What's your VOIP phone service (looking for Magic Jack alternatives)

Any CPFers have experiences with some VOIP phone services other than Magic Jack? The Magic Jack service was "ok" but due to a couple of horrific customer services experiences, I'm done with them. So now looking for an alternative (non-PC) VOIP service. I've done a bit of research on the following.

Ooma: Pay $150 for the box and then free US calls except for taxes and fees which I read average $4-5 a month.

Basic Talk. $10 a month (not sure if additional fees) but from what I read a pretty aggressive reasonable use policy. 3,000 minutes a month can possible be considered unreasonable. That's only a 100 minutes a day which is not too much when you have a lonely gabber in the house by herself every day. Not sure how strongly this is enforced but don't wish to come across this issue and suddenly lose service that may be difficult or impossible to re engage (aka like Magic Jack).

Other "higher end" services such as ITP and Vonage. I know Vonage is quite well known but quite pricey as well. With fees, I think you can eclipse $30 a month. For that price, almost worth it to stick with the telco. The advantage of these two is that you can call Canada also. I think I read Basic Talk is a subsidiary of Vonage.

Any thoughts or user experiences would be appreciated. Really would like to set up and then not have issues for a long period of time. A cable or FIOS triple play also is out of the question as sticking with the $30/month DSL service.

You can read some of my experience here:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?233055-VoIP-Box-Review-amp-Setup-Guide-(SPA-2102)

But doing it again, I'd get the box and service from the same place. Ooma looks good to me now. The main thing is that if your data line is crowded, you'll need some kind of packet prioritization. Voice packets don't like waiting around!

I'm thinking towards Ooma and although it's true they'll make some money off the box, how can the stay in business if they don't require any subscription or renewal fees?

geepondy said:

I'm thinking towards Ooma and although it's true they'll make some money off the box, how can the stay in business if they don't require any subscription or renewal fees?

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I had the same initial impression. But its x years later and they are still going. Was in Costco recently and they even have a new model box. Ultimately, the business model depends on an influx of new customers. If that ever stalled for to long, they would fold or start charging a fee. Having said that, they are most likely investor supported, like Amazon and will continue as is for as long as investors continue to believe in them.

The Ooma box is available at Costco retail stores? May I ask which part of the store? Near where the cell phone kiosk usually is?

ElectronGuru said:

I had the same initial impression. But its x years later and they are still going. Was in Costco recently and they even have a new model box. Ultimately, the business model depends on an influx of new customers. If that ever stalled for to long, they would fold or start charging a fee. Having said that, they are most likely investor supported, like Amazon and will continue as is for as long as investors continue to believe in them.

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I personally like providers that allow you do bring your own device. I have used a company called voip.ms for the past 4 years and have been happy with them. They have various plans, but you generally pay $0.01/min for calls within the US.

You can purchase an OBi100 ATA for about $45 on amazon. Or, you can get really fancy and get an IP phone...

How about something like an OBi100 and hook that up to Google Voice? Port whatever number you want into Google Voice, then you have free calls within the US.