Introduction

VoIP has become a major industry thanks to the efforts of startups like Vonage and Skype, which have led innovation in the VoIP market. But VoIP's success has not escaped notice of the folks who supply your normal dial tone, and some have decided to also venture into this brave new world. Verizon is one such company with its VoiceWing service aimed at home users.

Verizon currently offers two VoiceWing service plans (Figure 1). The first is 500 minutes of long distance within the United States and Canada for $19.95 a month, with additional calls over 500 minutes costing 4 cents a minute. The other plan provides unlimited call time to anywhere in the U.S and Canada for $34.95 a month. As a comparison, Vonage's closest equivalents would be 500 minutes for $14.99 a month and unlimited for $24.99 a month. Verizon also offers a five dollar discount per month for the first year on the unlimited plan if you are a current Verizon DSL subscriber or sign up for Verizon DSL with the VoIP service.

Figure 1: VoiceWing plans

For many people, the main reason to switch to VoIP is price and while VoiceWing is more expensive than Vonage, the price is still within reason. The biggest difference is in the unlimited plan, which is $10 more per month than Vonage. The 500 minute VoiceWing plan is only $5 more, and since Verizon has lower international rates than Vonage - such as calling the U.K. for three cents a minute vs. Vonage's four cents - this plan becomes more attractive.

Both companies provide an adapter that is locked into their service - which is pretty much standard practice for the larger VoIP providers. So if you drop their service, the adapter will not work with another company's service.

Tags: Verizon, VoiceWing, VoIP,

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