«

Hi,

I am looking for a VOIP provider. I have a VOIP enabled router.

I have heard of Sipgate and Vonage but are there others, that provide
a local incoming number that I should consider?

Thanks

Me

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:38:35 +0000, Me<> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I am looking for a VOIP provider. I have a VOIP enabled router.
>
>I have heard of Sipgate and Vonage but are there others, that provide
>a local incoming number that I should consider?
>
>Thanks
>
>Me
Voipfone are quite reliable and have good working features.

voip.co.uk have some attractive pricing and seem to be reliable but
are are new and still getting it together. Not all the services listed
on their site are available to all yet - e.g. voicemail.
Call forwarding, last time I tried it via my ATA, didn't work yet
either. For general incoming/outgoing calls voip.co.uk is good.
In time they could be a main player but they made the mistake of
launching before they have sorted out the services.My impression is it
is rather like launching a restaurant without having tried out all the
recipies and thus only offering a cut-down menu, some of the equipment
not working in the kitchen and limited staff to sort it.


Remove 'no_spam_' from email address.

Thanks for that info Brian.

It looks good

Me

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 14:22:48 GMT, Brian A
<> wrote:

>On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:38:35 +0000, Me<> wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I am looking for a VOIP provider. I have a VOIP enabled router.
>>
>>I have heard of Sipgate and Vonage but are there others, that provide
>>a local incoming number that I should consider?
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>Me
>Voipfone are quite reliable and have good working features.
>
>voip.co.uk have some attractive pricing and seem to be reliable but
>are are new and still getting it together. Not all the services listed
>on their site are available to all yet - e.g. voicemail.
> Call forwarding, last time I tried it via my ATA, didn't work yet
>either. For general incoming/outgoing calls voip.co.uk is good.
> In time they could be a main player but they made the mistake of
>launching before they have sorted out the services.My impression is it
>is rather like launching a restaurant without having tried out all the
>recipies and thus only offering a cut-down menu, some of the equipment
>not working in the kitchen and limited staff to sort it.
>
>
>Remove 'no_spam_' from email address.

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:38:35 +0000, Me<> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I am looking for a VOIP provider. I have a VOIP enabled router.
>
>I have heard of Sipgate and Vonage but are there others, that provide
>a local incoming number that I should consider?
Forget Sipgate but there are three very reliable ones Vonage has you
have mentioned Freetalk and Voipfone keep well away from Sipgate
unless you want loads of aggravation due to very poor service .

wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:38:35 +0000, Me<> wrote:

> Forget Sipgate but there are three very reliable ones Vonage has you
> have mentioned Freetalk and Voipfone keep well away from Sipgate
> unless you want loads of aggravation due to very poor service .

Forget Dexter as his Sipgate problems may be his setup or imagination.
Quite good here in 6 months use (one major six hour outage recorded) -
apart from the diabolical Voicemail. Support ok if you are happy with
email and the consequent day or so response - but this is of little
help in an emergency.

If it is mission critical than Vonage has to be a strong contender with
their CS but, of course, you can't switch their kit (or Freetalk's) to
another provider should they become unreliable.

Remember VOIP can't be more reliable than your broadband ISP & router.
Your connection & setup may be as important as to your VOIP provider.

Stuart

> Remember VOIP can't be more reliable than your broadband ISP & router.
> Your connection & setup may be as important as to your VOIP provider.

A key factor for me is the option to automatically divert calls to another
number (e.g.your mobile) if your network is down. Not all offer this (Vonage
do, some others may also). Obviously you pay the cost of the diverted call
in this case.

--
John Blessing

http://www.LbeHelpdesk.com - Help Desk software priced to suit all
businesses
http://www.room-booking-software.com - Schedule rooms & equipment bookings
for your meeting/class over the web.
http://www.lbetoolbox.com - Remove Duplicates from MS Outlook
http://www.outlook-find-replace.com - Find & Replace in Emails, Contacts,
Appointments, Tasks and Notes
http://www.schedule-email.com - Schedule multiple individual
emails/newsletters

<> wrote in message
news: oups.com
> wrote:
> > On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:38:35 +0000, Me<> wrote:
>
> > Forget Sipgate but there are three very reliable ones
> > Vonage has you have mentioned Freetalk and Voipfone
> > keep well away from Sipgate unless you want loads of
> > aggravation due to very poor service .
>
> Forget Dexter as his Sipgate problems may be his setup or
> imagination. Quite good here in 6 months use (one major
> six hour outage recorded) - apart from the diabolical
> Voicemail. Support ok if you are happy with email and the
> consequent day or so response - but this is of little
> help in an emergency.

He isn't even a customer any more, he even got a refund of unused credit
from them and they usually have a no refunds policy. He's still not happy.

Apart from a few occasional blips, Sipgate has been fine for me on 4
separate numbers for several months.

> If it is mission critical than Vonage has to be a strong
> contender with their CS but, of course, you can't switch
> their kit (or Freetalk's) to another provider should they
> become unreliable.

I'd recommend Gradwell for business use.

> Remember VOIP can't be more reliable than your broadband
> ISP & router. Your connection & setup may be as important
> as to your VOIP provider.

Indeed. A lot of problems are blamed on the VoIP provider that are down to
either the user's ISP or, more usually, their (mis)configuration of their
equipment.

Ivor

Me <> wrote:

> I am looking for a VOIP provider. I have a VOIP enabled router.
>
> I have heard of Sipgate and Vonage but are there others, that provide
> a local incoming number that I should consider?

One thing to look out for is whether the service you choose will work
with standard ATAs and VoIP routers or will you have to buy a device
that's specific to their service?

Vonage and FreeTalk have good backing and provide a reliable service,
but you need to buy their own-branded locked-to-their-service ATAs or
routers - not much use if you want to change providers or experiment a
bit with several different ones. And not much good for you if you want
to use your existing router...

Providers like Sipgate, Gradwell, Voipfone and VoIP.co.uk will sell you
a preconfigured ATA/router if you wish, but you don't have to buy one
from them if you don't want to, and even if you do you can change the
settings for another provider.

Sipgate get mixed reviews here, but for someone who has, or intends to
get, their own unlocked ATA it won't cost much to give them a try.

Gradwell aim themselves primarily at small/medium sized businesses, and
base their offering on a sensible business model, so although they do
offer a single user account there is a monthly " line rental" and they
don't do any calls-included packages.

Voipfone I haven't used, but they seem to be well liked in this group.

VoIP.co.uk are the new boys on the block. Their basic service seems
very reliable so far, their calls-inclusive packages are attractive and
they plan to offer a fairly wide range of services. However, their
offering is still undergoing a bit of development work, which has it's
pluses and minuses - you get the chance to influence things via
feedback, but things might not work quite as expected initially. If
they've done their sums properly they'll be ones to look out for.

--
The From address is a spam-trap, so all replies to the newsgroup please.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Be Alert, Your Country Needs More Lerts! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you Dave for a very full and interesting response.

I will investigate www.voip.co.uk and www.voipfone.co.uk

Regards

Me

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 20:04:13 +0000,
spam-egg-chips-n- (Dave Gill) wrote:

>Me <> wrote:
>
>> I am looking for a VOIP provider. I have a VOIP enabled router.
>>
>> I have heard of Sipgate and Vonage but are there others, that provide
>> a local incoming number that I should consider?
>
>One thing to look out for is whether the service you choose will work
>with standard ATAs and VoIP routers or will you have to buy a device
>that's specific to their service?
>
>Vonage and FreeTalk have good backing and provide a reliable service,
>but you need to buy their own-branded locked-to-their-service ATAs or
>routers - not much use if you want to change providers or experiment a
>bit with several different ones. And not much good for you if you want
>to use your existing router...
>
>Providers like Sipgate, Gradwell, Voipfone and VoIP.co.uk will sell you
>a preconfigured ATA/router if you wish, but you don't have to buy one
>from them if you don't want to, and even if you do you can change the
>settings for another provider.
>
>Sipgate get mixed reviews here, but for someone who has, or intends to
>get, their own unlocked ATA it won't cost much to give them a try.
>
>Gradwell aim themselves primarily at small/medium sized businesses, and
>base their offering on a sensible business model, so although they do
>offer a single user account there is a monthly " line rental" and they
>don't do any calls-included packages.
>
>Voipfone I haven't used, but they seem to be well liked in this group.
>
>VoIP.co.uk are the new boys on the block. Their basic service seems
>very reliable so far, their calls-inclusive packages are attractive and
>they plan to offer a fairly wide range of services. However, their
>offering is still undergoing a bit of development work, which has it's
>pluses and minuses - you get the chance to influence things via
>feedback, but things might not work quite as expected initially. If
>they've done their sums properly they'll be ones to look out for.

Brian A wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 13:38:35 +0000, Me<> wrote:
>
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I am looking for a VOIP provider. I have a VOIP enabled router.
>>
>>I have heard of Sipgate and Vonage but are there others, that provide
>>a local incoming number that I should consider?
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>Me
>
> Voipfone are quite reliable and have good working features.
>
> voip.co.uk have some attractive pricing and seem to be reliable but
> are are new and still getting it together. Not all the services listed
> on their site are available to all yet - e.g. voicemail.
> Call forwarding, last time I tried it via my ATA, didn't work yet
> either. For general incoming/outgoing calls voip.co.uk is good.
> In time they could be a main player but they made the mistake of
> launching before they have sorted out the services.My impression is it
> is rather like launching a restaurant without having tried out all the
> recipies and thus only offering a cut-down menu, some of the equipment
> not working in the kitchen and limited staff to sort it.
>
>
> Remove 'no_spam_' from email address.

When i use the voip.co.uk service, outgoing calls ring with US tone, and
dont end when i hang up!