International Calling on a Home Phone vs. Cell Phone

Making an international call back in the 1980’s on a home phone use to be the only way we could afford the charge. International cell phone charges were extremely high, and the costs of making an international call from your home was being priced lower and lower with long distance carriers competing for our business. International calls from a home phone or business phone use to cost from $2.00 to $10.00 a minute depending on the country you called. Companies and individuals made very short calls when only important communication was necessary. To make a call on a cellphone was even higher and most all of us never considered this an option except for large company executives that could afford such costs.

As this industry has matured, our costs have gone down dramatically. Still, the costs to call on a cellphone as apposed to the home phone continue to have a wide gap. A major cell phone carrier still can charge up to five times the rate of a home phone. Long distance companies such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and many others, now have international calling packages to suit a variety of countries you may call. Many of these packages are the ‘all you can eat’ for a certain price per month. The cellphone companies have begun to discount their rates in somewhat the same manner, but still only discount the rates a small percentage, and then most times charge a billing fee of $4 to $5 per month.

The home phone market has changed completely with the introduction of the internet. In the last five years broadband internet access has been brought into over one half of the US residences, and over 95% of the businesses. This has brought two new completely different ways to make calls. One, the competing carriers that offer local phone service has begun to make their way into peoples homes. Unlike businesses that have done this for up to 15 years, homes have not had a choice but their local phone company up until a few years ago. Companies like Time Warner cable, Vonage, and a host of smaller phone and cable companies have given rise to phone service on a digital internet type path. Many of these companies package phone service and internet service in one. On a path service you can have all your phone and internet service for one low price. These companies have once again offered their services at a lower cost savings including international phone costs as well.

Lastly, due to the internet broadband we now all enjoy, a third way to make an international phone call has immerged. VOIP worldwide calling from companies such as Skype, Jajah, Google, Yahoo, and MSN, now dominate the market. Granted, you need to be on a computer or cordless Wi-Fi phone at both ends, but you can speak from internet to internet for FREE!. This form of phone calling has one catch we now know, anything for free has a catch. Currently, as apposed to a few years ago, all these companies are stating to charge. Yes they were free, but now I guess reality set in and all of these companies have to meet payroll. The larger search engines can still afford to break even and give the consumer a break, but Skype, Jajah, and other smaller companies cannot.

Overall, the prices in twenty years, to make an international phone call from a cell phone or a home phone, have gone from dollars to pennies and made the world a smaller place in which people in all parts of the world can communicate within their budget.

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