VoIP Phone Service Providers

VoIP phone service providers offer different kinds of VoIP products, services and solutions to businesses and homes/residential. Providers are also known as: carriers, ITSPs, broadband or digital phone company, Internet phone company and VoIP resellers.

These companies are the key players in VoIP industry that handle origination and termination telephone calls via the Internet. Meaning carrying and delivering connections of data, voice and video off from the Internet to PSTN lines and vice-versa.

VoIP adoption rate increases every year so does the number of VoIP providers. This made the market populated by companies that offer various types of products, services and solutions. The competition gets tougher especially for starters.  

VoIP products and solutions usually pass through different level of chains before it reaches us. Understanding how the service is operated and distributed can help us in choosing a provider that meets our expectation. This may seem daunting but once you do your home work by finding out the following...

• who are the best VoIP carriers or service providers

• which equipment and solution applies to your need 

• knowing where and how to find 

Then it shouldn't be difficult to select the best company that suits your situation.

Types of VoIP phone service providers

Now let me provide you a glimpse of how the service operation flows from top to bottom; meaning from main carriers to VoIP phone service providers, re-sellers then to end consumer or users just like you and me.

VoIP Carriers 

• ILECs - Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers

• CLECs - Competitive Local Exchange Carriers

VoIP Carriers are the backbone of IP based telecommunication services and solutions. Majority of them have their own POPs (Point of Presence) in different countries to terminate and originate voice traffic calls/minutes.  For instance, Verizon (previously known as MCI, CentruryLink, AT&T and XO Communications are among the top ILECs in the United States of America.

ITSPs 

ITSP stands for Internet Telephony Service Provider.  ITSPs offer different kind of VoIP services and solutions to:

• other VoIP providers

• small, medium and large companies

• re-sellers

Some ITSPs offer complete VoIP solutions and services while others only offer specific solution they specialized in. For instance...

• VoIP for home

• VoIP for business (business phone systems)

• DID

• origination/termination

And more...

Below are some products, services and solutions that VoIP providers offer to residential and businesses:

VoIP Resellers

Resellers are companies or individuals that offer VoIP services to end users. They usually purchase hosted solutions, VoIP devices, wholesale voice minutes from ITSPs then resell that to end users. For instance, resellers buy services like..

• call-shop 

• calling card and 

• callback 

..and then sell them to end users directly.

End user

You guessed it! Like YOU and I. VoIP product and service ends at your hand as a final user. Unless you resell to others then you will be considered a reseller.

Reside in Europe or North America? You have less hassle to find a provider local. Whereas residents in the some countries may not have local providers at all (Africa, Middle East and Asia for instance). That's due to local government monopoly, not having to local VoIP company, access number etc..  The easier way to get such service is to buy or sign up through a reseller. Unfortunately VoIP is illegal and banned in some countries even these days.

Did any country came to your mind? I recall U.A.E and Ethiopia. There are many others too, feel free to list them and comment on the below box. 

Related Articles...You May Be Interested In:

About Free VoIP Service 

VoIP Directory

Cheap VoIP Providers

Free VoIP Providers

External related links and resources: 

Canadian VoIP Providers

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VoIP › VoIP Phone Service Providers Intro

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