I am starting a short series on cool communications tools. There are many options today when it comes to communications tools. Phone services, conferencing, online meetings - each having new and unique ways to connect. Today’s installment will cover some great tools for telephony.

My daughter is living in Thailand. We never pay a per minute fee for calls in either direction regardless of using a landline, cell or computer to handle the call. I can be on the computer, and she on her cell. We both can talk using landlines or our computers. It doesn’t matter.

My business rarely pays per minute charges for long distance anymore. We are considering getting rid of our business account with our phone service provider all together.

Conference calling has been simple and free for years, now there are more and better options.

There are many options on the market particularly well-suited for small business. Not only do these tools provide low cost or no cost options, but they are flexible and easy to use. 


Calling Tools

Most people are aware of VOIP (voice-over IP). Increasingly we are seeing residential and business VOIP services pop up. However, I am most excited by services like Skype, Google Voice and Viber.

Skype

Skype offers a variety of services beyond the most well known, online calling and chat. I have a Skype account and a Skype-to-Go number with an unlimited, worldwide subscription for a monthly fee of 12.95 a month (although the price has risen slightly for new accounts). With this subscription, I am able to call over 40 countries. Any call within the US is included for free. Calls to landlines within these countries are also always included. Where you have to be careful is making calls to mobile numbers. These are free to some countries and not to others. For example, I can call both landlines and cell phones in Thailand as part of the subscription but can only call landlines in the UK for free. If I call a cell in the UK, there is a per minute charge, but it is usually much cheaper than with my traditional provider.

Skype publishes a list of countries which shows if cell phones are included, and the per minute rate for each if not. When there is a charge, the fees are small and competitive with the best international plans.

Here is how it works (for the US anyway). Sign up for a Skype-to-Go subscription. There are different subscription levels:

• Worldwide unlimited currently costs $13.99 per month. This is by far the best deal if you make many international calls. This plan includes calls in over 40 countries.

• US and Canada for $2.99 a month

• North America for $7.99 a month.

• Pay as you go - this is the per minute plan that has been around the longest. You buy credits and then pay the per minute rate.

Once you sign up for Skype-to-go, Skype assigns you a local phone number to call that is your connection point. You can assign up to five phones to have access to this number meaning I can use this number from my cell, my office, my home, etc.. When you dial your personal Skype-to-go number, you are asked for the number you wish to call and are then connected.

A great feature is to set up speed dial options for frequently called numbers. My daughter, of course, tops my list. However, I also have included frequently called business partners in Europe and Asia.

Before signing up for Skype-to-Go, I frequently had long distance bills over $300 per month. Those are now a thing of the past.

The worst thing about this program is that the online information is not terribly well organized. Sometimes getting to the information you want before you sign up can be difficult. However, once you sign up, it is easy.

Goggle Voice

This is a service I signed up for when it came out in Beta. Since that time, they have made a lot of improvements. This service is terrific for small businesses. The premise is that Google Voice gives you one number and one voice mail which will consolidate all your numbers according to the setting you select - for home, work and office. You are now able to port numbers, or you can sign up and select a google voice number from selected options.

Once you have a google voice number, you can add your phones to the service. For example, I have assigned my home, cell and business numbers. However, I have set all calls except family to ring my cel and business number. This means if someone calls my cell, it will also ring my office number, and vice versa. Number I have identified as family will ring all three of my numbers.

I have also activated my cell to use Google voice mail. Once again you can customize your message for different groups. The advantage of using Google Voice’s voicemail is that voice mail messages are transcribed and sent in message form to your cell. More on this later.

Google Voice allows you to call out via VOIP. I have used the call option to call from my computer and using the dialer in the Google Voice App for the iPhone. US calls are free, yet you pay a per minute call for other countries. The rates are competitive and range from .02 to .25 per minute. However, with my Skype-to-go subscription, I don’t use Google Voice for international calls.

We are exploring using Google Voice for business, and getting Google Voice numbers for each of our consultants. The advantage is that these numbers are free, that using a Google Voice number allows the call to find the target whether at the office or out.

We have thus far been reluctant to eliminate a central line. However, I have an associate who’s done just that. His company now uses a central Google Voice number that goes to his assistant’s cell. She takes a message and contacts the appropriate person for follow up. Each person also has a direct line via Google Voice. The downside I see with this could include inconsistency of voice mail messages, the inability to list your company, and the inability to transfer calls that come in to a central number answered. However, there are work arounds for these issues. We are currently looking into reception services which we believe may be cheaper than our traditional business phone service.

I mentioned above that messages are transcribed and sent to one’s cell. I find this incredibly valuable even though the transcription is not yet very good. What I like is that the message includes the number and a play option as well as the transcription. I can usually get a sense of the message from the transcription to determine the importance of the message. I love that the voicemail messages pops up on my cell just like a text.

Viber

I was recently turned on to Viber by a colleague in London. This service is specifically for iPhone users. You can make free calls to anyone, anywhere with the Viber App. What I really like is that Viber reads your contact list and automatically identifies the Viber users. And if you know of an iPhone user that is not connected to Viber, it is easy enough to persuade them to get the App since it will enable free calls.

Conference Call Services

I have been a long time user of FreeConference.com. This service assigns you a conference call number to be used with multiple parties in multiple locations. The company requires a name and email address to sign up for a free account. Once you sign up, you are assigned a dedicated number and access code to use immediately. The service is 24/7 and offers both on-demand and online scheduled conferences. Each conference can accommodate up to 150 callers on an unlimited number of calls lasting up to 4 hours.

There are many services that provide free conferencing. My experience is with FreeConference.com, however, you may want to check into FreeConferenceCall.com which offers a very similar service, or Instantconference.com, tollfreeconferencing.com or a host of other services.

Stay tuned for my next installment. I will review online chat, conferencing video conferencing and broadcast services.

EQi Services is a full service business development and management consulting firm focused on small-to-medium sized businesses.  We help companies grow profitably in a fully immersed, digital world. You can follow this series on the EQi Services facebook page or connect via twitter @lesliehughesny.