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Just got an email from AIM Phoneline team saying they are closing the FREE service on January 13th, 2009 (Black Friday). It’s too bad to see a great service closing their door.

I have been trying everything to lower the cost of operating a small business or home based business. It makes no sense to operate your small business with huge cost. Keeping your cash flow positive is always my priority.

I did a post about “AIMPhoneline vs Yahoo Voice vs Skype” a while ago. I decided to use free Skype-to-Skype calls for international communication to China’s manufactures and suppliers, since most of them are using Skype pretty heavily.  Skype’s calling plan may cost you fortune and Skype’s incoming call with online number will cost you fortune to forward calls to your landline phone or cellphone. Instead of using Skype to make calls, I will use Yahoo Voice to make calls to anywhere in the world with the lowest rate.

For incoming call, I rely on AIM Phoneline heavily. My clients place a call to the Free local phone number. I will pick it up when I am online with AIM client. They can leave voicemail as well. While I was traveling to Asia in 2006, I was able to pickup the phone in Taiwan. It only costs the caller local rate or long distance rate to the local number I am with. You can read my post about Best communication tool for your home based business – AIM Phone Line.

Now AOL is closing the wonderful service forever. I have to find an alternative solution. Here is what I have found!

Outgoing Calls:

1. Mobivox.com: The best quality and cheapest VOIP services. It allows you to call from any phone to Skype users for FREE. It uses the same international calling rates as Yahoo Voice, when you call landline or cellphone. Think about this. I don’t have to use Skype to call my suppliers in China anymore. I pick up the phone and dial the number. My suppliers pick up the phone on their Skype. Best of all, IT’s FREE! Did I say “FREE“?Another great thing about Mobivox.com is this. Cell phone cost US$0.10/minute to call anyone in USA, while Mobivox costs only US$0.19/minute to make calls to anyone in the USA. If I need to make calls in the USA, I use Mobivox instead of calling from my cell phone.
2. Yahoo Voice: I use Yahoo messenger all the time. It allows me to make call from Yahoo Messenger to my parents with the same low international rate. I have not used Yahoo Messenger that much since I found Mobivox. The downside of using Yahoo Voice is that you can only make call from Yahoo Messenger. So I only use it, when I am in coffee shop, airport, on beach and places with Wi-Fi access, where I don’t have landline phone to use.

Incoming Calls:

1. Google’s GrandCentral: I don’t remember when I got the GrandCentral’s account, but I have been using it for a long time to receive calls from people. I got a FREE local phone number. It allows me to forward the calls to my home phone, cell phone or to record voice message. I can choose to screen the calls with different ring tones and greetings to the callers. So far, it is still FREE!
2. Kall8.com: The cheapest 1-800 services that helps me save money on receiving incoming calls. It costs only US$2.00 / month to get a 1-800 toll free number. It costs very low to receive calls per minute. It also forward calls or record voicemail and do real time call screen. It also accept Fax and forward the PDF file to your email. It’s a wonderful services that I recommend!

If you are a small business owner or are running home based small business, you know that saving money is as important as making money. If you know any better low cost VOIP services that can save other small business from over paying phone services, please leave your comments and resources!

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