Suggestions for a Home VOIP Provider? 250
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."
Re:Do you have cellular coverage in your area? (Score:5, Interesting)
Unlimited Plan (Score:1, Interesting)
I have had MCI "Neighborhood" program (http://www.theneighborhood.com) for almost a year now. $49 gets me unlimited local and long distance service. Sign up under the Blockbuster promotion and you get a certificate for free game or movie rental for every $25 (so I get 2 per month). I have never had a problem with the service and it is chock full of features including the ability to listen to voice mail over the Internet and getting alerted to my pager, cellphone and/or e-mail when someone leaves a message!
DSL? (Score:4, Interesting)
If reliability is tops, you may not want VoIP (Score:3, Interesting)
My own requirement was that my VoIP provider support my choice in SIP devices. That eliminated several of the vendors on your list as they require use of a Cisco-ATA and lock you out of it. I wanted a more 'open' service. I currently use IConnectHere. For $8.95/mo they provide unlimited incoming calls, Caller-ID, Voicemail, Call-Waiting, Call-Transfer, etc. Outgoing calls cost 3.5 cents/minute.
Addaline (http://www.addaline.com) has recently started offering DID service and has a very economical outgoing rate.
A.
How to do it with POTS. (Score:3, Interesting)
First option is a "Foreign Exchange" line. Phone at your home office, connected to a switchboard in the city of interest (transparently, via the long-distance infrastructure).
This USED to cost an arm and a leg (or have a large per-minute charge) because it potentially tied up a long distance trunk any time you were off-hook, and a business might be off-hook essentially all day. But now that bandwidth is cheaper than air it might be another story. (Worth a look.)
Second option is to install a phone with call-forwarding and a dirt-cheap flat rate long-distance service, with the jack installed somewhere handy in the distant service area. (If you do business there but don't have an office, you can probably talk someone into letting the jack be at their site.) Set the call-forwarding to your home-office phone, and unplug the distant instrument. People call you, it transfers to your home-office phone. You pay the long distance charge for the call - which is prepaid or nearly free.
Third: Some tellcos have a service (I don't recall what it's called) that is essentially equivalent to number two but without the line to the unplugged phone. (Check with the long-distance providers, too, not just the local tellcos.) Local tellcos might still price this one sky high, but I bet the long-distance companies have a deal on it.
If you enquire about number three, it's too pricey, but number two would do the job in your price range, be SURE not to talk about them both in the same call to the tellco in question. B-)
Re:Whats required for vonage like services? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Which VOIP works with Asterisk PBX? (Score:3, Interesting)
How about this? Her work would give her a "desk" with an analog phone. You put an old Linux PC at the "desk" with a Digium [digium.com] FX0 card. You then have another PC at her home with with a VOIP phone jack [pcphoneline.com] or a headset [plantronics.com] with SIP software (like this Windows [xten.com] or this Linux [wirlab.net]) or run Asterisk on her home Linux box and run IAX between the two.
Reliability would depend on the reliability of the IP connection between home/work. Because of Internet delay (and possibly delay from your VPN encryption), there may be a noticable delay on the connections, so it may feel more like a cell phone conversation than a land line.
If you don't have time to tinker and really care about reliability, just get a $30 nationwide unlimited plan from your local phone company or long distance provider (BellSouth/MCI/AT&T), expense it to work, and be done with it.
North of the border (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:If you really need Reliability... (Score:3, Interesting)