VOIP - anyone use it ?

[Rob Cooper]

I was looking through a recent Costco brochure, and saw a VOIP (voice over internet phone) system for $219 that requires no ongoing service fees. The provider is OOMA. Does anyone have experience with this outfit or another voip system?

[Matt Meiser]

Several of my coworkers use VOIP through various providers and I haven't heard any real complaints. Some things to watch out for are the quality of your internet connection (if its not good enough, big downloads can erode voice quality) and compatibility with things like an alarm system and DirecTV receivers. Many alarm companies won't let you use VOIP due to unreliability.

[Mike Henderson]

Many people use VOIP today - through companies such as Vonage or MagicJack. VOIP works fine.

When you sign up you'll get some VOIP equipment which will connect to your high speed Internet connection. Your voice will be digitized and sent over the Internet.

The problem (and cost) is when you want to call someone who has a regular POTS line (Plain Old Telephone Service). Your VOIP provider has to have a connection to the POTS system (such as AT&T or Verizon) and those companies charge the VOIP company for completing those calls. So the VOIP company has expenses in handing your calls. Same is true for international calls.

When someone calls you, more or less the same thing happens in the reverse direction.

Vonage is a monthly service fee company so they have a stream of revenue to pay for those connections. I see that OOMA offers free service but they also offer a "Premier" service. You can be sure there will be lots of push to convert you to the premier service - they just can't afford to offer the service for free long term.

Mike

[Frank Trinkle]

I've been using VOIP for YEARS....

I have a Vonage account and the system works as well as a land line phone... also for faxing.

The other (cheaper) method is to use Skype which is free to use when calling another person on their computer using skype... or ANY phone for very very cheap.

I work overseas every other six-weeks and I use Skype not only for voice, but also video with my wife who follows my son around with a web cam so I can watch him play while talking to my wife.

VOIP has already put a huge dent in the land-line phone business. The price you mention is excessive however, and you can find MUCH cheaper solutions.

Cheers

[Jim Becker]

IP Telephony is what pays my mortgage, although it's focused on enterprises, not consumers. I use an IP Phone in my home office and an IP Softphone when I travel to places where my wireless phone would incur high charges. (Such as Sao Paulo Brazil or Bejing, China)

There have been some useful comments in this thread, already, relative to being sure you know what you are actually getting, both in capability and cost for what you really need. VoIP is really easy to do, but it's the "little things" that can cost you time, money and frustration. Oh, and don't even think about it if you have "low speed" Internet connectivity. While the call, itself, doesn't use a lot of bandwidth, everything else on your connection as well as upstream congestion in poorly designed cable or DSL networks will make your calls very unpleasant.

[David G Baker]

The thing that I have never seen written about is the taxes that are levied on almost every other mode of communication. I can't imagine the tax man is going to let any thing slide by without finding a way to charge a toll. Anyone have any information on the tax issues associated with VOIP?

[Mike Henderson]

The thing that I have never seen written about is the taxes that are levied on almost every other mode of communication. I can't imagine the tax man is going to let any thing slide by without finding a way to charge a toll. Anyone have any information on the tax issues associated with VOIP?
In my opinion, it's more a question of a level playing field in the communications market. The traditional telephone providers pay a number of charges, including one we called "Universal service fund". This fund goes back to the early days of telephony when the US was trying to get companies to provide telephone service to rural dwellers. In the cities, the phone company could run fairly short loops (copper wire) and serve a lot of people. In the country (rural), the loops were very long and only served a few people. So the universal service fund was created to even things out. Each subscriber is charged a fee, which goes into the fund, which is then distributed in such a way as to equalize the cost of telephone service for all subscribers.

It worked. But times have changed and we still have the universal service fund - but only POTS subscribers pay into it.

This puts the POTS providers at a disadvantage when it comes to offering telephony services. Maybe one day this will be fixed, but the lawmakers from rural states fight any attempt to do away with the fund because it would raise the costs to their constituents.

This is another example of "there's nothing so permanent as a temporary tax."

Mike

[Myk Rian]

We don't use VOIP. Remember the east coast blackout? The only service available was a wired line. We had phone service, our neighbors on VOIP had nothing.

[Frank Trinkle]

The ultimate solution for us has been to get the cheapest hard-wire line for incoming calls and telephone directory use... but we don't use it for anything other than local calls.

We then get an unlimited VOIP system that we use for all long distance at a flat rate.

Then we use Skype for family calls to and from overseas.

Works for us!

[Eric DeSilva]

... also for faxing.

Oi oi oi. I understand the need to fax, but something techie inside me reels at the concept of taking something that was probably a digital document, rendering via a printer to analog, running it through a fax scanner to convert back to digital, converting it to analog audio tones for transmission, converting the analog audio tones to digital IP packets for VOIP, and sending it on its merry way...

[Eric DeSilva]

The traditional telephone providers pay a number of charges, including one we called "Universal service fund". ...

It worked. But times have changed and we still have the universal service fund - but only POTS subscribers pay into it.

Actually, the FCC requires most telecom providers to pay into USF, including interconnected VOIP providers, cell phone providers...

Some states may still exempt VOIP from state-based USF...

[Eric DeSilva]

We don't use VOIP. Remember the east coast blackout? The only service available was a wired line. We had phone service, our neighbors on VOIP had nothing.

What, no cell phone?

[Rob Cooper]

The discussion on taxes and fees got me looking at my att bill. The basic local service with no extras would be ~$35/mo with taxes & fees. VOIP would give me long distance, call waiting, voicemail, and caller id for less than $30/mo.

As a standalone sytem, the price would be great. VOIP with a basic phone line would still be a good deal for me.

Looking into the different systems might take a night or two, but I am going to give it a try.

Thanks for the info.

[Matt Meiser]

What, no cell phone?

IIRC, they worked for a while, then went out.

[Rod Sheridan]

There have been a few incidents in Canada of 911 service operators not being able to identify the callers location due to VoIp services.

Have there been any similar problems in the US?

The comment about power outages is also valid, without power at your ISP or your home location, you don't have service.

The old POTS system was built over more than a century, and service was primary. I know, I work for a telecom utility.

Backup power, multiple levels of redundancy etc assured consumers of very high levels of servicability when they were customers of the old phone system.

The same cannot be said for most internet providers.

If I were going to take advantage of VoIp, I would keep a basic phone service for emergency use.

regards, Rod.

Regards, Rod.

[Eric DeSilva]

IIRC, they worked for a while, then went out.

I'm shafted anyway. All the phones in my house are cordless, so if the power is out, I'm going to be meditating by candlelight without anyone to talk too...

Odd thing is that around here, the ne plus ultra is probably Verizon FiOS, but in a power outage, their battery backups are only like 8 hours...

[Eric DeSilva]

There have been a few incidents in Canada of 911 service operators not being able to identify the callers location due to VoIp services.

Its a problem here too. 'specially for those mobile VOIP set ups. But, in the US, law mandates that all cell phones--even those non-initialized and no longer on service plans--have to be able to connect to 911. So, keep an old cell phone around...

[David G Baker]

My phone service is through Charter Cable. When I lost power I lost phone service so I wired my phone power into my generator switch box. Guess what, I also lost cable the last time I lost power so I still had no phone. I do have a cell phone service so I am covered unless the tower looses power as well.

[Curt Harms]

Oi oi oi. I understand the need to fax, but something techie inside me reels at the concept of taking something that was probably a digital document, rendering via a printer to analog, running it through a fax scanner to convert back to digital, converting it to analog audio tones for transmission, converting the analog audio tones to digital IP packets for VOIP, and sending it on its merry way...

legal discovery, faxes have something to recommend them;). You can't make Email and attachments disappear from servers like you can make faxes disappear with a shredder. Not saying this is right or ethical or legal but.....

[Brad Wood]

I live in the sticks and our power reliability is pretty bad during the winter. even if I had backup power to the house (which I will have someday), I can only get a cruddy DSL connection

Not related to the OP, but I get crappy cell signal out there too.... so, I am stuck with POTS.

Use VOIP at work though and it has been pretty reliable (but it isn't running over the internet, it's on our private network)

[Scott Wigginton]

Don't overpay for Vonage, get Viatalk (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/www.viatalk.com). They always have a special offering two phone lines and one year free at $199/year. When it is time to renew they'll offer you a free 6 months. Unlimited calling to the US, lots of nice features, works out to $8.3/mo + taxes first 2 years then $11/mo + taxes after.

Taxes are about $3/month thanks to Congress double tapping us.

Power outage is a valid concern, but I only have cordless phones so I have to use my cell anyway.

If you want more specifics on Viatalk PM me, been using it for over 3 years.

[Ed Sallee]

We use Broadvoice (http://broadvoice.com/) at our home. Never had a single problem and my wife, who is from Brazil, often has the equivalent of a 40 hour work week per month on the phone to Brazil - and it's still only $24.95 per month.

Another neat thing is that you can have any phone number you want. I, for example, live in Georgia and have a second number with a Minnesota (my home state) area code. So, any of my friends and family from home can call me and it's like a local call for them.

Also, you can unplug the VOIP unit and take it with you. It will work anywhere you want to plug it in - like hotels, friends home....

Kudo's to this company - especially if you make a lot of international calls.

[Mike Null]

I have Charter for telephone but I'm going to drop them as being too expensive. I'll probably use a voip.

In the meantime I bought MagicJack and for a flat $20 per year it can't be beat. That's $20 and no taxes or extra fees. It has to be plugged into a computer with Internet access but for my purpose that's no problem.

I use a cell phone for my business.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Really like it. It has saved me about $300.00 every month

[Brian Elfert]

I have AT&T Callvantage and taxes and fees add over $4 a month on top of the $19.95 a month.

I have a terrible hum in my phone that makes the service unusable, but I have finally traced it back to a bad phone or wiring. I doubt the wiring as it is all home runs to a punchdown block. I wired the house when it was built in 2001.

[David Cramer]

I just signed up with Vonage about a month ago. With taxes, my bill will be $30.83 per month. I varified it with 6 different employees before I committed.

I get 3 months at $9.95 which is about $15 with taxes. At the 4th month, I start paying the $30.83 ($24.99 plus taxes). The device costed $9.99. We got free shipping and a waived activation fee.

It will save my wife and I almost $400 per year based off the AT&T rate we were paying. That's not including the extra savings we get for the first 3 months during our first year. If you cancel within 30 days, you pay nothing. If you cancel during the first 2 years, you pay $39.99. We can call anywhere in the country at anytime. I wrote all this down and as I said, verified it with several different employees before committing. They were all saying the same thing. We do have cable internet, but it is 2M, not the fasted and not the slowest.

Our fax machine works flawlessly, absolutely no problems whatsoever.

So far, so good! We'll see what the future holds, but we have no complaints so far.

David

[Ken Becker]

We did away with our landline two years ago and recently tried a Magicjack (39.95 for the first year and 19.95 a year thereafter).

It works great for our uses