Anyone know of a good VOIP service?

[tart666]

we are starting a small business, with very few, but large (for us) clients. I'd like to get a VOIP phone (unlimited long distance seems nice) and need to know which services have a good reputation. It needs to be reliable (barring net congestion on our end) , and high quality for voice.

Please let me know if you are aware of any reviews / personal experiences.

 

[Amused]

I couldn't be happier with Vonage.

 

[Aves]

http://www.vonage.com/

 

[vi edit]

For a business you are better off just negotiating a good long distance contract with your long distance provider.

For example - we use qwest and have a deal where we don't pay any more than $20 a month per line long distance. I'd never trust a consumer oriented VOIP (Vonage, Packet8, ect) for a business.

 

[tart666]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
For a business you are better off just negotiating a good long distance contract with your long distance provider.

For example - we use qwest and have a deal where we don't pay any more than $20 a month per line long distance. I'd never trust a consumer oriented VOIP (Vonage, Packet8, ect) for a business.

I agree with your point. I was just researching this in case we can't reach a decent deal with our phone provider. Our offices are actually on a university campus, so we have to get our phone service from them, and they may not have very good long distance rates. (In fact, our department recently got a $12k phone bill after a student made repeated overseas calls at $3 / min, and the university phone people won't budge on the rates)

 

[cosine17]

ventrilo.....

 

[neonerd]

Originally posted by: Amused
I couldn't be happier with Vonage.

ditto...and you can visit the official vonage referral thread to request a referral be sent to you

that way the person who sends it gets one month free, and so do you

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: tart666

Originally posted by: vi_edit
For a business you are better off just negotiating a good long distance contract with your long distance provider.

For example - we use qwest and have a deal where we don't pay any more than $20 a month per line long distance. I'd never trust a consumer oriented VOIP (Vonage, Packet8, ect) for a business.

I agree with your point. I was just researching this in case we can't reach a decent deal with our phone provider. Our offices are actually on a university campus, so we have to get our phone service from them, and they may not have very good long distance rates. (In fact, our department recently got a $12k phone bill after a student made repeated overseas calls at $3 / min, and the university phone people won't budge on the rates)

how much are you going to save by going vonage? even were the rates high, you probably won't pay more than 7 cents a minute for long distance. if your business depends on good phone communication, stay with the university phone service. especially if your broadband is also thru the university. you don't want your business to depend on how good your university broadband service is.

i used vonage at home. it's ok, for home service. but it's not perfect and it's not as good as service from the local phone company.

 

[jai6638]

i've heard some good stuff about sunrocket although its fairly new and hence theres a risk..

 

[aircooled]

Vonage

 

[vi edit]

For intra-office communication between branch offices VIOP is fine and I wouldn't be too concerned about using a more consumer level product.

But when you have paying customers or the potential of a paying customer on the line the risk of dropping that connection or missing the call just isn't worth the savings that VOIP would gain you.

I've had far too many broadband line problems in the 30 sites that I manage to ever trust it for my business needs.

 

[vi edit]

BTW - what state is this in?

 

[DigDug]

Vonage had tremendous problems in our house and in the area. I've spoken with a few neighbors who reported the same problems: Intermittent call drops, inferior sound quality AND constant conflicts with the cable modem. We tried multiple devices to pinpoint the problem, but Vonage essentially admitted that this sometimes happens and that they don't know what to do to fix it.

So make sure you TEST it out good before yanking the existing phone line.

 

[tart666]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
BTW - what state is this in?

we are in NY...

I did a little more asking around, and it turns out the business rates for phone service aren't as ridiculous as i thought. In the past, I've talked to people from Santa Barbara, who were getting charged upwards of $200 / mo to get a single local line on a business account, but apparently in NY the rates are a lot more reasonable. I think I will do some more research on traditional phone companies.

 

[vi edit]

You shouldn't be paying any more than $25-$40 for the line and $.07 a minute tops for long distance.

$.05 a minute is really getting to be the norm outside of the capped rate plans I mentioned earlier.

 

[imported_Geekking]

There are many VOIP providers these days. I myself was going to use Vonage but found out they do not offer area codes where I live. My second choice was ATT Call Vantage and so far I am pretty happy with it. I would recommend it highly. Now if Vonage has an area code in your city then you may want to try them. Vonage has been in the business of VOIP most especially for businesses for some time now.
Also check out the following forums for any questions you may have.


TalkAboutVOIP.com