From: www.quickstartvoip.com
Voice over the Internet phone service is no longer an exclusive preserve of techies. Scores of telecom companies, cable companies and young entrepreneurs have set up VoIP services.
Each one claims to offer extra features and benefits. So how do you decide?
If price/cost is your most important deciding factor, VOIP comparison sites are great. They extract all the rate info and display it in a handy chart. Voipreview.org is a good example. Click here to compare the VOIP phone service and prices being charged by different providers.
The services that you should take a close look at are basic services, advanced services, voice mail, faxes, call blocking, web management, special calling, and customer service.
The most common services being offered by VoIP providers under the different service heads are:
- Basic Features: Call forwarding, international call forwarding, caller id by number, caller id by name, call-waiting, call-waiting caller id, disable call waiting, distinctive ringing, repeat dialing, return dial and three-way calling.
- Advanced Features: Call Transfer, conference bridging, simultaneous ringing, sequential ringing, secondary virtual phone number, additional service lines, toll-free numbers (incoming), MS Outlook integration and softphone support.
- Voice Mail: Retrieval of voicemail from telephone handset, phone number for external retrieval, retrieval via web interface and receiving of voice mail via e-mail
- Fax Functionality: Support outgoing/incoming faxes, receive faxes via voice mail, and a dedicated fax line.
- Call blocking/filtering: Block outgoing international calls, block outgoing 1-900 calls, block incoming anonymous calls, do not disturb notice. This also includes blocking of telemarketing calls or selective blocking and selective forwarding via e-mail of filtered calls
- Web Management: Modify basic/advanced features, obtain detailed call logs, activate order/cancel features/services, activate click to call facility, and provision of web interface that is compatible with non-IE browsers.
- Special Calling: 911 Emergency calling, 411 Information, free in-network calls, free calls to external VoIP networks, Cable box/SatTV/Tivo compatibility
- Customer service: Technical support via telephone, technical support via email, web-based technical support and account management by telephone.
A friend of mine recently asked about VOIP services in Canada. Like me, he started with Vonage but has decided to look elsewhere. We both live in Vancouver and want a local 604 number. I discovered that at this point, there aren’t a lot of options. Thus began a search for services that support Canadian area codes.
I found that Mark Evans, a Canadian technology blogger, has a nice list. I’ve added a few names to it here:
- Shaw Digital Phone: BC &Â Alberta (select areas)
- Rogers Home Phone: BC (select areas), Ontario, probably elsewhere but they make it hard to find out. You have to enter your postal code before they’ll tell you.
- Primus TalkBroadband: Canada-wide, select cities
- Vonage: Canada-wide and the only one I think that includes the adaptor for free
- Zingotel: BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec
- Bell DigitalVoice:Â Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton
- babyTEL: BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia
- Telehop Broadtalk: Ontario
- AOL Canada TotalTalk: BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia
- Cogeco: Ontario,Quebec
- SpectraVoice: Ontario, Quebec
- Videotron: Quebec
- unitz.ca: Canada-wide
- DigitalVoice: BC, Alberta
Added Sept. 25:
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If you are really looking for the best deals in residential VOIP services, look at providers with annual subscription rates. Most VOIP providers only offer monthly plans. Vonage for example is currently offering $24.99 per month for its basic unlimited service (free unlimited calling to anywhere in NA and Europe).
But as a way to reward and attract customers, VOIP companies are adopting what cell phone companies have been doing for years: offering the latest and greatest gear for free in return for long term committment.Â
SunRocket markets a similar package at $24.95 per month or an annual subscription at $199 per year. That works out to about $17 a month. So if you can handle prepaying for your service by the year instead of by the month, then an annual package is a good idea.
Packet8 has also recently adopted the annual package deal. For a flat rate of $199 per year, you get get unlimited calling within North Americal, calling features like voicemail and call waiting and a 100% discount on a Packet-8 enabled UIP1868P 5.8-GHz digital cordless phone system, which can be extended to work with multiple cordless handsets.
This caught my eye on the wire today. Montreal-based BabyTel is expanding into the US market. I first heard about them when I was compiling my list of Canadian VOIP providers. They say they’re different from the wake of other VOIP providers out there, offering not just competitive rates and plans but also “innovative” services and outstanding customer service, “something the so-called giants have trouble delivering”. (Wu-hoooo…wu-hoo-hoo).
They’re coming to the party with all the usual features of a VOIP service provider, but they’re also offering fax-to-email and follow me services (when multiple devices ring at the same time). Sorry, that’s a little shy of the Wow! factor isn’t it?
If innovation is really on their mind, they should give PhoneGnome’s David Beckenmeyer a call, or at least heed his plea.
BabyTel does offer service in my area, though (Vancouver), which is great. Plus they’ve got a softphone option instead of adaptor. Maybe I’ll give ‘em a try. I’m interested to see what “responsive tech support” is really like.
Carolyn Schuk has a post about the much blogged iPhone introduced this week at MacWorld. An evolution instead of a revolution. Should we be disappointed with the lack of innovative features or impressed with the breakthrough design for a phone? Some lively comments posted as well.
Phoneboy has a great post on how and why handsets make it to the US market, with special perspective on those from Nokia. It kind of provides an answer to questions I get from time to time from visitors to this blog. Mainly, they’re frustrated when they hear about new mobile VOIP services, especially “free” or “beta” ones that they can’t experience because a) it’s not clear which handsets the services run on b) it’s not clear if the handsets are even available, and c) who the heck knows if the network even supports them. Judging from what Phoneboy says, it’s clear that US carriers probably don’t support (or at least officially authorize) anything bleeding edge.
Such are the trials and tribulations of early adoption. Just hurry up already.
Hi and welcome to my blog about VOIP, voice over IP, Internet phone, broadband telephone, or whatever you feel inclined to call it. This is NOT a blog about women, or even necessarily about women who use VOIP services–I mean how boring is that. I called it The VOIP Girl because well I’m a gal. And I want to write about this voice over ip. That’s about it. What really prompted me to get going however, is the fact that there are few women commentators on this subject. I’m curious to see if my perspective will be any different.
I want to write about how consumers (that’s you and me) are doing using VOIP. I don’t necessarily care about IPOs, who’s buying who, and all that insider industry stuff. There are tons of blogs out there talking about all that. In fact I would say that is mostly what you’ll find when you look for VOIP commentary in the blogosphere. It’s great stuff, but really I’m interested in how ordinary folks are using Vonage, Skype, Gizmo, etc., and how is the free stuff stacking up against heavy hitter paid services.
Thanks for stopping by.
Leanne Tremblay
VOIPGirl
Hi and welcome to my blog about VOIP, voice over IP, Internet phone, broadband telephone, or whatever you feel inclined to call it. This is NOT a blog about women, or even necessarily about women who use VOIP services–I mean how boring is that. I called it The VOIP Girl because well I’m a gal. And I want to write about this industry. That’s about it. What really prompted me to get going however, is the fact that there are no women commentators on this subject. I’m curious to see if my perspective will be any different.
I want to write about how consumers (that’s you and me) are doing using VOIP. I don’t necessarily care about IPOs, who’s buying who, and all that insider industry stuff. There are tons of blogs out there talking about all that. In fact I would say that is mostly what you’ll find when you look for VOIP commentary in the blogosphere. It’s great stuff, but really I’m interested in how ordinary folks are using Vonage, Skype, Gizmo, etc., and how is the free stuff stacking up against heavy hitter paid services.
I’ve been chatting with Craig Walker of GrandCentral over the last little while mostly about new GrandCentral features and the Canadian phone numbers coming soon (yeah!), but I also asked him about Project CARE (Communications and Respect for Everybody). It is a social program they started right out of the gate aimed at helping homeless people more easily communicate with family, employers, social services, doctors, and so on. Using GrandCentral, individuals in need receive a free local phone number and voicemail box for life. The program is currently offered in the San Francisco area but there are plans to go nationwide.
What impresses me about Project CARE is that GrandCentral saw how their technology and services could really benefit people in need, right from the inception of the company.
“We always wanted to use our services to help the community around us” says Craig, “and we strongly feel that private companies can be very effective when deploying new and enhanced technologies to help social problems. We focused on the homeless because we realized that without a local phone number of voicemail system there is virtually no way to get out of the cycle of homelessness. How do you get a job if there’s no way to reach you? Housing? Health Care? We also started working with a number of battered women’s shelters who have similar issues of needing an ability to communicate with the outside world when everything else is lost.”
We had a recent dump of snow in our area, enough to close schools for a day and wreak havoc on commuter traffic, and my son asked me about what the homeless do in weather like this. Well, what do they do? I think it’s an unfortunate fact that we don’t generally think of people in desparate situations until our own situation turns a little upside down. Indeed, living on the street in winter is something my kids can’t comprehend. Kudos to GrandCentral for putting their great product to greater use.
