Dial Around phone service simply means that you are "dialing around your current long distance carrier." This means that you are using a 800 number, then dialing a pin number, then dialing number you wish to call. (Automatic entry on pre-designated phones such as your home phone.) You can use a Dial Around phone service even if you do not have a land-line long distance carrier because it works same way a calling card works. The difference is that you are billed monthly based on calls you make. Dial Around programs work best when you live in an area that doesn't offer great low rates for long distance, when you travel away from home and tend to make a lot of calling card or hotel room calls, or when you live in a dorm where you do not have option of changing long distance carrier or getting cheaper long distance rates. Make sure you know fees involved in Dial Around programs...

What are their universal service fees (USF)? Is there a minimum usage fee? What is per minute fee? Is there a monthly fee and will it be waived over a certain usage? Are there time restrictions on when you can call for best rate?

The most important thing about picking your long distance plan is sit down and figure out what types of calls you make on a daily basis, what time of day, what city and state, how many minutes per month, etc. Once you have this broken down, it is time to research plans. Pick best plan for calls you make and don't shy away from a monthly usage fee because adding in that fee can still cut your over all monthly costs down substantially.

Whose technology do you choose? There are some clear market leaders in Instant Messaging marketing including Microsoft (no surprise here) http://messenger.microsoft.com But, like most Microsoft technology ools you pay a price for software/services, albeit a small one. You have to register with Microsoft's NET Passport www.microsoft.com/myservices/passport service which is designed to be a universal login - this only takes a few minutes but be forewarned they also try to get you to setup a Hot Mail account, but you can work around this.

The other dominant IM product is AOL's ICQ product http://web.icq.com - it has similar functionality as Microsoft's application. A great Israeli company, Mirabellis, Inc., subsequently acquired by AOL, developed original technology. My chief complaint with this product is irritating banner ads that AOL keeps pushing at you when you are utilizing their product. But, it's a small price to pay for a free product on client side.

Yahoo also has an IM product ("Yahoo Messenger") but I am not convinced this will stay as a core part of their business, as they appear to be still trying to figure out what they are going to become in post ".com gold rush era" market; i.e. Portal, Directory, Media giant, software/services company, etc. And, they've certainly jettisoned parts of their business last 12-18 months and I would wager they've had discussions about getting out of IM business.

Finally, IM is also quickly moving into other markets and devices including PDAs and Pagers - if you're a real geek and you can't stand to be out of touch while your in shower and you have a water proof device you can ping away. But, I think we all need some down time for friends and family, but wanted to make sure I covered all possible bases with this column - until next time!