VIOP providers?

JimS

Senior Member
Currently have Vonage.  Got started with them about 15 years ago and it just works - no problems for many years.  Some years ago I found out they would give $9.99/month unlimited rate to long term users that threatened to leave and I was planning to do exactly that to a BYOD VOIP provider.  But with the rate I stayed.  Now I am looking to move and reviewing the VOIP options.  My current rate is $9.99 but with all the taxes and fees the bill is a bit over double that.  The extra fees are:

Basic service
$9.99
Emergency 911 and Information Services Fee
$1.99
Regulatory, Compliance and Intellectual Property Fee
$3.99
State Telecom Infrastructure Maintenance Fee
$0.09
Federal Program Fee
$1.96
State 911 Fee
$1.50
State Communications Service Tax
$1.26
Total charges
$20.78


I usually have less than 500 minutes a month.  Latest month is about 180.  Currently have a Vitelity (now Voyant) for an 800 number and am happy with it but they don't show current rates without talking to sales it appears.  Have looked at VOIP.ms.  Total fees look to be a little under $10 a month ($4.25 unlimited DID + 0.01 for 500 minutes would be $9.25 total I think).  Wondering what the extra fees would amount to.
 
If I go with a BYOD VOIP provider I could run it through my Asterisk PBX.
 
I use Google Voice with an Obihai.   The only cost is the obihai box and whatever you pay for a 911 service provider.
 
I use VoIP.ms for my home phone and business numbers with a Linksys PAP2T at home. Have used it for years and it has always been good. We dont use the home phone much except for a few local calls, mostly for incoming. For my small businesses, I used it more for a remote mailbox as I send calls directly to voicemail, mainly due to the number of robocalls. So I can recommend the VoIP.ms service in general but dont use them much for outgoing calls as it seems you may do. But I do know Id hear about it if the phone wasnt working, which has happened once or twice but was always due to the PAP2T being unpluggedor me changing the network.

Edit: I also use the VoIP.ms service to block serial robocallers. The Nielsen Ratings company was the last one I blocked as they called multiple times a day wanting us to give ratings on our viewing and listening habits. Annoying companies can get away with that sort of harrassment.
 
Here have been using Ooma for about 4 years now with no issues.  Always works.
 
Only charges have been the 911 taxes and in the last couple of years local town taxes. (town does the same with cell phones).
 
Ooma has changed a bit of their free basic service with some lesser features and offer them in a premium service. 
 
I tried the premium service for a year and it was not beneficial to me. 
 
Thanks for the recommendations but my real question is how much are the extra fees?  I will likely go with someone like VOIP.ms.  How much are the taxes and extra fees?
 
BTW, I already have Google Voice and have gotten the newer OBi200 so I can tie it to Asterisk.  But that seems to change every few years so a real voip company would be more likely to keep working and have higher SAF.
 
I don't pay taxes with Voip.ms but then again, I don't have a traditional service and don't have E911 turned on.  With E911 service, it would be an additional fee of $1.50 per number, which they say is required to provide the service.  Below is what I pay for 3 business lines and a home phone.  The business lines are really just used for voice mail and I call back with my cell phone.  I think the different costs for the numbers is based on the type of number I picked out of the list of available numbers.  The home number is used as a traditional number and the callerID queries are based on calls to our home number so we can see who is calling.  Hope that helps.
 

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Ooma claims the basic service is FREE but extra taxes and fees are about $5/month, but it varies with location. But with basic service you don't get caller ID. I have an extra line, so the premium service is worth it for me. 
 
I use Vestalink.  It has gone up in price over the years, but it looks like it is currently $89.99 for 24 months.  This is for unlimited minutes and 911 service.  It sounds expensive, but it works out to be $3.75/mo.  I can't remember having any issues with them and we've used them since 2014.
 
Just looked over my charges for Ooma in the midwest in a suburb of Chicago.
 
Currently it is $6.17 per month.  I've always had caller ID and still have a privacy option to shut it off if I choose to do so.
 
I also use Ooma in Canada and it works well except for the built in voice mail. With no beeper, despite being capable of it, the voicemail is useless and stays disabled.

Ooma believes I can see their soft blue LED inside my equipment cupboard.

Ooma does not like to be downstream from your router and can be a problem if your router hiccoughs.

If Ooma becomes disconnected you will never know it until somebody calls on another line.

Other than their refusal to enable a beeper it works well as it is cheap for calls around the world as copper lines disappear.
$4.50 per month here.

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wuench said:
I use Google Voice with an Obihai.   The only cost is the obihai box and whatever you pay for a 911 service provider.
I wanted to use Google voice but the outbound caller ID is random, whoever or whatever had it before.  Or seems to be.  Has that been an issue? 
 
I use Ooma now paying their premium service, so I average around $15/mo, and have generally been happy.  The latency is pretty high, but the sound quality si really good, and I like their handsets.  Their Android app is also pretty nice as you can answer and call from your cell on the Ooma number as well.
 
@Linwood,
 
Ooma is way oversubscribed these days.    When I started to have issues relating to latency a couple of years ago saw same complaints on the Ooma forum.
 
One of the Ooma forum moderators changed my connecting server from the West coast to the East coast and all was well after that.
 
Looking today I see latency numbers averaging around 100.
 
Here is a test you can run...voip latency test.
 
pete_c said:
@Linwood,
 
Ooma is way oversubscribed these days.    When I started to have issues relating to latency a couple of years ago saw same complaints on the Ooma forum.
 
One of the Ooma forum moderators changed my connecting server from the West coast to the East coast and all was well after that.
 
Looking today I see latency numbers averaging around 100.
 
Here is a test you can run...voip latency test.
 
I think I saw some of those threads but I never got it done, maybe it is time to try.  I tried that test and got 0.5ms jitter, zero loss, and all green on the summary.
 
Ask the moderator on the forum to change your server.  He did mine in a day.  What are the latency numbers you see on the Telo box?
 
I orginally had my blue tooth 2nd phone extension next to the phone line jack and still always had issues with the second line. 
 
The recommendation at the time was to update my Telo as I had a first generation one.
 
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