VoIP options

[tuqqer]

I'd love to hear from anyone who's dumped their landline in exchange for a VoIP solution. I've got a situation where I'm happy with most calls to my iPhone, but at my current house, the signal is crappy, and I'd like to be able to occasionally just talk from a normal phone set up. But I'm so ready to dump ATT and Qwest landlines.

I want a setup that is independent of my Mac. That's the about the only requirement. Wouldn't mind being able to get a local area code (303), but that might not be completely important.

[space-time]

google voice + gizmo =$free

search previous posts

I think I posted about a week ago or so

EDIT: and if you can/don't want to get google voice, gizmo alone is 1.9 cents/minute and the $10 credit which you have to buy for outgoing calls lasts 1 year or when it is used up (500 minutes) and there is no tax of any kind

find an old Sunrocket box on eBay or CL and unlock it and set up with GIZMO

[yeoman]

Skype unlimited calls to North America landlines or mobile for $25/yr, even from your iPhone if you've Skype installed and got wi-fi connection.

[deckeda]

We dumped the landline and have VOIP. We're not heavy phone users, but if we were, an analog phone line would (at our house) does sound better. Maybe if we had higher-speed broadband or played with QoS or whatever it's called ours would be a little better.

[tuqqer]

deckeda wrote:
We dumped the landline and have VOIP.

Deckeda, what system and equipment do you use?

[clay]

tuqqer, see the thread I started yesterday for some other info:
http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,772539

Basically, I've found that different VOIP services are pretty similar (I've used 3 different ones in the past 3.5 years after dumping our Verizon landline). You may (or may not) need either some sort of traffic shaping device (as I'm purchasing) to give VOIP traffic preference so call quality does not suffer. You may also not need one if your router does a good job of managing traffic, or has QoS (Quality of Service) settings that you can configure.

I'd simply recommend getting started by picking a provider (based on recommendations here, or independent research elsewhere) and give it a try. Many providers offer a 30-day moneyback guarantee which should allow you to try the service with very little/no financial penalty. VOIPo (the one I'm using right now) has this 30 day guarantee. If you want to go with Voipo, I can provide a referral link to you (which benefits me slightly if you signup and stay a customer).

If you want to transfer your existing landline number to VOIP, it's a pretty easy process. Just initiate it with your new provider, and they'll do whatever they need to to get your old number transferred. When we first transferred away from Verizon, we didn't even need to let Verizon know--they simply closed our account once the number had transferred and we were not billed for anything further. But....keep an eye on your credit card or whatever you use to pay your landline bill just to make sure they don't keep charging you.

[Kramerica]

I dumped mine for Ooma. It's been great.

[DavidS]

I've been using Net2Phone since SunRocket went belly-up. I was able to use my SunRocket gizmo and they have been fine ever since. No problems with call quality and I don't use a QoS setup.

[M A V I C]

I didn't dump my landline because there's some things about it that no VoIP system can replace, but I did go with VoicePulse well over a year ago for my business line and it works great.

[clay]

M A V I C wrote:
I didn't dump my landline because there's some things about it that no VoIP system can replace, but I did go with VoicePulse well over a year ago for my business line and it works great.

Hey Mavic, I'm wondering what you're referring to that VOIP can't replace? The reasons I've heard are:

-call quality
-the fact that VOIP relies on your net connection
-VOIP isn't usable in a power outage unless you have battery backup (whereas landlines don't require power as long as your phone doesn't require power)

I'm just curious if you have other reasons....