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How do comparison shopping calculators work?
CompetingPrices.com™ presents a free set of online telecommunication
price-comparison calculators, which you may find listed in bold links in
the left column. There are other
places on the web where you can find price comparison calculators like these, but as far as I know, this
site is the first place where it's easy to find all of them.
These calculators help you
with your comparison shopping not only by finding providers who serve your locale using either your
telephone prefix or zip code, but most of them also compare what those providers would charge for your
personal usage within seconds - without collecting any personal information.
The exceptions are:
- Quick Calculator
- If you can't be bothered to figure out
how much State-to-State, In-State, or International long distance calling you do, the Quick Calculator
is just for you. It will make some assumptions about your calling habits just so it can show
you providers who serve your telephone prefix, and what rates they charge.
- Local and Bundled Telephone Services
- The costs for providing local telephone
service can no longer be determined without a complete telephone number.
- Dedicated Lines
- Due to the unique needs of each Dedicated Line client, contact information is collected
and a consultant will analyze the needs and present customized proposals from available providers.
- Broadband Internet Services
- The availability of broadband services
cannot be determined using Zip Codes or telephone prefixes, so your telephone number is necessary
to determine the availability of DSL, and your street address is necessary to determine the availability
of Cable service. If your street address is not in the USPS database, your postal address
is still necessary to determine the availability of Satellite services.
To calculate comparisons,
Price Comparison Shopping Calculators currently compile information from the following sources,
as applicable: Sprint, BellSouth, Charter High Speed, Comcast, Qwest, Mediacom, Earthlink, SBC Yahoo,
Verizon, Liberty Wireless, Extreme Pagers, T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Opex, Covista, PowerNetGlobal,
Z-Tel, Unitel, TalkAmerica, Broadvox, AccuDial, Kall8, Broadwing, ACC Business, LaunchNet, Firefly, SunRocket, Webmax
Netifice, Network Innovations, XO Communications,
New Edge Networks, TelePacific Communications, Xspedius Communications, US LEC Communications, MegaPath
Networks, GeoQuote, iConnectHere, Cognigen Switching Technologies, Talk Home, USATEL, Adelphia, Direcwav,
Broadvox, KallCents, UltraConference, Warp Speed Hosting, HostingWithUs, Extreme Programming, Faxaway,
GeoQuote, Nextel, Inphonic, Dish Network, Insight Communications, and Hughes Net.
I would be happy to see more companies participate. If you are in a position
to suggest participation to a company not listed in the results, please refer them to the Vendors'
Page. I especially look forward to participation from the Broadband over Power Line, (BPL), industry.
Why isn't my current provider included?
CompetingPrices.com and Cognigen
cannot compare your provider unless we have that provider's consent to have their services and prices compared with their competition. To be
quite frank, those providers who have the lion's share of customers in their service area typically don't like having their services and prices
compared against their competition, because they know that it is much easier to keep their current clients than to recruit new clients.
Other providers may simply be unaware of the opportunity presented by participating in the Price Comparison
Calculators. You are welcome to refer your provider to our Vendors page.
How can I get my current provider to offer me better rates?
There is no surer way to find out that your own provider has more competitive service plans
than the plan they already sold you, than to choose a new provider. The moment they realize that you no longer use their service,
they will start hounding you to come back. In some cases, such as local phone service,
or any other service to which you can "port" you current number, your current provider will know that you are switching before the
switch takes place, and do everything they can to make it worth your while to cancel the switch.
Do
phone companies always charge the same rate shown on the calculators?
Most long distance telephone companies charge rates for in-state
calls that are different from the rates they charge for interstate calls.
Most of them charge the same rate for Intra-LATA,
(Local Access and Transport Area, a.k.a. "local toll calls"), calls
that they charge for in-state calls, but not all of them. You should examine
the web site for any phone company in which you
are interested, to determine what their rates are for each type of call.
Switching your Intra-LATA service when you choose a new long distance carrier
is optional. If you want your current long distance service to continue handling your Intra-LATA calls,
simply leave the check box for that option unchecked on the order form.
What
if I don't receive the Customer Support Info or a Confirmation Email from the phone company?
- Please make sure you enter your email address carefully when you are Ordering
or requesting Customer Service. Most failures to receive support or confirmation
messages result from silly typos that customers already know better than
to make.
- Check for an email from
the company, sent to the address you provided when you ordered, including in your Bulk or Spam
email folder. If it is in your Bulk or Spam folder, you may want to reconsider your spam filter settings,
to allow yourself to receive legitimate business messages. If you cannot control your own spam
filters, you may want to reconsider your choice of email service.
- If you still don't find the message, please use the Customer Service contact form on
that company's web site to let them know you did not receive it. Please see item #1, above.
- If you cannot receive the message at your current email address, even in your Bulk
or Spam folder, your email service is filtering it as spam before it even reaches your account,
and you will be unable to conduct business using any address on that email service.
What
if my PIC is Frozen?
PIC only applies to, "dial one", landline
long distance services. However, it may apply to long distance services that
are bundled with other
services
to which you subscribe, such as Local phone service. Your new provider may
or may not switch your remaining services while your
long distance service is held up by a frozen PIC. This will be according to
that company's policy, and you will need to ask them. Even if they do so,
they probably will not honor prices that are contingent upon a bundled plan
to which you agree, until you honor the agreement.
Each long distance telephone company handles PIC Freezes according
to procedures dictated by technologies that will vary from company to company,
and may vary from one location to another even for the same company, so
any attempt to handle the process yourself before receiving instructions from
your new phone company can cause problems, delay your new service, and cost
you unnecessary money.
The best thing to do is to wait for your new phone company to either ask you,
or recognize that your PIC is frozen, and provide instructions. If the company does not contact you
right away, contact them using customer service instruction they provide when you subscribe.
Should
I cancel my old phone account?
This depends upon the kind of service you are replacing:
- Local phone service:
- No! If you cancel your existing phone account,
you will have to pay to have a new line installed by your Local Exchange
Carrier, (LEC). (Yes, the old line is physically still there, but the greedy
LEC will charge to "install" it anyway.) Your
new phone company will switch your service for you when it is safe. Please see
the Local Phone Service FAQ for further explanation.
- Local, VOIP, or cellular phone service:
- If you want to keep your phone number - No! Once
you cancel your existing phone account, you no longer have a phone number, so you cannot "port" it to your new account, and must have
a new number assigned. Your new phone company will switch your service for you when it is safe.
- Long distance phone service:
- Later- after the new service is working. Your
new phone company will switch your service for you, but they have no authority
to cancel
your
old
account,
so
if your old long distance company charges a monthly
fee, they will continue to charge it until you cancel that account. Even if
they don't charge a fee, it would only be proper to notify them that you
no longer use their services, once the new service works.
Why
should I return to CompetingPrices.com� after I find what I'm looking for?
Thanks for checking out CompetingPrices.com™. While I hope that the Price Comparison Shopping
Calculators will help you to save money in ways that I haven't helped you before, as I continue:
- Improving the calculators
- Adding new service and product categories
- Adding new providers
- Adding new plans
They may very well help you
find a better provider, plan, or type of service than one you previously found
through this site.
I won't feel badly about you switching to a better plan, if you won't. :^)
What Taxes and Fees Will it Cost?
Your taxes are figured as percentages of
the cost of your telephone usage. In general*, these percentages remain the same, regardless which
company provides your service. However, the percentages do vary according to the type of telephone service
you purchase and your exact location, including your state, and possibly your county, city, and
other regional jurisdiction. Neither Competingprices.com™ nor Cognigen Networks can determine either the percentage
or actual cost of taxes on your phone bill.
Due to the nature of their services, some
of the companies can provide an estimated percentage range of taxes in their own FAQ. However, the best
that CompetingPrices.com™ can do is offer the "common
sense" suggestion that the lower the cost of your telephone usage
is, the lower the cost of the tax based upon it will be.
*Universal
Service Fund charges vary from one carrier to another. The carriers listed on this site currently charge
between about 8% to 11%. This percentage will vary from year to year, according to FCC guidelines.
What
is a Redirected Form?
During the calculation process, web forms redirect your minimal, non-identifiable
information to servers that compare it with databases containing information about the service providers.
This redirection process may cause prudent security settings to warn you that it is taking place, because
in some cases, it is unsafe to submit personally identifiable information via redirected forms.
You are assured that using the redirected forms at CompetingPrices.com is safe because:
- Except when clearly marked, information that you supply is not saved for any further purpose.
- Except when clearly marked, information that you supply is not adequate to personally identify you.
- Your privacy is also assured by the
CompetingPrices.com™'s W3C Privacy Policy.
Can
I republish information that I find here?
You are welcome to republish snippets of information
from the site, along with due credit for its source, including a link to
the web page where you found it. (Linking information
is available on the Linking page.) If
you need more than a couple of paragraphs of information, CompetingPrices.com™ will
be happy to produce a media release supplying information customized for your needs.
is also available for interviews and lectures.
Price comparisons produced by the calculators
should never be republished, because the prices supplied may change at
any time. Some vendors are loathe to update obsolete or conflicting prices
on their own web sites, and are all the more loathe to update our databases,
so we struggle to keep the prices within it current. Publishing pricing
information in a static form would only make it less reliable. CompetingPrices.com™ suggests
linking to the calculator instead. However, if you would like to have your
own access to the dynamic pricing information, please see the next question:
Can
I or my organization provide the same public service?
Absolutely - and the amount of money and effort you invest into the service
is your choice. Regardless whether you are an individual or represent a business entity or non-profit organization,
you can start providing this service right now - FREE of charge. To
find out how:
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Canada residents click here!
Click here if you live outside North America!
