Promotional Internet Phones

Promotional Internet Phones

by Matt Franks

Early internet phones were a novelty, allowing people to search for others to connect to online. Quality was poor and delays made conversations seem like ham radio conversations of days gone by.

But the explosive growth of high speed internet changed all that. Primus Canada, in 2004, became the first to offer VoIP which is Voice over Internet Protocol, service in Canada.

VoIP allows people to make telephone calls using a broadband internet connection. And with broadband penetration reaching a saturation point in Canada, the potential market for the internet phone service was huge. Promotional internet phones were being were being made for different companies at a fast rate. This made a million dollar industry up for grabs, and these companies that were ordering promotional internet phones were getting advertisement for their companies.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said in 2002 that about 95 per cent of the local residential and business phone markets were controlled by former monopolies such as Bell and Telus Corp. According to CRTC, the two markets were worth nearly $10 billion that year.

The competition spread from Canada and now Skype, a major international player with more than 100 million registered users, offers software that can be downloaded for free. It works over any broadband internet connection and allows unlimited free calling to regular phones within North America and other Skype users anywhere in the world. It also offered low-cost calls to regular phones outside North America.

There are a few free internet phone services. BroadPoint was the pioneer of the type that allows you to call from a regular phone to another phone, in exchange for viewing advertisements, visiting websites, or signing up with partner services. BroadPoint unfortunately went out of business. PhoneHog now offers this class of service with several improvements.

The next class of free calling services lets you call any phone from your computer. Your free calling is unlimited and you don't have to spend time listening to ads. Ads are displayed on your browser to pay for this service, but you can ignore them. Your computer must be equipped with a sound card, microphone and speakers or headphones.

Promotional internet phones became the wave for advertising in North America. You could plug these promotional internet phones into the computer to hold real-time conversations through an internet connection. They are easy to use, hands free operation. A contemporary modern design, with a company's logo and information makes it an excellent promotional internet phone idea.

One promotional internet phone has a built-in extra bright neon light for viewing in the dark, which can be turned on and off. It is a speaker phone that is plug and play. This promotional internet phone requires subscribing to a VoIP service which is available online.

Promotional items have become popular for fundraisers, and now that the computer world is here, things to do with computers are the best items for fundraisers. This includes the promotional internet phones. These can also be Corporate gifts or employee gifts.

For any business, the promotional internet phone is the ideal product to have for selling, gifts, and excellent ways to advertise a business where the name is present everyday to people using the promotional internet phone.