Business and Wholesale account. Our Terms of Service has been updated to reflect above mentioned changes and we advise all customers to review the updated Terms of Service available within your account center. The fee will appear on your invoice as follows:

ITEM/ACCOUNT/REGULATORYCOMPLIANCEFEE
Qty: 1 at $2.95/ea = $2.95

We appreciate your continued support and we look forward to serving you in the years to come. As always, our representatives are available by phone at +1-732-339-5100 M-F 9am-5pm ET and email at contact@voicepulse.com.

Here at VoipTechChat(.com!) we don’t (as of this writing, but things change…) have any paid advertising on the site, and have abandoned AdWords, since it’s giving away real estate and not getting a lot of value. While we are open to targeted advertising (if you have a phone to sell, we are available to pitch it!), we appreciate that generic revolving text ads aren’t super valuable to anyone.

Today I started noticing the heavy addition of leading ads in my YouTube videos and I realized a critical feature all ads should share, and very few do:You should want to watch an ad. You should want to share it with your friends. You should be ABLE to share it with your friends.

When I see a clever ad on TV, regardless of if I like the product or want to buy it, I will send it to my friends. I tell two people, they tell two, etc. Maybe I have a blog with three regular readers and I want to show them. Which leads me to two questions:

1. Why pay to produce an ad and air an ad on television, but not upload it to video sites like youtube where people can view it and share it for free?

2. Why would Youtube, of all places, have clever ads in front of videos, but not a link to the ad itself?

When creating an ad-supported service, whether it’s a “free” calling card, “free” conference server, “free” social networking site, “free” blog,  the key test should always be:  is this advertising content either useful, entertaining, or both for my users? Can my users easily share this advertising content with their friends on an entirely opt-in basis? If people are interested in the ad and sharing the ad, the chances become much higher they will buy the product or service being advertised. If it’s not useful or entertaining, why would you put your reputation behind it?

Many companies have failed at their attempts to artificially create viral content, now companies are actively hindering it to their own detriment.

Be careful out there

A older scam gains popularity — or at least that’s what recent reports indicate. Targeting American cellphones, the goal of the scam is to have you make an international call and rack up your phone bill. Here’s how it works:

1. Your phone rings and becomes a missed call within 2 rings
2. You call back the number, assuming it’s in the US
3. Your phone bill imitates Cheech and Chong (aka becomes very high)

The recommendation is that you only call back numbers you either recognize or can identify by area code.

Here’s the FCC release:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently learned that an old long distance phone scam that leads consumers to incur high charges on their phone bills may now affect wireless consumers. In the past, consumers have been fooled into making expensive international calls by scam artists who leave messages on consumers’ answering machines or their e-mail accounts. The messages urge consumers to call a number with an “809,” “284,” “876,” or some other area code to collect a prize, find out about a sick relative, or engage in sex talk.

Wireless consumers are now receiving similar calls from phone numbers with three-digit area codes that appear to be domestic, but are actually associated with international pay-per-call phone numbers. While wireless companies are working to block suspicious numbers on their networks, some consumers may become victims of this scam.

The Scam Works Something Like This:

• Your wireless phone rings once or twice and then disconnects the call. When the number appears in your wireless phone log as a missed call, it appears to be a typical domestic telephone number starting with a “649” area code; or you get an e-mail or voicemail (on your residential wired telephone) telling you to call a phone number with an “809”, “284”, “876,” or some other three-digit international area code.
• When you return the call, you assume you are making a domestic long distance call – as “649,” “809,” “284,” “876,” and other area codes involved in this scam, appear to be typical three-digit U.S. area codes.
• When you dial the three-digit area code plus the number, however, you are connected to a phone number outside the United States, often in Canada or the Caribbean, and are charged expensive international call rates, and may be charged for pay-per-call services as well. (In this case, “649” goes to the Turks and Caicos, “809” goes to the Dominican Republic, “284” goes to the British Virgin Islands, and “876” goes to Jamaica.)
• You don’t find out about the higher international call rates until you receive your phone bill.

What You Can Do to Minimize the Risk of This Happening to You:

Check any unfamiliar area codes before returning calls.

Be aware that there are many 3-digit area codes (mostly in the Caribbean) that connect callers to international telephone numbers.

If you do not otherwise make international calls, ask your local or wireless phone company to block outgoing international calls on your line.

Filing a Complaint with the FCC

If you are billed for a call you made as a result of this scam, first try to resolve the matter with your telephone company. If you are unable to resolve it directly, you can file a complaint with the FCC. There is no charge for filing a complaint. You can file your complaint using an FCC on-line complaint form found at esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm. You can also file your complaint with the FCC’s Consumer Center by e-mailing fccinfo@fcc.gov; calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY; faxing 1-866-418-0232; or writing to:

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554.

The best way to provide all the information the FCC needs to process your complaint is to complete fully the on-line complaint form. When you open the on-line complaint form, you will be asked a series of questions that will take you to the particular section of the form you need to complete. If you do not use the on-line complaint form, your complaint, at a minimum, should indicate:

• your name, address, e-mail address, and phone number where you can be reached;
• the telephone and account numbers that are the subject of your complaint;
• the name and phone numbers of any companies involved with your complaint;
• the amount of any disputed charges, whether you paid them, whether you received a refund or adjustment to your bill, the amount of any adjustment or refund you have received, an explanation if the disputed charges are related to services in addition to residential or business telephone services; and
• the details of your complaint and any additional relevant information.

Filing a Complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

If you feel that you are a victim of an international phone scam, you can file a complaint with the FTC online at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov. You can also submit a complaint by calling the FTC toll-free at 1-877-382-4357 (voice) or 1-866-653-4261 (TTY), or writing to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC – 240
600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20580.

For More Information

For information about other telecommunications issues, visit the FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Web site at www.fcc.gov/cgb, or contact the FCC’s Consumer Center using the information provided for filing a complaint.

Residential VoIP - No Operators

Some say the media sensationalizes our economic woes for their personal gain. Others say the media accurately portrays the extreme financial burdens we find ourselves facing. And some people say, “Hey. I don’t care about anything, I always have and always will try to save money.” With today’s world becoming increasingly digital, VoIP (digital telephone) seems like a naturally good idea.

Clearly, we at VoIP Tech Chat advocate VoIP. We love it. We love it so much, we made a website called VoIP Tech Chat. And we actually now and then have chats and write articles on VoIP (ok, that last part was a little sarcastically since both Patrick and Fred seem to have been too busy to actually talk or write lately… but anyway…).

Residential Telephone Service and VoIP

If you can read this, you probably live somewhere. Or you’re a robot… which would be AWESOME since we are desperately trying to increase our robotic readership, but seriously, most people in our “audience” live somewhere and have residential phone service. Well, we should say most people used to have residential phone service.

Ten years ago, Mobile Phones were a novelty. Today, they are viewed as a necessity. In the United States, more people have wireless phone service than have traditional landline (POTS) telephone service. And, even with higher drop rates, lower voice quality, and service availability issues, 1/3rd of the current US population live in “wireless only” households (interestingly a very small percentage live in a landline only household, with the group represented mostly by persons “well over” retirement age).

There are some disadvantages to the Wireless Only approach, including emergency calling (aka 911), coverage, name listing in directories, and cost. If you are a “heavy” talker, your wireless phone bill can be very costly depending on your usage. The advantages include calling features (such as caller id and voicemail), having your phone with you at all times, and (interestingly enough) the ability to make emergency calls away from the house.

But wait… isn’t this VoIP Tech Chat? Yes Virgina… let’s continue. VoIP generally provides advanced (and included) calling features, “unlimited” local/long distance calling, inexpensive international rates, and all at a price less than your traditional POTS landline service. The negatives with VoIP? VoIP 911 service does not compare to landline usage. Although most VoIP providers implement an e911 service, the reliability of VoIP for emergency calls does not compare to a landline. A landline simply provides better 911 service, period. (we actually wrote a pretty decent article about VoIP and 911 back in the day… )

Landline POTS telephone service remains the most reliable telephone service available. The consistently maintain five-nine (99.999%) availability and provide the best access to emergency service (911). POTS service also comes with a limited feature set (by default) and hefty price tag.

Let’s compare VoIP, Traditional Telephone, and Wireless

Verizon Unlimited Local service starts at $24.95 per month. If you wanted Caller ID, Voicemail, and Call Waiting (with Caller ID) your bill jumps up to $51.90 — which is absolutely ridiculous, considering this price is the pre-tax rate.

Vonage offers an “unlimited” Local and Long Distance service for $24.95 monthly which includes more than 25 features (such as Caller ID, Call Waiting, and Voicemail). VoIP.com offers the same package for $19.95 (or more than $30 less a month than Verizon). Now, the “unlimited” voice on VoIP providers tends to be around 5,000 minutes a month or so. If you go over it, expect a notice.

Cellular Service ranges anywhere from $30 – $130 monthly per phone depending on the options you choose. By the time you reach the high end, you’re generally getting unlimited minutes and data (mobile web, email, etc.).

For a typical household, VoIP remains a very cost-effective telephone solution; although you must remember that without good (and we mean good), high-speed Internet, your VoIP will be unusable. Many local phone companies offer a “dial tone only” line for less than $15.00 monthly. With the use of VoIP and a dial-tone only landline, you can still save more than $150.00 yearly while providing your family a reliable method of calling during emergencies and power outages.

As Billy Joel would say, it comes down to reality, and that’s fine with me. If you need to tighten the belt, VoIP can help. However if you can get by without having high speed Internet and don’t mind using the mobile phone all the time, you may be fine with becoming a “wireless only” household. Or you may not care about money whatsoever and decide to have all three maxed out.

Either way, when you do realize the benefit of VoIP and embrace the force, we’re here to help.