Travelers Get Vacation From High Cell Phone Bills

(ARA) - For many Americans, their cell phone is their only phone. An increasing number of people now use these devices exclusively or as their primary phones. However, those who dial internationally or use cell phones for out-of-network long-distance calls often face high surcharges. These costs can be especially extreme when families travel and rely on their phones to stay in touch with people back home.

A new class of service has emerged that may help keep cell costs down -- it's prepaid calling that can be bought and managed online. While these services are relatively new to the telephone industry, companies such as Pingo (www.pingo.com), which uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), are quickly becoming popular because they allow consumers to make long-distance calls from mobile and traditional landline phones at greatly reduced rates.

For many, these services reliably deliver those much-talked-about "Internet calling" rates without the hassles of calling cards or having to use a computer as a phone. Callers simply access a toll-free or local access number from any phone and then dial the long-distance number they wish to reach. Most of these services work virtually anywhere consumers may travel in the United States and in some other countries as well. Pingo (www.pingo.com), for instance, offers service in an additional 34 countries because it is owned by iBasis, a wholesale carrier that operates a global network.

Experts say these new types of calling services can translate into reliable, convenient and dramatically cheaper cell phone service. For instance, one major wireless carrier currently charges 20 cents per minute for cell phone users dialing France, while Pingo offers the same connection for 2.2 cents per minute.

Also, with most online prepaid calling providers, customers are not locked into calling plans.
Instead, they use a credit card or PayPal to place an amount of money in an account and have no further commitments. Nor are they hit with hidden charges that often accompany disposable calling cards and other services.

Setting up one of these online prepaid accounts can be easy -- plus consumers can select automatic account recharging, review their call history reports online and take advantage of other convenience features, without installing special software or equipment. Again, in the case of Pingo, speed-conscious consumers can even register the phones they frequently use -- up to 10 phone numbers -- to completely bypass the usual PIN-entry process. These same features are also available to families and businesses, enabling those handling budgets in the home or office to also set spending limits and track calling on up to 999 "sub accounts."

The ease of use, convenience and, in particular, low calling rates of online prepaid services give consumers one more reason to go all mobile, all the time this summer.

Courtesy of ARAcontent