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Suggestions for a Home VOIP Provider?
nate1138 asks: "My wife and I recently relocated so that I could take a promising position with a better company. Her job, being the fairly progressive folks that they are, graciously agreed to let her telecommute. Most of the services she needs we already have set up, such as the VPN, and VNC for remote control, etc. Now we only have one thing left to do. Get a phone line. Her office is a long distance call from our new location, and she needs to be able to call customers throughout the southeast as well. Since we need a number with a different area code from our home, it looks like voice over IP is the only solution. I want to know what you folks think about the various VOIP providers, like Packet8,
Vonage, and
Broadvoice. Or any other that I haven't thought of. Or another way to solve the same problem without shelling out a boatload o' cash. Features are the last priority, while reliability is tops."
i wouldnt go as far as to say cellular is that reliable. Internet bogs down, your VOIP going to have some problems, during peek hours getting a connection to a cell tower is going to be difficult. You throw any type of emergency into the equation cell towers are almost useless since everyone is on their phone. Internet is still a little more reliable there (from what we have seen so far, yet to be proven). I personally still have a POTS at home and plan on staying that way until VOIP has some of the small issues worked out (like what happens when the power goes out, my POTs still works but my VOIP dead in the water.) just my 2 cents worth. (oh and i have a cell phone too which i use for 99% of my communications)
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A coworker had vonage...Almost got me to switch too, but then he started complaining about latency issues..etc.
I have had MCI "Neighborhood" program (http://www.theneighborhood.com) for almost a year now. $49 gets me unlimited local and long distance service. Sign up under the Blockbuster promotion and you get a certificate for free game or movie rental for every $25 (so I get 2 per month). I have never had a problem with the service and it is chock full of features including the ability to listen to voice mail over the Internet and getting alerted to my pager, cellphone and/or e-mail when someone leaves a message!
I have a related question... Can you keep DSL and sign up for one of these providers? Will *insert local bell or SBC* let you have a line without service?
I have no wired phone line. I use VoIP as my primary phone and a cell phone as a backup. That said, I am not aware that any VoIP provider meets the same level of reliability as a POTS line.
My own requirement was that my VoIP provider support my choice in SIP devices. That eliminated several of the vendors on your list as they require use of a Cisco-ATA and lock you out of it. I wanted a more 'open' service. I currently use IConnectHere. For $8.95/mo they provide unlimited incoming calls, Caller-ID, Voicemail, Call-Waiting, Call-Transfer, etc. Outgoing calls cost 3.5 cents/minute.
Addaline (http://www.addaline.com) has recently started offering DID service and has a very economical outgoing rate.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
You MAY find that it's not necessary to go fancy (though the geek factor is great and the price may be lower). You can also get service from the tellcos. And it MAY no longer cost an arm and a leg, thanks to competition from the geek-factor technologies.
First option is a "Foreign Exchange" line. Phone at your home office, connected to a switchboard in the city of interest (transparently, via the long-distance infrastructure).
This USED to cost an arm and a leg (or have a large per-minute charge) because it potentially tied up a long distance trunk any time you were off-hook, and a business might be off-hook essentially all day. But now that bandwidth is cheaper than air it might be another story. (Worth a look.)
Second option is to install a phone with call-forwarding and a dirt-cheap flat rate long-distance service, with the jack installed somewhere handy in the distant service area. (If you do business there but don't have an office, you can probably talk someone into letting the jack be at their site.) Set the call-forwarding to your home-office phone, and unplug the distant instrument. People call you, it transfers to your home-office phone. You pay the long distance charge for the call - which is prepaid or nearly free.
Third: Some tellcos have a service (I don't recall what it's called) that is essentially equivalent to number two but without the line to the unplugged phone. (Check with the long-distance providers, too, not just the local tellcos.) Local tellcos might still price this one sky high, but I bet the long-distance companies have a deal on it.
If you enquire about number three, it's too pricey, but number two would do the job in your price range, be SURE not to talk about them both in the same call to the tellco in question. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
If you want to use voip for out-going calls only, you don't need to use Vonage. You can use something like iconnecthere or as someone else mentioned sipphone. They both have a software phone and low pay-as-you-go rates so you can try them out with very little investment. I use iconnecthere, it's not the greatest but it gets the job done. I may try sipphone soon.
If you're a geek willing to put some time into learning VOIP and Asterisk, the options are endless.
How about this? Her work would give her a "desk" with an analog phone. You put an old Linux PC at the "desk" with a Digium FX0 card. You then have another PC at her home with with a VOIP phone jack or a headset with SIP software (like this Windows or this Linux) or run Asterisk on her home Linux box and run IAX between the two.
Reliability would depend on the reliability of the IP connection between home/work. Because of Internet delay (and possibly delay from your VPN encryption), there may be a noticable delay on the connections, so it may feel more like a cell phone conversation than a land line.
If you don't have time to tinker and really care about reliability, just get a $30 nationwide unlimited plan from your local phone company or long distance provider (BellSouth/MCI/AT&T), expense it to work, and be done with it.
For those of you north of the border (the icy wastes known as Canada), Primus provides a decent service. For about 25 loonies per month, you get unlimited local service (in the area code of your choice, as long as they service it) and reasonable long distance. They send you the equipment and (supposedly) pick up the return postage as well when you cancel. No signup fees, which beats all the Bells and Telus right there. We've found sound quality to be reasonable, certainly no worse than a cell phone and much better than our first try at VoIP a couple years ago. Worth a try!
Cable Voip has the same levels of reliability that POTS has. Thats the requirement for offering it along with 911 calling.