How to Choose the Right Technology to Stay in Touch With Home - Part Two
This is part two in a series to help you move to New York and sort out which technology is best for you to stay in touch with friends and family back home.
Part One of this article series covered basic phone and internet service as a method to call your friends and family back home from New York.
I mentioned some basic ideas of service providers and costs to expect.
Part two will focus on using VoIP to help you find a cost-effective way to talk to everyone you miss most.
There are many providers and options in New York.
Though they are certainly not the only providers, two well-known options are SKYPE and Vonage, and I'll be focusing on them in this article.
VoIP technology allows you to use your existing internet connection (so you first have to buy internet service, which normally means you have also bought dial-tone from your local service provider, like Verizon or Time Warner Cable) to lower your calling rates.
Lower calling rates are especially useful for reaching out to people internationally.
Here's how I would break down the benefits of VoIP service to stay in touch versus a land line option, as I discussed in part one of this article series.
SKYPE - known in most parts of the world, this is a great way to attach a video device to your computer and not only talk to, but also SEE your friends as you talk to them - a very wonderful experience! Even better - if you know each other's SKYPE names, the calls are free of charge.
Requires a software download, and microphone.
Video is optional.
Logitech is one of the better known providers of the video devices you can use with SKYPE.
International rates vary if you are calling phone numbers and the connection can have interference or dropped calls, but on average, it's excellent.
Vonage - for as little as an additional $9.
99, you can add this service.
This gets you a domestic US number - any area code you like - and 200 minutes of OUTbound calling, plus unlimited Inbound calling.
If you tend to make a lot of calls, they also have an international plan for about $25 that includes unlimited international calling.
The other great feature you can add, and fees vary per country, but average an additional $9.
99, is a virtual number.
So, if you just moved to New York, from, say Spain, you can purchase a number with a Madrid area code (or one of many other major Spanish cities) so your friends back home can make an almost local call and reach you in New York! As you make your decision, make sure you do plenty of research on not only the providers, but hidden fees, contract terms, and additional equipment you may need to invest in.
Make sure to see Part Three of this series, where I will cover cell phones as well as keeping up with the news back home.
Part One of this article series covered basic phone and internet service as a method to call your friends and family back home from New York.
I mentioned some basic ideas of service providers and costs to expect.
Part two will focus on using VoIP to help you find a cost-effective way to talk to everyone you miss most.
There are many providers and options in New York.
Though they are certainly not the only providers, two well-known options are SKYPE and Vonage, and I'll be focusing on them in this article.
VoIP technology allows you to use your existing internet connection (so you first have to buy internet service, which normally means you have also bought dial-tone from your local service provider, like Verizon or Time Warner Cable) to lower your calling rates.
Lower calling rates are especially useful for reaching out to people internationally.
Here's how I would break down the benefits of VoIP service to stay in touch versus a land line option, as I discussed in part one of this article series.
SKYPE - known in most parts of the world, this is a great way to attach a video device to your computer and not only talk to, but also SEE your friends as you talk to them - a very wonderful experience! Even better - if you know each other's SKYPE names, the calls are free of charge.
Requires a software download, and microphone.
Video is optional.
Logitech is one of the better known providers of the video devices you can use with SKYPE.
International rates vary if you are calling phone numbers and the connection can have interference or dropped calls, but on average, it's excellent.
Vonage - for as little as an additional $9.
99, you can add this service.
This gets you a domestic US number - any area code you like - and 200 minutes of OUTbound calling, plus unlimited Inbound calling.
If you tend to make a lot of calls, they also have an international plan for about $25 that includes unlimited international calling.
The other great feature you can add, and fees vary per country, but average an additional $9.
99, is a virtual number.
So, if you just moved to New York, from, say Spain, you can purchase a number with a Madrid area code (or one of many other major Spanish cities) so your friends back home can make an almost local call and reach you in New York! As you make your decision, make sure you do plenty of research on not only the providers, but hidden fees, contract terms, and additional equipment you may need to invest in.
Make sure to see Part Three of this series, where I will cover cell phones as well as keeping up with the news back home.
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