More Fiber Optic Network Services For Canada

By: John Shepler

Enterprise and wholesale bandwidth users in Canada now have access to expanded high speed network connections throughout the country and to the United States and other international destinations. Let’s take a look at what’s happening, what it might mean and how you can get access to these services.

XO Communications is a major international telecommunications carrier based in the United States. Within the U.S., XO supports fiber connections to 4,000 on-net buildings with more than 1.6 million fiber miles in a 29,000 mile Tier 1 IP network that spans the nation. They also connect internationally to nodes in Madrid, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Toronto that feed 55 countries.

Toronto is a recent addition. XO initiated service through its new hub at the 151 Front Street West carrier hotel in Toronto last October. This hub connects to Montreal and back to the U.S. XO network through a 600 mile fiber route to Albany and Buffalo, NY.

XO has now expanded its Canadian services to cover all of Canada’s six time zones with high speed fiber network services that include Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), high speed IP transit for other carriers, MPLS IP-VPN, VPLS, Ethernet, Private Line and Wavelength services for enterprises and wholesale customers. For multinational companies, MPLS IP-VPN can interconnect facilities in 60 countries. The expanded connections in the United States include New York City, Cleveland and Seattle.

Canada and the United States share the worlds longest border called the International Boundary. Cross-border business exceeds $1 billion per day & is growing at 5% a year. Communications between our two countries is vital to that commerce. Not the slow traditional line speeds, mind you. What’s in demand is 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps links. These connections support a wide variety of enterprise needs in the fields, of finance, manufacturing (especial automotive), media,& entertainment including film and television production, retail, plus energy including oil and gas production.

Today’s high productivity business requirements include high bandwidth, high capacity, low latency, packet loss & jitter, and high security. Point to point Ethernet private line services provide that kind of connectivity between two locations. Many large companies have traditionally created their own corporate long haul networks using multiple point to point private lines. A newer and more cost effective approach is to employ MPLS networks to accomplish the same results.

What do MPLS networks offer? They’re also called MPLS IP-VPN because these networks inherently provide virtual private networking by design. They easily transport IP traffic, but are not IP at their core. They use a proprietary switching and routing scheme called label switching, which is the LS in MPLS. Being privately owned and operated combined with label switching technology provides a much higher degree of security than you’d expect from the public Internet. If you feel that you still need an even higher level of security, such as for financial data, you have the option of encrypting the traffic you send to the MPLS network.

MPLS networks enjoy a substantial cost advantage over dedicated private lines because they use a common network infrastructure to serve many customers. Each customer has a committed information rate without interference from other customer’s traffic. It feels like you have the network all to yourself, but don’t have to pay for the construction and operation of a large international fiber optic network.

Do you need connectivity within Canada or cross-border between Canada and the United States? You have more options now than ever before. Find availability and pricing for Ethernet, MPLS, Wavelengths, private lines and Dedicated Internet Access from XO Communications and other major international network service providers.


Note: Map of North America courtesy of WikiMedia Commons.

$8.33/mo Small Business & Residential VoIP

What’s the best deal in VoIP phone service for residential and small business users? No, it’s not the ones you see advertised on TV. In fact, you’ve probably never heard of this phone company. It’s something of a best kept secret that needs to be shared.

I’m going to tell you how you can get unlimited “free” calls to the US and Canada, plus an hour of free international calling every month, plus a free 2nd line for the astounding price of $8.33 per month. No, you don’t have to plug your phone into your computer to make this work. This is a broadband phone system that works with your router or modem and shares your Internet connection with your computers. The phones will receive calls or let you call out regardless of whether your computer is on or off.

The company you want to know is Phone Power. Their expertise is in Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP communications. They can handle all size businesses, but this special offer is targeted at the vast majority of telephone users. Those are homes, home offices and small businesses that need only a couple of phone lines.

The way this works is by using an ATA or Analog Telephone Adaptor. This is a small box about the size of a wireless router or cable modem that Phone Power leases you for free while you maintain your service. There are two network connections on the back. One you plug into your broadband modem. That’s the WAN connection that hooks to the Internet. From now on, the Internet will do double duty as your phone line as well as your computer line. The second network jack is for your computer or router. In other words the ATA sits between your modem and computer equipment so it can maintain voice quality with both phones and computers are being used.

There are two regular phone jacks on the back of the ATA. Two? Yes, you can plug two phones into the box and use both of them at the same time. This is a feature you don’t generally get with any phone service. It’s always one line or you pay double for two lines. Phone power gives you two “cloned” lines for the same price. The reason they are called cloned is because both these lines share the same phone number. Both phones will ring with a call comes in. But, you can call out separately and make two independent calls through the magic of VoIP line cloning. Pretty handy in a business office or at home with loquacious teenagers.

By the way, no special phones are need. Use a standard desk phone or cordless phones with multiple handsets and one base station. They all work just fine.

This is unlimited service, right? You bet. You pay a very modest monthly fee for VoIP service and you can call all the numbers in the U.S. or Canada that you like. That’s right, Canada too. Most phone services charge you extra long distance fees for calls across the border. Phone Power also gives you 60 minutes of free international calling per month and has very low international rates for countries not included or if you want to talk more.

Oh, there is one caveat. This is for typical residential and small business users. Call centers are NOT included. If you are running a call center and need an enormous call volume, EnterpriseVoIP.com will take care of your needs. Anything over 5,000 minutes per month will trigger an overage charge of 2 cents per minute by Phone Power.

So how do you get all this for a measly $8.33 per month? It’s a current special offer (may not last) that costs $199.95 per year with a second year included free as a new customer promo. Do the math and you’ll see that you are paying just $8.33/mo for unlimited phone service. Don’t want to prepay for 2 years? OK, there are other plans where you can just pay by the month for a higher, but still bargain, rate.

Does this sound like the right price and the right phone service for you? There are a tremendous number of calling features bundled-in that you would otherwise have to pay extra for with other companies. No contract, no activation fee, no equipment charge, no per minute charges. Plus a 30 day satisfaction guarantee so you can be sure the service works for you with your particular broadband provider. Learn more and order Phone Power Small Business and Residential VoIP service now, while you can get such a fantastic deal.

Call Overseas For Pennies From Your Cell Phone

Once your cell phone became your one personal and business phone, the idea of getting a better deal on landline long distance calls became moot. What good is a landline if you are never near one? What you really want is the ability to get great service on your mobile phone. You’ve got domestic telephone and broadband already. What you need is cheap international calling.

TEL3 knew this was coming and created their TEL3Advantage service to meet the need of mobile users in the US and Canada. Most of us have at least some occasions to call friends, family or business contacts in other countries. What we haven’t had until now was an affordable way to do that on a cell phone.

TEL3Advantage is an international long distance service that you access from your mobile phone. You are not changing cellular providers or adding any other contractual services. This is strictly a pay as you go add-on calling service. That means it works from any make or model cell phone and on any wireless service. In fact, you can even use it from a landline on those occasions when you are at your desk phone or at home.

What kind of rates are we talking about? Pennies per minute, literally. For instance, calls to China are 1.32 cents per minute. Want an even better deal? You can call China right now for a penny a minute with the special promotional rate. It’s good for your first 30 days of service. Call Asia and chat all you want. It’s cheap. Rates to Europe are dirt cheap, too. How about 3 cents a minute to Germany? That’s low, alright.

As if the deal wasn’t good enough already, you get free minutes upon signup. How many depends on how much you plunk down. How it works is that you prepay an amount from $10 to $100 from your major credit card or PayPal . The cost of your calls is paid out of that initial purchase. When you get low, you simply recharge your account to make more calls. If you decide you don’t need or want the service anymore, just don’t add any more money. There’s no contract cancellation fee because there is no contract to begin with. There’s even a 30 day money back guarantee. If you don’t like the service within the first 30 days, you’ll get a refund of the balance you haven’t used for calls. Truly, there is much to gain and nothing to lose.

Call quality is high, connections are fast and don’t require a PIN number, you can manage your account easily online, and the service works from any phone in the USA or Canada. But, wait, there’s more!

Do you have an iPhone? Get the TEL3Dialer APP from the iPhone App Store and you can dial from your address book or dial directly without entering any access numbers or PINs. The rates are the same as if you had dialed a local access number.

But what about other cell phone users who don’t have iPhones? You are also in luck. There are TEL3 Apps for Blackberry and over 400 cell phone models. Simply access your online account once you sign up and then download the “Smartplug Software” that is appropriate for your phone. Once installed, you’ll see a TEL3 logo added to your applications and you are good to call.

Ready to enable your cell phone for low cost international calls? It takes just a few minutes to order TEL3Advantage international prepaid long distance service. Then, talk all you like. It’s that inexpensive.

Add International Calling To Your Cell Phone

The reality of telephone conversations today is that at least one of the phones is a mobile. Yet, many US cell phone plans limit you to domestic USA calls. Those that let you call out of the country can make you sorry you did when the bill arrives. Doesn’t anyone offer a way to call Mexico, Europe, China or even Canada at a decent rate?

There is such a deal and you’ll love it. What you need is a special add-on plan to the service you have now. There is no need and, frankly, no advantage to switching carriers mid-plan. Instead, you keep your current US calling plan and add an international calling service to it. It’s fast, it’s easy and, best of all, it’s cheap.

The service I’m talking about is TEL3Advantage
. What kind of rates are we talking about? Right now, TEL3Advantage is offering discounted international rates that include calls to China for 1 cent per minute, Berlin Germany for 1.4 cents per minute and calls to Canada for 0.9 cents per minute. You saw that right. You can call numbers in Canada for less than a penny a minute. I’ll bet you can’t do that on your landline!

Actually, now you can. The same TEL3Advantage account that works on your cell phone also works on your home phone or your office phone. You can use it on any private touch-tone phone.

OK, now back to those incredibly low rates. They’re for real as part of a special 30 day discount. After that they go up to the regular rates that aren’t much higher. China, for instance, is 1.32 cents per minute instead of an even 1 cent. Calls to Canada cost 1.6 cents per minute. Calls to Berlin Germany are 2 cents per minute for the regular rate. Bet you still can’t beat these rates on your regular landline service. Calls to other locations worldwide are also available at eye-popping low rates.

So how does this work? You sign up for TEL3Advantage with a valid credit card or PayPal account. You order a package of minutes for $10, $25, $50 or $100. What you are doing is pre-paying for your international calls. There’s an extra bonus involved. You get extra free minutes with all but the $10 package. How about 900 free minutes to China on sign-up with the $100 plan. Astounding, but true.

Now you are ready to place your call. Simply dial the local access number for the TEL3Advantage service on any phone you have registered. When the service answers, you dial the international number you want to call. Your call goes through just like on any other phone and you enjoy a nice long conversation. At these rates, it can really be a long conversation. When you run low on minutes, the system will recharge you so won’t be left hanging without service like happens on those prepaid calling cards.

Do you have a smartphone? Your life gets even easier when you download a TEL3 app. It is smart enough to know all the local access numbers, so you can just place your international call with no fuss whatsoever.

Thousands of satisfied customers love this service, and why wouldn’t they? There are no monthly fees or taxes, no contracts, no expiration and no obligation. Just fast and easy access combined with extraordinarily low calling rates. Does this sound like a service that will work for you? If so, learn more, take advantage of the introductory specials, note the 30 day satisfaction guarantee and order your TEL3Advantage service now.

Foul Odor of Decaying Prepaid Calling Cards

Prepaid calling cards have become popular for international calls, primarily because of their jaw-dropping low advertised rates. They’ve probably caught your eye in the store with their large numbers of very small cents per minute. You may think that you’re going to call around the globe at will for a couple of cents, but you won’t be calling anywhere when the card goes bad.

Goes bad? You mean like milk and fish? Yes, exactly. You see, most prepaid calling cards decay once you start using them.

Think I’m kidding? Get out your magnifying glass and read the small print on the back side of the card. What will you see? Horrible things. Things like connection fees, minimum call times of 10 or 20 minutes, and weekly service fees.

What’s a weekly service fee? Hold your nose. You’re not going to like the smell of this.

A weekly service fee is a charge placed against your card every week after you first start using it. Buy a prepaid calling card and sit on it for a month. You’ll still have all the minutes you paid for. Buy a prepaid calling card and make a short call on it. Then put the card back in your wallet. Make another call a month later and you’ll probably find that some of the minutes have magically disappeared. They’ve been eaten up by those nasty service fees.

That’s the decay I’m taking about. Your minutes start to go bad as soon as you open the card. You don’t even have to stick your nose in the refrigerator and sniff. After a year or so that card that you thought was good for a few cents per minute has just run out of minutes. Add up the minutes that you’ve actually spent on the phone and you’ll find that you’ve paid over a dollar a minute. Not so cheap in the end, is it?

There are two ways you can avoid the stench of calling card decay. First, when you start using one of these cards use it up as fast as you can. Preferably, just make one long call. That way you’ll only pay one connection charge, not be affected by a minimum call charge, and be done before the service fees start.

What’s the other way? Use a service that gives you the cheap international rates that you want from a prepaid calling card, but doesn’t have the small print and seamy side to using it. A good choice is TEL3Advantage.

What’s different about TEL3Advantage is that there are no little paper cards involved. You order the service online for $10, $25 or so. Then you use it from any phone, including your cell phone. The process is similar to using any calling card. You dial a local access number or toll free number to reach TEL3Advantage. Then you dial the international number you want to reach from the US or Canada. You’ll pay the low per minute rate but no connection, hidden or monthly fees. You only need to avoid letting your account go inactive for a year.

But what about the rates? They can’t beat prepaid calling cards, can they?

What if I told you that you could make calls to China for 1 cent per minute right now? Is that cheap enough? OK, that’s a limited time promotion rate. The standard rate is 1.7 cents per minute. I’ll bet that’s cheaper than most of the calling cards you’ll find at the convenience store.

Here’s a bonus. Depending on how much service you choose to sign up for, you can get free bonus minutes added to your account. How many? Oh, how about as many as 900 free minutes to China? Does that sound reasonable?

Of course, there are low rates to all of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and so on. You don’t need a special card to maximize your savings to any particular part of the World. Just sign up for TEL3Advantage international calling service and the world is at your fingertips. Call all you like. If you run low on minutes, just recharge your account. Best of all, there are no service fees draining your account. Oh, that does smell sweet.