Thanks for the info Ben. When I have the time, I planned on looking for alternate solutions to Vonage. My call quality and stability hadn't been good since I made the switch over a year ago. Your options look compelling.
On Friday, July 29, 2011, Ben Serebin <b...@reefsolutions.com> wrote: > Hello All, > > > > I know this is old, but wanted to share in case it helps someone (I spent a few months determining my options and testing different solutions). I recently dropped Vonage after about 9 yrs for my home setup and switched to a significantly cheaper and more flexible solution. Vonage is too expensive (~$37/month) & I didn’t need all their crazy features since it needed to be “wife friendly” (non-tech) & support a standard 2 line Panasonic cordless phone. And more importantly their pricing over the last few years included double digit pricing increases for “taxes & surcharges”. I also have a Google Voice I wanted to incorporate. 2 options… > > > > - Get a OBiTalk (hardware) which allows you to dial out/in via an analog or IP phone via a SIP provider or Google Voice (supports 2 SIP or phone line options or combination). Yes, your grandmother’s analog phone (needs touch tone, sorry no pulse) could be dialing out for FREE via Google Voice. http://www.obihai.com/ The folks behind OBiTalk use to work for Cisco, there hardware is rock solid stable. Very user friendly for non-VoIP people. > > - Use a SIP provider (I like voip.ms) since it’s very cheap and has EVERY feature you could dream of. Spoofed calling (my SPA has 6 caller ID profiles), Asterisk support, phone trees, e911 or no e911 to save the money. If you’re really smart & thrifty, you get e911 on 1 line and none on line 2 and do call routing when someone dials 911. You can get almost unlimited national for $4.95 INCLUDING ALL TAXES & SURCHARGES. And it’s 6 sec billing. E911 is $1.50 extra a month. You can port #’s over (adds $2 a month), etc. I love these guys. I have extra DIDs for $0.99 a month. It’s mind blowing. > > > > FYI: I have an OBi110 (it’s so popular – people scalp them) & a Cisco SPA509G IP phone. > > > > Enjoy, > > -Ben > > > > > > From: Sam Cayze [mailto:sca...@gmail.com] > Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 3:09 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: OT: I need a Landline! You read that right. > > > > So… > > Thought I’d build a nice new home office in the basement. After layers of new insulation, soundproofing, and drywall, my cell phone no longer works down there! Oops :-\ > > > > Considering how much I telecommute, I need to get some sort of landline installed. VOIP/SIP/Digital through Comcast, I’m considering it all. But, I’m not too well versed on the options avail. I still support an old PBX at our office, and built a SIP fax service/server, but my telco experience is pretty limited outside of that. I’d like to avoid Comcast (Personal reasons and I often cancel it and go through our Municipal WiFi). > > > > Any suggestions you guys have off the top of your head? A good service that sticks out that you would like to plug? > > > > Something that incorporated with Google Voice would be a plus… (Not sure anything does). I do use the new Sprint/Google Voice offering, so I can mask the new number with my Sprint number, and I can easily have my Sprint number ring the new number too. > > > > Thanks. Open to ideas. > > > > > > -Sam > > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > --- > To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ > or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com > with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
