Any good VoIP choices?

[gobler]

I'm looking to drop my land line and want to set up a VoIP service. I have read consumer reports on several and the one I liked was VoIPo. Any one use them or can give ideas?

[socalblue]

Consumer grade VOIP solutions are more or less equal. Look for the features you want & compare prices.

The real key is the quality of your broadband service. Using the VOIP service offered by your broadband provider can have benefits in regard to quality of service, bundle pricing & one neck to choke should there be issues.

[dwtt]

I don't know which VOIP service you are looking at but I have an account with Skype and pay $38 every 3 months for world wide phone service. In the US, I have a cable modem with my broadband service from Comcast, and overseas I have ADsl service with a relatively slow modem. Even so, I can still make and receive calls with no problems, but sometimes the audio is bad when I'm overseas.
With skype, I have a local 510- area code phone number, which skype forwards to my computer if I'm logged on, or my cell phone overseas when I'm not logged on. The weak link in the chain is the local cell phone company where the audio gets garbled up and sometimes I can't make out what the is being said. When I want to call back to the US or to anywhere in the world, I would log onto my computer and make the call and the audio is fine on the other end.

[den888]

We use Vonage and have been quite pleased. It's much cheaper than a traditional landline service (e.g. - AT&T) and I have been able to outfit the whole house with phones (using a cordless phone system from Panasonic) and bypassing the traditional phone jacks in the house. Works well and $$ savings.

[gregorio]

A little off topic but anyone consider the ATT wireless home phone service? They claim I can add it to my family plan for $9.99 a month and share all the free minutes and LD.

[Rob454]

I have magic jack. Has worked great for me. I paid for 5 years in advance. I think it was 180 bucks for the whole setup. We used to pay 45 a month with At&t for basically the same phone features as magic jack. 3 months of regular phone service basically bought me the same service for 5 years. While I still need a land line I will never go with a phone company for land line service.

[sholling]

My personal favorite is Ooma. You pay around $140-170 for the device and then for the life of the device all you pay after that are state mandated fees and taxes - I'm guessing around $6-8/mo. They also offer premium feature pack for $10/mo. I've had mine 6 years and it's still going strong. But truth be told I most of my calls are over my cell phone and only keep it because I'm grandfathered in with a no longer available no taxes and no fees plan. You don't need their wireless handset, instead just plug in your wireless phone and you're good to go. I've never tested it with faxing (who faxes anymore) or alarm systems so I don't know how well that works.

Try going about 19:30 into this video.

http://revision3.com/tekzilla/veronica-iphone5-review/voip-alternatives-to-landline

http://www.amazon.com/Ooma-Telo-Free-Phone-Service/dp/B002O3W4LE

http://www.costco.com/Ooma-Telo-Air-VoIP-Telephone-Bundle.product.11675338.html

[gobler]

looks like there are several vendors... I'm going to take some time to read up on the top five. I am hoping to have VoIP by the end of next month.

[sfwdiy]

I've had good results using an Obi box with Google Voice, if you're interested in getting a Google Voice number.

http://www.obihai.com/

I love Google Voice, I've been using it as my only phone number for years now.

The main issue with VOIP though is that it comes down to the quality of your internet connection. If you want decent voip performance, make sure your internet connection has plenty of bandwidth and doesn't suck.

--B

[wahkuna]

+1 for Ooma
much better than Skype or Magic Jack, but you can't beat them for the price!

[cfm117]

Internet speed really isn't the issue with VoIP quality. An average VoIP line only requires about 80k of bandwidth. It's packet loss that will make your call sound like garbage. May not even be at your end either.

[MR512]

I did the following:

Home line got it ported to google voice since I just use it for creditors etc and its just a voicemail. When I need to call to say activate a credit card, I use Google voice on my cell to call from that number...

Total cost over the last few years has been around $30... Also you can set it to ring your work number, cell phone, or any number when you do receive a call. So for example I was waiting for a call for a loan application and I took the call at my work number for free...

I have my cellphone that only good friends and family have...

I have a second Google Voice number that I give the riff raff!

[not4un]

ooma is great

[high_revs]

like sholling and not4un, i have ooma. has paid itself off at least 2x over (assuming $25/month phone bill with at&t). i got the bluetooth and handset version. you can configure it to be your answering machine and listen to messages over the internet and call logs (who you called and whoc alled you). i only use the basic service and pay only like $4/month for taxes.

[67Roadster]

Ooma

+1 for Ooma.

I dropped AT&T land line and save $60 per month. Once you buy an Ooma, you only pay the taxes which is about $3.80 a month. I was even able to transport my AT&T number over to Ooma for about $45 bucks. My whole system paid for it self in 4 months. I've had it for over a year and no problems, except when the power went off for 8 hours...thanks So Cal Edison.