Sell T1 Lines as an Income Booster

Most independent business people, including those involved in technology, recognize that we are in an economic slump that isn't likely to be reversed soon. Have you experienced lower sales volumes and longer decision times over the last year?

One way to counter this situation is to expand the range of services that you offer. For instance, if your competition is only selling part of a solution and you are offering one stop shopping, you've got an edge with companies that want a single point of contact when they need help.

A major area of opportunity lies in the field of telecom services. That includes wireline telephone and WAN network links, wireless point of sale, and SIP trunks for Internet and VoIP telephony.

Why is this such an opportunity? Many business telephone system providers offer the PBX system, handsets and installation. But they stop short of providing the actual telephone lines. They consider that out of their range of expertise and not something they want to be involved in. Too bad. They're leaving money on the table in the form of monthly commissions on the volume of calls that their customers are making... on the equipment they provided!

A similar situation faces computer network consultants. They may design the network, order the equipment, perform the installation and get the network up and running. They may even have a service contract for upgrades, changes and repairs. But the WAN connections that leave the building? Oh, no. That's not their type of business. But it should be. These people also are leaving money on the table in the form of monthly commissions based on the bandwidth of the digital lines connecting the corporate LAN to the outside world.

To take advantage of the profit potential in telecom lines, including the highly popular T1 lines, you need to know that there is a brokerage service available that will assist you in finding the best price for the type of telecom services your clients need. They'll also handle the often complex contractual work in collaboration with you, the client and the chosen carrier. They've got the technical expertise, business savvy and tools to assess the situation and shepherd the contract through to closure. They'll even followup to make sure the customer is happy and willing to extend the contract as long as possible.

What's your role? You simply identify the need, which is primarily connectivity with the hardware you're involved in. You can be involved in working with the carriers or let the broker handle that end of it. The expertise you need is likely to be the expertise you already have.

There are two ways to make this opportunity work for you. If you are already a successful business owner selling business telephone or computer networking products and services, then you'll want to join the VAR Network. Membership is free to value added resellers like yourself. In addition to the support you need to garner telecom line accounts, you'll also have an opportunity to participate in an online marketplace where you can offer your services to potential clients searching for local help on the Internet.

The second opportunity is for individuals, ranging from established sales professionals to part-time entrepreneurs, who want to earn additional income by introducing business owners and managers in need of telecom services to a wide variety of lower cost options than they have now. If you can visit businesses to drop off flyers, have short discussions, or call them on the phone, you'll want to join the Commission River Affiliate Program. There are training materials available to get you up to speed quickly. You'll also have access to many other related services, such as cell phones, conference calling and toll free numbers. Check out the many Commission River Offers and see for yourself.

Have Your Computer Repaired Online

Is your computer acting wonky? There's no smoke or obvious grinding noises. Yet things don't run very well. Software is sluggish, the printer acts like it never met the PC, and the kid's notebook won't connect to the network. You could take it in somewhere, but who's got time for that? Besides, who can be without their trusty PC for a week or two? The withdrawal pains would be debilitating. Isn't there another answer?

Indeed there is. It doesn't involve buying a bunch of expensive and weighty manuals and sequestering yourself with the machine for a fortnight. In fact, it's not a do-it-yourself approach at all. Instead, you can get expert tech support through an online service that will both talk to you and work on your computer remotely.

The service is BluePhone. Tech support is their game. They hire experienced and credentialed computer technicians to run a remote help desk. Most help desks are corporate in-house services not available to individuals. BluePhone offers similar support to anyone who wants to subscribe. Once you're signed-up you have unlimited access and no problem is too trivial, no question too inane.

Telephone troubleshooting is a staple among help desks. In many cases, having an expert available to discuss a problem is all that is needed. Many problems that appear complex are just due to having made a wrong turn during installation or operation of some function. You could dig through the manuals and figure a lot of this stuff out yourself... if you had the time and patience. But you could also call someone who is more familiar with the issue and get back on track in minutes instead of hours or days.

Remote access takes telephone troubleshooting to another level. Instead of someone telling you what to do and you doing it and then reporting back what happened, a support tech can access your computer via your broadband Internet connection and actually run the system as if they were sitting right next to it. BluePhone uses Cisco WebEx remote access software to get in and troubleshoot your computer, with your permission of course.

What sort of problems can be resolved through online troubleshooting? Not serious hardware failures such as smoldering power supplies, sizzling monitors or grinding disk drives. That's where you need a local service shop, if not an cyber undertaker. What's handled by remote access or telephone consultation are software issues, network setups, and cleaning up after virus attacks or spyware invasions. If you don't quite know how to format a presentation or can't get software installed and working or the printer just sits there and won't print or one of your several computers refuses to access the Internet, then the help desk is the place for you. They're also good for things like getting music players to download tunes or calenders to sync between desktop computer and smartphone.

As it turns out, most problems aren't dire hardware failures. Indeed the majority of computers that head to the landfill or get recycled are working perfectly well. They're just too old to keep up with the rapid advances of technology. Most problems are the kind that can be resolved by an on site tech expert tickling the keyboard or by a remote technician doing the same thing.

If you think this sort of help would be of value to you, learn more about BluePhone online tech support. There is a single incident call option available, but you may well want to subscribe on an annual or monthly basis. That gives you unlimited support 24/7/365 for up to 3 computers and their peripherals. The subscription plans also include a 14 day free trial. Both PCs and Macs are supported, as well as Linux and Vista. Like you'd ever need help with Vista, right?

ISDN PRI Offers Caller ID

Your business office or call center uses lots of telephone minutes each month. You've got a dozen or more phones, perhaps many dozens, all managed by an in-house PBX or Private Branch eXchange telephone system. You want the best price possible on your telecom services, but you also want Caller ID. What you want is ISDN PRI.

Those letters are a mouthful when you say Integrated Services Digital Network Primary Rate Interface. What it boils down to is a digital telephone line for businesses that offers high voice quality, fast call switching, and data services such as Caller ID.

Is ISDN PRI the same as a T1 telephone line? ISDN PRI is actually an improved version of the original T1 digital telephone service. It's still delivered on a T1 line, which makes it a readily available service for most business locations. The difference lies in the way the channels are organized.

A traditional T1 line, which dates to telephone company research in the 1950's, is organized as 24 individual channels. Each channel carries a separate telephone conversation. Since all 24 channels are identical, each one is responsible for transmitting the dialing tones and switching signals along with the digitized voice signal. This is called in-band signaling.

The newer ISDN PRI is also organized as 24 channels on a T1 line. For that reason, it is also called T1 PRI. With PRI, one channel is set aside to handling the signaling for the other 23. That data channel also has the capacity to transmit Caller ID information, something a traditional T1 phone line doesn't have room for. By using out of band or clear channel signaling, call processing is also faster with an ISDN PRI line. That can be important in busy call centers.

So, which should you order? In most cases, ISDN PRI is the telephone service that will most closely meet today's business needs, including telemarketing and customer service contact centers. If you currently are using multiple analog phone lines or a long established T1 service, you might also realize a significant cost savings with new ISDN PRI telephone service.

Does this pique your interest? If so, find out how much you can save by switching to ISDN PRI telephone service.

Novatel MiFi 2200 Makes YOU a WiFi Hotspot

If that's a WiFi hotspot in your pocket, they're going to be glad to see you. That is, if you're willing to share. For making instant friends, the MiFi has more potential than a box of hot donuts. Just be the only one on the bus or in the waiting room with broadband connectivity and you'll have them eating out of your hand.

What's a MiFi? It's the latest mobile Internet gadget, and perhaps the product introduction of the year. You've seen those little portable routers that you can carry in your briefcase? This is better. This is a WiFi hotspot that slips into a shirt pocket. With it you can provide 3G connectivity to up to 5 WiFi devices within a 30 foot radius.

How does it work? The Novatel MiFi combines a wireless modem aircard with a wireless router in a package smaller than a touchscreen cellphone or a good size candy bar. It measures a mere 2.5" x 2.3" x 0.4" and weighs-in at 2.1 oz. In addition to the aircard and router, there's a rechargeable Li-Ion battery good for 4 hours of continuous use and 40 hours of standby. There's also a micro-USB connector so that you can plug the MiFi into a computer and charge it or use the handy wall charger as needed.

The way it works its magic is that the wireless modem aircard connects to a cellular broadband signal, in this case one from Verizon Wireless towers. Verizon has been a leader in 3G wireless for cell phones using the EV-DO data standard. The MiFi will run on just about any Verizon tower signal it can get, although some out in the boonies might be on the slower 1XRTT standard. That means that anywhere you can get reliable Verizon cellular service, you can have an Internet connection for your hotspot.

Now, you have a choice. You can keep the MiFi hidden discretely in your pocket or bag and just say that your laptop computer is configured to pick up cellular broadband. Or you can be generous and offer to share your mobile Internet signal with up to 4 other grateful nearby users. That's the function of the built-in wireless router. It works just like the one at home, except no wires.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

Daddy Wants a BlackBerry

Father's Day is fast approaching. What do you suppose he wants? Could it be a nice new tie? One of those automotive "gift" sets? No, I think what Dad's been longing for is a high technology business and personal BlackBerry device. So this year, be bold. Give him a BlackBerry Bold. Shhh. Don't let him know you got it for a huge online discount.

The BlackBerry Bold is as powerful as it is attractive. With sleek black styling, it looks like it's ready for business. Oh, it is. This BlackBerry's email client offers the amazing BlackBerry "push" email that will integrate with up to 10 accounts. It supports VPN, POP3, IMAP, & SMTP, with a spell checker onboard. The BlackBerry Messenger is also preloaded for instant messaging.

What about Internet access? He'll have full HTML Web browsing available with one touch access and BlackBerry Maps support. The GPS receiver is part of the circuitry. Wouldn't want Dad getting lost, would we?

Speed will be no issue. This BlackBerry runs on the AT&T 3G data network and has connectivity for WiFi hotspots for blazing fast downloads. It's also a world phone, with access to all 4 GSM cellular bands. Have dad take it with him on those international business trips.

The huge color display, with 480 x 320 pixels, sets this BlackBerry apart from earlier devices. That comes in handy for viewing the print quality photos he can take and share with the built-in 2 Megapixel digital camera. Some high resolution family photos would be nice, right?

Just below the color display is a backlit full QWERTY keyboard. Yes, this is the mechanical version and not a touchscreen. BlackBerry aficionados will be up to speed messaging in no time.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

Running With Your Computer

"Don't run with scissors," you were no doubt warned as a child. As an adult, you may have discovered that running with a computer isn't such a great idea either. If you trip with a desktop tower or, heaven help you, a 21 inch CRT, you'll have one big expensive dangerous mess. Having a laptop slip out of your hands while you speed down the hall isn't much fun. The hard drive might survive if it's designed to take a fall. The LCD screen is likely to be a goner... a very expensive goner.

But this isn't about running down the road trying to loose an upload. It's about getting your exercise while you surf. Or should I say getting your workout while you tweet, surf, compose documents or watch videos.

Have you ever tried perching a notebook computer on a treadmill? Teeters, doesn't it? What you need is a built-in shelf that will hold your computer in place, leaving your hands and feet free to do what they do when you run. The bad news is that exercise equipment doesn't come with computer shelving yet. Hey, it took a long time for designers to include cup holders. The good news is that someone else has solved this problem with an aftermarket device called the SurfShelf.

SurfShelf is a polycarbonate accessory that you attach to your treadmill, stationary bike, or elliptical trainer. A built-in Velcro strap holds any laptop computer, even the big 17" wide models, securely to the shelf. It will also hold a DVD player if you prefer. If you really want to go retro, it will even hold a book. Air vents keep your electronics cool. An adjustable back lets you set the best angle to see what's on the screen. As a tough transparent plastic that can handle up to 50 lbs., the SurfShelf will not block your view of any electronic displays on the exercise equipment.

Now that SurfShelf has solved the problem with how to enable techies to exercise, we're all going to start toning up and slimming down, right? Yeah, right. I'm wondering how long it will be before we have the SurfShowerShelf or SurfWalkingShelf or SurfBikingShelf so we can find ways to stay online during even more of our waking hours. ;-)

Nokia E71x Smartphone Mixes Business With Pleasure

What's it going to be, business or entertainment? Is that the dilemma you're facing when trying to decide on a new cell phone? If so, you should take a look at the Nokia E71x in sleek black.

Is this a BlackBerry? No, but it looks something like one. Your eye is drawn to the large color main display measuring 2.4 inches with 240x320 pixels and able to display over 16 million colors. It has a light sensing technology to make sure it is always the appropriate brightness for the illumination you are in. The bottom half of the device is dedicated to a full QWERTY keyboard, just like a you-know-what.

But this smartphone has some other tricks up its sleeve, or case as it were. Did you expect to find WiFi access included? The E71x will indeed connect to your favorite wireless access point, WiFi hotspot, wireless router or the like. That gives you super speed when you are within range of an 802.11 WiFi signal. But fear not, the designers of this phone will keep you connected at a high rate when you move out of the hotspot footprint and into cellular coverage. This phone will handle data downloads at up to 3.6 Mbps in 3G coverage areas and 144 Kbps in the slower EDGE areas of AT&T's network.

All that communications power will keep you in touch with the home office and able to view Microsoft Word, Excel, & PowerPoint documents along with PDF and ZIP files attached to emails. Don't you hate it when you get these at the beach and have to pretend to be on your way to a client's office? Well, at least you get to pretend you're doing business under that umbrella. Just don't call anybody. They'll hear the waves crashing and figure it out.

You can sync-up with your desktop device when you get back. Do that via Bluetooth, infrared, or USB cable. Bluetooth is also available for use with those little over-the-ear headsets that you see all the execs wearing in the grocery store. Only half of them are really connected to phones. The others are props so you won't think anything of guys babbling to themselves in the soup aisle.

Well, enough about work. The pleasure side of the Nokia E71x includes a built-in music player that supports your ability to create and manage playlists. An FM streo radio is also built-in. How about streaming multimedia? You bet. That's the other use for those lightning fast download speeds. Enjoy streaming AT&T TV or Music, or your own video clips. If you don't have any, make some using the built-in 3.2 Megapixel digital camera that also works as a camcorder. Don't worry about running out of memory. You can plug-in a microSD memory card up to 8GB for additional storage.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

Ethernet Internet Is a Reality

Internet access has come a long way since the days of 300 baud modems. But regardless of speed, Internet connectivity has always been through a conversion process from some protocol to the Ethernet that runs on company LANs and PC network cards. If only one could get to the Internet via Ethernet itself. Well, now you can.

Last mile access via Ethernet is rapidly gaining popularity in metropolitan areas. Why? Primarily because of the cost savings, although ease of network interfacing is also a consideration.

An Ethernet access connection is often called Metro Ethernet service because it is intended primarily for use within city or downtown portion of a city. A more generic term is Carrier Ethernet. As a core networking technology, Ethernet for WAN (Wide Area Networks) provides a direct extension of your company network across town, across the country, or to other networks such as the Internet.

DIA or Dedicated Internet Access is the gold standard for business connections to the Internet. Dedicated means that you have exclusive use of the line and it's bandwidth back to the Internet. Consumer grade services, such as DSL, WiFi, and Cable broadband, are all shared services. With shared services, the quality of your service is highly dependent on what your neighbors are doing online. With dedicated access, any contention for service will be limited to your own company.

T1 lines are standard for DIA service at 1.5 Mbps. They can be bonded up to 10 or 12 Mbps. Beyond that you need fiber optic services, such as OC3 or DS3 over SONET. These can be pricey services, especially when the local telephone company is involved in providing the complete service or last mile access.

Ethernet access connections are something new. Many competitive carriers have their own fiber optic networks and will directly connect you for 10, 100, or 1000 Mbps Ethernet service. You'll get a better price because they do not share facilities with the telcos.

Another option is EoC or Ethernet over Copper. You can get up to 45 Mbps Ethernet service, including dedicated Internet access, if you are located nearby a carrier point of presence. Service is delivered over multiple twisted copper pair using an advanced modulation scheme.

I mentioned ease of network Interface. With Metro Ethernet service your access connection is a standard RJ-45 jack, just like the ones you'd expect to find on a switch or router. What's coming into that jack is the same Ethernet protocol that you are running on your LAN.

Is your location eligible for Metro Ethernet service over copper or fiber optic cable? Find out how close the nearest Ethernet connection point is to your location. Then get a quote and see how much Ethernet access can save you over your current Internet or point to point network service.

T1 Rex Is On The Kindle

Have you discovered the reading pleasure of electronic ink? Over 500,000 avid readers have made the jump from bound blocks of paper to the lightweight Amazon Kindle. Many are queuing up their orders for the larger Kindle DX due out this summer. Kindle is where reading is headed, and we're proud to be included in their blog catalog.

Yes, you'll still be able to read us on your computer any time you want. That's where we're created and hosted. But now you also have the option of subscribing to the Kindle edition of Telexplainer. Take your electronic reader to the beach, on vacation, to school or to work. Along with your extensive collection of novels, textbooks, tech references, and newspaper subscriptions, the latest updates of this blog will be delivered to you when they are published, in full text with illustrations.

Do you have your own Kindle yet? If not, you'll be interested to learn that this cutting edge device makes reading long passages of text much easier on the eyes than staring at a computer screen. The reason is that LCD backlight in every computer. It gives everything a nice glow, but the glare is hard on your eyes. You may already notice that you can't read as long online as you can with a good book. The eyestrain forces you to look away for awhile or quit altogether. Perhaps you resort to that old workaround of printing the documents you want to read. That solves the glare problem, but it can get pricey when you have volumes of text to print. There's also the matter of having to file and store all that paper documentation. It can be time consuming and not so green when it's time to clean the file cabinet.

The Amazon Kindle does away with all that trouble. Your documents are easy to read using the e-ink screen of the Kindle. There's no backlight to give you computer monitor eyestrain. Contrast is high and you can read from the Kindle easily in bright light as well as in your favorite easy chair. Storage is in the Kindle itself and online at Amazon. No need to shop for more bookshelves. You won't be needing them.

Delivery is fast and readily available, too. Kindle uses a cellular-based wireless delivery system called Whispernet. It's so fast that you can buy a book and start reading it minutes later. You don't need any wires, because the technology is built into the Kindle and doesn't require your computer to download books. Magazines, newspapers and blogs are delivered by Whispernet as soon as they are available. You don't have to worry about missing the latest installment because delivery is automatic.

The standard upgraded Amazon Kindle has a 6 inch diagonal black and white electronic ink digital display that shows up to 16 shades of gray. It holds up to 1,500 books. Delivery of new books is under 60 seconds. The Kindle is book size at 8" x 5.3" x a thin 0.36".

The larger Amazon Kindle DX measures a magazine size 10.4" x 7.2" x 0.38" and sports a 9.7 inch diagonal electronic ink display. It holds up to 3,500 of your favorite books and includes a native PDF reader for other documents.

By the way, there are now over 275,000 books available for the Kindles, including most New York Times Bestsellers. You'll also be able to subscriber to top newspapers, magazines and blogs, like T1 Rex's Business Telecom Explainer.

The AccuConference Cost Advantage

Audio teleconferencing, video conferencing and Web conferencing are enjoying a renaissance in this economic downturn. The reason is that they are one business tool that can cut costs and improve productivity without the ugly process of layoffs or facilities closings. It's a classic example of technology usurping traditional business processes that are no longer viable. By tightly coupling teams to make their progress faster and substituting for expensive air travel and hotel stays, electronic conferencing helps businesses stay viable while economic activity is slow. AccuConference is a clear leader in this field.

What differentiates AccuConference from other companies in the conferencing space is that they offer a complete range of solutions, including traditional audio conference calls, video conferencing and Web conferences. By getting all the conference solutions you need from one supplier, you don't have to worry about having to integrate potentially incompatible services.

Cost savings are a major attraction of AccuConference calling services, but not at the expense of quality. Poor voice quality can spoil the effect of connecting far away locations so that everyone sounds like they are in the same room. You need to be able to understand what is being said without having to say "could you repeat that?" That's why AccuConference uses only the best carriers available, Tier A for international and toll free traffic and Tier B for local calls. They also lightly load their conference bridges, the devices that actually interconnect participants, so that no bridge is at more than 50% capacity. This gives AccuConference the ability to accommodate a sudden requirement for additional conferences at the same high performance level.

How about those cost savings? If you've shopped around, you know that you can pay upwards of 25 cents a minute per participant or even more with some conferencing providers. AccuConference will give you top rate performance for just 7.9 cents per minute per participant on a pay as you go basis. Each participant dials a toll free number, so it costs them nothing. As an account holder you'll get a monthly bill for the minutes used, but no set up fees, contracts or monthly requirements. You use the service whenever you want with no reservations needed.

The pay as you go program also includes Insight Web Conferencing at no additional charge. There's something you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere. You'll be able to share Microsoft PowerPoint charts, have instant online chat, and online voting/polling while your audio conference is in progress. Or you can use their Meeting Central Unlimited Pro plan that expands PowerPoint presentations to include application sharing, desktop sharing, remote control sharing, webtour, white boarding, and instant chat. All of this capability is available along with toll free audio conferencing at just 7.9 cents per minute per participant.

There's also a flat rate audio conferencing option that features an area code 404 Atlanta dial-in number, Insight Web Conferencing, and 24/7 availability without reservations. Participants and moderators will pay long distance charges to call the Atlanta number. As account holder, the service costs you as little as $14.95 a month for up to 5 lines. Other plans are available for 10, 25 and 50 lines. The advantage of flat rate is that you know what you'll pay each month, regardless of how much you use the system.

Larger organizations can also enjoy the advantages of low cost teleconferences. You can get options that include hundreds of participants, international dial-out or dial-in, operator services and video conferences. All of these are available at attractive rates.

The right way to evaluate the cost advantage of audio, Web and video conferencing is to compare using these services with what you'd do otherwise. If you can get the same results via conferencing that you could with travel for in-person meetings, you'll be way ahead using the technology. A more subtle comparison is to weigh the productivity improvement you get with real-time interaction between team members who are not collocated versus exchanging ideas and documents by, say, email. If you cut the time to market or time to solve a problem by half, how much is that worth to you?

You may just have to give this a try and see how well it works for your organization. You have little to lose since there are no contracts or commitments. You may have an incredible amount to gain in both cost savings and business advantage. Learn more about AccuConference telephone, Web and video conferencing options and get started quickly and easily right now.

LG Xenon Exotic Messaging Phone

What exotic gas glows blue when excited by an electrical discharge? Why, it's Xenon of course. Hence, the name for this cool new cell phone from LG Electronics. While that explains the clever moniker for the LG Xenon phone in blue, how does the red Xenon get its name? Wait, I know! It's so hot from messaging that it's glowing red hot. So hot, in fact, that it's cool.

Enough about the name. What's really interesting about the LG Xenon is that it is designed to be messaging-centric. That is of, by, and for those who are all a-twitter about messaging. You'll be text-enabled to the max with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, with keys spread out to run the full length of the phone body. No more hunting for teeny-weeny little push buttons. You should be able to type a blue streak with this keyboard. Blue streak? Xenon? Maybe that's how it got its name. Hmmm.

The LG Xenon is also a touchscreen candybar style phone that easily slips in your pocket or bag with the keyboard retracted. It works great as a telephone when you aren't messaging. In fact, this could be called a world phone because it operates on all 4 international GSM bands: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900.

It's also 3G capable for the AT&T wireless network for blazing fast multimedia messaging and streaming multimedia. Streaming? Yes, you can use it for AT&T Mobile Music, XM Radio, Cellular Video and more with the appropriate plan options. There's also an MP3 player that lets you create and manage playlists for your MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA music files. Use an A2DP wireless stereo headset to get the most from this music player.

Photography hasn't been forgotten. You'll enjoy a 2.0 Megapixel digital camera that takes pictures good enough to print as well as share through messaging. You can record video messages up to 32 seconds or take video clips up to an hour. Expandable memory supports up to a 16 GB microSD Card for lots of music and picture storage.

That 2.8 inch touchscreen has tactile feedback. You'll feel a slight vibration to tell you that your command has been accepted. The screen also supports GPS services such as AT&T Navigator for turn by turn driving directions.

HWhat are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

Are We Finally Out of IPv4 Addresses?

It's been predicted for years and pooh-poohed for as many years. The Internet has gotten much bigger than first planned and the original technology is starting to get creaky with the strain. Someday, it's going to all come crashing down if nothing is done. That someday now looks like 2010.

ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers, has sent out a letter to Internet Service Providers warning them that they are running out of IPv4 addresses. IPv4 or Internet Protocol Version 4 is that standard that defines Internet addresses. It defines 4 bytes or 32 bits to identify a particular piece of equipment on the Internet. That could be a server, a router, a web camera, or your PC. Those 32 bits are enough for 4.3 billion addresses. How many are already used up? According to ARIN, all but about 500 to 700 million. After that, nothing can connect to the Internet unless something else gets off. It will be take-a-number-and-stand-in-line.

Well, not really. There is an upgrade available called IPv6. That's version 6 of the Internet Protocol. IPv6 expands the address space from 32 to 128 bits. That's a factor of 4x as many bits, but trillions and trillions as many addresses. That's the beauty of binary numbers. An addition of only 1 bit doubles your capacity. It's going to be a long, long time before we can figure out how to use up all the addresses available with IPv6, even if everybody on Earth has as many IP addresses as they can possibly use and then some.

So why all the foot dragging? Companies and ISPs are complacent. They have their networks set up for IPv4 and are reluctant to upgrade the equipment and switch everything over to IPv6. All the scare stories to date have been just that. Every time it looks like the IPv4 addresses are nearly exhausted, someone invents a clever workaround like NAT (Network Address Translation) or DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) to make more efficient use of addresses so that fewer are needed.

The day of reckoning is surely coming. Even if all the unused addresses could be rounded up and redeployed and each address was treated like a precious resource, the demand for Internet access by individual users and equipment of all types is steadily increasing. IPv6 is just a matter of time. Like the digital TV transition and the need to split cities into multiple area codes, somebody is going to be inconvenienced and there are likely costs involved to get equipment up to the latest standards.

In the meantime, ARIN will soon start insisting on formal justification as to the need for all IPv4 address space requests. They are also asking that all organization's publicly accessible resources be at least available via IPv6 addresses. It's a modest but serious start to what may well be a mad scramble in a year or two when everyone realizes that the cupboard is really bare.

I'm Not Paying For That Aircard

Office wireline business Internet connections offer fast and reliable broadband service... as long as you stay in one place. For mobile operation you need to hunt down WiFi hotspots or get a wide area wireless service, such as cellular broadband. But very few laptop and notebook computers have the communications interface for cellular broadband built-in.

What you need is a carrier specific interface called an aircard. Sounds expensive, right? Well, they can be but not if you know where to look. What you want is the best free aircard you can get that will work with your particular computer. Fortunately, there are lots of choices available.

An aircard, sometimes called a wireless modem, is not all that different from a plug-in WiFi access card. A few years ago, laptop computers came with built-in telephone modems as their communications solution. If you wanted to connect with a WiFi router or wireless access device, you needed to buy a special card. Most often these plugged into the PCMCIA port on the side of the computer.

Nowadays, nearly all portable computers come with WiFi capability built-in and only some still offer telephone modems. But WiFi is only good within a few hundred foot radius of the connection point. If you want to travel around town, cross country or have broadband service available in a client's place of business, you need a wider ranging wireless Internet service. The best option right now is usually cellular broadband.

Cellular broadband is exactly what it sounds like. Every cell tower transmits both voice and data channels. The voice channels are used to carry cellular telephone calls. The data channels carry broadband Internet service to cell phones and other devices that can access them. A cell phone doesn't need an aircard since the data access circuitry is built-in. All it needs is a data service plan in addition to the usual voice service plan.

A notebook computer needs both the aircard interface and the data service plan for the carrier you want to use. That's another difference between WiFi and cellular broadband. WiFi is more standardized and compatible. Cellular systems generally fall into two distinct technologies. GSM is the worldwide standard and the one used by AT&T and T-Mobile. CDMA is popular in the United States and is used by Sprint-Nextel, Verizon and Alltel.

GSM standards include the 2.5G standard called EDGE and the 3G standard called HSPA. There's also a fallback to an earlier standard called GPRS. CDMA carriers support EV-DO as the 2.5G standard and EV-DO Rev A for 3G. Sprint and Clearwire are starting to deploy a 4G standard called WiMAX, but it is only available in a few places right now. Verizon and AT&T have stated they'll both be using another 4G standard called LTE, with build-outs just starting later this year.

If you want cellular broadband service right now, it's available with speeds that rival DSL, T1 lines, and Cable broadband service in most medium and larger cities. Farther out, you may have to settle for the slower 2.5G services or even dial-up level performance in some rural areas. If you can get solid cell phone service, you can probably get at least some wireless Internet connectivity. It's best to check the coverage maps for the carrier you are interested in to get a better idea of what speeds you can expect.

The other decision you need to make is how to connect the aircard to your computer. Some PCMCIA cards are still available. Newer interfaces include ExpressCard/34 and USB. Nearly all computers now have USB connectors, so that is the most universal interface.

So, where can you get a free aircard that works with your computer? Right now, there are just under a dozen different models available for the major carries. They're all the same price... free... so your decision will be based on size, connector, carrier of choice, Mac or Apple compatibility, and other features that include things like built-in memory card slots. Check the selection of free aircards now. Be sure to click on the features of each card you are interested in to get a summary of the specs. You can also compare multiple aircards side by side. When you find the one you want, click on the order button for more details on the aircard and data service plan. It's that easy to get mobile Internet access for your business or personal needs.

Why Bandwidth is Cheap Downtown

Are you looking to expand your business bandwidth at bargain prices? Then go downtown. You'll find more competition and lower prices in the heart of the city than anywhere else. Well, if you can't afford to move there for the outstanding bandwidth pricing, I do have an alternative that's just as good for many companies.

The price of good real estate downtown is astronomical. Why should bandwidth be cheap? It's for the same reason that real estate is expensive: density.

Think of real estate as being a pie. There's only so much of it and the choice pieces command a premium. The more people that want to grab a slice, the higher the price goes.

Now consider bandwidth. The more people who want a slice of bandwidth, the cheaper it gets. That's because the high cost of business bandwidth lies in the capital expense (capex) that it takes to dig tranches, pull wires and fiber optic bundles, and install electronic racks to manage the signals at both ends. With fiber optic, especially, it costs little more to pull a hundred fibers at once as it does to install a single strand.

Once the capital investment has been made, the incremental cost of electronically transferring data from point to point or to the Internet is relatively small. With lots and lots of clients to amortize the buildout costs, providers can afford to offer reduced prices in areas of high business population density.

A related reason for better bandwidth prices downtown is competition. If you want to catch fish, you go where you know there are lots of fish. If you want to provide voice and data services to business, you go where the businesses are. That's not down the country lane where establishments are few and far between. It's downtown where they are literally stacked on top of each other. What once was the exclusive domain of the telephone companies is now home to dozens of competitive carriers, each hungry to expand their service footprint and client list. Competition leads to lower prices, as providers vie to capture the lion's share of the business.

A third factor is technology. There's a newer last mile delivery technology called Ethernet over Copper or EoC that can provide your business with up to 45 Mbps of Metro Ethernet connectivity at bargain rates. The hitch is that you need to be located within a few miles of a carrier point of presence to qualify. Such high bandwidth signals don't travel far over twisted pair copper wiring. But where they do, you'll get an excellent price per Mbps compared to other service options.

So, is your business located downtown? If so, find the best deals on business bandwidth services through a simple online query.

Are you farther out in the burbs or in a small town or rural location? One way you can also get excellent rates on bandwidth services is to colocate your equipment, not your entire business. A T1 line or bonded T1 lines will get you connected from you place of business to the colocation center. Install your servers in the center and you'll have easy access to multiple competitive carriers located in the same facility. Find the best deals on colocation bandwidth and decide for yourself if the cost savings justify a move to where the cheap bandwidth is.

Behold The Samsung Behold Espresso and Rose

Looking for Samsung Behold reviews? That's not surprising, since the Samsung Behold is one of the hottest of the new touchscreen cell phones.

The Samsung Behold is a high tech smartphone that debuts Samsung's new TouchWiz user interface. It takes touchscreen technology to a whole new level. With TouchWiz, you can customize the look of your home screen by simply moving widgets around with your finger. It's "drag and drop" on a cell phone, without the use of a mouse, trackball, stylus or other mechanical interface. Just touch and move.

Beyond the TouchWiz wow factor, the Samsung Behold offer the hot new features you want in a candybar style touchscreen phone. It starts with the screen itself, measuring 3.1 inches with 240 x 400 pixels and the ability to render over 262,000 colors. Couple that gorgeous screen with the 5.0 Megapixel digital camera that's built-into the Behold and you'll take pictures good enough to print and share. This camera features auto-focus, an LED flash and a self timer. It also works as a camcorder for video capture at 176 x 144 pixel resolution. To make sure you have enough memory for those snapshots and movies, the Behold's memory slot supports up to 16 GB of added memory.

As you might expect, a screen this size is meant for video. The Samsung Behold supports streaming multimedia so you can download and play video or music files on Windows Media Player 10. The Bluetooth wireless technology will also stream stereo music to A2DP compatible headsets and other devices.

Web access? Oh, yes, and better than most competing touchscreen phones. The Samsung Behold offers GPRS and EDGE cellular data over the T-Mobile wireless network. It also includes WiFi b&g capability for downloads up to 24 Mbps via a wireless router or WiFi hotspot.

Did I mention that this is also a cell phone? Not only that, but a quad band GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900) mobile phone for worldwide compatibility. It supports T-Mobile's myFaves service when you order a myFaves plan.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

Can The Big Amazon Kindle DX Save The Newspapers?

This week, trumpets sounded to herald the arrival of the bigger and better Amazon Kindle model DX. It's being touted by some as the new high-technology newspaper. In a way it is, but can a nearly $500 gadget the size of a magazine stop the death spiral of newspapers going dark across the country?

No. It's way too late, too expensive and too edgy for that. If newspapers wanted to move to an electronic paper delivery system to replace newsprint, they should have started deploying these a decade ago when they were fat and happy. Now that many are teetering on bankruptcy and others are going over the edge, technology isn't going to do the trick. For many papers nothing will, short of a phoenix-like rise from the ashes based on a new business model.

Not that the Kindle and Kindle DX are a bad idea. They're a great idea. They come just in time to save the book industry and perhaps much of the magazine industry. The idea of a book as a block of sliced paper that you need to go fetch in a special "book" store or have shipped to you in the mail is an old fashioned notion. The book is a collection of valuable written information or entertainment worth paying to have. As text and perhaps pictures, it is an ideal product to digitize and transfer instantly through the airwaves.

So will the Kindle replace books? It and its ilk are very likely to do that in the long run. But it's going to take decades, not a couple of years. Remember music stores? Every town had one or two when many of us were growing up. Not anymore. The physical music medium of CDs has moved to a department within a big box store. More and more, music isn't "records" or "albums" or "CDs." It's a data package you download to your computer or cellphone, perhaps deployed to another device such as an iPod or MP3 player.

That's where books are going. But book stores will be around until the tipping point is reached where more people have electronic readers than not and they refuse to buy a non-electronic version. The Kindle may be the iPod of electronic paper readers, but you can bet there will soon be a flood of competitors in all sizes and price ranges to hasten the conversion process.

Magazines and newspapers will indeed be lucky recipients of this trend. Already, you can get your newspaper subscription electronically from many of the bigger papers. The Kindle DX with its larger size screen and PDF rendering capability will help magazines make the transition. What's missing is color, unimportant to novels, many how-to and technical books, and a lot of newspapers, but probably necessary before magazines start moving off the grocery store racks and into the airwaves.

Interestingly, the real growth market for the large format PDF-reading Kindle has nothing to do with consumer books or newspapers. It's the forests worth of technical service manuals, blueprints, wiring diagrams, parts lists, safety sheets, medical references and so on. If it was suitable for microfilm storage, it should be perfect for an electronic reader. What's really going to goose this application is two way communications ability to not only request the desired information but order parts, get schedules, see how-to videos, and post service results.

If that sounds like what you would do with a notebook computer, you're right. But the traditional laptop with its hinged lid and keyboard isn't right for many applications. What's also wrong is the eyestrain that comes from backlit screens. That's why books on computers will give way to books on electronic paper. Unless, of course, someone like say... Apple... comes up with that rumored tablet PC that merges the form factor of a book and the reading ease of electronic paper with both WiFi and cellular broadband, high definition color display, two-way touch screen communications, Flash, Microsoft Office compatible applications and so on.

As for the newspapers, the electronic boat sailed without them years ago. What they really need is to become the essential local source for all community information in real time. That means chucking the days-old AP wire stories for more in-house generated in-depth reporting and opinion pieces. Newspapers should be the first to tell you where crimes are occurring, when hail or a tornado is bearing down on your location, where sales of products you are interested in are on sale, and so on.

A daily distributed paper medium is suitable for advocacy or think pieces or in-depth investigative journalism. So is electronic ink. Things that change in real-time, such as national news, game scores or stock reports can be pulled from sources that are already collecting this data and dropped into the electronic editions. Few people want to wait for delivery of the morning paper to get that information anymore. If newspapers want to be relevant in the day of Google News, Yahoo Finance and Craigslist, they've got to embrace a Web 2.0 model of interactivity and instant updates. Perhaps the old timey idea of the "town crier" is an idea who's time has come again.

There is a crying need for a local-centric centralized information purveyor. Radio and TV stations aren't stepping up to this in any meaningful way. Various small time community bulletin boards have come and gone on the Internet. Newspapers could make this their new mission, while still distributing a downsized print edition for commuters, impulse buyers, and those who aren't quite ready to go all-electronic. The trick will be to provide a wealth of interactive information that can't be had elsewhere and considered valuable enough to pay for.

If not, the world will move on with blogs, RSS feeds, web portals, email alerts, downloadable books, and hundreds of satellite and cable TV stations filling the gap. The downtown livery stable and the telegraph office have disappeared and we've not gone wanting. We'll live without newspapers. But it really would be a shame.

The Impressive Samsung Impression Phone

Prepare to be impressed. By what? By a new type of cell phone display screen technology. It's called AMOLED. That stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode. It's a mouthful to say, but the technology advance gives you a crisper and brighter display that is also thinner, lighter and less power hungry. You'll be seeing these deployed in all sorts of mobile devices soon. But right now you can get AMOLED technology in the new Samsung Impression A877 Blue cell phone.

The trend is to larger and larger cell phone screens as cellphones begin to take over the functions once reserved for laptop computers. But the larger the screen, the more of a battery drainer it becomes. That's no good in portable equipment. Hence, all the research into improved technologies that are squeezing the most performance from the lowest battery drain possible. The Samsung Impression's screen offers beautiful color in a 240 x 400 pixel display implemented as a 3.2 inch AMOLED screen.

What is such a nice screen good for? How about viewing the high resolution photos that you can take with the built-in 3.0 Megapixel digital camera. These pictures are good enough to print as well as share via multimedia messaging. The camera can be put into a camcorder mode to record video clips up to 1 hour long. At that length, "clips" seems to be a misnomer. These should probably be called full length programs or feature films.

The Samsung Impression phone is also a messaging center. A slide-out QWERTY keyboard gives you the keys and spacing you need for accurately typing text messages and emails. It's also backlit for your viewing convenience. Web browsing is also available with a full HTML browser included. This phone runs on the AT&T EDGE/GPRS data network and is a quad band GSM phone, the worldwide standard.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

It's Doom For Calling Cards

International long distance rates have been traditionally so high as to produce nose bleeds. The response has been the rise of calling cards, especially prepaid phone cards, and cheaper international rates from VoIP broadband telephone services. Indeed, you can find competitive worldwide long distance rates at a fraction of what you would have settled for a few years ago. But now another service has emerged that threatens to take the international market over from the calling card companies.

What is this new service and how does it beat buying cards at the store or even ordering prepaid calling cards online? It's actually a new twist on a service that's been available for years.

You may never have heard of "dial-around" phone services. They were hot before cell phones became the dominant force in communications. Most cell phone plans now don't distinguish between local and long distance minutes. You get charged a minute when you talk for a minute, regardless of whether the other party is next door or six states away. But cell phones have a fatal flaw for anyone who wants to call out of the country. Either they don't work at all or the extra rates are so high that your nose will start bleeding when you get the bill. International calling is not part of your domestic cell phone service.

This is where dial-around comes to save the day. You don't want to make an international call on your cell phone when you know you're going to get dinged huge extra charges. Instead, you want to "dial around" them and into a service that is expressly tailored to optimize international calling rates. That's the idea behind an international dialaround.

TEL3Advantage is the agile and clever player in the resurgence of dial-around telephone services. Their game changing strategy is a combination of dirt cheap long distance rates from the USA and Canada to just about every place on Earth, coupled with high call quality and new software technology that makes international cell phone calls easier than using a landline. It also works from landlines, by the way.

Just how cheap are those rates? Under a couple of cents per minute to China. In fact, they're running what they call a "triple play" savings right now that lets you call China for just a penny a minute. The deal is a 30% reduction in rates for 30 days plus up to 900 free calling minutes. Even the regular rates spell doom for many conventional calling cards. But the discount makes per minute rates really eye-popping. Check international calling rates and see for yourself.

The technology improvement involves making it easier to use the dialaround service. Prepaid calling cards are the worst. You dial an access number and then enter a long PIN number that uniquely identifies you. If you get it right, you'll hear a dial tone and you can then enter the number of the party you want to call. If not, you'll have to squint at the small print on the back of the card and take another run at it.

But what if you could get rid if the PIN? TEL3Advantage has a system that lets you call one of thousands of local access numbers or a toll free number. You don't need a PIN number because the system will recognize your phone. You can even eliminate the minor inconvenience of dialing the access number when you download a free software application for your cell phone. The software will know the access number to call and it will connect you with the system whenever you want to make an international call. The rest of the time you use your cell phone as you always have. This system doesn't interfere with that.

So here's the bottom line. Make use of a prepaid international dialaround service that has rates that are often lower than many prepaid calling cards, with the convenience of not having to dial a PIN number or even an access number, enjoy high call quality that isn't always available through calling card services, and get the minutes you order because this service doesn't charge you connection fees or weekly service fees. What does it spell? Once widely known and enjoyed, it spells doom for many calling cards.

T1 vs SIP For Business Telephone

Businesses that have multiple incoming and outgoing telephone lines, especially lots of lines to support call centers, customer service, phone ordering, technical support or large business offices, need different telecom solutions than small office users. Traditionally, this has been T1 telephone service. But enterprise VoIP initiatives are encouraging businesses to take a look at SIP Trunking as an alternative. What are the merits of each technology and how do you choose the best telephony solution?

T1 telephone lines trace their development to the telephone companies who needed an efficient way to interconnect central offices for transporting dozens or hundreds of simultaneous phone calls. The resulting T-carrier standard created the T1 and T3 line services and paved the way for higher level optical carrier services capable of transporting thousands of calls. Decades later, this technology was made available directly to businesses as a way to connect their internal telephone systems, called PBX, to the public switched telephone network.

Any PBX system that you buy today either comes standard with or has an option for a T1 line card. T1 has become the standard for digital telephone trunks, the way to combine multiple standard analog phone lines into a larger trunk line for a cost savings. When used this way, T1 lines are configured into 24 channels. Each channel can carry one telephone conversation. With 24 channels available, up to 24 separate phone lines can be accommodated. The PBX (Private Branch eXchange) system manages those 24 lines to make them available to potentially hundreds of individual desk phones.

Of course, you don't need to use all 24 channels to have T1 telephone lines make economic sense. The more you use, the cheaper per line it gets. Usually the break even point is somewhere around replacing 6 to 10 conventional analog phone lines.

A very popular variation of the T1 phone line is T1 PRI or ISDN PRI service. The PRI stands for Primary Rate Interface. It is a standard that keeps 23 of the 24 T1 channels available to carry individual phone calls. The remaining channel is used for signaling, control and data to support the other 23. By doing this, T1 PRI offers very fast call switching and data services such as Caller ID and ANI.

T1 PRI has become the service of choice for PBX telephone systems and call centers. If 23 incoming/outgoing phone lines are not enough for a large corporation or call center, you can add more T1 lines. Many large phone systems easily accommodate 2 to 4 T1 lines and can be upgraded for more as needed. Need a hundred or more phone lines? DS3 telephone service gives you the equivalent of 28 T1 lines, which is well over 600 simultaneous telephone conversations.

T1 and DS3 are both channelized services that split the total bandwidth of the line into multiple independent channels on a time sharing basis. This technology is often referred to as TDM or Time Division Multiplexing. It has been the standard for digital telephony in the public phone network for over 50 years.

A newer service, designed to specifically to support VoIP phone systems, is called SIP Trunking. SIP refers to Session Initiation Protocol, the control and switching scheme used in VoIP. SIP Trunks are based on transporting packets instead of channels. They use IP networking technology instead of TDM. SIP trunks run directly from your location to your VoIP service provider, who provides the means to interconnect with the public telephone network. Because it's a managed service there can be considerable cost savings.

Interestingly, either T1 PRI or SIP Trunking can be used with both standard analog or digital PBX systems or the newer IP PBX phone systems. So the question becomes, "what is the best choice for a particular business?"

The right answer is whichever service offers the lowest costs for high voice quality and high reliability when connected to your phone system. You need to take into consideration the monthly recurring line costs, per minute long distance charges, and any capital expense for interface equipment. There may be other considerations, too, such as toll free numbers, local dial tone, and DID or direct inward dialing, among others.

How do you sort it out and come to a simple purchasing decision? The best way is to compare your T1 and SIP telephone options and get complementary consulting help for your particular circumstances. There's no cost for this service, and the savings that come from picking the right solution can be substantial.

Fiber Optic Speeds Come to Cable

Cablevision systems Corp. is raising the bar on broadband Internet service by breaking the 100 Mbps speed limit over Cable TV service. They announced a rollout of the new high speed Internet service starting May 11. Sign up and you can get download speeds up to 101 Mbps with upload speed of up to 15 Mbps for around $100 a month.

But just a second. Isn't Cable TV still using regular old RG-6 coaxial cable? I thought you needed fiber optic cable to get those kind of speeds.

Oh, there's a lot more bandwidth capability in copper wire that you might suspect. It comes down to how efficiently you use the capability that exists. Even common twisted pair telephone wire is capable of transporting Mbps level signals up to several miles. The latest technology for last mile delivery of business grade bandwidth is EoC or Ethernet over Copper, which is able to provide up to 45 Mbps using multiple copper pair that most businesses already have installed.

The magic behind the Cablevision advance is called DOCSIS 3.0. DOCSIS is the standard for transporting broadband data on cable television systems. The acronym stands for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification. If you have a cable modem, it's running one of the DOCSIS standards. What this standard does is define how to create data channels that fit into standard 6 MHz TV channels so that they will pass unhindered through cable equipment. The cable operator decides how many channels it needs to set aside to support the demand for cable modems.

The latest version, just coming into service now, is DOCSIS 3.0. This upgrade specifies bonding up to 10 NTSC TV channels of 6 MHz each to provide a bandwidth of 60 MHz. MHz and Mbps are not the same. With clever modulation schemes, you can get a lot more than 1 Mbps from a 1 MHz channel. The DOCSIS 3.0 standard offers cable operators 4 channel bonding for a maximum usable speed of 152 Mbps downstream and 108 Mbps upstream. The 8 channel bonded option gives a maximum usable speed of 304 Mbps downstream. That's lots of room for growth as demand increases.

What is driving the need for 100 Mbps Internet service? It's all about the video. With that amount of bandwidth, a user can download a full-length HDTV movie in less than 10 minutes. Make no mistake about it, HD video is a snowball that is starting to roll downhill. Internet service providers that get in its way with things like slow connections and bandwidth caps are going to get rolled over as the public embraces IP TV. Satellite and Cable operators would like to insist that they be the providers of all TV content on a subscription or pay per view basis. The public is having none of it. They're going to third party providers, such as Netflix, or going directly to TV network websites to get episodes of their favorite programs that they've missed. YouTube remains a popular destination for shorter video clips, but may well become a clearinghouse for full-length programs of all types.

How far will this go? Look for other cable companies to embrace DOCSIS 3.0 and match Cablevision's 100 Mbps speeds. I'd also expect the same from Verizon's FiOS, a fiber optic technology that has plenty of bandwidth available. Those silly bandwidth caps are going to disappear at least for high-end bandwidth users. Nobody is going to pay $100 or more a month for broadband and then be told they've used up their allotment by mid-month. That means cable companies sucking it up and installing faster Internet backbones and agreements with content delivery networks as well as boosting speeds to the users.

Special Triple Savings To Call International

If you make calls to other countries from the USA or Canada, there's a special offer available that you absolutely must know about. It's the triple savings special from TEL3Advantage.

How does this triple play work? You get 30% off their already rock bottom international calling rates. You'll enjoy those rates for 30 days. Plus you get up to $9 free talk time worth up to 900 international minutes. Some people don't even talk that much in 30 days. But you will. In fact, it's highly likely you'll be calling all over the world on a whim with rates as low as 1 cent per minute to China, 1.4 cents per minute to Canada and 1.4 cents per minute to Berlin, Germany.

A penny a minute to call China? Yeah, it's hard to believe this is even legal. But it is. The rates are cheap, the service is easy to use, and call quality is high.

So, how does TEL3Advantage work? Is it a calling card? Actually, it is a technology upgrade from common prepaid calling cards. You simply sign up online or call a toll free number to place your order. You'll get set up quickly. Whenever you want to make a really low cost international phone call, you simply dial the TEL3Advantage access number to connect with the system. From there you dial your destination number and enjoy your conversation.

It's important to note that you don't have to dial any of those incredibly long PIN numbers like you do with calling cards. This system doesn't need them. There are also no connection fees, no hidden charges and no contracts. That's what you don't have to put up with.

What you DO get are free minutes when you sign up, ability to make calls directly from an address book, high call quality, fast connections, auto-recharge from your credit card so you don't run out of available minutes, online account management, ability to use the service from any phone (including cell phones), and a service that works in both the U.S. and Canada.

By the way, when you dial into TEL3Advantage you will use one of 4,000 local numbers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Otherwise you have the option to call a toll free number for a penny per minute more. But go ahead and download the TEL3 Smartplug software for your phone and you won't have to remember any access numbers. The Smartplug will take care of that for you.

If you've been thinking about purchasing a prepaid calling card to make out of country calls... don't do it. Not until you check out the triple savings special from TEL3Advantage. I'll be you'll find the regular rates and service features superior to that calling card. Plus don't forget the limited time special offer!