Suggest me the best VOIP for home

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∞Velocitymaster∞

Gawd
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Dec 12, 2004
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I'm googing around on who offers the best voice over ip for residential but I get so many mix reviews, and a bunch of providers. I hope someone here already has a VOIP service and could recommend me one. Lower price and reliability plus quality are the main factors for me.
 
I use CallCentric and have been with them for the last few years. Switched to them from Vonage (kept my phone numbers). Decent features. They don't support Outgoing CallerID (CNAM) however. So when you call someone, all they would see if your phone number and not your name. Possibly show CallCentric's backbone provider in the name area (Broadvox in my case). They support BYOD (bring your own device). Not the cheapest game in town but very reasonable. Support is web-based tickets only. Support has been pretty fast in responding to my queries.

I've heard good things about Vitelity, though have not used them. Same with VoIP.ms and a couple of others.
 
Second voip.ms for BYOD. Vonage is a good deal only compared to POTS, but they are the safe choice.
 
I've had great service and a great experience with both CallCentric and voip.ms.
In your web searching, did you happen to come across the charts over at dslreports such as this one?
 
What, exactly, do you need your phone service to do?

- Emergency and 911 call capability
- Cheap calling
- ect..

I'll tell you right now; nothing beats POTS for emergency and 911 service. Nothing. Reason being, even during a power loss, you can still make emergency calls with a cheap 10 dollar phone. With VOIP, you have to have backup equipment onsite, maintained, and even then your ISP's upstream equipment might not be adequately protected. Whereas POTS lines are almost always energized.
 
Where Voip beats a POTS line is in price. Voip phones typically have more features, no extra charge for long distance calling all over the country, and fewer (if any) taxes and fees on top of the phone service. These days, many people use their cellphone as their primary phone and the house line, whether it is a Voip line or a POTS line, is secondary. When it comes to calling 911, most of the major Voip providers have e911 capabilities so you can call emergency service if you should need it. If the power goes out, you can use the cell phone as a backup.
Basically it all comes down to what you want. Do you want the warm fuzzy feeling of having a phone that will work in a power outage, or are you looking to save some money on the monthly phone bill? I ditched Ma Bell several years back. When I used a POTS line, the phone service itself was $12/month (bargain basement package) but the taxes and fees added up to make it $30/month. I was paying more in taxes and BS fees than the actual service itself. Since I switched to a Voip phone, my monthly phone bill now is approximately $10/month, including taxes and fees. Now maybe $18/month may not sound like a lot, but that's $18 more every month that can go towards other things like other bills or expenses. :D
 
hawk82 said:
I use CallCentric and have been with them for the last few years. Switched to them from Vonage (kept my phone numbers). Decent features. They don't support Outgoing CallerID (CNAM) however. So when you call someone, all they would see if your phone number and not your name. Possibly show CallCentric's backbone provider in the name area (Broadvox in my case). They support BYOD (bring your own device). Not the cheapest game in town but very reasonable. Support is web-based tickets only. Support has been pretty fast in responding to my queries.

I've heard good things about Vitelity, though have not used them. Same with VoIP.ms and a couple of others.
Click to expand...

I second callcentric. They are excellent. A phone # for $3/month, $1.50/mo for 911 service & $0.019/min for calls in the US....
 
DustMite said:
Where Voip beats a POTS line is in price. Voip phones typically have more features, no extra charge for long distance calling all over the country, and fewer (if any) taxes and fees on top of the phone service. These days, many people use their cellphone as their primary phone and the house line, whether it is a Voip line or a POTS line, is secondary. When it comes to calling 911, most of the major Voip providers have e911 capabilities so you can call emergency service if you should need it. If the power goes out, you can use the cell phone as a backup.
Basically it all comes down to what you want. Do you want the warm fuzzy feeling of having a phone that will work in a power outage, or are you looking to save some money on the monthly phone bill? I ditched Ma Bell several years back. When I used a POTS line, the phone service itself was $12/month (bargain basement package) but the taxes and fees added up to make it $30/month. I was paying more in taxes and BS fees than the actual service itself. Since I switched to a Voip phone, my monthly phone bill now is approximately $10/month, including taxes and fees. Now maybe $18/month may not sound like a lot, but that's $18 more every month that can go towards other things like other bills or expenses. :D
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Well, and in an large emergency ( earth quake, tornado, ect... ) , your POTS line is more likely to work than your cell ( which suffers from over-subscription of cell towers and the like ).

I know the fees are bullshit, I agree. But if having an emergency line is important, there really isn't much of an argument; POTS is still the best choice.
 
XOR != OR said:
Well, and in an large emergency ( earth quake, tornado, ect... ) , your POTS line is more likely to work than your cell ( which suffers from over-subscription of cell towers and the like ).

I know the fees are bullshit, I agree. But if having an emergency line is important, there really isn't much of an argument; POTS is still the best choice.
Click to expand...

Really? Ever been in a large earthquake and tried to use a POTS line? POTS is subject to oversubscription just like cellular is. You'll pick up your POTS line and - ah shit - no dialtone. After the Loma Prieta EQ in 1989 - the last really good one in the US - dial tone delay reported to the FCC was 30 minutes or more. In the two decades since that event, due to changes in telephone business economics, the level of POTS line over-subscription for residential service has more than doubled.

Cellular is just as likely to be oversubscribed and useless, though text messaging systems do seem to survive pretty well (largely because text messaging systems will queue messages rather than block them). Unfortunately, text-to-911 service is only in early test in limited market areas.

Frankly, the only way to get reliable telephony service during a earthquake-scale mass calling event is to get your connection relocated outside of the effected area. Assuming your IP service survives (*), that mean VoIP may actually be the best way to maintain telephony service during the immediate after effects of a broad-geography emergency. Of course, your likelihood of reaching an E911 PSAP operator using VoIP during such an event is pretty close to zero - but as a practical matter that is also true with POTS or wireless.

(*) Note that IP distribution during such a mass calling event is also largely untested. The current scale of IP networks is a relatively recent development and there has not been a major call generating emergency in a developed country to study (yet).
 
PigLover said:
Really? Ever been in a large earthquake and tried to use a POTS line? POTS is subject to oversubscription just like cellular is. You'll pick up your POTS line and - ah shit - no dialtone. After the Loma Prieta EQ in 1989 - the last really good one in the US - dial tone delay reported to the FCC was 30 minutes or more. In the two decades since that event, due to changes in telephone business economics, the level of POTS line over-subscription for residential service has more than doubled.

Cellular is just as likely to be oversubscribed and useless, though text messaging systems do seem to survive pretty well (largely because text messaging systems will queue messages rather than block them). Unfortunately, text-to-911 service is only in early test in limited market areas.

Frankly, the only way to get reliable telephony service during a earthquake-scale mass calling event is to get your connection relocated outside of the effected area. Assuming your IP service survives (*), that mean VoIP may actually be the best way to maintain telephony service during the immediate after effects of a broad-geography emergency. Of course, your likelihood of reaching an E911 PSAP operator using VoIP during such an event is pretty close to zero - but as a practical matter that is also true with POTS or wireless.

(*) Note that IP distribution during such a mass calling event is also largely untested. The current scale of IP networks is a relatively recent development and there has not been a major call generating emergency in a developed country to study (yet).
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The difference is the scale; telephony service is over subscribed, yes, but cell service is grossly so. Non-emergency events can tie up the cell lines, whereas regular phone service works fine.

Of course, when you get right down to it, ham radios are really the only tested and reliable communication methods in and out of a disaster zone. But when it comes to general purpose, widely available technology, POTS is the simplest and most reliable widely available technology we have.
 
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DustMite said:
I've had great service and a great experience with both CallCentric and voip.ms.
In your web searching, did you happen to come across the charts over at dslreports such as this one?
Click to expand...

CallCentric service provider looks good according to the review. Can I use my existing phone number that I have with Cox cable?
I will check out voip.ms as well.
 
I had a thread about this before, may want to search, people were recommending that voip ms and a ata.
 
A Second to Voip.ms and Vitelity as well. Very much depends on what equipment you'll be using though too. Whether it's a SIP phone, or an ATA, setup could be different.
 
I have a quick story that goes along with this argument;

About 2 months ago a driver hit a telephone pole. The pole had an areal crossing for a major fiber line (AT&T) over a highway. The line was laying across the highway and Highway Patrol decided it was best to cut the line and call AT&T to come fix it and put up a new pole so that traffic didn't have to detour 15-20 minutes out of their way.

Turns out that fiber line was carrying ALL POTS communications, all cell services (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, TMobile, etc all used this back haul), all banking services (both card readers and ATMs), EVERYTHING for half our county (over 100,000 people), not quite a "rural" place.

Our county was without phone, internet, cell, or banking for a good 10 hours while linemen spliced ~1200 pair of fiber.

The people with any communications at all? Comcast customers. They had voice, VOIP, internet, and TV services. Comcast runs their fiber down a different highway. AT&T has zero redundancy in our area, and a single point of failure can completely remove ALL communications, including 911 service. Comcast customers who called 911 got routed to the neighboring county, who relayed calls over satellite phone back to our county.

I'd suggest it might be "more reliable" to have 2 internet providers with VOIP service who have different back hauls than POTS service.

You'd have thought it was a zombie apocalypse around here when all communications failed. People unable to pay for their dinners at restaurants, people running around on the street in a panic because no ones cell phones work (or land lines) and they 'have an emergency', people unable to withdraw money from their ATMs to buy gas or groceries, and worst of all, no facebook updates! :rolleyes:
 
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∞Velocitymaster∞;1038514190 said:
CallCentric service provider looks good according to the review. Can I use my existing phone number that I have with Cox cable?
I will check out voip.ms as well.
Click to expand...

CallCentric does support porting phone numbers into them, but it costs (last time I did this was a few years ago) $25.00 each number. Kind of pricey, but there is a lot of paperwork that has to be done on their end to do the port.
 
XOR != OR said:
What, exactly, do you need your phone service to do?

- Emergency and 911 call capability
- Cheap calling
- ect..

I'll tell you right now; nothing beats POTS for emergency and 911 service. Nothing. Reason being, even during a power loss, you can still make emergency calls with a cheap 10 dollar phone. With VOIP, you have to have backup equipment onsite, maintained, and even then your ISP's upstream equipment might not be adequately protected. Whereas POTS lines are almost always energized.
Click to expand...

Call nation wide, cheap. I do have a cell phone so 911 will be nice to have. Thought it does come with 911.
 
I will be getting FIOS and if the phone is only $10 a month with fios additional to internet, I might stick with Fiber phone instead of VOIP. VZ sales is close now, I will find out tomorrow.
 
I never heard of Fiber phone? All I know is that the fiber is connected to a PBX then to PSTN network so technically its still called VOIP.
 
timreichhart said:
I never heard of Fiber phone? All I know is that the fiber is connected to a PBX then to PSTN network so technically its still called VOIP.
Click to expand...

Lets make it simpler words
I meant phone services through fiber optic networks
With fiber you can get TV, phone and internet all through 1 optical cable.
Just like with Cable over coax you can also get phone.
In short, I meat to say getting phone services through FIOS
 
I know because I got FTTH at my apt I know how my local cable company installs its fiber network to the home.

So like I said before phone goes over fiber network then into PBX or Switch then that PBX or Switch is connected to PSTN network.

Basically all your phone network is over fiber network really.
 
Most POTS phone companies are required to maintain dial tone for 911 services, even when service is terminated. The only way around it is to physically remove the line(s) between the demarcation and pole. If you are nervous, keep a corded phone and a dedicated connection to the phone company's demarcation. I just keep my butt set handy.
 
Verizon said the phone with the FIOS bundle will cost me $29 (in additional to the fios internet) which is way to high for my budget. I'm going with VOIP
How good is Vonage?
 
I have vonage and they charge you more then freaking pots trust me my 25 month will turn out close to 35 dollars a month.

I am still with Vonage and I called in and complained about it so now I am paying 9.99 plus taxes for us/canada unlimited plan. So now I am only paying 17 dollars a month.
 
Yeah, I've heard too many stories about Vonage and the jacked up taxes and fees. Why bother with vonage if you have to pay the same fees as with a POTS line?
Another VOIP solution to check out is Ooma. The downside is it has a high initial setup due to having to purchase proprietary equipment, but after that, the phone service is basically free as you only pay taxes for your area.
They have a tax calculator on their site to tell you how much the fees for your area will be. Mine came out to $4.77/month for my area. If I ever switch from CallCentric, I will probably switch to Ooma myself.

Just some more food for thought. :D
 
Obi100 is $45, totally free US/Canada calls, no monthly fees or taxes ever (Ooma charges $3-$5/month) and fully integrates with google voice (Ooma charges $10/month for their "premier" service for this). International calls charge at google voice's rates. It works absolutely flawlessly. Read the 100s of reviews on amazon or google it for more testimonials. I personally bought Obihai's for everybody I know.

It does have two downsides.

1) Google may decide to stop giving away free phonecalls someday. They've been doing it since 2010 and promised to keep it on through at least the end of 2013, but it's possible they could stop. If they do, the Obihai is still a great ATA that you can use with one of the other SIP providers other people posted about in this thread.

2) It doesn't work with 911 service. I just use my cellphone for that, but if you really feel uncomfortable without it, you can either get the Obi110 for an additional $10 and plug your POTS line into it or sign up with a separate SIP provider for 911 service only for a nominal fee.

Seriously, get an Obihai. You won't regret it.
 
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Ooma's hardware cost $200 and you can't use any other, not even VoIP phone. But I found a voip provider call Phone Power. Their support is in the use and according to some reviews they have good voice quality. Does anyone use Phone Power?
 
Ooma also lets you use your normal pots phones (the ones you used for your land line service) or Ooma's higher end special phones, is a 100% hardware solution and is one of the highest quality VoIP providers. They also have ranked in the top three VoIP services for the past 4 years. They also have one of the better 911 location emergency services and offer HD voice on their premium service along with a second line. Ooma IS more expensive for a reason.

I grabbed my Ooma Telo premium box from woot as a refurb for $150.00.


The Obi100 is not a bad system by any means and would be my first pick for the best inexpensive service.


Ooma standard is (imo) is slightly better and has far greater 911 reliability, but costs a little more on the hardware end. Ooma premium is HD voice with almost every add-on feature under the sun. But again...it costs $10 a month more.

The question is: do you want a $26k 4 door sedan, a $35k 4 door sports sedan, or do you want the best service available?

Just make sure you align your expectation accordingly.

Many people are used to the call quality and reliability of a land line. So VoIP ends up not being what they expect because they often expect the service to be the same or better.
 
Obi lets you use a normal phone. I picked up a cheap DECT5.0 system, plugged it in, and it worked great. I don't know that Ooma's custom handset is so great, but yeah, you can use it. Conversely, you can use Obi on your iOS or android phone. As for "HD voice", that only works if the person you're calling also uses Ooma.

Ooma is just dramatically more expensive. Its upfront cost is 3-4 times as expensive, you have to pay a couple bucks per month recurring cost, and you don't get google voice integration without paying ten bucks per month on top of that.

I guess I accept your argument that Ooma standard is comparable if you ignore cost, simply because you don't have to do the initial setup with google voice (which is quite easy, but it's not zero effort) and you get 911 service. But the cost disparity is huge. And you don't get google voice integration, which is awesome and desirable.
 
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For folks using the obi's, do you have any issue with using your normal google account for google voice? Most guides I've read heavily suggest using a separate account just for google voice.
 
You're best off using a separate account, yes. Otherwise, any time you log into gmail in your browser, incoming calls will go to your browser rather than the Obihai.
 
schizo said:
You're best off using a separate account, yes. Otherwise, any time you log into gmail in your browser, incoming calls will go to your browser rather than the Obihai.
Click to expand...

Ah, now I understand why. The guides I have read didn't explain that. :)
 
schizo said:
Obi lets you use a normal phone. I picked up a cheap DECT5.0 system, plugged it in, and it worked great. I don't know that Ooma's custom handset is so great, but yeah, you can use it. Conversely, you can use Obi on your iOS or android phone. As for "HD voice", that only works if the person you're calling also uses Ooma.

Ooma is just dramatically more expensive. Its upfront cost is 3-4 times as expensive, you have to pay a couple bucks per month recurring cost, and you don't get google voice integration without paying ten bucks per month on top of that.

I guess I accept your argument that Ooma standard is comparable if you ignore cost, simply because you don't have to do the initial setup with google voice (which is quite easy, but it's not zero effort) and you get 911 service. But the cost disparity is huge. And you don't get google voice integration, which is awesome and desirable.
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  • Yes it is more expensive.....
  • Yes Ooma also has less service outages.
  • Comcast has HD voice, as does FIOS digital phone service.
  • I agree Ooma's phone is nothing special.
Everyone pretty much has 911 services, the issue is IF you call 911, will it route to the correct call center? Ooma registers your physical address with the device. When you call 911, they route you to your local 911 center AND notify your local call center that a 911 call has been received by device abcxyz at the address on file. Because Ooma takes ownership of 911 calls, 911 calls being mis-routed are not a common occurrence with the Ooma service. The only time that has been proven wrong is when the owner moves and does not update the address Ooma has on file for their 911 services.

I may be a little neurotic but 911 service is something I want with as high as a reliability as possible. police\fire\ambulance not showing up at my house in an emergency is not an option.
 
Yes, I discussed that in my first post in this thread. You can get E911 service (E911 is what you're talking about, with location) with Obihai by signing up with a VOIP provider like callcentric for $1.50/month (still much less than Ooma's regulatory fees) or by getting an Obi110 and plugging your telephone line into the rear, since phone companies are required to provide E911 service even without subscription. Again it's a bit more complex to setup than Ooma, which is its only real negative.
 
My wife's parents use Ooma and they absolutely love it. They use the forward to cell function every time they leave the house, which makes it much easier to contact them.
 
Or just use google voice and have it ring both, or ring one or the other based upon time of day, or depending on who's calling.
 
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