Why Cheap Long Distance Plans?

Deregulation has allowed many large companies that own fiber networks to lease a potion of their excess capacity to other companies.

These smaller companies buy this excess capacity in bulk at steep discounts. They pay the larger companies a fixed price for guaranteed capacity. They establish an administrative presence for their customers, often on the Internet.

Many of the smaller companies operate nationwide. Though they sell capacity on the large fiber networks, they do not directly represent the larger companies.

These small companies, for example, may sell long distance that uses the AT&T network, they are not allowed to mention AT&T in their advertising. If they sold "AT&T long distance", they would have to charge higher AT&T prices.

The larger owners of the fiber networks monitor call usage and pass this information on to the smaller companies. The smaller companies then issue bills to individual customers at relatively low rates. To keep costs down, these bills are normally viewable on the Internet and payable by credit card.

Who are the large companies that have these efficient networks? Most are familiar names and have nationwide or regional optical networks. Some are known only regionally. But, all sell excess capacity in bulk to various resellers.

Changing your long distance carrier nearly always means receiving the same high quality connections you are used to, but at almost half the price.

Next, see who some of these cheap long distance providers are.