VoIP Phones?

[Shelby Griggs]

Anybody using a VoIP phone service? I am moving to a new place about 30 miles away in August and am considering the possibility of getting a VoIP phone for my home/business as the only service, but I read mixed reviews on the reliability. One thing that might tip the scales that way is that at least some of the VoIP providers offer number portability, that can't be done with Qwest on my current land line, not too interested in giving up my office number of 11 years. It is also unclear to me if FAX will work with VoIP, anybody know?



I am signed up for wireless broad band service with ClearWire, as that seemed to be one of the better high speed options, not too much faith in the cable system at the new place, and DSL was more money. Clearwire operates at 1. 5 Mb down and 256 Kb up, so not quite as fast of up speed as I would like, but not bad either for $25 a month for first 3 months and then $43 a month thereafter. It is portable, as long as I am in a coverage area it works. They are also offering VoIP, but don't have the features of some of the big players like Vonage, etc.



Comments good or bad appreciated.



SHG

 

[JStieger]

Our work converted to them recently and they suck IMO. They echo all the time when you're talking no matter how well our IT guys tune them. The person on the other end doesn't hear the echo - only you. Then you put it on speaker phone for conference calls and get constant feedback like from when one gets tuning a microphone. Ours also don't work when the power goes out - even internally, never mind calling off-site. I use my cell phone more in my office than the VoIP phones.



Hope this helps!

 

[ACoyle]

I have a VoIP (Internet based phone line). We have had it for a couple years. We had an initial problem, which was traced to the cable connection comming into the house. Since then, no problems. My wife is Canadian and calls and talks for hours, no additional charge. We have saved lots.



I do recommend one non VoIP line in the house. The reason being that if power goes out, or your INternet connection fails, you have no phone. Since this can be at a time of emergency, you may not be able to contact emergency servics. A cell phone MAY be an alternative for emergency service.



If you use a service, like one provided by a cable manufacturer you have little else to worry about. If you use something like Vonage you ned to make sure that your Internet connection has enough bandwidth to cover it. I tried Vonage in the office and my Verizop ADSL would not hack it. I had to cancel.



Hope this helps



AC

 

[Rams-n-Hogs]

I've had Vonage for almost 2 years. Never had an issue, or a problem problem with echo.

 

[klenger]

I tried Vonage at home, but it woudn't work with our DirecTV Tivo, so I sent it back. I like the idea. I've been on Cox cable for internet and phone for about 2 years, and just switch to a Qwest package that is saving my some money with more features. Vonage does claim to be fax compatable, but I think you may need to get a second dedicated fax line to get enough bandwidth for it.

 

[Shelby Griggs]

Thanks guys. It sounds like a good idea, BUT it may be highly correlated to how good your ISP is. Just got a call from a guy who saw my post and said he knows 3 people with Vonage and none of them are super good quality. Apparently VoIP gets the leftover bandwidth when you are using the 3rd party suppliers. If I went with my ISP offering, I am thinking the quality might be better? I will keep researching this and watching for any additional comments here.



SHG

 

[KBennett]

We have two Vonage lines. When we first got it we had a 256K connection and if you started browsing the web on the PC it would cut out. Now that we have Comcast cable it works very well.

One feature I like is that you can check your voice mail remotely from a PC connected to the web. You can save the VM's on your PC for future reference.