Jaimito Cartero

I run a small business and am on the verge of changing my 800 service provider. I used to be with MCI, but hated their billing options. I moved to a small company in Canada that would allow me to change the destination number online, plus check the phone numbers, bills and such online.

The service was okay, but I found the fowarding feature to other countries didn't work so well. A 20 second delay in forwarding a call makes most people think that the call didn't go through. However, their network seems to be down 1-2 days per month, which isn't acceptable.

I also looked into some of the Vonage stuff, but don't believe it's reliable enough for domestic and international use.

At this point, I'm looking for a great domestic service, with good prices that will allow me to view all calls online, with online payment as well. Reliability is a must, as a day without my phone service can cost me thousands and in sales.

Any help is appreciated!

H2O_Goalie

I use VoicePulse (a Vonage competitor) and have had my calls forwarded to various phones both cell and landline within the US and internationally; I've also taken the "box" with me on extended trips (CONUS and international) and had no problems making or receiving calls. Just FYI.

stimpy

As long as your internet access is reliable, Vonage should be reliable.

Jaimito Cartero

I'm actually looking for something that uses normal lines, and can be forwarded to a normal cell phone or land line in another country. I'm unsure of the both the local internet, and need a very reliable service once I'm home.

H2O_Goalie

I know that such services exist, my g/f used to use one. I can't remember the name of it though.

You know, at this point if you're using a service like that you might want to make sure that you're not just having VOIP essentially passed to you by whatever company you go with (as you seem to have an objection to VOIP). Just because the call comes to you via a landline doesn't mean it's not being handled via VOIP elsewhere.

I think you're being a little paranoid about VOIP service, I have tens of friends who use it and have never experienced a problem. Are you sure you really understand it?

ef560

If you are only looking for reliable 800/877 service for forwarding calls, locate me function, and fax calls -- you might want to try uReach. I've used the service for 5 years and it's been a valuable service.

www.ureach.com

Jaimito Cartero

I'm pretty sure that I do understand it. It's only as reliable as the local cable service that you use. Especially when you go to another country, you're playing a bit of russian roulette. My current service is down about 5% of the time, and has been down for days at a time. It's not advertised as a internet based (VOIP) service, so I've always assumed that it's using fiber optics or such for their service.

It seems to be a small Canadian company, and customer service is minimal, and their uptime is pretty abysmal.

I'm primarily interested in a company that uses non-VOIP, that is very reliable at a good price. Also to access to my account and the phone numbers that have called online.

jdn

I just saw an ad for this in a magazine a few days ago, so I don't know about reliability/uptime. Also, it looks like a twist on the usual feature set, but might be worth investigating:
http://gotvmail.com/

holtju2

Vonage's call quality within the US is fine. When I tried to make several calls to South America and Europe using Vonage the call quality was terrible. When I was making those calls using a calling card through Vonage it was fine.

H2O_Goalie

Keep in mind that every VOIP provider I know of has a "dead-man's" feature...when their central computer is unable to reach your "box" over the Internet, it defaults and will send your call to a user-designated fallback number. A landline, a cellphone, etc. So even if your 'Net drops out, you'll still get the call.

H2O_Goalie

I call my sister in New Zealand on a regular basis (over VOIP), the calls have always been crystal clear.

SNA1K

Same for me to UK, China, Slovenia, Singapore, Germany, and Japan!

cordelli

Funny, I was looking back over the threads on this yesterday.

Kall8.com has come up over and over again, $2 a month, 6.9 cents per minute

Some of the others I've found.

ureach.com is $7 a month, 10 cents a minute.

tollfreemax.com is $10 a month, includes 100 minutes, 5.9 after that.

https://www.my800online.com/ , no monthly fee, 5.9 a minute, prepaid, $20 minimum recharge, expires in 3 months if not recharged, 30 min free on signup

telcan.net, $2 a month, 4.5 cents a minute, free vanity numbers, but they put a hold on your weekly expected charges (you set the limit) against your credit card, and also offer prepaid.



I was using broadwing for a while and they were close to going under, it was a great deal, and they have my vanity number, so I have to try to get that back again.

Jaimito Cartero

Telcan is who I am with right now. Just not reliable enough for a real business. If you're selling $500 worth of stuff every month it might be fine, but I've lost 5-10k worth of sales because of my number being out of service (fast busy when you call, down totally), just this year.