What is the best VOIP phone?

[micrometers]

I'm thinking either Ooma or Magicjack. Apparently with Ooma after a one time purchase of about $200 you get phone service for like 3 bucks a month (cost of taxes).

But otherwise, any issues? The business model is interesting, but what if it goes bankrupt?

 

[ponyo]

http://obihai.com/what-is.html
obihai

I have old grandfathered Ooma with zero fees. I will use it til they go bankrupt. I bought my sister Obi110. It works fine.

 

[NAC]

I insalled OBi Friday night. $50 from Amazon. Connected it with a free Google voice account. And have been talking for free since then. Setup took perhaps 30 minutes, and the sound quality seems good.

Save $150 and go with this instead of Ooma.

 

[NAC]

ponyo beat me by a minute.

I agree with the concerns regarding Ooma's pyramid pricing sceme, and what happens when the sale of devices slows down. Google voice is free - but they have Google's balance sheet behind them, and have a source of revenue from overseas calls. I assume one day they might charge per month - I can decide then if I want to pay it or switch to another provider. Until then, I've got the $150 in my pocket.

 

[Dulanic]

I had magic jack for 2 years and honestly it blows. I just replaced with a OBi110 and it is fantastic. No issues so far and no fees.

 

[QueBert]

I like Ooma, it's a bit more expensive but has been around for years and is rock solid. I've had it for coming up on 3 years now. And would drop the $199 on another in a heartbeat.

 

[micrometers]

those choices also allowing porting of phone number, right?

 

[arod]

I have actually started conducting a trial of skype for my phone service.... going pretty well so far.

Pricing it pretty good too.... about $60/yr for unlimited calling in the states and a online phone number for people with a landline to call. Devices are about $60 to connect to your phone network or get a stand alone phone like I did. I like having skype and now microsoft behind the service.... seems like it will be more stable than most other options.

Skype does not allow porting of your existing number (they will give you a new phone number in your area code). You can port your number to google voice but not all numbers are available to be ported (mine for example is in an unsupported area code). I have been looking to other services where I could port my number but have yet to find anything. If the skype experiment goes well I will be dropping my cell phone voice+txt plan and go data only and use skype but I would like to keep my existing number if possible.

 

[pm]

I use Callcentric's BYOB (bring your own box). www.callcentric.com

You buy a VOIP box of your choice and then you pay for what you use. There's a $1.95 fee to have a phone number, and then another $1.50 fee for "911 recovery fee" for a total of $3.50 per month and then we just pay for what we use.... which at $0.015/min, isn't much.

They support a bunch of standard telephone adapters. I'm using a Linksys PAP2. But they support the Grandstream HandyTone 286 which is like $30. Their service has been solid, they have good international rates, and their customer service is prompt and efficient. You can port your number to them (we did this) and that worked fine too. They also have iPhone, Android and Windows VOIP software clients.

 

[ponyo]

those choices also allowing porting of phone number, right?

You can port the number with Ooma. It was $40 and it would've been free after rebate for me but I decided to just get a new number. With Obihai I think you have to port the number to Google Voice first.

 

[Binky]

Obi!

Hook it up with googlevoice, and also another VOIP service like Anveo. Googlevoice can port many numbers for $20. As long as googlevoice remains free, your bill excluding international calls will be ZERO. They have publicly announced that service will remain free through at least 201.

At anveo, you can get unlimited inbound phone number for $2/month. Outbound calls are a few pennies per minute, and 911 service is $0.80/month. Callcentric offers very similar services for a little bit more.

For the Obi and googlevoice, you ALWAYS want to make a new gmail account JUST for the voice service.

 

[micrometers]

googlevoice does NOT port landline numbers, which is where I'm going.

 

[Binky]

It is possible to port a landline to GV, but you might have to port to a mobile phone first. I've seen tricks involving porting to prepaid phones, then to GV.

Or, you could port the number to Anveo, callcentric, or any other VOIP provider and use that for your inbound. Anveo is $2.80 per month for unlimited inbound calls including 911 service. You can still route your outbound calls through GV as long as its free.

 

[Anonemous]

googlevoice does NOT port landline numbers, which is where I'm going.

Port to prepaid phone. Pay 20$ to google to port it to gvoice. Setup Obi.

 

[kitkat22]

I have been using Skype for about 3 years now for the $60/yr. It has worked really well so far, my only complaint is the adapter I have only connects to 32bit Windows and getting it to work with 7 is a little bit of a pain, but once it's up, it has been working solid for a while. I may have an issue once every 3 months or so.

 

[Binky]

Here's the way to port from landline to googlevoice.

http://www.obihai.com/porttutorial.html

 

[NAC]

For the Obi and googlevoice, you ALWAYS want to make a new gmail account JUST for the voice service.

Why?

 

[Pliablemoose]

http://articles.businessinsider.com...3_1_mike-lazaridis-ceos-blackberry-smartphone

Our Critics Are Idiots -- We Had No Choice But To Run The Company Into The Ground

LOL, great write up...

 

[Binky]

Why?

Because the GV system uses the google chat protocol. If you're logged into the gmail account that you use for a home phone, and the phone rings, your browser could intercept the call. Just setup a new gmail account for the home phone and forward any email from that account to your primary account. You shouldn't get much email there anyway.