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."

Unlimited Long Distance

[sik0fewl]

Are you sure your phone company doesn't have a package with unlimited in-country or in-state long distance calling?

Do you have cellular coverage in your area?

[drinkypoo]

Depending on how much time she needs to spend on the phone, cellular might be your best bet. If you have coverage in your current area from someone who sells service in the area whose area code you're looking for, that would probably be the easiest way to get what you need. I'm sure you can still get phones which have good broadcasting power, and you can pick an appropriate antenna, so perhaps you can get coverage already. This will have the added advantage of coming with its own battery backup (unless you need to use an amplifier) and thus being even more reliable than a wired POTS->PSTN phone.

Or....

[TastyWords]

a cell phone? I cancelled long-distance service for my landline because I had no use for it. Sure, if I use it it'll cost me an arm & a leg, but the only thing I use the landline for is to write a phone number down on receipts & whatnot as I've got a machine on it to collect messages. I have plenty of friends who don't even have a landline any more, preferring to select the best plan from the various cell vendors - especially now that you can keep the same number forever.

Roll Your Own?

[squidgyhead]

I was thinking about this problem myself when I was living in S. Korea and wanted to call home to Canada.

It seems like the best way to do it (and cheapest) would be to call from your computer over the internet to a computer in the city you wanted to call to, which would then hook up to the regular phone line via a modem. I was looking for something like this, but haven't found anything on freshmeat, etc. (Any links out there?)

It seems quite possible. You tell the computer what local number you want, it dials it, and then just acts as a gateway between you (on the internet) and the person you're talking to (on a normal phone line). Nothing too complicated. If you get the reliability up, this might be your best bet.

Keep in mind the virtual numbers as well

[Anonymous Coward]

With the telecomute aspects of the position, its important to remember that there are two sides to the phone expense equation. Not only do you want to minimize your own expenses - but you do not want to show up as an extra expense in the office in cases when people want to phone you.

To get around the situation, a virtual phone number that is local to the office is a great (and inexpensive way) to eliminate any costs associated with someone from the office phoning you at home.

As for providers, I just signed up with Vonage a week or so ago and have no complaints so far.

Whats required for vonage like services?

[thogard]

I make too many calls to the US from Australia and I've heard tht you need 200ms pings. I can get 150ms pings to some places in San Jose but typical ping times are 220 to 250 ms for random places in the US. What I'm looking for is where are the gateways located? What are their unoffical rules about getting connections that aren't from the US? How much does the adapter cost and how much does it cost me if I bail out of their serivce in the 1st month?

Re:Keep in mind the virtual numbers as well

[nate1138]

but you do not want to show up as an extra expense in the office in cases when people want to phone you

That's exactly why we are looking into Packet8/Vonage/etc. We need to have a local number that her office can call or transfer calls to without running up their bill. It looks like the ISP is pretty reliable, so that won't be a big issue (we hope, anyway).

Re:Same situation and I use Sprint

[jaymzter]

why isn't your company routing your calls through their PBX using a VPN? I fail to understand all these comments about private phone solutions. If they're letting her work VO they need to support her and give her the ability to route calls through the company PBX