VOIP comparison

[Astaroth]

For the last year or so we have been using an 0844 telephone number to call latin america at the cost of 2p per minute which has been great as we have lots of clients there and its also where my wifes family live. The problem is that these lines are now becoming unstable and disconnecting every 10 minutes or so.

Currently have occasional use of a VOIP provider and had considered adding a hardware phone for making outbound calls but their average call charge is going to be around 4p per minute given the diferent countries we call and their rough weightings.

Is there any online comparison for VOIP providers which allow you to view prices for calls to certain countries/ areas? Anyone know a particularly cheap provider for the "unusual" latin american countries like Bolivia, Venezuela etc?

[cjd]

You can check the price to individual destinations using our service here:

http://www.voipfone.co.uk/prices.php

But I don't think you'll like what you see. (Venezuala 3.2p, Bolivia 10.6p etc)

Your problem is that anyone offering really cheap calls to exotic destinations is going to be using really cr@p routes and probably some fairly dodgy pricing tricks too.

I'm not recommending these people because they have a pretty disgusting business, but the Betamax group of companies - which include Voipcheap - tend to have rock bottom prices. But you have to be careful, they change them regularly to trap the unwary that were attracted by the initially low rates.

If you find you're using the same numbers regularly and racking up a large bill, you should consider getting them a VoIP account too - then it's completely free to call them.

[Astaroth]

Yes, had looked at Voipfone, Skype is surprisingly cheaper at 2.9p and 9.7p respectively and would have the advantage that the misses could also use it from her mobile but never had the best of experiences with Skype hence looking at other options.

Call quality is naturally going to be an issue when speaking to clients especially as my spanish isnt the greatest even with perfect audio quality with certain accents.

[cjd]

This is why we charge a bit more:

3. Call Termination We connect to two Tier 1 Call Termination Providers by physical cable with peered internet back-up. This means that you get the best call quality possible and double redundancy enabling us to switch automatically between providers and type of connection should either have a problem.

4. Call Failover. Calls to exotic foreign destinations can occasionally fail because of distant end routing and congestion problems - not all countries have high quality networks and it's fairly common for some countries to give a network engaged answer on the first attempt. But with our network, a call that fails to connect first time will be switched automatically over several other routes and operators until a working connection is found. You will not be aware that any of this is happening and it will be a very rare event indeed if your call fails to connect entirely.

https://www.voipfoneuserforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=741

Truth is, there are several grades of interconnect with various International operators; a low price to you will always mean that they use the poorest route. When we see calls struggling we switch the provider, if they struggle too we switch the standard route to a gold route (at increased cost to us). Any failing calls on our network eventually end up on a gold route. (All this happens automatically). Most other operators just bung the call onto the internet using their Least Cost Routing (LCR) software and forget about it.

[Dominic Taylor]

We used a slightly cheaper provider and suffered similar call quality issues / engaged tones (requiring a redial) with calls to foreign countries (particularly S. America). A hardware phone will help but is perhaps a more costly and less effective investment than switching to Voipfone.

I'd switch provider initially then look at hardware phones down the line - they are a big improvement over softphones but ultimately your calls have to be routed well.