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.
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Here's the guidelines:
This list is ordered by price. Quality of the service is to be discussed in the comments.
Price is in USD/month.
List entries must be in the format: Price - provider, incoming minutes, outgoing minutes, additional incoming minute price, additional outgoing minute price, setup fee, options
Valid options are: B - bring-your-own-device (BYOD) E - e911 support included S - supports SIP I - supports IAX(2) L - local DID P - DID/number portability (usually for an extra charge)
To list an option on the provider, the provider must actively support that option. For example, you can set up BYOD service with Vonage, but Vonage doesn't actively support such a feature. Just because you can do it doesn't mean it's a supported feature!
Price includes e911 fee if available. For example, Vonage advertises $24.99/mo for unlimited calling, but that doesn't include the required $2.98 e911 fee. This fee is included in the price here.
Publicly available, advertised prices only. Some people can get Vonage for ~$15/month by calling, but it's not advertised and therefore not listed here.
$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.
trishshack said:$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.I added it to the list. I put it as $1.67/month with an additional $20 set-up fee. That way, if you buy the device at $40 (but who pays retail anymore?), you're essentially getting the $1.67/month service with a $20 usb adapter, and you don't have to pay the equipment charges after the initial investment.
I've used MJ for a while, but left the service when they stopped allowing BYOD customers. Last night, I made my first voip purchase outside of MJ, but want to look at other companies, too. Today, I'm going to research OOMA's fees and service, since they have a bit of a following on these forums.
EDIT: OOMA added. Prices vary wildly between $225 and $250, and Amazon has a $30 credit if you purchase from them. I question the pyramid model of new users paying for the existing users on the budget pricing, but the premium pricing structure ($100/yr) looks fairly solid.
Message edited by: squinky86 on 2009-09-16 09:14:17 CDT
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,...
Vonage unlimited domestic plans are available at $14.99 if you call in and ask for a promotion. I've used Vonage for 4 years now and it's been very reliable with excellent voice quality.
Message edited by: jayK on 2009-09-16 13:56:55 CDT
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.
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
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.
Message edited by: rgeisert on 2009-09-21 12:36:59 CDT
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.
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
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.
evanm said: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
Two big gripes about ViaTalk on dslreports - additional taxes and fees (like traditional phone companies) and relatively high long distance rates.
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.
I am using PhonePower - excellent service for the price.
Used Sunrocket before they went bankrupt (discovercard refunded the $$$) - went to Packet8 - they hiked their Annual plan charges this year -so moved to PhonePower . Liking it a lot. Nice features.
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. This is a large undertaking, which is why I've decided to slowly and steadily populate this list.
