Voip Deals Blog

What  is Voice Broadcasting?

Voice broadcasting, also called voice blasting, is a service that sends out automated voice messages to multiple phone numbers or answering machines. Its works similar to email broadcasting or fax broadcasting. Like email or fax broadcasting, you create a recorded voice message, and then using a voice broadcasting service, you deliver the voice message to a list of phone numbers.

In addition to the basic voice broadcasting, a sophisticated voice broadcasting system will have interactive features like press a number to connect to a live person, one question or multiple questions phone surveys.

Who Uses Voice Broadcasting?

Many services need to use a voice broadcasting system to reach a group of users simultaneously within a short period of time. Its much more cheaper and faster than having a person or a group person make the calls and leave messages manually.

Typical users are

1. Schools that need to alert parents about school closure
2. Cities, communities to alert emergency notifications
3. Political campaigns reaching out to the voters
4. NGOs sending out donation requests
5. Religious organizations contacting their members
6. Sports groups sending messages about upcoming events
7. Businesses calling customers with overdue balance

What is CallFire?

CallFire is a hosted voice broadcasting service which offers basic to advanced voice broadcasting services.

Services included are sending a pre-recorded telephone call to a list of phone numbers, press #1 campaigns, easy single poll campaigns or multiple question survey. You can target both answering machines or live persons.

Callfire will send 50 broadcasts per minute. Speed can be increased upon request.

The system is entirely online and software based. To begin you upload a mp3 of your voice message or call a number to record a message. Then you set up your call list and other aspects of the campaigns online. You can run multiple campaigns with different call volumes simultaneously.

How Much Does it Cost?

CallFire voice broadcasts cost 3.5¢ per minute per call. Its 100% pay-as-you-go, No signup fees, No contracts.

Is there Free Trial?

Yes, CallFire offers a 100 minute Free Trial for you try out the service.

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I use PhonePower for my home phone service and my phone service was down for a day which I didn’t realized for a day being a weekend.

So on Monday when I realized my phone service down, the first thing I did was to go the PhonePower site and fire up a chat session with their tech support. The wait was short and a tech started working on my issue immediately.

He asked me do a few things, like rebooting the phonepower adapter using a code that I dialed using my phone. That didn’t work.

Then he had me physically power down the phonepower adapter by pulling the plug out  and plugging it back in after waiting for 20 seconds. This forces the adapter to a hard reboot and help resolve issues. Unfortunately that didn’t work either and phone was still dead.

Then he said he will try one more thing from his end and if that doesn’t work, he will have to escalate the issue to the next level of tech support. He spent a few minutes on his side and then asked me restart the adapter again by powering it down and powering it back up.

Voila, that seemed to fix the issue and my phone was back up and running. I made a few outgoing calls to my cell phone and to my wife’s cell phone and a few incoming calls from my cell phone and all the calls went through.

The experience with the PhonePower tech support was was good. The tech support was friendly, patient and  knowledgeable.

And I also give the PhonePower phone service five stars. I have had very few issues with them and no complaints so far. Whenever I have had issues, like this one, they have been promptly resolved.

What is SkypeIn:

SkypeIn is a phone number offered by Skype so as to be able receive calls. The SkypeIn service is different from its SkypeOut service in the way that SkpyeOut is a pc-to-phone calling service using the Skype software.  SkypeIn, on the other hand is just a phone number so as to enable a Skype user to receive incoming calls. Without a SkypeIn service you don’t have a phone number which someone dial to reach you.

SkypeIn Pros:

1. Inexpensive
2. Monthly or Yearly Subscription
3. Can have upto 10 SkypeIn numbers associated to one Skype account (Good for businesses with clients in many different countries)

SkypeIn Cost:

A SkypeIn number costs $18 for 3 months, or $60 for 12 month. Remember its just a number and not calling plan.

If you need a calling plan, Skype offers 3 plans(a bit confusing). If you live in the US/Canada the Skype unlimited US and Canada calling plan at $2.95/month will give unlimted calling in US and Canada.

If you need a calling plan where you will need to call outside of your country of residence , you will need a Skype Unlimited Country Plan at $6.95/month.

If you need to call multiple countries outside of your country of residence , you will need the Skype Unlimited World Plan at  $12.95/month.

SkypeIn Deal:

15% discount on Yearly plan

If you have Skype Calling plan (discussed above) then your SkypeIn number will be 50% Off regular price.

SkypeIn Availability:

SkypeIn local numbers are available in 20 countries. And you can get a local number in any of the 20 countries. It doesn’t matter where you live. You can choose a local number in any country where either your friends, family or your business clients reside. Choosing a number local to others will help them(your family or business clientele) will let them call you by making local calls and avoid international calling cost.

Nextiva Fax a leader in internet email fax service from small and medium scale businesses has a 30% off offer on their annual plan. The monthly payment plan costs around $9.95/month. But if you sign up for the yearly plan at $83.40/year (or $6.95/month) you get a 30% discount.

with Nextiva Email Fax you get 500 pages of faxes per month. Your entire fax solution is online, which means you send and receive faxes through email and you have access to all your faxes from anywhere.

Nextiva fax also has multiple payment options to cater to businesses of all sizes. You can read our Nextiva Fax Review here and take advantage of the 30% off offer.