Phone Service

Spencer D. Chin
TMCnet Web Editor

Traditionally, the term phone service has been associated with PBX-based systems routing calls through copper lines. But thanks to advancements in electronics and communications, phone service now means much more.

Perhaps the most obvious development over the past decade in phone service has been the ongoing mobile revolution. In the U.S. and other advanced nations, mobile phone service is considered a necessity rather than a luxury, and mobile phone service is rapidly gaining in technologically developing countries such as China and India.

Mobile phone service is not only giving users a chance to communicate where landline phone service is impractical, it is enabling users to in some cases do away with their landline phone service altogether.

But another, greater revolution is taking place in phone service. More users are harnessing the power of the Internet for their phone service, placing and receiving calls through their Internet broadband connections. They haven’t abandoned their mobile or landline phone service—yet—but are taking advantage of the Internet’s bandwidth and improved technology to have phone service in addition to data transmission.

The big advantage of Internet phone service is lower rates, and a whole slew of Internet phone service providers have sprung up to offer consumers a myriad of phone service choices.

For instance, one Internet phone service provider, TalkLah, offers unlimited local and long distance calling to the U.S. and Canada for $24.95 per month, which compares favorably with landline phone service plans. But the company also offers pay as you go phone service for $9.95 per month—a rechargeable prepaid calling account with low per minute phone service rates to anywhere globally. There’s also a LiteLine phone service plan for $7.95 per month, which combines pay-as-you-go phone service with the user’s own phone number.

Technology advances are likely to create phone service options that combine elements of new and existing phone services. For instance, one company offers a mobile VoIP (Voice over IP) service enabling users to make mobile calls in WiFi zones, without affecting their existing mobile phone service plans.

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Spencer Chin is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.