Need advice for a VoIP business line

I don't know if this is the correct forum for this thread, but it is directly related to my business and is mainly used for business purposes.

I've decided to go all out and start my own IT support company. I had a traditional business LAN line a year or so ago but now only have a cell, and I don't want to go back to a traditional phone line (is that stupid?).

I've thought about Vonage, but their business line is like $50 per month! That is more than my traditional biz lan line! Next I thought about the MagicJack just to try it, but think it is going to fall short of what is needed for a good business phone, or am I mistaken, lol?

What are my options so that I am not spending $50/month? If it is going to cost that much, I'd be willing to set up Trixbox or an Asterisk setup. I actually want to familiarize myself with Trixbox as it is going to be one of my "premium" products down the road.

Does anyone know of anything that is "middle of the road"? Not quite Trixbox and certainly not Magicjack?

I already have the standard analog phones and can buy one of those VoIP adapters.

I really appreciate any help you can provide!

I'd also like to be able to fax if it is possible. Thanks

I have a MagicJack and while I like it, especially the price, I don't think it is a good idea to rely on it as a business phone service. There have been some problems that could be due to over sold bandwidth as they claim 250,000 new customers per month. But its hard to complain about something that only costs $US20 per year. Also people have had mixed luck with Faxing with MJ. Some say slowing dowm the dialing helps, also reducing baud rate, but probably not reliable enough if you Fax much.

There are devices around where you pay like $US250 and get free phone calls for life, but that doesn't seem reasonable to me. I think they reserve the right to charge after 3 yrs. Heard they are more reliable than MJ, but they did have a full day outage recently felt by all their customers. Not sure how it works for Faxing.

There are a few other low cost SIP providers in the US too, let me know if you need more.

Dave

<edited>We prefer to not mention specific providers here as we don't know if you're working for them or a competitor </edit>

Quote:

There are a few other low cost SIP providers in the US

There are thousands ! Please check carefully that any VOIP provider you select offers the level of customer support that you require. (Call them before you sign up - invent a problem to ask them about and see how long it takes them to answer).

If you can manage with customer service and want cheap calls then by all means go that route but check carefully that the rates are best for all destinations you call regularly and that there are no hidden charges. (Rounded up minutes, connection fees etc etc)

Please see the various lists in the Voip Provider section for some further ideas

gray :

Quote: There are a few other low cost SIP providers in the US There are thousands !

I think thousands of US VoIP providers is a bit of an overstatement, but you are correct there are a good number of them. But apparently we can't mention them here, even when asked.

I was just trying to answer the question another member had, sorry if I did something wrong. I am not promoting any particular service or device, period. I was only trying to help a fellow forum member who had a valid question that had not been answered, I apologize again. My first two posts on this forum seem to be unwanted.

Dave

Quote:

But apparently we can't mention them here, even when asked

As you will notice we are totally devoid of spam here on Voip user. The way we achieve that is by remaining as impatial as possible to individual VOIP service providers and not putting any one ahead of any other.

Tme moment we mention one then all the others feel hard done by and upset that they didnt get any free publicity and the whole thread becomes a nonsense.

Skype is a slightly different case as the major percentage of users only take advantage of the free elements of the service. Skype is of course a VOIP service but through what has to be acknowledged as very clever application of technology and an even cleverer bit of forward vision has carved itself not only a major slice of the market but has created an awareness of VOIP with people who have no clue what VOIP actually is.

99.9 of them are not visitors here (luckily perhaps as we would have problems dealing with 4.5m users) nor are they interested in the wider viewpoint. For them its just a button with an S on it that you press to speak to and see granny or the kids.

For that reason one can't compare Skype and lets say Vonage, just look at the balance sheet of both for some justification of that remark.

With the whole telecom business fast approaching zero revenue from PSTN call handling, you would have to question the sanity of anyone actually setting up a new VOIP business, unless there was a significant USP and those are getting thin on the ground now. For that reason its easy to understand the desperation of the 'build it and they will come' voip company - its increasingly easy to set one up but incresingly difficult to make it into a profitable business.

Your posts are wanted and I hope you go on to make many more - we see a lot of one time posts mentioning specific services so forgive us for an enthusiasm for our subject that sometimes extends to over enthusiastic post editing and make yourself at home here.

gray,

The poster specifically mentioned both MJ and Vonage in his post. So it certainly appeared to me that it should be OK to answer. Plus, his post had been here since the 8th without any replies, or admins editing his post. My post in this thread was edited quickly and without any notification that it was changed or who had done it. On most forums I am a member of online, dealing with any subject, editing a members post without site staff noting who did it and why is a big no-no. You could make my posts say whatever you wanted and no one would know it was not me who wrote it that way, and that does cause me some concern with this site.

Can I ask does your policy only apply to VoIP providers (which I still feel Skype is a VoIP provider as I know many who use it for DID and dial out paid services, it is considered one of MJ's main competitors on this side of the pond), or does it include VoIP hardware, software, and other VoIP related sites? I ask because I have noticed threads that seem to promote some of these products, such as the thread about Truphone in the news section (which appears to be a pay to use product) and a sticky thread promoting MyVoIPProvider in the VoIP provider section (which I took a look at their forum and it seems to mainly consist of advertising posts, some with incorrect or misleading information).

It does seem hard to talk about VoIP without mentioning providers, but I will do my best to comply with your rules if and when I post again.

Thanks for the reply, and please will someone note that my first post in this thread was edited by one of this site's staff.

Dave

Quote:

Can I ask does your policy only apply to VoIP providers

Not at all, we get spammed by all sectors of the market they are non selective.

First posts that mention a specific provider are often spam. Posts that mention MJ are usually from their sales agencies.

The reason for leaving the MyVOIPProvider post is pretty well explained in the subsequent posts in that section. If you are unhappy with it as a resource then we can consider its removal. The fact that you mention that some of the info is out of date is further reason to review it - thanks for the heads up.

We are very happy to impartially debate, compare and contrast specific VOIP providers (like Truphone) from a technical point of view but again we are not here to promote or recommend any specfic service.

gray,

MJ doesn't really have sale agents, they are too cheap for that, they do infomercials on TV and have very little customer service or sales personnel. And I am NOT one of them. Hell, they are a VoIP provider that you can't even contact by phone, lol. They don't even make appearances on a MJ support forum that was started by MJ users, as they don't have their own forum. I highly doubt there are a lot of MJ employees or agents coming here, or anywhere for that matter, to post advertising in these threads. But that is mostly what MyVoIPProvider's forum is, almost entirely advertising posts. You guys even include live links to that site and Truphone, and that certainly looks a lot more like advertising/promoting than anything I had posted in my first 2 posts on this forum.

In this thread my post was edited, without any note that it was edited, to remove another VoIP providers name, even though I mentioned problems with this provider, you guys still felt I was advertising for them, which I wasn't. In fact I do not even use the provider I mentioned because of the issues with them stated in my post.

Could you PLEASE make a note in my first post in this thread that it has been edited by staff, as there is no sign that it was edited currently, and I cannot edit it myself to make such a comment as my 30min editing time has well passed. As I stated, it does cause me some concern when a site edits posts without noting the edit happened or who did it, the staff here could change my posts to say anything and no one would be aware it was not me who made the post that way. This is simple Internet forum etiquette practiced by most Internet forums. Thanks in advance.

Dave

Thanks dean for noting the edit of my post, I do appreciate it. Case closed.

Dave