Recreational
Vehicle Owners Need Telephone Service Too
How do you make
calls when you are on the road? You can use your cellular
phone with no long distance and no roaming charges. On major highways and
in cities they work fine, but you pay a hefty monthly fee. And of course,
you may be in an area where the local cellular service wants you to charge
your credit card for the call, even though your phone service told you it
was free of extra charges. You might happen to be in a dead area with no
cell service even if you use an antenna booster. There are alternatives
that are cheaper and more reliable.
- How about pre-paid calling cards?
There are good cards and then there are cards that are not so good. We
offer some pre-paid cards that are very
good to excellent. You pay $X for the card
and you get your calls for so much per minute. Sometimes there is a
small connection fee and if you use a pay phone, those charges will come
from your calling time. A one minute call may cost more than the
advertised price. It's true that your billing rate was what was offered,
but the addition of those connectivity charges adds to the cost of the
call.
Prepaid cards have the advantage of not having any added
governmentally-mandated taxes.
Pre-paid cards usually bill in as much as 3 minute increments, so
that your 3.1 minute call could be billed for as much as 6 minutes. If
you misplace your pre-paid card you've lost what you paid to obtain it;
even if you find it later, it may have expired.
If you find a good pre-paid card, use it and enjoy it. Just be sure
to carefully read all the disclosures before you lay out that cash to
purchase it.
- You could order a Protel Travel card.
First, it doesn't cost you to own it. It's free!
When you make a call anywhere in the continental U.S., you are billed
only 9.9 cents a minute, after an 18 second start (minimum call charge 3¢).
Most calling cards have a "bong charge" (the sound the coin
makes when it is inserted into the pay phone) which can be anywhere from
$1.50 (AT&T charges $7.50 for an operator-assisted call when using a
caling card! That does not include the cost for the long distance call
itself.) or more just for the privilege of using the card and that
charge goes to the issuing company. With Protel's card, there is no "bong"
charge. You are billed only for the time you actually used the card and
you can bill it to your credit card if you wish. Unlike your cell phone,
there are no monthly fees. Could it get any easier, or cheaper? When you
use a pay phone to make a travel card call, you will be billed an
additional 60¢ which is paid to the owner of the pay phone; there
is no fee when you call from a business or residential phone.
- What about those important calls to
your friends, parents, brother, sister and children? Can you
get any cheaper service? You bet! You can now put toll
free numbers on the phone numbers of as many friends, relatives,
business associates, as you wish. There is a small $1 per month fee for
each toll free number. You then pay for the calls actually made to that
number at 5.4¢/minute (when you call from out of
state). You don't have to ask permission of the party and they do
not need to know they even have a toll free number on their phone. So
when you call your son in New Hampshire while you are in Florida, you
dial the toll free number which rings on his home phone. You are billed
for the actual time you talked in six-second increments at only 5.4¢/minute.
[Calls made to
numbers within the same state as the caller's location are billed at the
intrastate rate for that state which varies from 4.5¢/minute to
17.2¢/minute (New Mexico). Since the intrastate rates in Arizona,
Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire,
New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Vermont and West Virginia exceed the cost
of our calling card, use the calling card to make an intrastate call in
those states. ] For a list of the intrastate rates for
each state, see www.protel-com.com/state.htm.]
- What do you pay to connect to your
ISP, when you don't have a local number? Your ISP provides
great service when you are home, but it is a local company and doesn't
have nationwide access numbers. Or your ISP provides nationwide local
numbers but you're in Strawberry Plains, TN and there is no local
number. What do you do then? You simply ask us for a toll free number to
connect to your local telephone number and you can call it from anywhere
in the U.S. (or Canada or the Caribbean if you so specify) and get our
low rates without paying a premium to your ISP for the toll free number
they offer you.
If you make a toll free call from a pay
phone, we have a fixed 60¢ charge which, less processing costs, is
paid to the pay phone owner for the use of his/her phone. This fee is
mandated by the FCC. Calls made from private phones are not subject to the
fee and there is never a "bong"
charge for the use of a toll free number.
By the way, the service
we offer is through PowerNet Global which is the same company that
FMCA now uses for its telephone
service. The only differences are we have a lower commission, which means
you pay less for the same service and you have the personal customer
service provided by Protel. We are proud members of FMCA: # 300960. We
own an Alfa See Ya Gold motorhome
and love it.
If you still think cell phones can
provide all the benefits of a land line phone,
read this.
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Contact
us at 1-800-4-PROTEL (800-477-6835) or by e-mail at
info@protel-com.com
Our Business Hours are
9 A.M. to 5 P.M., Mountain Time, Monday through Friday.
Closed on New Year's Day, President's Day,
Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving
Day and Christmas.
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PROTEL:
providing quality long distance service since 1991.
Placing Integrity before Profit
Page revised September 10, 2005
Copyright © 2001-2005 Eugene Volz
All Rights Reserved
