HELLO & WELCOME

[WelshPaul]

I have been tempted to go with a few of the listed providers, mainly the fact that I don't/won't use the landline that much. It will mainly be for incoming calls.

If your going to ditch your landline completely and go 100% VoIP then go with a VoIP provider who is a registered member of ITSPA. The reason for this is your inbound number will be protected should they go bust or cease trading, you will also be able to port the number around if you ever decide to switch providers. Go with some fly by night company who offers you a free number and you risk losing your number later down the road or being locked to their services indefinitely, not to mention that reliability will probably be non existent.

http://www.itspa.org.uk/consultation/07 ... ingBCP.pdf

Both Voipfone and Voicehost are registered ITSPA members, worth paying the £2 a month for the london number for the security and uptime alone! Remember though, Voipfone would work out at £2.40 per month for a london number because they add VAT on to their £2 monthly charge. Voicehost has VAT included in their prices.

I was thinking along the lines of a Gigaset N300A IP and a couple of suitable Gigaset handsets.

Im not a fan of the gigaset stuff myself although build quality does seem to have improved, I think their overpriced for what you get. Getting an ATA and a quad set of 'normal' dect phones works out cheaper and with the Obihai ATA's you are in total control of your calls. The things you can do with those things are amazing! Do some research before you buy because if you choose the wrong hardware it will put a damper on your whole VoIP experience.

What I really need/want to be sure is that it will all work ok with my VM Broadband. I have the Super Hub 2. Will everything be easy to set up?

I have the original super hub and have had it since it's release. It's crap, it has always been crap and as such I use it in modem only mode. I have an Asus AC-68U hooked up to it although I have used many routers with it over the years, the AC-68U has been the best of the bunch. I see no reason why the super hub 2 wouldn't work with VoIP, one important factor is the super hub 1 doesn't have QOS and if thats the same for the super hub 2 then you may end up with poor quality audio when your network is heavily congested.

On a more positive note... setup in general only takes minutes!

[WelshPaul]

I did e-mail VoIP 2 Go but have yet to have a reply.

I forgot to comment on this, sorry. Did you email them from your hotmail email address or your domain email address? Maybe there is an issue with your domain email?

If it's not your email address then this is another reason to choose a provider with top notch support who respond to emails within the hour because you don't want to be left without a working phone line for days waiting for someone to answer an email.

[CJT-80]

Hi WelshPaul,

I did get a reply, from Steve, he did explain the reason for the delay in replying.

[WelshPaul]

I think Voip2Go is in it's infancy, Steve was (or is) working hard to get the service up and running.

I'm not sure where he is with this to date - will drop him an email after the weekend and find out the latest info regarding the Voip2Go service.

I do have a test account with Voip2Go but I never really used it in the end, the CLI displayed an international number to the callee. Nobody ever answered the phone to me! They thought I was A cold caller.

We did play about with CLI at the time but didn't get it just right.

[CJT-80]

I contacted VoIP 2 Go, Voice Host, VoIPFone and SIP Gate UK.

So far the best value was VoIPFone who come in at £2.40 per month per number inc VAT.

SIP Gate UK maybe worth looking at when their Basic account returns "next month", as that was what was in the e-mail reply. They provide an 020 Geo number which is what I am after.

I just now need to work out the best way to go about testing the Super Hub 2 with VoIP for not a great deal of cash.

I am still tempted to go for an IP/PSTN handset, or maybe one of the ObiHai units and a semi decent PSTN phone.

:-)

[WelshPaul]

Voipfone charge a one off fee of £50+VAT for 0208 numbers, £150+VAT for 0207 numbers and then £2.40 per month which includes VAT. They do have 0203 numbers that don't require a one off fee, again they charge £2.40 per inclusive of VAT thereafter. (As you already know)

Voicehost have 0203 numbers, again with no setup fee. Just £2 per month inclusive of VAT thereafter. They also have 023 and 024 numbers again with no one off fee required, Just £2 per month inclusive of VAT thereafter.

Sipgate is very much up in the air at the moment. Might be worth the wait to see what they come up with. Only 16 days to wait! :lol:

In the meantime why not play around with a soft phone? If you get good results with one of those then you're going to get even better results using VoIP hardware.

Check out http://www.zoiper.com/en

[CJT-80]

Voipfone charge a one off fee of £50+VAT for 0208 numbers, £150+VAT for 0207 numbers and then £2.40 per month which includes VAT. They do have 0203 numbers that don't require a one off fee, again they charge £2.40 per inclusive of VAT thereafter. (As you already know)

Voicehost have 0203 numbers, again with no setup fee. Just £2 per month inclusive of VAT thereafter. They also have 023 and 024 numbers again with no one off fee required, Just £2 per month inclusive of VAT thereafter.

Sipgate is very much up in the air at the moment. Might be worth the wait to see what they come up with. Only 16 days to wait! :lol:

In the meantime why not play around with a soft phone? If you get good results with one of those then you're going to get even better results using VoIP hardware.

Check out http://www.zoiper.com/en

Thanks WelshPaul,

I am slightly confused by the reply Voice Host gave me over the use of their service, they advised I needed to pay extra for an extension... have you heard of this?

I am quite happy with an 020 3XX XXXX number as it will just be used for anyone who I need to give a landline number to, in fact if they work out to be good I may ever have 2 numbers! :lol:

[WelshPaul]

When you sign up to Voicehost you get the first extension for free. When you purchase a number and point it at that extension you're billed £2 per month inclusive of VAT for the number.

If you need anymore extensions then you can add as many as you like but there is an additional charge per extension of £1 per month inclusive of VAT.

Sign up to Voicehost, it won't cost you anything. You can take a look around their control panel without cost or commitment.

When logged in navigate to Call Routing > Seat Setup > You should see Extension 200.

There is also a Voipfone 30 day free trial link on the main forum index that you can use to sign up to Voipfone. Doing so will allow you to try out and test their services at no cost and without commitment.

[CJT-80]

Thanks again WelshPaul,

I have sent you a PM with some additional comments and questions.

I hope you don't mind

:D

[WelshPaul]

I have replied and I can confirm you do get one free extension with Voicehost.

I just created another account with them to find out if it was still the case and it is.

[CJT-80]

I have replied and I can confirm you do get one free extension with Voicehost.

I just created another account with them to find out if it was still the case and it is.

Excellent

[Johnderman]

That is if you don't have any automatic top ups enabled
.

No auto top ups allowed.

The sooner us Brits get standalone broadband the better.

Many countries with a free market enjoy "Naked DSL", but from my research, it sounds like we'll never see it in the UK in our lifetimes

Really? Do you have a source on that? I have reason to believe it may be arriving soon, I was reading somewhere about it, they called it something different though, and I think it used fiber connections instead of the usual copper lines, I could be wrong though. Is it FTTC?

[CJT-80]

Really? Do you have a source on that? I have reason to believe it may be arriving soon, I was reading somewhere about it, they called it something different though, and I think it used fiber connections instead of the usual copper lines, I could be wrong though. Is it FTTC?

FTTC is Fibre to the Cabinet, which is exactly as it sounds. Fibre is brought directly to your nearest Openreach cabinet, and from there it is sent to your home via copper cable. FTTH is what you maybe thinking of, Fibre to the Home. Again exactly as it sounds, but this time the fibre is provided directly to your property. There are only a few companies in the UK who supply this. I believe it is technically "naked". You don't have a voice product supplied with it.

Another company who appear to be doing a lot of Fibre based install's is Hyperoptic, as far as I can see they are targeting Apartments/Flats where the entire block, or a large % want to have Fibre, and they have the agreement of the owners.

[c0d3r]

I'm pretty sure you still need to take out a phone line package with fibre to the home broadband. They won't sell you one without the other usually.

http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/guide ... phone-line

[SteveAtVoIP2Go]

I think Voip2Go is in it's infancy, Steve was (or is) working hard to get the service up and running.

I'm not sure where he is with this to date - will drop him an email after the weekend and find out the latest info regarding the Voip2Go service.

Still here and working hard. I got stopped in my tracks by lots of orders. Problem was, they were all fraudulent. I have to find the time to work out some new plans and payments methods and then update the web site.

We did play about with CLI at the time but didn't get it just right.

Let me know when you have time and I can set you up in my new platform that uses different providers.