HELLO & WELCOME

[CJT-80]

Whilst looking for a replacement to VoipFone (who have been excellent but a little expensive per month) I stumbled across NetTelco - https://www.net-telco.net/freenumber/. They appear to offer a "free" geographic number, with a few restrictions... however even if you buy a number it works out at £8.50 + VAT per year!!!

Sadly I have £5 of credit with VoipFone which I have to use up before I cancel them for good..

Any views on NetTelco?

[WelshPaul]

Whilst looking for a replacement to VoipFone (who have been excellent but a little expensive per month) I stumbled across NetTelco - https://www.net-telco.net/freenumber/. They appear to offer a "free" geographic number, with a few restrictions... however even if you buy a number it works out at £8.50 + VAT per year!!!

Sadly I have £5 of credit with VoipFone which I have to use up before I cancel them for good..

Any views on NetTelco?

Hi CJ, I have never come across NetTelco before, looks interesting.

The first thing I looked for was an active ITSPA membership, sadly though, they are not a member. I wouldn't use them for my business because I need to make sure the risk of me losing my number is minimal. They do subscribe to The Ombudsman Service though.

I couldn't find any real reviews on the company either, remember Sipgate almost closed down their "Basic" plan and UKDDI are no more. Free numbers are usually not sustainable in the long run for several reasons.

Apparently you can only get an 084 or 087 number for free with NetTelco, does anyone still use those?

You can have a free Net-Telco number, if you choose one of our 084 or 087 numbers call forwarding can be free too.

Currently I use Voicehost for my incoming numbers, they are just as reliable as Voipfone, yet work out 20% cheaper. I do use Voipfone for outgoing calls with a spoofed CLI though.

EDIT: After looking at their site a bit more, it turns out you can get a local number for free with them.
https://shop.net-telco.net/freenumber

WHAT’S THE CATCH?

All we ask is that the number assigned to you does not go for a period of more than 28 days without being called and answered. – that’s it! You even get to choose which area code you would like a number for.

If you just want a number but don’t plan to use it just yet or don't want to worry about it being called once a month you can pay a low annual retainer of just £8.50 in order to safeguard your ownership of it.

If you want more than one number, that’s no problem. As long as each number does not go for a period of more than 28 days without being called and answered you can have up to three numbers.

Price is £8.50p + VAT

[WelshPaul]

I purchased a local number last night with NetTelco.

Seems pretty straight forward, paid £10.20 via paypal but be aware they do some form of credit check.

To help prevent fraud, and guarantee a secure shopping process, all new account orders are manually checked. Before your purchase can be activated you may be asked to supply additional information to verify the authorisation of your payment. Please allow up to 2 working days for this process. You will be notified by email once complete.

Checked my account today and everything appears to be setup and working. I have it forwarded to my Voipfone SIP URI, not added any call credit as it's not required.

EDIT: Well I have been testing this out today and I ran into a minor issue...

Turns out I can indeed forward my number via SIP URI to Voipfone but not VoiceHost or Sipgate, it simply doesn't work. OK this isn't so much a Net-Telco issue but rather a case that VoiceHost and Sipgate are blocking incoming invites from unknown gateways.

I thought this would be a great excuse to try Net-Telco's support and so I submitted a support ticket and this is the response I received back a couple of hours later:

Hi Paul

If it works on Voipfone but not Voicehost it stands to reason that Voicehost
must be the problem. I suggest you contact them.

Best Regards

David

My ticket was then automatically closed:

According to our records, your request has been resolved. If you have any
further questions or concerns, please respond to this message.

Not a good start!

Obviously Net-Telco don't have a peering agreement in place so they (VoiceHost and Sipgate) don't accept calls that Net-Telco send to them.

I know that in the past Sipgate refused to peer with other VoIP providers, i'm guessing that still stands. You'd think Net-Telco would have provided a link to a list of other VoIP providers they have peering agreements with or at the very least elaborated a bit more in their reply.

Not a major issue though, I can set a divert to another Geographical number (at a cost) or use their Free VoIP (Voice over IP) account (You can only have a Free VoIP account with a Paid For Number).

https://www.net-telco.net/call-services ... -number/#6

UPDATE 12/04/2016: I replied to their email yesterday:

Hi David,

I have tested this with sipgate and got the same result. Didn’t work with them either…

I’m guessing Net-Telco don’t have a peering agreement in place so they don’t accept calls that Net-Telco send to them?

I received the following response:

Peering agreements are not usual with VoIP. We allow calls to <number>@net-telco.net from any SIP address (Unless blacklisted due to abuse).
This use to be the norm, unfortunately some companies now block VoIP calls from outside their own network. You would need to ask them why, but I guess they don't communicate with their customers.

I don't know why you are wanting to forward calls to other providers, if it is to allow you to answer calls on a VoIP handset please see
https://www.net-telco.net/call-services ... -number/#6

Best Regards

David

A better response than the first.

Sadly when it comes to peering whichever VoIP provider you speak to they give the same generic response:

The other VoIP provider needs to request and sign a peering agreement with us.

With all that said, Net-Telco look like a good choice. Just make sure you read the T&C's and small print, some of their services come with restrictions in place that could end up causing you a headache further down the line.

[CJT-80]

Paul, thank you SO much for having a look at this and even going as far as purchasing a number to test it out!
I still have my Sipgate basic number (which Sipgate can amend once I have a new fixed address), and I have to use up my credit with Voipfone before I can leave them or I will loose the £5.

Voicehost look like a really good option based on your information. I will drop you a PM if you don't mind