With Memorial Day and summer activities coming up, it’s easy to accidentally overspend. It doesn’t take much to max out the monthly budget by buying one more margarita, one more new summer outfit, or one more hot dog at the ballgame.

Luckily, there are some great strategies for saving money so there’s a little extra “fun money” left over after paying bills. One such money-saving strategy is switching to a cheaper phone service, like VoIP. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the technology behind Internet calling. Internet calling is a great deal cheaper than traditional phone service, which runs off of old analog telephone lines or cellular towers.

To help callers budget a little easier as they ease into summer expenses, My VoIP Provider announces the top 5 residential VoIP providers to help users save money and enjoy a little more “fun money” each month.

VoIP Supply announces the availability of free guides that are intended to help small and medium sized businesses learn about and select the video conferencing solutions that best suit them.

Long recognized for its depth of product knowledge and industry expertise, VoIP Supply sets the standard for vertical e.tailing – providing value-based pricing across its comprehensive product catalog, expert technical support, rapid product provisioning and installation, global logistics services and market-making promotions for manufacturers of all sizes.

For businesses who want to adopt videoconferencing solutions, VoIP Supply provides the same value-based pricing, product expertise and simple purchase experience that over 120,000 customers have come to expect, with access to live experts, who are fully trained and certified, ready to deliver advice and a purchase experience that is second to none.

snom announces a new e-learning course focused on SIP fundamentals - SIP 101. This course is the latest addition to snom's new online training program introduced earlier this spring and is available free to registered snom VARs from North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. SIP 101 will serve as a prerequisite to enrollment in the company's online snom ONE Certification Training course.

Busy VARs can gain valuable, hands-on experience with all aspects of SIP, without the time and expense of traditional courses. "By enrolling in our SIP 101 e-learning course VARs from around the world can learn fundamental SIP basics online and on their own time. This course is a prerequisite first step for VARs on the path to our snom ONE Certification Training and new business opportunities created by working with the snom ONE family of IP PBX solutions," said Mike Storella, chief operating officer of snom technology, Inc.

ECG announces the success of FraudStopper, a new toll-fraud detection system optimized for VoIP providers. FraudStopper was deployed in June 2011 at a nationwide CLEC based in New York City. The system has successfully detected numerous incidents of attempted theft of service, saving the CLEC tens of thousands of dollars in losses for international termination.

VoIP Toll Fraud became a major issue for many carriers in November 2010, when thieves began using the "SIPVicious" security scanning tool to search the Internet for VoIP service that could be stolen. ECG estimates that over US $1M in international termination service has been stolen by criminals targeting VoIP service providers in the United States. Some individual incidents have amounted to more than US $160,000.

Most fraud detection systems have simplistic thresholds to identify risky behavior. If a customer appears to make a large number of international calls, the system will alert automatically. But if that same customer routinely makes a large number of international calls and pays for the service, it could simply be their normal course of business. Such simplistic schemes cannot handle the wide diversity among VoIP customers, some of whom make no international calls, while others make numerous calls.

VoIP Supply announces the launch of their Reclaim VoIP equipment buyback program. Under the Reclaim program, companies and individuals can sell their used or excess VoIP equipment to VoIP Supply in return for store credit or direct payout.

The Reclaim program was designed based on VoIP Supply’s roots in IT asset management and experience in the supply of VoIP equipment. Through Reclaim, sellers undertake an easy four step process to receive fair market value for their equipment allowing them to receive back a portion of their initial investment in this equipment.

FreedomVOICE announces 25 VoIP and hosted VoIP experts to follow on Twitter. The list of VoIP and hosted VoIP experts can be found on the FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP Blog. VoIP and hosted VoIP experts abound on Twitter. But where do you turn to find these inspired few? You can try your luck on search.twitter.com or other engines. You can dig through popular Twitter profile followers. Or, you can look at top Twitter profile lists.

Small and medium-sized businesses often turn to hosted IP PBX services for rich features, multi-site convenience, zero maintenance and lower phone bills. Now they’ll have help picking the right phones. Junction Networks, makers of Hosted VoIP service OnSIP, has begun a review site where their engineering team will regularly post evaluations and the results of their independent, vigorous tests on SIP phones, soft phones and other user agents.

FreedomVOICE released a premier VoIP phone buyer's guide for the FreedomIQ service. The guide will help decision makers select the best VoIP phone for their business.

“There are literally hundreds of VoIP phones to choose from,” says Eric Thomas, CEO of FreedomVOICE. “This buyer’s guide lists our most popular phones and gives business owners the information they need to make an informed decision.”

FreedomVOICE, creators of the FreedomIQ Hosted VoIP PBX, released a review of the Cisco WIP310 Wireless-G VoIP phone. The segment, known as the FreedomIQ Review, is the first in a series of video reviews surrounding VoIP-related products.

“We have developed the FreedomIQ Review as a way to present exciting VoIP products to the business community,” says Eric Thomas, CEO of FreedomVOICE. “Each review will highlight the most important features to consider when determining whether a product is correct for your business.”

FreedomVOICE lists nine recommendations to help business leaders slash phone costs and increase productivity during a recession. In an effort to help business owners realize the tremendous savings and productivity benefits a hosted VoIP PBX phone solution can provide, FreedomVOICE has compiled a list of 9 ways to slash phone costs and increase productivity in a recession. By subscribing to the FreedomIQ hosted VoIP PBX service, you’ll be able to save money in the following ways after the jump.

Nuvio announces a “Soft Landing” program to assist SkyWi and OneConnectIP VoIP customers that have been recently affected by service disruptions. Nuvio’s “Soft Landing” Program waives activation fees to all current SkyWi and OneConnectIP customers. Additionally, Nuvio is waiving its yearly contract requirement for these customers. Nuvio has also obtained cooperation from some of the underlying telephone number carriers to minimize any potential for customer to lose phone numbers.

We receive a number of requests for ways one can receive detailed research and analysis of top vendors who provide complete PBX systems and IP-PBX packages for large, medium, or small businesses. There's no easier way than signing up to receive your own free PBX Guide from PBX-Guide.com. The free guide includes the benefits a PBX system should bring to your company and exactly what you need to know before committing to a specific vendor and solution. Let PBX-Guide.com do the research work for you and give step-by-step directions to important decision-making considerations to PBX and VoIP solution providers for companies of all sizes.

Simply visit PBX-Guide and fill out their short form and get your FREE step-by-step PBX Guide today.

As experts continue to call out the latest signs of an approaching recession, businesses respond by cinching up their budgets. But, for those already tasked with keeping their bottom line lean, new ways of cutting costs are getting harder to find, says Bryan Martin, CEO of Internet phone service provider 8x8, Inc.

"In an economy like this, there's a gut reaction to put the breaks on new spending. But, we often overlook the fact that there is room to cut the day-to-day costs of doing business," Martin says.

From remote towns to large metropolitan areas, businesses are adding Internet-based digital phone service to their short list of cost-cutting measures.

Dial2Do and JAJAH bring you hands-free voice-activated global calling – simply by saying the words.

How it Works

Using Dial2Do, you simply call a local number (+1-213-325-2615 in the U.S.), say the word “JAJAH,” and then select one of three JAJAH services—call, text or conference.

• To call a contact, say “JAJAH call”
• To send a JAJAH text message (SMS) say “JAJAH text”
• To set up a group call, say “JAJAH conference”

I'd like to take this opportunity to invite our readers and potential VoIP employers to check out our new VoIP Jobs listing. We recently switched from using Careerbuilder to Job-a-matic. With Job-a-matic, our listings are displayed across the Simply Hired network, which means they'll be seen at sites like Simply Hired, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

So get started today and checkout our current VoIP Jobs and VoIP employers looking to hire can post a job for only $50 for 30 days!