Sree's Thoughts on Internet Call Waiting
Thursday, May 17, 2001

A lot of us spend time online at home, but only have one telephone line. People who call us while we are surfing experience one of the following: a busy signal, no answer at all, or if we have it, voicemail. To help improve this situation, there are services that can help you handle phone calls while you are online.

These services are known as Internet Call Waiting or Internet Call Managers. Basically, they allow you to not have to get a second phone line (which can cost $15 to $40 a month). These services cost around $4-7 a month.

Once you download the software, it runs on the background of your computer. When a call comes in, the system alerts you to a call and, if you have it, the Caller ID. You then have the option of taking a message, answering the phone or ignoring it and continuing your surfing. In addition to the $4-7 monthly fee, there is another fee that you have to pay your phone company in order to use the service -- it's known as "call forward on busy" or "call forward busy line" (with Verizon it's $1.60 a month).

A list of some of the companies that offer these services:

• Internet Call Manager: http://www.internetcallmanager.com
  
• BuzMe: http://www.buzme.com
• Pagoo: http://www.pagoo.com
• ItRings: http://www.itrings.com
• Verizon's service: http://www.bellatlantic.com/foryourhome/NY/Products/ICM-01/

Some, like Internet Call Manager, are teaming up with local phone companies to offer the service. Most offer a free trial period, so you may want to check out more than one and see which interface is right for you.

If you don't want to pay the fee that these other companies charge, and want just a way to avoid a busy signal, then you can use CallWave, which is free and gives your callers a greeting telling them you are online and then takes a message. You still need to pay the phone company for that "call forward on busy" service.

 

Sree's Site of The Week

Consumer World
http://www.consumerworld.org

Here's a site that's both fun and useful.

Consumer World is a free guide to more than 2,000 handy consumer resources.

At a time when we are bombarded with so much consumer information from many directions, this site helps you sort through it all and know what's worth checking.

There are links to good deals as well as to scam alerts.

The site is a one-man show run out of Somerville, MA, by Edgar Dworsky, who brings a real consumer's perspective to the site.

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