While there are many possible answers to the question above, I'd like to point out a few reasons that I've personally seen or heard of. Being a small business owner, I for one made the decision based on cost. So let's start there.

Before switching to VoIP, I was using my local RBOC (Regional Bell Operating Company) and a large long distance provider. My local RBOC bill averaged $25.00 per month and my long distance bill could be as low as $15 per month or as high as $150 per month. The first thing I switched was my long distance provider. By switching I saw an immediate cost reduction. This was certainly a step in the right direction. Bottom line was that before switching to VoIP my monthly phone bill was $40 to $165 per month, which I was able to reduce to $29 to $100 per month. This was still not good enough given the range of the monthly cost. I needed a way to budget a fixed amount. Enter VoIP. After switching to VoIP my monthly bill including E911 fee and all taxes comes out to just under $25 a month. That, for me, was the bottom line. Cost savings.

One of my customers switched to VoIP for not only the cost savings, but also the convenience. You see his daughter was going off to college in another state. He wanted his daughter to be able to call home at anytime and not worry about long distance charges. He took the option of a virtual number. When using VoIP area codes mean little. The call is routed through your broadband connection. To a computer, area codes don't mean anything. It's just data flowing through the internet. By using VoIP and a virtual number allowed this customer to choose a virtual number in the same area code as his daughters. Every time his daughter calls home, she dials his virtual number (local number), which then rings at his home in another state. He gets to speak with her all the time and she pays for a local call. So in this case it wasn't cost alone, but the convenience as well.

Here's one last example of a family who had a son serving in the military in Europe. This family chose to use a videophone and purchased 2 such phones. When their son was sent to Europe he brought the phone with him. Since he had access to a broadband connection, he simply plugged his phone in and was able to call home. Yes, a LOCAL call! Not only that, but he was able to actually ‘see' his family. This setup consisted of 2 videophones and two accounts. His family could call him, or he could call his family. In both cases it was charged as a local call (even though he was stationed in Europe and his family was state side). If this wasn't good enough, by using the videophone, they could actually SEE each other. This is really VoIP in action. The son in the military was still able to ‘see' the Christmas tree, participate in birthday parties and so much more.

There are many reasons for switching to VoIP and the examples above are certainly not inclusive. Whatever your reasons for considering this service, chances are there is a provider and plan to fit your needs.