Good VOIP provider?
 

I'm looking to get VOIP. I will be using my computer, and I'd like to be able to use it to send/receive local calls. Can anyone give me a good recommendation, please?

skype???

Bump, any good providers?

Skype is decent. It's easy to use, and $3.00/month gets you unlimited calling to numbers in US and Canada. Unfortunately, they don't have an option to get an online phone number with a Canadian area code. It'll be available eventually, i guess.

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but I am looking for a VOIP provider too, to replace my current home phone service with Telus. I need a VOIP service that provides Enhanced 911 service.

Are there any available?

Primus - their business VOIP lines are amazing! so is the tech support that goes with it.

Does anyone have experience with Peopleline?

Vonage?
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Just dont choose AIC, it's really choppy that it's almost unusable.

Think it's $10 a month.

I went with Shaw Digital Phone (Not VOIP, I know), cause they offered me an excellent bundle for $79 which includes phone, TV and internet.. :)

Dont bother with VOIP service. I've tried with countless ones, either too expensive for the quality or plain just sucks. I bought a magic jack and im not sure how i lived without one. $40 for the thing and $20 a YEAR for unlimited FREE calls within north america. Good thing is when you take it overseas, you can still call north america free and your friends and family can call you for free as well because u select a north american number, whatever area code you want. If you use it to call international numbers outside north america, you get charged a minute rate (very cheap though). To china its 2 cents a minute.

You plug it in your computers usb drive connected to a BROADBAND internet (dial up doesnt work) and plug a phone into the other end, or you can use your laptops speaker and mic, and just use the phone like a regular phone. You also get free voicemail and it'll send an email to you with a saved voicemail on missed calls when you are away or the computer is turned off. For me and ppl that used it the quality is very good, just like a normal phone, and unbeatable for $20 a YEAR. Give it a shot, pretty cool and the size of a usb drive.

http://www.magicjack.com/4/index.asp

^ that sounds pretty cool, the ads on TV don't make it sound that great. You'd think they'd sell it better.

as far as VOIP not having 911 service, you can always keep an old cellphone handy as any cellphone, even one without a plan, can call 911.

I've used Vonage before and it was mediocre at best. There were claims that Shaw was intentionally messing with Vonage (to promote their Shaw phone service) which didn't help. I ended up canceling it after my year commitment was up because of the quality issues and stuck with a land line. I probably wouldn't use them again for business purposes although I could see it's appeal for home use.

The MagicJack sounds pretty cool. J - how have your experiences been with it? Have you used it at places like hotels where the Internet access is sometimes somewhat marginal? (i.e. slow where you get <100kb/s)

voice doesn't need a lot of bandwidth really...

yes it's worked great. I've called vancouver from 10% slow wireless signal at a bed and breakfast in northern scotland and it was still usuable. Normal conditions have no issue. If you're going to have problems with this, then you'll have problems with VOIP for sure, except this is just a plug to carry where voip you have to carry either a bigger box or a phone. If you're wondering about this as home phone replacement then i'd get one to test out before making a final decision. I got it in while i was in the states so i have a US number, cant remember if they offered canadian numbers. All i know is i live in a condo in richmond and for some reason no matter what i do or a tech does, every voip out there has pretty poor call quality unless i completely butcher my normal net speed to allocate majority of the bandwidth to the phone. With this thing i have had no issues whatsoever. For $40, you dont loose much to try it out. I think they even have free trial atm from their site.

can't agree more on that one. my mom chose aic due to its cheap rates, but the fucking phone line havnt given me anything but trouble.

I was given a magicJack from my gf's dad. I'll admit the cheesy infomercials and marquee website kinda dissuaded me, but having an actual device in my hands urged me to give it a chance.

It doesn't disappoint. The setup is super-easy. Just plug it into a USB port, and the setup auto-runs and guides you through the initial setup. Once you're done, you can plug the jack into any computer, and it's ready to make/receive calls. For $40 + shipping, you get the jack plus a year of service. To get a local number, it's $10/year. Additional years of service are $20/year.

I'm going to scrap my Skype connection, since it's more expensive, and they don't supply Canadian area codes, yet.

they dont, but having a beverly hills number is balln lol