Tips to Find the Best Calling Rates and Buy Calling Cards Online

These days, long distance charges are very competitive. Every month, we receive many flyers of long distance service and often watch such advertisements on TV. Even home phone and cell phone company can provide their 'cheap' long distance package also. But the latter is more expensive.

There are so many choices for long distance calling. Then, how to compare and find the best rate with good quality? Internet is a good way. Some websites sell many calling cards together and provide price comparison. Why not use their technology to make it simple? Just go to such a calling card online store, like http://www.eecalling.com. Then begin your price comparing tour.

First, select the country you will call from, and then select the country you will call to. I.e., you will like to call Canada from USA. Then select USA as the 'from' country and Canada as the 'to' country.

Second, click 'search' button. You will see the result page that show all available calling card by price increasing. The top one is the best rate calling card. I.e., the best rate calling from USA to Canada is 0.9 cent/minute. You can change it to call to a cell phone whose rate is different. For special destination city, the rate may be lower. They will indicate you on the top if it is available.

Third, you can compare now. Besides rates, you also need to consider the terms or other charges. Some cards have maintenance fee or connection fee. You had better know it clearly before purchase. Otherwise, you will find minute reducing. Regarding these terms and surcharges, I will introduce them details in the other articles. Please read it later. After comparing, you may have a decision which card is right for you.

Last, buy online. Click the 'buy or refill' button beside the card you want to buy. Then following the instruction to open an account and select the payment method. An instant PIN# will send to your email immediately after your purchasing. If you had purchased a calling card and want to buy the same card again, just refill it.

That is all. You can enjoy your long distance talking now.

The Blue Tooth Headset - History

Did you know that the Blue Tooth Headset was named after a Norwegian king?

King Harald Bluetooth got his name from the color of his teeth, caused by his dietary habits. He was totally convinced that when he united Sweden and Denmark during his reign (910 to 985 AD), he would bring all the people together.

More than a century later, Ericsson Mobile Communications came up with an idea. Why not try to link mobile phones and all their accessories together with a new technology? And guess what? They named it after the Norwegian king. Nokia, Toshiba, IBM and Intel joined in 1998 Ericsson in forming a special interest group to develop this technology. Their goal was to allow all electronic devices to communicate. They kept the name Bluetooth, and the technological advances led the communications world to where it is today, and will still be important in the technology of tomorrow.

A blue tooth headset for cell phones, a wireless blue tooth headset for listening to music and movies. It is today a very common sight. Blue tooth headsets are also used with computers, often with the Voice over Internet Protocol, commonly known as VoIP. This enables the user to make calls through the headset, like if it was a wireless telephone.

The research done by the early special interest group made it possible to create laptop computers, cell phones and telephones with integrated blue tooth technology. Technology that enabled communication with other devices. And as a direct result of this research, we got the blue tooth headset.

Drop Us A Fax - A Fascimile

Fax or to call it its full name, facsimile is an easy way of sending printed pages over the phone line it’s actually quite old technology. When you send a fax the recipient will receive the fax almost instantly (or their fax machine will anyway!).

It does cost money to send a fax, however it is much cheaper than an equivalent phone call. Modern day fax machines are equipped with 56Kbps modems, and so transmission of documents is very quick. You can send several letter size pages in under a minute, you try transmitting the same amount of information over the phone, it’s nigh on impossible.

Fax also prevents confusion, when talking on the phone people can misunderstand what you are saying and get the wrong end of the stick. By sending a fax the person has a written copy of what you said to them in front of them which has a time and date printed at the top. This really helps avoid arguments over when you actually told someone to do something.

If you wanted to send documents before fax was around then you had to use the postal service, post is obviously a lot slower than using a fax machine. Post does however have its advantages, the original document can be sent, and so there are no problems with unreadable documents.

The disadvantage of a using a fax is that many people do not check their fax machine on a daily basis, so even though the machine has the fax the person you want to read it hasn’t even seen it. Also you could have the problem of an over efficient receptionist throwing away important faxes before you get chance to read them. With a phone call you can make sure the person knows what you want to tell them.

Fax does have several modern day alternatives, the most popular being email. It is completely free to send an email, compared to a fax which does cost a small amount of money. Email is also instant, but the main disadvantage of email is that it’s difficult to send already printed documents by it. To send a printed document you would have to scan the document and send it as an image attachment, which is very time consuming. Also I have the problem of some of my emails occasionally disappearing into cyberspace without a trace!

Fax is the most efficient and best way of sending printed documents to someone. It is very useful in business. Fax will never become obsolete, in fact people are making many improvements to it, it is now possible to send faxes over the internet, and modern day fax machines have the capability of sending in colour.

Various Options To Make Long Distance Call For A Free Or Very Low Cost

Long distance phone calls used to be expensive. Remember the time when you spend up to ten cents or more a minute? Initially, the competition was not fierce and phone companies were making lots of profit from long distance calls. Soon, more competitors flood the marketing, forcing the price to reduce. Phone companies began to come out with unique packages and offers to get you to become their customer. Things have changed a lot since then, and many long distance call companies have folded. This is because the world of long distance calls has changed. It is now a service that you can get for free or very low cost.

The cheapest option available for long distance call nowadays is through internet. Using free services like Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger or Skype, you can now call your friends in any country as long as they download the free application too. The downside of such service of course is the need to have a computer and sometimes, the quality of the voice is not very good.

If you prefer to speak through the traditional telephone way, companies like Vonage and Time Warner Cable offer digital phone that comes into your home via your cable Internet connection. You can use your existing phone and keep your phone number. This type of service is cheap. Domestic calls are free. International calls are charged at a very reasonable price. For example, Time Warner cable offers long distance phone calls from the United States to Australia for ten cents a minute.

Another option available is monthly subscription. For example, Verizon offers unlimited long distance phone calls for just $20 a month. For those who make regular long distance call, this is definitely a real bargain. Such package offer is also good for those who do not have cable internet in their area.

One popular option that many people like to use is buying a long distance calling card. For $10, you can make hours of long distance call, depending on which country you call to. When buying a calling card, pay special attention to the initial charge per call. Some cards may advertise that you can make an hour long call for just 60 cents. But if you make several short calls, there may be a one time charge and these charges can easily build up and deplete the card value. If using a calling card, the idea is to make less calls but you can speak as long as you like.

If you have a cell phone that come with free nights and weekends call, you can take advantage of your contracts that give you free long distance phone calls during these special hours.

Manage Your Time Effectively By Using A Virtual Switchboard

If you run a small business it is likely that you wear several hats by necessity and this makes it all the more important to manage your time effectively. It is also important to build a reputation for always doing what you say you will do. Being reliable is the easiest way to ensure customers give you more business. It’s just so much easier to use someone you know will do the job rather than someone who has to be chased.

One of the areas that should be immediately addressed is how you manage incoming phone calls since you can save valuable time by not allowing work to be interrupted it is all too easy to allow them to disrupt what you are doing. How many times have you answered the phone in the middle of doing something else then, when the call ends, forget to finish the previous job? This endangers your reliability and can easily lose you business. So it’s important to manage incoming phone calls effectively otherwise you run the risk that they will mismanage you.

You can save valuable time by not allowing work to be interrupted. A good way to manage phone calls is to allocate specific time slots when you will make return calls. Perhaps one hour in the morning and another in the afternoon. Callers won’t mind waiting for your return call if they know you are reliable about so doing.

You can safely avoid answering every phone call by offering callers the ability to leave a voicemail message. Your greeting shouldn’t just request callers to leave a message. Be more specific by asking callers to leave their name, phone number and what it is they want. This enables you to prepare your answer to their query. Otherwise you’ll find yourself responding to a caller to ask what they want then having to call them back again with the answer.

It’s amazing how often people will call simultaneously, especially as your business becomes busier. If you only have one incoming line this can be a problem. However, it can easily be solved by using a virtual switchboard service that, in the UK at least, is often available free of charge.

A virtual switchboard is never engaged even if you only have one incoming line. Every caller will be answered and, if you are not answering calls right away, will invite them to leave a message. Most virtual switchboards will email the message to you as a voice file, which has much more clarity than an old fashioned answering machine. Many will even email you the phone numbers of callers who hang up without leaving a message.

Of course, it goes without saying that you should always answer calls in a professional way by announcing the name of your business. This can be difficult for home workers with only one phone line unable to distinguish between business and private calls. But it is easily solved by another function of most virtual switchboards called a whisper. When you answer a call from the virtual switchboard, the whisper feature will announce that it is a business call and invite you to accept it by pressing a key on your handset. This way you can either ignore the call and send it to voicemail or answer it straight away in the name of your business.

With modern technology every business however small can handle calls effectively and in a way that enables the business owner to make the most of every valuable minute.

Office Phones Giving You Problems?

With so much new technology, including Voice over IP (VOIP), coming to the office today, small business owners and managers are increasingly challenged to maintain their systems. They face the ordeal of making multiple vendors with overlapping responsibilities accountable for systems that must work together.

Poor customer service from a vendor can result in an entire office being off-line or unable to receive normal call volume for hours, or even days. Few companies really specialize in providing prompt, personal solutions in this market.

Large companies hire technical specialists as permanent employees to maintain their telecom equipment and carrier services. Small and medium sized companies most likely look to their network administrator, office manager or other administrative person to maintain their telecommunications equipment and service. When telecom issues arise, both large and small companies often rely upon outside vendors and carriers to solve these problems as quickly as possible.

Carriers are notorious for their weak customer service, relying on multi-level auto-attendants and remote call centers to minimize their cost in responding to customer questions and service issues. Small carriers and resellers often do not have qualified staff to provide good customer service. Typically very strong in their customer acquisition process – sales – carriers, especially, are very weak in after-sales customer service.

Business customers may be unaware of this weakness in their carrier’s customer service process until they lose their telephone or data connection completely or have a serious intermittent service issue. Loss of service is a rude wake-up call that makes everyone suddenly appreciate the trade-off made in selecting the lowest cost provider or vendor.

Telecom equipment vendors may leave customers in a similar predicament. In order to capture new business, a vendor must be very competitive in pricing equipment. As compared to selling, post-sale service is another challenge altogether.

Some equipment vendors may be technically competent but not have a customer service orientation or friendly personality. You may discover when calling on your vendor, that they are non-responsive to your “emergency” and not especially good at dealing with customers on routine issues either.

For the vendor’s customer service person, it often takes finesse, or at least careful listening and gentle questioning, to respond appropriately to a customer with telecom issues.

How to choose a vendor?

In the first place, you should make it part of your decision criteria for purchasing equipment, a conscious decision to hire a mature, service-focused vendor. Choose carefully. It requires a savvy customer who understands these issues to assure a wise choice of vendor.

When purchasing new equipment, most people focus on the feature set and initial cost. They may assume the after-sales customer support is everything that the sales executive claims it to be.

Based on experience, we know that a sales person will always claim to have outstanding or excellent customer service. Whether the company actually has in place the organization, training, technology and culture to really meet customer expectations for after-sales service is irrelevant to most telecom sales people. Their mission is to close the sale.

The Solution

How do you minimize problems with your office phones? Be selective in your choice of vendor. You are not just purchasing equipment. You are looking for a vendor with an outstanding reputation for service. You are hiring a vendor to install and maintain your telecom system. That’s right; consider your purchase to be a hiring decision.

If you work at it, you can find vendors out there, who offer outstanding technical support with a highly professional approach to customer service - before and after the sale.

Help is Available

Most everyone knows the frustration of dealing with telecom carriers and vendors. A good equipment vendor should work to alleviate this frustration by helping to solve customer telecom problems – both hardware and carrier related. In this way customers really benefit from the vendor expertise and experience, and feel “cared for” in a more personal way.

Telecom customer service should be a pleasurable experience!

Africa And The Global Media Imbalance

The developing world, Africa in particular has always argued against the imbalances and injustices in the coverage of their affairs by the western media. Such coverage is not only paternalistic but most times grossly unfair, and serves only to sustain the imperialistic interests of the developed world.

Such imbalanced, negative and biased reporting is bound to continue because of the concentration of global media networks and resources in the west.

It is indeed sad that 26 years after the UNESCO sponsored McBride Commission and Report, the recommendations are yet to be fully implemented; the most significant of which is the suggestion for ‘the progressive implementation of national and international measures that will foster the setting up of a new world information and communication order’.

If anything, the information divide between the developed and developing countries has widened even further especially in this digital age which is being driven by globalization and technology. Africa and the rest of the developing world have found themselves again lagging behind the west.

However, a little goodwill and responsibility on the part of the western media is really needed at this time to prevent the continued psychological scares and damages, leading sometimes to feelings of inferiority complex on the part of the African as a result of continued sensationalisation and criminalization of everything African.

Not all Africans are criminals, rapists and savages. Also, there are many good things about Africa. Not all Africans live in slums; neither do they all scavenge rubbish heaps for food. Africa has also produced intellectuals and academics that can stand their own in the western world. Agreed the continent still faces peculiar challenges, but so does the rest of the developed world.

A situation where little efforts on the part of African governments and their people to take control of their destiny are either unreported, misreported, under-reported or acknowledged with cynicism by the western media is unacceptable, and does not indicate respect for the continent, neither does it reflect the ideals of partnership, a concept that Western leaders have been touting lately.

But why do the western media still thrive on a culture of negative and biased reporting of Africa and her people?

It could be as a result of the need to improve ratings, which can only be achieved by satisfying the mundane voyeuristic tastes and expectations of the western media audience, whose colonial views of Africa as the backward and dark continent must be reinforced and sustained.

Also, it could be as a result of the immoral culture and acceptance by the western media that ‘bad news sells’, and hence news about hunger in Sudan depicting dying children, or about savagery in Rwanda must be sought and reported by all means, even if at the sacrifice and expense of the developmental needs of the African, as well as their national interests.

Again, the McBride Report was published at a time when global media concentration was in the hands of national governments and their agencies, the understanding must have been that these governments would prevail on the media networks through directed policies to encourage a new world information and communication order. Because the report is advisory in nature and relied on goodwill from the stakeholders without any legislative powers to enforce sanctions, it had remained merely what it is – a report and doesn’t seem to have made much impact, despite the efforts by Africans to set up the Pan African News Agency (PANA), billed as the voice of Africa to the world and representing the African perspective, not much could be said to have been achieved and it has been business as usual ever since.

Finally, the greater concentration of global media networks in the west, i.e. CNN, BBC, FOX, Reuters, AFP etc, coupled with the availability of material and human resources have meant that western media are able to come up first with the news, as against African media networks such as NTA, SABC, PANA, NAN, AIT etc who are still bogged by dearth of resources, and therefore can not cope in the global news race, thus limiting their chances of covering the African continent positively. It is such that Africans have had to rely on the western media for news coverage of events happenings right under their noses, or in their back yards. The western media are able to deploy resources even to the remotest regions, they can afford to since they have both the resources and personnel. Not the same can be said of African media networks.

Africans may also be guilty of helping to perpetuate this neo-colonialism, western journalists and writers and their chauvinistic views are culled, easily celebrated and given media spaces in African media channels, not minding that the situation reversed becomes like the proverbial camel passing through the eye of the needle for African writers and journalists to be published in the western media, with the exception of a few African writers and journalists who maintain the western status quo, unwilling to rock the boat.

Few incidents reported recently in the United Kingdom (UK) media drives home this point. The Tony Blair government has been embroiled in a battle for political survival since their battering at the last local government elections in May 2006.

The Blair government is looking for sacrificial lambs every where to make up for the government’s ineptitude in certain areas, and also to satisfy the interests of the media. It appears that they have zeroed in on Africans and other immigrants in the UK. The British media have now successfully created the impression in the minds of the ever increasing nationalistic UK citizens, that immigrants are evil and criminal. Matters were also not helped by the fact that over a thousand dangerous criminals were mistakenly released, some of whom allegedly were supposed to be deported but weren’t as a result of a Home Office error.

Newspapers such as the Evening Standard went to town recently with a screaming headline announcing that 5 Nigerian illegal immigrants were caught working in the home office. A further analysis actually showed that the immigrants in question worked as cleaners under contract by another firm.

Such biased headlines actually undermine the importance of immigrants in most western economies. Considering the low wages paid to workers in the cleaning and related sectors, it remains to be seen if citizens of these countries would agree to work such menial jobs at the ludicrous wages the immigrants are paid for their services.

It appears Nigeria now represents everything evil in eyes of the western media as they are quick to give front page coverage with screaming headlines to matters concerning the country. Take the case of Dr Richard Akinrolabu, a senior house officer at St Richard's Hospital, Chichester who was accused by his lover and colleague of attempting to carry out illegal abortion procedures on her. The doctor was named and shamed in front page headlines which were written along the lines of ‘Nigerian Doctor …’ His accuser, the white woman did not suffer the same fate. In the end, the case was thrown out but not after the huge embarrassment to the doctor and his fellow country men. You would expect the media to also accord the not-guilty verdict the same headlines and coverage but they did not.

Another example of western media misreporting of Africa and Africans could be seen in the case of Guy Koma, who mistakenly became an interview guest on the BBC News 24 programme. Due to a scheduling mix-up, Mr Koma who had gone to the BBC centre for a job interview was mistaken for the scheduled guest (Guy Kewney) but still managed to ‘talk’ his way through the session although he had no clue of the interview theme. The UK media revelled in the story because of its human interest angle but wrongly identified Mr Koma as a taxi driver. Not that there is anything wrong with being a taxi driver but the media’s judgment could only have been influenced by their age-old prejudices as to the type of jobs African immigrants do. It has since been confirmed that Mr Koma was actually attending a job interview in the IT department of BBC at the time of the mix-up. There were no follow-up reports on whether he got the job, not that Mr Koma would mind anyway because he has since signed a lucrative movie deal with an American production company over the incident, and is billed to play himself in the movie.

African governments and Africans with resources should aim to build their own media networks to combat the imbalances in the global media landscape, while also eploiting the existing channels in the developed countries where many of them presently reside to tell their stories.