Which is better? Voip Provider or Set my own?

Which is better? I am thinking of just acquiring a voip provider instead of just setting up my own. I have a little knowledge about setting it up so I am considering on just getting a provider like vonage, etc. What do you think? Would it be more practical?

when you say getting a provider like vonage; are you suggesting buy the whole company? i do not think that i understand the question. i am sure you understand that it is impossible to terminate calls to regular phones without dealing with some sort of provider.

Depends on what context you are talking about. If you are talking about a company the with more than 20-30 employees with the need for phones, purchasing your own phone system and having your local telco or long distance provider run a couple T1's to your business is best. If you are talking about a small office, a VONAGE or Skype *might* work, but results can vary depending on a myriad of conditions.

The advantage of owning your own VOIP system that plugs into land line service is you have more control over the conditions that can cause issues. We currently use a Shoretel VOIP Phone system that is spread across 7 different sites with locations in the US, India, and Malaysia and we rarely have issues with our site-to-site calls.