The PAP2T (and SPA2102) are very popular, can't go wrong with either one.

Thought I'd follow up with current status, for those that are interested in the process of switching away from Vonage (or POTS for that matter).

I received my two Linksys PAP2Ts, and had voip.ms start the porting process for my personal and business phone numbers (DIDs, in telephony parlance) on October 28th. On November 4th, Vonage dropped my business line without notice (i.e. no FOC date), and voip.ms had to do a bit of scrambling to add the DID to my account. Of course, to use it, I had to hook up one of the PAP2Ts along side the Vonage adapter that still supported my home/personal line.

That all went fine, at least until I tried to test my business line by calling it from my Vonage line. While non-Vonage phones could connect just fine, anyone calling through Vonage was unable to reach that number since Vonage hadn't purged it from their database and routing (the call would be routed to port 2 on my Vonage ATA, which no longer had a phone attached). A call to Vonage resulted in a ticket to have the purge completed.

Then, as luck would have it, Vonage dropped my personal/home line the following morning . . . again, without a FOC date. Most unfortunately, voip.ms claimed that they couldn't do anything about adding it to my account until Monday the 7th, when their LNP staff was back in the office.

I realize that voip.ms is a BYOD, self-service kind of provider (thus the excellent rates), but being without a house phone over the weekend was more than just an inconvenience. While Vonage did throw us a curveball by dropping the numbers unannounced and unscheduled, voip.ms' inability to handle the issue on a weekend was discouraging.

On the plus side, the total so far is $50 each for the Linksys ATAs, and $25 each for the number port requests. That's $150 initial outlay for two DIDs usable from two separate locations. I expect my monthly costs to drop from $68+ to less than $20.

The switch to voip.ms will pay for itself by March 2012, I'll have active phone lines at both primary and secondary residences without having to "move a line" from ATA to ATA like I've had to in the past*, and I have a plethora of cool features (including IVR, configurable failover options and softphones) I can leverage at no additional fee.

* a process that can take up to 30 minutes for Vonage to complete; a painful wait if you've forgotten to initiate the number move before leaving for your other property and need to get on a call as soon as you arrive.

PS. Lesson learned: If you're requesting a port-out from Vonage through voip.ms, expect it to take about a week. So starting the process on a Friday may get you into trouble if you need to receive calls on that line over the following weekend.

Last week I posted a recommendation for a service called Voxalot which I had been using for three years. Over the weekend I received notice that they were shuttering at year's end. Obviously it is not worth signing up.

Something from the left field...

I've given up on ATAs and moved to IP phones, in particular the Gigaset A580IP. If VOIP.MS offers g.711 codec, the Gigasets give you PSTN quality calls over VOIP.

The other advantage - they can be configured for up to 6 VOIP providers, so you can pick and choose "on the fly" dependent on need and call rates. If you lose internet, they have PSTN fallback.

On a final note, the Gigasets work on g.722 codec, which is a "HD Codec" - however YMMV on your VOIP provider.

I currently have a significant investment in dual-line phones at both my home and alternate (vacation) property, and a fairly expensive (and comfortable) DECT headset for my office desk phone at home. So far, call quality with voip.ms, the PAP2Ts, and the dual-line "POTS" phones has been superior to Vonage, with lower delay and a dramatic reduction in jitter and artifacts. In my experience, it's virtually indistinguishable from our original landline.

What benefits can I realistically expect from the Gigaset phones, other than the ones you've identified so far? Is the call quality difference really going to be that dramatic? FYI, voip.ms supports G.711U, G.729a, and gsm.