VoIP

[Operator]

I have been thinking about switching over to VoIP for awhile.

For those using VoIP:
1. How good is the reception? Can calls be made clearly?
2. What type of broadband do you have and what speed? What speed is the minimum for a clear phone call?
3. Which provider do you use? What plan?

I've been looking at Lingo (https://www.lingo.com/guWeb/com/primustel/gu/presentation/residential/ResidentialController.jpf) for awhile now. It's $20/month for unlimited calls within the United States and Europe. It comes with free equipment and everything... :D Any good?

Thanks.

[markblair]

Operator, I have been using Vonage for a few months now and I like the service quite a bit. It was easy to switch over our existing phone number and the features are the same as we had with a local service but we are saving roughly $15/month this way. We pay $24.95/month for this plan (http://www.vonage.com/products_local.php) and after a couple of small regulatory fees, it costs about $27/month. The nice thing is there are no taxes (at least not yet). That's coming by the way...

1. How good is the reception? Can calls be made clearly?
- The reception is good. Sometimes we do get static but I have so many things near the phone device they sent us that anything could be causing that. Calls made out are clear.

2. What type of broadband do you have and what speed? What speed is the minimum for a clear phone call?
- I have Cable Internet service with a 2Mbps connection. Vonage has three speeds;
30Kbps - Normal Sound Quality
50Kbps - Higher
90Kbps - Highest Sound Quality

Ours is set for 90Kbps and it works nicely.

3. Which provider do you use? What plan?
- Vonage is the provider and the plan is their Unlimited Local Plan (http://www.vonage.com/products_local.php).

I've not heard of Lingo before so I can't comment on them. The price sounds nice though... :)

[Operator]

By Kbps you mean kilobits? I just want to make sure because Charter Communications (my ISP) cut my internet speed to 40 kilobytes per second. I am currently looking at other internet service providers.

Thanks Mark.

[markblair]

Originally posted by Operator:

By Kbps you mean kilobits? I just want to make sure because my Charter Communications (My ISP) cut my internet speed to 40 Kilobytes per second. I am looking at other internet service providers.

Thanks Mark. That's correct, it's kilobits. I've not tried the lowest setting but I did have it at 50Kbps and when moving it to 90Kbps, it didn't lose or gain any quality.

[Cow]

Mark,

I'm curious to know, how does vonage push 90kbps through your voice over ip service? I use voice over ip as my regular phone line started by a local phone company. I can say the quality is GREAT, but we don't have settings like Vonage does. Instead, it automatically adjusts itself depending on how much traffic is going through the unit.

Back to my question though, have you asked Vonage how 90kbps is possible when the MOST a VoIP unit will push is 64kbps. I'm not downing Vonage at all, but I have always been curious.

[blue27]

I don't think Vonage actually claims to push these speeds, they are just the recommended speeds to have for the different levels of service.

[markblair]

Originally posted by Cow:

Mark,

I'm curious to know, how does vonage push 90kbps through your voice over ip service? I use voice over ip as my regular phone line started by a local phone company. I can say the quality is GREAT, but we don't have settings like Vonage does. Instead, it automatically adjusts itself depending on how much traffic is going through the unit.

Back to my question though, have you asked Vonage how 90kbps is possible when the MOST a VoIP unit will push is 64kbps. I'm not downing Vonage at all, but I have always been curious. I'm not really sure about the technical aspects of the bandwidth Vonage uses. The feature this refers to is called 'Bandwidth Saver'. It basically allows you to limit the bandwidth used by the VoIP service if you can't allow it to use 90Kbps. Here's a link for more information (http://www.vonage.com/features.php?feature=bandwidth_saver) on this Vonage feature. The 90Kbps setting also may be more meant for future advancements with this technology. Not sure myself unfortunately.

[Cow]

Yeah thats what I figured :) Currently, VOIP only has as best quality as an actual telephone line. At peak times, your actual land line only uses a maximum of 64kbps. I think a lot of people don't understand how a phone actually works hehe. However, you hardly reach that 64kbps maximum on a day to day basis.

[jbiz718]

I use voicepulse (www.voicepulse.com) I found it to be pretty solid.

Definatly very cost effective, service has been pretty good.

I would also say it is very dependent on your broadband connection. I got rcn, 3 mb down, 768 up, so its solid.

[Ross]

I'm thinking abou going with Vonage, does anyone have any expirience with them?

[allan]

Originally posted by Operator:

I've been looking at Lingo (https://www.lingo.com/guWeb/com/primustel/gu/presentation/residential/ResidentialController.jpf) for awhile now. It's $20/month for unlimited calls within the United States and Europe. It comes with free equipment and everything... :D Any good?


I have been using Skype (http://www.skype.com/) for a while and the quality is excellent! It is actually better than phone quality when you are making Skype-to-Skype calls, and just as good as phone quality when you are making Skype-to-phone calls.

The rates are really good for their Skype-to-phone plans, but they don't have an all you can eat plan, which does suck, so I haven't made them my permanent carrier yet.

[Ross]

I heard many people were having problems with Skype, specifically with inbound calls?

[Spirit Connect]

Hi All

Does anyone know of a VoIP solution that allows calling Toll Free numbers in the US?

I just order a VoIP service here in Australia to try out as our phone costs are huge in Australia. My company currently spends $400/month on phone bills.

[Ross]

Originally posted by Spirit Connect:

Hi All

Does anyone know of a VoIP solution that allows calling Toll Free numbers in the US?

I just order a VoIP service here in Australia to try out as our phone costs are huge in Australia. My company currently spends $400/month on phone bills.

Ouch......

I haven't heard of any that really allow a global plan yet? Maybe your best bet would be to hire a support rep in the U.S.?

[Spirit Connect]

The only calls to the US are really to The Planet datacenter which is a free call if called from inside the US.

[markblair]

Originally posted by Ross:

I'm thinking abou going with Vonage, does anyone have any expirience with them? Um, yeah, I do. See the second post (http://www.hosthideout.com/showthread.php?postid=67146#post67146) in this thread. ;)

[Ross]

Heh thanks for the review. I'm thinking about trying it out as a second phone line and fax line soon so it will be interesting.

[Adam]

Interesting thread. I've been interested in VoIP for a while now, just never been one to change unless I've had to. Maybe I could give it a shot at the new offices later this year.

What phone systems do you use with your VoIP connection? I had Avaya mail me about their systems before.

[markblair]

Originally posted by Adam:

What phone systems do you use with your VoIP connection? I had Avaya mail me about their systems before. Well I'm using Vonage at a residence (my home) so there isn't any fancy phone system involved. I just have a line going from the Motorola device Vonage supplied to a line splitter and then throughout the house. We then have various phones, mostly GE, which all work nicely.