Getting started with SIP (VOIP)

[CSMR]

After bad experiences with Skype I've decided to jump ship to an SIP-based system. Looking to have a phone number in the UK and the USA.

Can anyone recommend a US provider? Priority is reliability and voice quality. I've found a UK number provider (AAISP), but if there's a single company that sells numbers in both country then that would be even better.

Then I'd need client software.
I've seen Bria from CounterPath which looks good and costs $50. Any opinions on this? Other options? The software needs to work with Outlook contacts and could be a standalone app or an Outlook plugin.

Thanks!

 

[Cooky]

I've been happy w/ Vonage; been using their service since 2003.
There are occasional hiccup's, but they're generally not too bad.
If you're looking for commercial grade, super reliable service, you may need to look into something like Cisco or Avaya.

I've used Siemens phones and soft client that my employer provided, and they're not bad either.

 

[CSMR]

Oh not business-grade, just more reliable than skype, the type of reliability you expect from mobiles & landlines.
Vonage is a bit pricy for me as there's a high monthly fee. For the UK AAISP is charging about $2/month for the number. Sipgate is free in the US and UK (pay for calls of course) - don't know if they are any good. Sipgate USA seems to be out unless I can pretend to be a US resident.
I have an 03 number in the UK (non-geographic) and I'd probably want a 500 or 800 number in the US - I think those are the main non-geographic numbers.

 

[drebo]

voip.ms gets pretty good reviews, and I believe that they offer international origination as well. They're fairly inexpensive, too. They also offer toll-free origination in the US.