Vonage Broadband Telephone

[huzzi]

Has anyone use their broadband telephone service?

Am looking for good broadband telephone service provider for home use.


Many Thanks

 

[VeryMark]

We have started using Vonage for business and find it cost effective and of good quality - £10 per month and all calls to geographical numbers are free.

 

[cjd]

Yes their system works and is reliable.

However, if all you want to do is make cheaper UK calls it's an expensive option. For £10 per month you can make an awful lot of domestic calls without having to think about clever VoIp services. If you start making more than what Vonage thinks is 'normal' domestic use - they will either bar you or force you on to their business tariff - which is about £19 p/month I think. Just talk to BT about the best deals or use one of the many prefix services.

VoIP comes into it's own if you run a small business and want all the features and fuctions or if you have relatives and friends overseas that you call a lot - then it's free and a fantastic deal.

For everyday residential telephony it's not that good a deal.

 

[Chris Martin]

We can provide you with a virtual switcboard that you can route to multiple locations and provide you with up to 3 non-geographic numbers per month if required. Each can be configured to route to any specific number you wish and there is no charge.

The system is free, the numbers are free and there is no rental.

Have a look at www.switchboardfree.co.uk for more details! If you want to know more my contact details are below.

 

[VeryMark]

Chris, your system appears to use 0870 numbers which some people are resistant to.

Do you have an alternative which uses 0845 numbers?

 

[ink4-u]

i have to say i like different providers for different reasons. I love Skype for the software. But not price.

I love vonage for how easy it is to plug a normal phone in with no trobule.

But i love voipfone.co.uk for the services. Virtual PBX geographical numbers i think they have every area code in the UK. I love the Grographical FAX as well. I like the 1451 and 1571 i think that the call queing is great and the text messege service they offer is great as well. They have all the right prices on all services. The only one thing that i didnt like was some call prices and i hate the software. But they have the best services going.

So as with everything you have the good and bad things.

 

[thekitchendesigner]

do you know where the bit about geographical numbers on the voipfone.co.uk website??

i'm looking for a geographical number to come through an internet phone

 

[ink4-u]

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

that's the package builder, all you do is put a dit in the box to say you want a geographical number and then when you go to pay that will let you choose.

if you just want to see which are available. click the bit by the bit you put a dot it says UK Geographic Number £1.99*

 

[Chris Martin]

Chris, your system appears to use 0870 numbers which some people are resistant to.

Do you have an alternative which uses 0845 numbers?

we can hook up 0845 numbers to the system, but that would mean charging a setup fee and monthly rental charge.

Our service is free to use because we get a percentage back from the networks on the 0870 per minute revenue so we can handle the running costs of the service without charging.

If people wanted 0845 numbers we can happily provide them wih one but they will incur costs which is never a good thing :cry: But we can do it.

 

[VeryMark]

Thanks, Chris.

What we have actually done in other cases is to have 0845 numbers bouncing into whatever the allocated number is, the 0845 number being simply a one-off cost to acquire.

 

[ink4-u]

sorry but i have to say im against 0845, 0870 and 0871 and i wont even go near 090! The thing is what does it say about your company if you have an 0870 number? Lots of firms today have these 0870 numbers diverting to India and other places who knows where you are? If you have a normal geographical number at least you are giving your customers that little bit more reassurance which in business today is needed. I think vonage offer the best price wise for calls, but voipfone.co.uk offer the best for features and services. Skype offer the best for pc software.

 

[Chris Martin]

Thanks, Chris.

What we have actually done in other cases is to have 0845 numbers bouncing into whatever the allocated number is, the 0845 number being simply a one-off cost to acquire.

Purchasing the number is the easiest way forward if you have a switchboard PBX in place already or if you have a lot of staff that can grab your calls.

Our switchboard eliminates the need for a PBX and allows smaller comapnies with busy phone lines to stack their calls without giving clients the engaged tone and collecting voicemails.

 

[VeryMark]

BTW, Vonage offer geographic numbers with the area code of your choice.

There are pros and cons betwixt geographic and 0845 numbers, but the latter do have an advantage if you trade nationally and do not want to be seen as non-local.

 

[Chris Martin]

sorry but i have to say im against 0845, 0870 and 0871 and i wont even go near 090! The thing is what does it say about your company if you have an 0870 number? Lots of firms today have these 0870 numbers diverting to India and other places who knows where you are? If you have a normal geographical number at least you are giving your customers that little bit more reassurance which in business today is needed. I think vonage offer the best price wise for calls, but voipfone.co.uk offer the best for features and services. Skype offer the best for pc software.

I agree with you when it comes to 090 numbers, anyone that offers support on an 090 number (tesco internet support) is just ripping you off.

Voip is fashionable at present but isn't as reliable as traditional phone lines and there are quality issues with voip also. We recently had a customer that was discussing using voip for homeworkers that were dealing with taking orders from a shopping channel, they opted for a voip platform and with 3 months the maintenece costs amounted to more than it would have cost to set up a fully functional PSTN with 180 lines, also with voip if your PC isn't up to scratch then your connection and quality will suffer. I think voip is a good business tool and brilliant for speaking with your family in far away countries for free, but as a customer facing product i think it has limited appeal.

 

[cjd]

We can do both the Virtual Switchboard and all numbers except 09 (Premium Services).

There's some info on numbering generally here:

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

(this hasn't been updated to include 0800 yet but that can be found on this page if you need it.

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

PBX stuff is here:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/PB_Virtual_PBX.php

basically, you can have any combination of anything...