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CogniDial 800 Dial-Around Service

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Consumers Unknowingly OVERPAY for Long Distance
Many Lose Hundreds of Dollars Annually

In the past 15 years average long distance costs have decreased 70% due to competition brought on by deregulation, yet many still pay the base rates assigned to them (usually the company's worst rates) when they first set up their phones. The single most important thing most consumers can do is to avoid paying those rates. Typically, the inter-state cost for these default plans is 25 to 30¢ a minute - 4 to 5 times more than our typical plan offers. Get out your bill and look at it! Then compare to the plans we offer. You may be in for a rude awakening!

What About Reliability ?

Your calls travel over lines provided by top-10 long distance carriers such as Qwest, MCI WorldCom and Global Crossing. In fact, one of our carriers, Qwest, claims that the error rate for their new state-of-the-art cross-country fiber-optic cabling system is 1 bit per 1,000,000,000,000,000 (quadrillion) bits sent. But don't just take our word for it. Forbes Magazine named Qwest the #1 telecommunications company in their annual ASAP Dynamic 100 list, and Microsoft was so impressed they invested $200 million in Qwest .

You may not be familiar with companies such as Unitel, OPEX, PNG or CogniState, but they resell time on a larger carrier's system at a substantial discount. In fact, most long distance companies are resellers of a major carrier's service, and almost all long distance traffic (in the US) now travels over high-quality fiber-optic cable, regardless of carrier. Long distance phone service has truly become a commodity in recent years. We can offer better pricing because so much of our business has become computerized, and much of the processing is done over the internet. Nor do we spend 1 Billion dollars a year on advertising, as do the big 3 ( AT&T, MCI, Sprint ).

How Much Should I Pay For 800 Toll Free Service?

Traditionally, the per minute rate for 800 number was higher than the rate for non-800 numbers, and often carried high monthly fees. But why should this be the case? The calls travel over the same lines, you dial the same number of digits. The answer is - they shouldn't. We offer 800/888/877/866 plans that have the same low rates for toll-free calls as for regular long distance calls. These plans have low or no monthly maintenance fees. You can even transfer your existing 800 number to another carrier (800 Portability is the official term). You can get personal 800 numbers (sure beats collect calls) or have more than one 800 number routed to the same incoming phone line.

1 or 6 Second vs. 1 Minute Billing

Most standard long distance phone services you receive will bill your account by rounding up the the next minute, thereby charging you for time you did not actually use. For instance, if you made a 30 second call at a 10¢ per minute rate, you would be charged 10¢ for the call. With 6 or 1 second billing, you would be charged only 5¢ for the call. Typically this results in a 10-15% savings over the 1-minute billing with the same per-minute rate.

How Do I Save on International Calls ?

If you have never compared , chances are your long distance company is making a killing on any international calls you make. Just think about it. Do you actually know your rates to any other countries? If a carrier took advantage of this ignorance, would you even know it? I had one prospect whose existing carrier charged more than $2 for a 1 minute call to Hong Kong - another carrier may have charged as little as 25¢ for that same call. I had this customer call their existing carrier to ask about the high charge for the call. This customer was told by the carrier that they had no explanation for the high charge and offered to reduce the charge by about 80¢ . However, the customer service rep couldn't seem to come up with a per minute charge that should have applied to that call - the 80¢ reduction was basically an arbitrary amount, and even with this reduction the customer was paying nearly 5 times as much as other carrier's plans offered. If you make calls overseas, select our link to the FREE long distance comparison screen and select the country you wish to call - you will be given a list of rates for various plans we offer compared to some of the rates of the better-know carriers such as AT&T, MCI and Sprint.

Dial Arounds : 10-10-321, 10-10-345, 10-10-220, 10-10-811, 10-10-636 etc. - Should I use one?

In general, NO! You can get better rates with a standard calling plan, although it is a good idea to keep a couple of them handy in case disaster or accident prevents you from getting through using your standard plan. The 10-10-xxx are PIC prefixes which route your long distance call through a carrier other than the one your telephone uses by default. The default PIC code is automatically appended to each long distance call you make by your Local Exchange Carrier. Every long distance carrier has at least one PIC code, and by dialing 10-10-??? your call is routed through the carrier whose PIC code you entered. These are known as "Dial Around" numbers for that reason. The ones you see on TV often deceive you by not telling you the actual rates, or by emphasizing only their best rates applicable only at certain times, or by charging you additional fees above and beyond the per-minute rate advertised. Sure, there may be some fine print at the bottom of the screen, but most people don't watch TV through binoculars so they could actually discern what the fine print says. You should always find out the total amount you will be charged before using any of these services.

Interstate, Intrastate, Intralata - What Do These Terms Mean?

The prefix "Inter" means between and the prefix "Intra" means within. Thus, interstate refers to calls between states, i.e. New York to California, and intrastate refers to calls within a given state, i.e Los Angeles to San Francisco. The term LATA (Local Access Transport Area) refers to the local telephone company's division of local calling areas, intralata calls are calls within your LATA that are billed as long distance, often billed as "Local Long Distance" and usually starting 12-30 miles distant from where you call. You should compare all these categories to achieve maximum savings.

Where Have All the Numbers Gone or Why Are There So Many New Area Codes ?

In recent years the use of fax machines, secondary numbers for internet access, and lower costs have greatly increased the need for new phone numbers. This does not, however, account for the need for so many new area codes. When phone numbers are given out to cell phone companies, paging companies, and competitive local exchange carriers, they are generally given out in blocks of 10,000 numbers. This means that each company maintains an inventory of unused numbers that may be far in excess of what they may need in a given calling area. Until these numbers are given out in smaller blocks, or through a central clearing house as needed, this proliferation of new area codes will continue.