AOL VOIP - The Price You Pay

You’ve probably heard that AOL has launched its VOIP service. Let’s look past the hype and figure out exactly how much it will cost the average consumer …

We’ll start with the monthly charges. There are four AOL VOIP offers: Local ($18.99 per month - $13.99 for the first three months), Unlimited Calling ($29.99 per month - $24.99 for the first three months), Global Calling ($34.99 per month - $29.99 for the first three months), and the New AOL Customer Plan ($39.99 per month - $29.99 for the first six months). Local, Unlimited Calling, and Global Calling are clearly targeted at existing AOL for Broadband customers. If you choose one of these three plans and do not have a Broadband AOL account, you’ll need to sign up for Broadband AOL at a cost of $10 per month.

While there is no activation fee for the VOIP service, per se, there is a $30 deposit that is held for calling charges that are not covered under the plan. AOL charges $5.00 for the VOIP router and $9.99 shipping and handling. The $5.00 router fee is refunded after the first month.

The Local plan provides unlimited local and regional calling, with long distance billed at 4 cents per minute. The Unlimited and Global Calling plans provide unlimited long distance in the US and Canada, both plans charge per minute on overseas calls, based upon the country. The per minute fees on Global Calling plan are approximately half that of the Unlimited plan. Or so they say.

So are the AOL VOIP plans a good deal?

Bottom line: If you’re an existing AOL Broadband customer, you’re the target market. If you don’t already have their broadband service, on the other hand (and don’t want it), you’ll be tossing out $10 per month.

While AOL’s VOIP service looks to have some nice features, it’s clearly more costly than many of the competing VOIP plans. Their international plan falls particularly short when compared to Broadvoice and Lingo. If you do a lot of overseas calling, you’ll likely look to another plan for the best deal.

For more info: see the VOIP Plan Comparison chart.