Integrated Provider

'Integrated providers' are calling card companies that both sell and deliver the voice minutes on their calling cards. In other words, they are 'facilities-based' telecommunications carriers that operate their own voice networks. Integrated providers are generally set up as the calling card subsidiary within a larger telephone company.

We generally recommend buying from integrated providers because you have to deal with only one company. Plus, these companies generally have more control over the overall product quality and card features than reseller cards.

Integrated calling card providers are operated by two main types of telephone companies: regulated telephone carriers and non-regulated VoIP carriers. (Note: we are simplifying a bit just to give you a sense of the options. In reality, telephone operators come in many flavors.)

Division of a regulated telephone company

Regulated telephone companies are the kinds of phone companies you normally deal with to buy your landline or mobile phone service. They are 'regulated' in the sense that federal and local governments impose various service, pricing, and other restrictions on these companies.

Many telephone companies sell calling cards as a part of their overall business, but usually the calling card piece is very small percentage of their total sales - like <5%.

As a general rule, calling cards sold by regulated phone companies tend to have the very high per minute rates. Often the rates are 10x higher than you can get elsewhere.

Why are the rates higher? Three main reasons: 1) Because these companies tend to have higher costs, so they need to charge more. 2) They tend to have very strong brand names, so they can charge more. and 3) They tend to have the most reliable, highest quality phone networks, so they deserve to charge more.

Telephone companies tend to sell only a few branded calling cards - sometimes just one card. Usually these cards offer wider coverage and more calling versatility than cards sold by resellers.

Also, cards sold by phone companies tend to have fairly simple pricing as compared to reseller cards (though you must always be on the lookout for hidden fees with any type of card).

Overall, we generally don't recommend calling cards from regulated phone companies because the rates are just too high. You can get much, much cheaper rates elsewhere with little, if any, downside.

Examples of telecom carriers: AT&T, BT, Reliance.

Division of a VoIP Carrier

VoIP is a rapidly emerging type of communications technology that will become the dominant form of telephony within a decade. VoIP uses the internet and internet technology to deliver voice calls to normal landline and mobile phones as well as to/from computers. VoIP carriers are telephone companies that deliver calls over VoIP networks.

Although they operate somewhat differently than normal phone companies, VoIP carriers are able to seamlessly and reliably complete calls to any type of landline or mobile telephone - and they can usually do so at prices well below regulated telephone companies.

Calling cards bought from VoIP carriers work very much as do cards from telecom carriers: there is a single company involved and that company is fully responsible for delivering services to you.

As with telecom carriers, we believe that buying cards direct from VoIP carriers offers some advantages over buying from resellers - largely due to the streamlined customer service experience if there are problems.

In addition, because VoIP networks are less costly to operate than traditional telephone networks, calling cards from VoIP carriers often have very low rates.

Like phone companies, VoIP carriers tend to sell only a few, or even just one, card - and normally the pricing schemes are much simpler (though you should always be on the lookup for hidden fees).

In general, we recommend buying calling cards from VoIP carriers. They offer both single point of contact customer service as well as very low rates. However, rates, in particular, vary from vendor to vendor, so we aren't saying all VoIP carriers are a good deal - just some of them.

Examples of VoIP carriers with calling card divisions: Pingo.com (an iBasis brand), PennyTalk.com (an IDT brand).