Affordable Voice Communications Inc.
High quality long distance service at the lowest possible rates.
1.1 What's the catch?
1.2 What services does AVCInc offer?
1.3 What are the AVCInc rates?
1.4 What are the volume discounts and how do they work?
1.5 What is the referral discount and how does it work?
1.6 How many discounts can I earn?
1.7 What is telephone aggregation and what does it do for me?
1.8 What are the AVCInc commitments?
1.9 Why don't you offer incentives?
2.1 Why should I choose AVCInc as my long distance carrier?
2.2 Who can be an AVCInc customer?
2.3 Why should I use your service? I have been with AT&T for thirty years.
2.4 How do I pay for services?
2.5 Is it safe to give you my credit card number over the internet?
2.6 Do you reimburse PIC change charges?
2.7 Will my telephone number change when I sign-up?
2.8 How do I sign-up multiple numbers?
2.9 How long does it take to switch to your service?
2.10 Will I be double-billed when I switch?
2.11 Can I use AVCInc to carry my state-to-state calls and another company to carry my in-state calls?
2.12 If I have several 1+ numbers, do I have to sign-up all of them?
2.13 What are the guidelines for choosing a password?
2.14 What is your 10-10 number?
2.15 How do I read the checking account number and bank routing number on my check?
2.16 Can I create two accounts with only one e-mail address?
2.17 Can I sign-up for toll-free (8XX) service only?
3.1 What is a custom directory reference on my billing advice and why would I use it?
3.2 What are itemized taxes?
3.3 What is the contact list?
3.4 How will AVCInc charges appear on my credit card or bank statement?
3.5 What is cramming and does AVCInc allow third-party charges?
3.6 Do you support tax-exempt organizations, such as non-profits?
3.7 Can I get my billing advice w/o call details?
3.8 Why do I have to pay for billing?
3.9 Does AVCInc give credit for misdialed numbers?
4.1 What should I do if I can't sign in to customer service?
4.X Help for Customers
5.1 What's 1+ service?
5.2 What's a LATA?
5.3 What's the difference between PIC and CIC?
5.4 What is casual calling?
5.5 What are the long distance access types?
5.6 What's toll-free (8XX) service?
5.7 How do I dial long distance numbers using your service?
5.8 Explain "based on service availability"?
5.9 Can I link to your site and automatically make a referral?
5.10 Why doesn't my 900 service work?
Considering that the major players in this industry spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually so that they can nickel and dime consumers out of that much and then some, it doesn't surprise us that so many people are convinced that there has to be a catch. But there isn't.
Long distance service is a commodity business. Since the same technology is used by all providers, the differences essentially reduce to hype and gimmicks. For example, most providers advertise variations of "X minutes FREE for only Y $/month" and then in the fine print add details like 60 second billing increments.
The AVCInc strategy is simply this: provide only one 24x7 rate plan, eliminate all the hype and gimmicks, give the customer complete online control over their account, and automate everything. And, should the need arise, we provide expert customer service.
AVCInc offers these services:
AVCInc does not offer local phone service or cellular service.
Look here for details. Rates vary depending upon the service type and state.
Volume discounts is our way of sharing the cost savings with our customers for using an above average amount of services during each billing period. The volume discount is a permanent offer and not a promotion. The volume discounts can be found on the Discounts page.
The Referral Discount is our way of sharing the cost savings with our customers for referring customers to our services. Whenever a referred customer's account is billed, 5% of the toal service charges will be credited on the referring customer's next bill, providing up to 100% off pre-tax charges each time a referring account is billed. The referral discount is a permanent offer and not a promotion.
For example, suppose customer A refers customers B and C. When B and C register to become AVCInc customers, they identify A as the customer who referred them to AVCInc. Customer A will be informed of the referrals. If B and C have $50 in service charges, A gets $5 (5% of $100) off his next bill. If that bill is $5 or more, A saves $5 in service charges, otherwise his service is free that month. Note that the actual savings varies from month to month depending upon the total bills. See the Discounts page for complete details.
You can earn and receive a single volume discount and multiple referral discounts each Billing Period. Discounts are limited to 100% of service charges, however, and can not be applied to any other month or account. The discounts apply to service charges only and don't apply to taxes or biling or payment charges. See the Discounts page for complete details on discounts.
Telephone aggregation allows you to have up to 200 numbers on one account (any mix of 1+, 8XX, and calling cards). This allows you to maximize your volume and referral discounts, since it is the total that determines the discount. Also, the telephones do not have to be in the same house or even in the same state or even registered to the same name. Business and residential can be combined too. There is no charge for this service.
For example, if your parents are retired and live in the next town and you support them, you can aggregate their telephone with yours and you will receive the billing advice covering both telephone numbers. The total charges for all services on the account may qualify for a volume discount when the individual telephones on separate accounts may not qualify for a volume discount.
AVCInc makes the following commitments to our customers:
We don't:
Rather than increase our rates to cover the costs of incentives, we give the savings to our customers in the form of lower rates. These savings add up.
There are several reasons for choosing AVCInc:
AVCInc offers service to both residential and business customers on a presubscription basis. All customers get the same service, rates, and discounts.
For the first 15 of those 30-years, AT&T was, for many people, the only telephone service. During the past 15-years many competitors to AT&T, including AVCInc, have emerged. AT&T has gone from almost 100% of the market in 1984 to less than 60% today due to lower rates by their competitors. Some AT&T customers remain faithful because they believe the AT&T service is of a higher quality. The fact is, all carriers use the same digital technologies to provide telephone service and all carriers must comply with the same call completion rate. Today, distinction in quality of service is almost imperceptible.
You can pay by credit or directly from your bank account (called ACH for "automated clearing house"). Whether your credit card or checking or savings account is debited, it happens automatically once per month on your billing day. There is a charge for obtaining payment which varies by payment method and amount.
Although the underlying Internet network is not secure, communications across the Internet are made secure by using end-to-end encryption. AVCInc uses Secure Socket Layer with 128-bit keys that operate between your PC and our computers. The Secure Socket Layer encrypts the data before leaving your PC and the data does not get decrypted until the data is in our computer. The 128-bit key is the state-of-the-art in encryption. If someone eavesdrops on our communications, it would take them more than a trillion trillion years to break the encryption. By then, the data would be of no value to anyone. This method of communicating credit card information is far safer than using a credit card in person, for example at a restaurant.
We prefer that you use the Internet for registration and for the updating of your account information. If this doesn't work for you, give us a call. If you are presently a customer, you can call us toll free at 1-575-523-7500 from your registered telephone or you can call us toll free at 1-877-523-7500 from any telephone.
Important: if you use a public browser, e.g. in a library, then be sure to exit the browser program when you are done to flush your username and password from the browser's cache. This will ensure that authentication will be required the next time your account is accessed.
No. We view the PIC Change charge reimbursement as just another gimmick. Not everyone is subject to PIC Change charge and the charges vary among telephone companies. The PIC Change charge is a one-time charge. If we reimburse for it, our rates, which are recurring, would have to increase to cover it. We prefer to keep the recurring rates as low as possible since it will be an advantage to all of our customers. We believe that our customers will more than recoup the cost of the PIC Change charge from the savings in using our services.
You may be able to get the PIC Change charge reduced or waived in certain situations. If you recently moved or you are signing-up multiple phones and you change the PIC for all working numbers associated with the same billing number, you should call your local phone company to make the switch yourself. In that case, you must choose not to have AVCInc initiate the change when you sign-up your numbers.
No, your telephone number will not change when you sign-up. Your local telephone company will only change the long distance carrier assigned as your regional-toll and/or long distance presubscribed interexchange carrier.
First create your account by signing-up just one 1+ number. You can then immediately sign in to customer service and add your additional numbers, including calling cards and 8XX numbers. If you have several 1+ numbers at the same location, you can add them all at the same time by cloning a number already on your account.
For 1+, that depends upon your local phone company. Here are some typical times:
| Local Phone Company | Days |
|---|---|
| Ameritech | 2 |
| Bell Atlantic | 4 |
| Bell South | 2 |
| GTE | 2 |
| NYNEX | 2 |
| Pacific Bell | 3 |
| Southwestern Bell | 2 |
| US West | 4 |
| Other | 3+ |
Of course, if a problem occurs, it could take much longer. AVCInc notifies you whenever your presubscriptions change. If presubscriptions don't change within several days, AVCInc notifies you and explains how to straighten things out.
8XX service is entirely different. While a new number can often be put in service within 24 hours, "porting" a number from your current provider to AVCInc is often problematic, protracted, and painful. It all depends upon whether your current provider will release your 8XX number, and many providers make this very difficult by claiming that the customer name isn't the billed name, etc. Therefore it is imperative that you fax us a copy of your most recent bill showing your name, number, and address as well as your provider's name and account number. You will be asked to do this when you sign-up a ported 8XX number. This usually takes a week or more.
No. Your local phone company routes each 1+ call to the current PIC, and there can only be one. That carrier will bill you for your call.
You may want to check with your old carrier to be sure any monthly fees are prorated and that all charges cease after your last day of usage. Normally this happens automatically. If you do contact your old carrier, be sure to clarify that you want billing stopped and that you don't want to be disconnected. Some carriers use that as an opportunity to change your PICs to "none", even after you are no longer their customer.
This can be done using casual dialing but not presubscription unless you live in Alaska, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, or Wyoming. These areas have a single LATA All other states have multiple LATAs. For most telephones you can select a carrier for toll calls within a LATA and select a carrier for calls between LATAs. Many carriers require you to subscribe to both intraLATA and interLATA services, not allowing you to have a different carrier for each. Of course, at AVCInc you can presubscribe to neither, either, or both.
If your telephone is in a multi-LATA state, then presubscribe to the carrier that will carry most of your calls and then casual dial using your other carrier for the remaining calls.
No. Only the numbers you specify will be signed-up, and only for the service(s) you select. It is entirely up to you.
Note that it may be less expensive to sign-up a telephone number even if you don't make toll-calls from it. Some local telephone service providers charge you a monthly fee for not having a presubscribed long distance service provider and with AVCInc, there are no monthly fees for residential telephones.
AVCInc believes customer-generated passwords can be memorable and difficult to crack if a grammatically incorrect nonsensical pass phrase is used. The more memorable this pass phrase is, the less likely it will be disclosed because it does not have to be written down. Please do not use dates or names by themselves, these are too easy to crack. In general, any pass phrase that can be found in a dictionary should not be used, since the dictionary is the crackers favorite tool. This includes single-word phrases, proper names (especially famous ones), famous quotes, popular phrases, or language idioms or any kind of common misspelling. Also, don't use rules of grammar in composing the pass phrase. Here are a few examples: "furrY 6hP goaT eatinG gaS", "tomoRRows tempeRatuRe was Rain", and "cAll me sometime yesterdAy".
AVCInc passwords are a minimum of 6-characters and a maximum of 32-characters. The characters that may be used to compose a password include: 'a'...'z', 'A'...'Z', '0'...'9', '`', '~', '!', '@', '#', '$', '%', '^', '&', '*', '(', ')', '_', '-', '+', '=', '[', ']', '{', '}', ';', ':', ''', ',', '.', '/', '<', '>', and '?'.
The 10-10 number varies depending upon the 1+ number you register for service. It will be e-mailed to you upon sign-up. If you elect to auto-PIC, you don't need to worry about the 10-10 number. If you choose to self-PIC or make casual calls, you still must sign-up first. If you don't, you may be billed for calls by a different provider at a much higher rate.
These numbers are printed at the bottom of your check along with your
check number. The leftmost number is your routing number, bracketed by
these symbols: 
.
Your account number is terminated with this symbol:
. Your check
number (the same number appearing at the top right of your check) may
appear between the routing and account numbers or to the right of your
account number. The routing number is 9 digits, the account number is 6
or more digits, and the check number is 4 digits long. Deposit slips are
similar but don't have a check number.
Yes. Although it is generally better to aggregate services on a single account, if you need to create multiple accounts with just one e-mail address contact customer service and we'll assign you a pseudo e-mail address @avcinc.com. That address is used to login to customer service but e-mail will be sent to the address of the account you designate.
Yes, but AVCInc requires a valid, working 1+ number in order to create your account. Here is how to do it:
A custom directory is a feature of AVCInc that allows you to assign easy to remember names to telephone numbers so that when you view your AVCInc billing advice, the assigned name appears instead of the telephone central office location name. Using the directory, you can easily scan a billing advice and spot the calls for telephone numbers that are not in the directory. There is no charge for this service.
For example, if you call your son Johnny at college once a week, you can place an entry in your directory assigning the word Johnny to Johnny's telephone number at college. When you view your billing advice, on each line item where you called Johnny, the destination for the called telephone number will show Johnny.
You can also assign names to your registered telephone numbers and to PACs that you use. Where ever those numbers would normally appear, you will see the assigned name instead.
AVCInc provides detailed line items for all surcharges and taxes that can be manually re-calculated by the customer. Each line item states the categories of services that are subject to the tax, the total amount of these services, the tax rate, and the amount of tax. All terms used in line items are compliant with FCC and state truth-in-billing guidelines.
With every billing advice, AVCInc includes a detailed contact list of who to contact and how to contact them for any questions regarding rates, taxes, and surcharges.
AVCInc always uses its legal name, Affordable Voice Communications Inc., on all credit card transactions. However, some credit cards and their banks truncate the name to something shorter. Generally, you should always see at least Affordable Voice on the statement.
Cramming is the unscrupulous practice of adding false line item charges to a bill. These charges typically come from third-parties. AVCInc does not permit third-party charges to be added to customer bills.
Yes. You may designate any of the numbers on your account as tax exempt by providing us with a copy of your tax exempt certificate.
Yes. You can choose from among these formats:
Note that you can get any of the above formats in plain-text or HTML e-mail. If you elect to receive a bill via US post, the "no calls" version will be mailed. Full details are always available online, however.
Merchants must pay to collect payment from a customer via credit cards, debit cards, etc. These payment mechanisms charge a transaction fee and a transaction rate. The fee is a fixed cost for executing the transaction, while the rate covers the cost of transferring money and is a percentage of the amount of money being transferred.
For example, if your billing advice amount is $11.20 ($10.00 in services plus $1.20 in taxes) and you are paying with a Visa Card, then $0.28 (transaction fee) plus $0.26 (transaction rate of 2.35% times $11.20) is added to your bill for a total cost of $11.74.
Since the transaction fees and rates differ so much for the various payment alternatives demanded by our customers, AVCInc decided to take these charges out of our rates. This permits us to lower our rates rather than charge higher rates to cover the more expensive options.
Note that AVCInc also helps save you money by deferring payment when your monthly bill is less than $1.00. By collecting payment the following month AVCInc saves you the transaction fee.
No. To do so would mean higher rates for everyone. This way, only those who misdial are charged. However, since we charge by the second, beginning from the time the called party answers until either party hangs up, the cost of a misdialed call is actually very low. E.g. a 12 second state-to-state call is under 1 cent.
The two most common problems are not using your full e-mail address as your user ID and not using the same upper/lower-case letters in your password. For example, if your e-mail address is "some.body@somewhere.com" and your password is "Some Secret", then user ID = "some.body" and/or password = "some secret" won't work. For more information, or to reset your password, see Sign In Information.
Most wireline telephone subscribers in the U.S. can presubsribe to the long distance carrier of their choice for both intraLATA and interLATA calls. These calls are made by dialing a "1" plus the 10-digit telephone number, hence, "1+" is the popular way of referring to these calls.
LATA stands for Local Access and Transport Area, a term created by Judge Greene when he broke up Ma Bell in the early `80s into AT&T Long Distance and the original 7 regional Bell operating companies. Judge Greene tried to divide the U.S. telephone network into metropolitan statistical areas that are used by the U.S. Department of Commerce for all government statistics. The telephone network just didn't align with the MSA boundaries, so the final set of areas are called LATAs. Over the years, the LATA boundaries have been changing and their number has been varying. Here is a list of LATAs.
There are several important aspects of LATAs. First, toll calls within a LATA are commonly referred to as intraLATA toll calls, local toll calls, or regional toll calls. These calls can be carried by your local telephone company or by a long distance carrier. Until recently, the only way a long distance carrier could carry the call was by casual calling (see 5.4). Presently, in most areas you can presubscribe to a long distance carrier of your choice using the intraLATA PIC. The chosen carrier will automatically handle all of your 1+ calls.
Second, toll calls between LATAs are referred to as interLATA toll calls and state-to-state toll calls. However, not all interLATA toll calls are state-to-state because most states have several LATAs. Your local telephone company is not permitted to carry interLATA toll calls. Interexchange carriers, commonly called long distance carriers, carry all interLATA toll calls.
Third, the rates may vary among intraLATA and interLATA within the same state as well as between states.
Here are some guidelines on choosing an intraLATA provider:
CIC stands for Carrier ID Code, a four digit number that identifies a long distance service provider. PIC stands for Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier, i.e. the long distance provider you use when you make a 1+ call.
There are currently two types of PICs, intra-LATA and inter-LATA. Note that the inter-LATA PIC is also used for international calls (starting with "011", but not "0011"), but a separate PIC may one day be established for them.
A CIC is assigned to each PIC when you get a new number from your local telco or when you change PICs. Often both PICs are the same, but that need not be the case. Also, a special CIC is available which means no PIC.
You can determine the current PICs of any given number by calling from that number as follows:
Both numbers are toll-free and should result in a brief recorded message identifying the underlying carrier.
Casual Calling is using a 101-CIC number to override your Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier (PIC) selection. You do so by dialing 101-CIC followed immediately by the 1+ number (or 011 international). Using the 101 number only applies to the immediate call.
Some carriers advertise casual calling as 10-10 followed by a 3-digit CIC because CICs used to be 3 digits. In fact, 10-10 calling is still a common way to refer to casual calling.
The long distance access charges imposed by the FCC to be paid by all service providers to the subscriber's local telco depend upon whether the line is classified as residential or business and upon whether it is the first line on the account with the telco (i.e. the phone number matches the telco account number). The FCC terminology (and AVCInc abbreviations) are shown in the following table:
| Residential | Business | |
|---|---|---|
| First Line | Primary Residential (LDA-PR) |
Single-line Business (LDA-SB) |
| Each Additional Line | Non-primary Residential (LDA-NR) |
Multi-line Business (LDA-MB) |
Toll-free is an automatic reverse-charge, that is, instead of the call originator paying for the cost of the call, it is automatically charged to the called number. This includes surcharges, such as the payphone surcharge and toll-free directory assistance. Toll-free, as it is called in the U.S., is called Free-Phone is most of the world. In the U.S. and Canada all toll-free numbers begin with 1-800, 1-888, 1-877, or 1-866. These numbers are commonly referred to as 8XX numbers.
Toll-free numbers are commonly used by businesses so that their customers and enquirers do not have to pay for calls to them. This is especially important today as more and more businesses are centralizing their support operations and are using interactive voice response (those voice menu prompts everyone hates) services that seem to just prolong the time everyone spends on the phone just trying to reach a human.
Many non-business consumers have also found the toll-free numbers useful, in that they reveal the toll-free number to their family members so that when they are away from home, they can call without paying the exceptionally high payphone, hotel, motel, and hospital rates.
Toll-free numbers have an associated "ring-to" number. This is commonly the main business telephone number or the primary telephone number at a residence. When someone calls the toll-free number, the telephone network looks up the toll-free number to find the carrier that handles the call and the ring-to number associated with the toll-free number and routes the call to the carrier.
The AVCInc toll-free service uses the standard 10-digit number such as for our Customer Service at 1-877-523-7500. We do not use PINs or other 8XX numbers to access a toll-free number. Rates are slightly higher for toll-free as compared to the equivalent 1+ rate. Our billing advices reveal the number of the calling party, regardless their caller-ID blocking.
The short answer is "the usual way": 1 + 10-digits for anywhere in North America and 011 + country-code + national-number for any foreign country. Registered customers may also make casual calls. You can get detailed dialing instructions for all types of calls here.
The U.S. telephone network is owned and operated by some 4,000+ companies and regulated by some 50+ regulatory commissions. Each company and each commission determine which services and capabilities are to be deployed, where they are deployed and when they are deployed. Because of these factors, not even long distance is equally available everywhere.
For example, the capability to presubscribe to a long distance carrier of choice for local (intraLATA) toll calls is not available everywhere.
Sure. Just put the following HTML source code into your web site with your-account-ID replaced with your actual account ID. Only the line starting with "Sign-Up" will be visible when the page is displayed on your site, and that text can be changed as you see fit.
<a href="https://avcinc.com/signup.cgi?your-account-ID"> Sign-Up for long distance service with AVCInc! </a>
If you are having trouble completing calls to 900 services, check with your local telco to make sure such calls aren't blocked. If not, then the trouble lies with the 900 service provider. The long distance used to connect to the 900 service provider is determined by the provider, not you (the caller).