VoIP Provider Breakdown

Since the mods deleted my previous post about SIP adapters and voip (I linked to an eBay auction I had no affiliation with, but I understand linking to eBay auctions have the potential of benefiting oneself or their friends), I decided to make a large post on the VoIP services out there. Since it's a large undertaking to go through all the providers, I'm going to try to add a provider each day until the list is complete. Feel free to help me out and add your favorites.

$3.33 first year ($40/12), $1.67 ($20/12) subsequent years - MagicJack, unlimited, unlimited, 0, 0, E

I'm not sure if any of those other services are included because I just use mine to make calls from home and send or receive an occasional fax. I do know that fax service is an extra charge through Vonage and not available at all with some voip providers.

Noble effort, but there MANY MORE out there, who come and go all the time, making it VERY difficult to make objective comparisons. The VoIP forums on DSLReports.com seem to have lots of biased, shill posting - I fear this thread does not go in the same direction.

Some more to add: Future 9, voip.ms, ViaTalk, Teleblend, Callcentric, callwithus, Optimum Voice, VOIPo,...

shank said: Noble effort, but there MANY MORE out there, who come and go all the time, making it VERY difficult to make objective comparisons. The VoIP forums on DSLReports.com seem to have lots of biased, shill posting - I fear this thread does not go in the same direction.

Some more to add: Future 9, voip.ms, ViaTalk, Teleblend, Callcentric, callwithus, Optimum Voice, VOIPo,...I heartily welcome all discussion, even shills . This is a large undertaking, which is why I've decided to slowly and steadily populate this list.

For international calls I use a service based in Germany called Voipdiscount. 10€ gives me 4 months of unlimited calling for free. After that it's 1 cent a minute which comes out of the inititial 10. I've been paying about 20€ a year to call the family in Thailand. Other countries may cost less or more.

I use MagicJack for domestic, with google voice as a front end to filter sales calls.

squinky86 said: Hopefully someone can answer this question for me: how can some of these guys get away with saying "e911 service included" in the price, but still charge a recovery fee on it? If the e911 service is included in the price, should that not include the fees, too?
Example: voipo.com

Cause they are liars?

shank said: Based on some very good comments on dslreports.com, I am seriously considering a trial with voip.ms for BYOD service - worthy of consideration, OP. While not as feature rich, CallCentirc also appears to be a recent favorite there as well.

Read all the reviews on there re: voip.ms before you recommend or get them. From what I have seen, they have some major problems. "unstable quality" is mentioned way too much to consider it for any serious usage.

I've had great luck with ViaTalk. Since they include 2 lines in the service, I have a fax assigned to one and my house phones to the other. Works great. Also I am extremely impressed with their interface... Here's a demo of the interface viatalk control panel

Mickie3 said: shank said: Based on some very good comments on dslreports.com, I am seriously considering a trial with voip.ms for BYOD service - worthy of consideration, OP. While not as feature rich, CallCentirc also appears to be a recent favorite there as well.

Read all the reviews on there re: voip.ms before you recommend or get them. From what I have seen, they have some major problems. "unstable quality" is mentioned way too much to consider it for any serious usage.

I just went back and reviewed the voip.ms threads on dslreports again - can't find what you are referring to. They had some issues early on, but seem to be firing on all cylinders, and over the past 6+ montns seem to be highly regarded. Would appreciate some more specifics.

I signed up with Sunrocket for $199 for two years just 4 months before they went bankrupt, then I was stuck with Teleblend who seemed to pop up out of nowhere and take over all of Sunrocket's cllients but did not honor any of the prepayments made to them and I put up with Teleblend's ridiculously non-exitent customer "support" until my orginial Sunrocket device died and switched to Vonage but could never actually use Vonage because they could never transfer my phone number over to their service and I ended up keeping Vonage to avoid their onerous 2 year "termination" fee while I ported my original phone number (which I have kept 25 years from Bellsouth to AT&T to Sunrocket to Teleblend, etc..) to my local cable company, Mediacom for their 1 year trial price of about $20/month. Once that year was up and the price about to skyrocket to $40/month, I bought an Ooma device and paid for their $99 premium service to avoid paying them $40 to port over my number, which they could at least do, unlike Vonage. So far, I have been happy with the Ooma service. Hopefully, they will stay in business long enough for me to recoup my hardware costs.

Nice thread. I'm looking to drop Vonage after getting my bill today and it was higher for the 4th time this year. 4 increases in 9 months! I've got the limited plan which went from $14.99/mo to $17.99/mo in January, and they've increased fees (not taxes which are up to the government, fees are at their discretion) 3 times since then. I've also got Earthlink Truvoice but apparently they no longer offer new service or I'd get that again for the other line. That is also at $14.99 and they have not jacked up the rates on me this year at all.

I'm a little torn because I've seen threads where people called Vonage and threatened to quit and were offered deals. I'd like to do that, but I'm afraid if I did that they'd say so long and I'd be SOL until I could get a new provider set up (and I'd probably lose my number which I'd prefer to keep).

PhonePower
looks interesting, I had not heard of that before but it seems to have good reviews on dslreports. I've also looked into ooma. Whatever I do, if I change numbers I will probably start using a Google Voice number and forward it to the new service so that I can easily change providers in the future.

forbin4040 said: Lol no, because they can say they allow you to dial 'e911'. It doesn't say that it is free or included.If you advertise "e911 service" as a feature included at the main price, it's wrong to charge an extra fee for "e911 service." Does this not make sense?

PhonePower
is $200 for 2 years and you get a real second line.
There is plugs on the unit for 2 phones.

And yes they do add 911 fees as all others do

Personally I'm using VOIPo and have found them to be very reliable. They are the only ones I know that beta tested their network for 2 years before launching to the public.

I've tried ViaTalk, and found them to be unreliable; maybe it was my network but there has been a few complaints about them on dslreports. MagicJack is also good value for money, but I wouldn't really consider it a phone replacement. I remember when they put on a 30 min call limit, people were so mad they eventually raised it to 2 hours per call. But the problem is it's too dependent on your computer and I prefer something that doesn't involve my computer.

Anyway you new customers are very lucky as VOIPo are having a sale on right now ($130 including taxes for 1 year) + free activation, and if you sign up for their yearly service PM for a coupon to get 4 months free, or if you want to go month to month then I can give you a code for 1 month off.

trigeminal said: Personally I'm using VOIPo and have found them to be very reliable. They are the only ones I know that beta tested their network for 2 years before launching to the public.

and personally, I tried Voipo and they were nothing but trouble for me. I quit before the 30 days was up, but I will say that they are the only company I have run into in quite a while who met exactly ZERO of their promises they made to me (did not ship ATA when they said they would, tech support was not good - use email if you have problems, etc.) Their control panel may be nice, but you will never know as there is no documentation on it.

sychang888 said: Nothing beats GoogleVoice+Gizmo for incoming calls(totally free) and Skype ($3 for US/Canada or $10 for international monthly)for outgoing calls. With ATA installed, no computer ever involved. I have 4 Google Voice numbers at home hooked to two ATA adapters. even Fax is supported.This option is great for many applications, but no 911 support is a serious issue for many.

yesidonoitall said: PhonePower
is $200 for 2 years and you get a real second line.
There is plugs on the unit for 2 phones.

And yes they do add 911 fees as all others do

I am on my 2nd year service with Phone Power
. Service is great. I had paid $200 for 2 years service. Taxes and Fee is around $37 for each year. So total expense for 2 years phone service is: $289 (includes $15 one time shipping & handling fee)

If you use referral, you get $10 off and any other coupon will give you additional savings.

I have the 2-yr Phone Power
deal too (Vonage convert). Faxes work nearly 100% (faxes failed with Vonage all the time), and you can selectively block calls. And blocked callers get "normal busy signal", not some message or tone that tips off telemarketers. They'll get a busy signal for life, and think I'm on the phone. And "ring all phones at same time" gives me 1 NUMBER.

I believe the following are missing:

Allvoi -> http://www.allvoi.com/

Ooma Telco (new device with new fees) -> http://www.ooma.com/products/ooma-telo/compare

VOIPo -> http://www.voipo.com/

Vonage World Plan -> http://www.vonage.com/residential_calling_plans/vonage_world/

Callcentric -> http://www.callcentric.com/

Phone Power
-> http://www.phonepower.com/services/voip/voiphome.aspx

Voice Pulse -> http://www.voicepulse.com/

Optimum Voice -> http://www.optimum.com/voice/

Here are more that you can google

- Voipyourlife
- Globe7
- Hyperdog
- Broadvoice
- Net2Phone
- Phonegnome
- Quantumvoice
- Tin Can Talk
- AxVoice
- Cableco VoIP (Comcast Digital Voice, TWC Digital Phone, Optimum Voice, etc.)
- CallWithUs
- Inphonex
- Nuvio
- QuantumVoice
- ViaTalk
- Vitelity
- Voip.ms