Who's Got a VOIP Phone Service?

I'm looking for anyone here who has a Voice Over IP phone service. We're thinking about de-bundling our current Comcast package and the offer they showed me today for phone service didn't do it in terms of price. I see a lot of different VOIP service providers out there and suspect some of you have already made the switch and could provide some interesting opinions / perspective.

Any VOIP feedback appreciated.

I had Vonage for about 10 years. Never any complaints unless power went out or internet went down but both were few & far between. Finally ditched it last year & now just use cell service.

I provide VoIP services to corporate clients. A good VoIP service is just as comparable to a traditional landline, but that means it's not cheap. That is relativity speaking, it will compete with a landline but compared to the thrifty VoIP providers it will cost much more. Bottom line, when it comes to VoIP you pretty much get what you pay for.

I use Skype and WeChat...

If considering VOIP/SIP cellphone with a provider like "FreedomPop" be aware the quality stinks and the Echo can be really bad. Plus they nickel and dime to the extreme. That aside I have a datacard for a Nexus 7 2013 LTE as data service is fine, messaging is fine. Voice quality, not so fine but good enough to make quick calls from a tablet or phablet that doesn't have cellphone ability built-in.

Home services? I haven't had experience with but I believe if your power goes out, you either need a generator or UPS battery backup. Then if you have good cell service where you live you can ditch the landline. Kurt

I have cox digital phone but I am thinking of dropping it, since we hardly use it.

Ooma phone service is highly rated.

https://www.ooma.com/

One issue with VOIP is latency can really vary and make it hard to have a conversation with someone. It's especially bad if both users are on VOIP. I have a VOIP system at the office and can immediately tell when the other person also has a VOIP system.

There may also be some issues with 911 calls as it's not a hardwired location, same as will cell phones.


Tony

I have VOIP service at the homestead through Basic Talk. The only problem we have ever had is occasionally (like once a month or so) we have trouble checking voice mail. The problem has never gone beyond 24 hours.

The Fortune 500 company I work for ditched landlines for "softphone" VOIP to save a few bucks, and we've all just resorted to either cell phone, text or smoke signals. Conference Calls were handled successfully by VOIP for awhile using WebEx, but now have gone fully to Google Hangouts, which is a total fiasco (but is apparently FREE). Was on a call with our president the other day, whose husband is CIO, and I'm sure it won't be long until we get something more reliable. At least I hope it won't be...otherwise I'll freakin' quit. This may have nothing to do with VOIP, but thank you for letting me vent as I am currently on a Hangout with 30+ people from Asia and I sound like the announcer at Yankee Stadium. Never realized how disorienting it is to hear your own voice echoed back to you with a 500ms delay...

I've used Google Voice, now Hangouts, since it first became available. I used it a lot from my laptop, esp. at work. I finally got a "smart" phone a couple of years ago, and it works great on Android. Works great on my tablet (Android). I've even used it for video phone conversations. Except when my phone carrier interferes with it (that's gotta be illegal!), I've never had any trouble with using it on my phone. I don't have a data plan, so it's all through wifi.

I have used MajicJack for years. But like previously mentioned you need fast internet

sooner.boomer said:

I've used Google Voice, now Hangouts, since it first became available. (Snip)
I've even used it for video phone conversations. Except when my phone carrier interferes with it (that's gotta be illegal!), (Snip)

Click to expand...

Interfering with such internet use was due to become illegal, with significant protections regarding "net neutrality" in the U.S. However our current government chose to undo this and now your ISP can pretty much pick and choose what content you may access and how fast. Please remember this issue when you vote in November.

US net neutrality was supposed to protect VOIP among other things. The media focus on "Comcast could slow Netflix's feed" which resonates with lots of consumers but much of the money to be made is in charging business lots more for "premium access" including full speed VoIP from competing carriers. As for consumers, we are screwed unless we get NN back on track. Call your Congress people and advocate on this issue... It affects us all.

Marc_G said:

Interfering with such internet use was due to become illegal, with significant protections regarding "net neutrality" in the U.S. However our current government chose to undo this and now your ISP can pretty much pick and choose what content you may access and how fast. Please remember this issue when you vote in November

Click to expand...

It's not the ISP that's mucking with it, it's the cell phone carrier. I've got an "Obamaphone", and towards the end of the month, they start messing with my Google voice connectivity over wi-fi. I'm supposed to get 100 minutes and 100 texts free each month. I've stopped using the voice service almost completely. I reserve it for emergencies away from the house. I can use the tablet or a laptop at the house, it's just easier/more convient to use the phone to make Google Voice calls, because sometimes I need to get up and walk around. I was also using a bluetooth headset for a while, and only the phone could connect to it.

I have had Vonage for years. I have high speed internet as well, and other than an issue early on where a call would drop out for 1-2 minutes (but still be connected) that was resolved by getting a new router, I have been very happy with it.

Have used Ooma for a couple of years and love it. If I loose internet, it forwards to my cell.

ObiHai with Google Voice for most calls. Note that GV does NOT support 911 in any form. So I also have an account with voip.ms set for 911 and failover for outbound. Both are easy to set up in the Obi device, which can work with any provider that uses SIP, which most of them can.

I've had Ooma since 2013 and I like it. Good quality sound, calls get forwarded to cell, voice mail gets sent to me by email (and voice mail storage is huge)