| ign="center"> | | | | However the real truth here is far more interesting. |
| With the once loyal fans of Skype and SkypeOut now | | | | The expansion of this company into many and the |
| looking for a new company to service their internet | | | | gradual rise of the competition in general herald an |
| telephony needs, Danny Wirken discovers some | | | | interesting view of the future internet telephony market |
| interesting truths behind many of the main competitors. | | | | especially with regards to Skype. No longer can Skype |
| At first glance there are seemingly hundreds of them. | | | | claim to be the industry leader when so many |
| Thanks to the rapid and surprising success of Skype | | | | competitors are enjoying relative success. Skype are |
| and SkypeOut many other companies have begun to | | | | keen to publish figures of new customers but seldom |
| offer internet telephony and VoIP services to the | | | | do you see the figures of customers who no longer |
| same market — cheap calls nationally and | | | | credit their account or use the SkypeOut service. |
| internationally and free calls to other users of that | | | | The increasing amount of dissatisfied customers and |
| particular service. | | | | the ever growing pile of complaints against the |
| It's not just the giants like Yahoo!, who has recently | | | | company may well lead to the eventual decline of |
| released their own voice calling VoIP service bundled | | | | Skype as a market leader. It would be a shame |
| with their newest version of Yahoo! chat, MSN and | | | | because the brand has enjoyed such unconditional |
| AOL who are competing for their share. A plethora of | | | | love for the last three years since inception that some |
| smaller and less noticeable companies have sprung up | | | | might be led to comment that it would have been very |
| to join the smaller handful of firms that existed even | | | | hard to push such devotion away. It's not too late for |
| before Skype. | | | | Skype to reclaim its crown however — simple |
| Some names may be familiar to you — Globe7, | | | | and straightforward customer service implementations |
| VoIP.Net, Speak2Phone, VoIPGate and so on. | | | | will do much to help retain the current customer base |
| However, hidden among the top 100 and top 200 VoIP | | | | and perhaps push some of the contenders back into |
| firms both online and with brick and mortar offices are | | | | the shadows. |
| a collection of companies who are fronts for one | | | | For more information on this and other VoIP related |
| single VoIP provider: Finarea S.A. This firm owns VoIP | | | | tips and advice, please visit the website. |
| Discount, SipDiscount, VoIPCheap, SparVoIP, | | | | Report this article |
| InternetCalls, VoIPStunt, VoIPBuster and Netappel. | | | | This article is free for republishing |
| Each of these companies regularly updates the | | | | Source: |
| countries to which their users get free telephone calls. | | | | Republish this article |
| With careful monitoring of these companies you can | | | | |
| often find that the country you want to call can be | | | | Ask a Question About this Article |
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