There is no one plan that is best or cheapest for all consumers. A consumer must analyze their calling habits and choose the cheapest plan for the type of calling that they do.

To reduce confusion and save money it is best to be an educated consumer. Bargainlinks has provided an explanation of common long-distance terms.

Wireless Communication/Cell Phone

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Suncom good deals

10-10-220.com is a dial around service which charges a flat 99 cents for a 20 minute call. After the first 20 minutes the rate is 9 cents a minute. You have probably seen the commercials on TV. There are no hidden charges using 10-10-220 but it is a flat rate, so it costs 99 cents if the call is 15 seconds or 20 minutes.

Phone-rate-calculator Phone-rate-calculator is a cool online rate comparison chart which compares many long-distance service providers by price.

The following definitions are designed to explain long distance terms and reduce confusion.

Interstate calling: this refers to making a telephone call from one state to another. An example would be to place a call from New York state to California. Most long-distance providers use interstate calling rates in their advertising i.e. 10 cents a minute.

Intrastate calling: this refers to making a call from within a state to another number within the same state. An example would be placing a call from North Carolina to another number in North Carolina. These intrastate calls are generally a different price than the low interstate price that most long-distance carriers advertise.

International calling: this refers to making a call from one country to another. These rates are generally fairly high.

Local long-distance: this refers to calls placed outside the (free) local calling area but still billed as long-distance by your local telephone service provider. These rates are generally pretty good but they do add up. You can get most long-distance providers to cover your local long-distance as well as your regular long-distance services.

Dial around services: this refers to long-distance companies that use a special numbered prefix to access their long-distance services on a per-call basis. They are basically known as 10-10 numbers. These numbers can be a very handy save tool when your long-distance plan does not economically cover a particular type of call. All 10-10 ### numbers are not created equally. Prices can very widely between 10-10 companies. Make sure you research the price for your particular call before you use any long-distance company.

Billing increments: this refers to the block of time in which the length of call is rounded up to. The more established billing increment is rounded up to the nearest minute. In other words if a 9 minute 11 second call is made its rounded up to 10 minutes. Many companies are now offering billing increments rounded to the nearest second.

Minimum call length: this refers to a minimum charge that will be assessed to a call in it falls short of a designated time period. An example would be if a long distance carrier sets the minimum call length to one minute, if you make a call that lasts 28 seconds you will be billed for one minute.

Minimum usage requirement: this refers to a minimum dollar amount of long distance service must be used or a fee or rate hike will apply. An example would be if a minimum of fifty dollars monthly loan distance is required by the carrier and the customer only uses 20 dollars of long distance a fee would be added along with the regular billed time.

FCC fees: There is a flat fee known as the PICC fee. This be should be around $1.10 for a primary residential line.

There is another fee known as the universal service fund. This is a charge of 4% on interstate and international calls.

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