Review by elefante72  - Location: East Amherst,Erie,NY
- Cost: $6 per month
- Install: about 1 days
Good "Extremely Flexible"
Bad "Cannot route canada 800, Weird behavior on vDID"
Overall "The best if you aren't a bigtime landline user"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I have had voip.ms for my office line for > 1 year, however I have set up all my parents on it (Canada, US) and they are using this for their primary land line. The product has evolved over time, and in Canada the pricing is amazing.
My recent experiment has one of my parents fully integrated w/ Google voice to his cell and voip.ms (simultaneously ring). Parent did not want e911 (has cell) which will also require you to have a dummy REAL DID (cannot do w/ virtual DID (vDID)). Probably some regulatory stuff. In any case if you want e911, its $3/mo min (e911 fee + Real DID). So anyways I had my parent get Obi 100 adapter (holy smoke this thing is great) which has a voip.ms template that configged the adapter in 30 seconds. Love it. My HT300 (Grandstream) was a tool to set up. So anyways I get a vDID (which gives a SIP URI), and then sign up for a free DID (ipkall.com) which I point to the vDID. This works the first time. Now, I take parents Google Voice -> IpKall# + Cell phone simultaneously and now they can decide whether to take on cell or landline. The ONLY issue w/ this is that w/ GV you cannot register name in callerid (ENUM). Bummer. So the city name shows up. Make sure to use CallerID setting for GV so it goes out with the GV#, not the ipkall#.
Now my issue is that I have voip.ms, and if I call GV he gets charged incoming, and so do I (voip.ms->voip,ms should be free). I get that. However when I call IPkall # (vDID) that also charges me and him (incoming). That is a simple redirect, and don't get that.
So beware GV integration will cost you $$$ if you call other voip.ms#, and even w/ using vDID #, without more reconfigs.
The Obi can allow you to use GV services on outgoing for free US/Canada, however he wanted reliability and we will start on 100% voip.ms. The OBI will also allow you to use prefixes to call a number of Voip providers free too (70+) if you set up dial plans. I would say for 10 people, OK it's worth it.
So voip,ms PAYG -> Incoming charge of 1c, for virtual DID (0.1c) yes cheap. DID rate maybe $1.50 (some are more), vDID (0.25c/month), e911 ($1.50--DID mandatory).
For outgoing, I have found that in Canada the value rout (0.5c) is not entirely stable and doesn't pass callerID correctly, so I put the inlaws on premium (2x cost). For intl (asia, etc) I always put premium--in most cases it cost less than value. For instance mobile/India is not 1.7c/min..Just 1 year ago going rate was 8c+.
I also use csipphone with a sub account (free), and register my droid charge when I am overseas/Canada when I want to make calls AND if I want to make international calls on my droid without having to fund GV for it (one pool of $ is enough). It works flawlessly if you have a decent wifi signal. DO NOT USE DATA INTL for Verizon, you will get killed. ulaw works (8kbit/sec) without a hitch. This way I dont need to haul my adapter around like in the old days. Also incoming will ring if you set it up correctly (I route to virtual DID).
With this, your average person will not be able to use the website, no wizards, usability very linear. By far the worst part of the service. I worked in the field, so not an issue for me, but I am the tech person for all family members who use the service (voip.ms (you can make $$$)). The Obi template great for getting TO the service, but getting it set up not user friendly at all.
Calls/tickets to CS always answered promptly and accurately. They are not experts on all Prem hardware, and they shouldn't be, however if they recommended like 3 adapters (linksys, Obi, etc) and had wizards, config examples, etc. this would be light years better for the average user.
So I would not recommend this service for an average user, just too difficult to set up which is a shame because it is a great service. For Canadians, this will slash you phone bill to shreds. Like Vonage in Canada is like $30/month + taxes galore. So for Canadians w/ reliable inet, this is the place to go. Inlaws average $12 and that includes 300+ min to India every month.
Summary:
1. Web portal not user-friendly, however CS great and will assist.
2. For Canadians this is a no-brainer
3. Obi adapter has voip,ms template...30sec and you are up.
4. GV->IPkall (vDID)-> voip,ms means dumping your landline and makes tel truly portable.
4. vDID calling doesn't register voip,ms->voip.ms so you are charged on both ends
5. POPs in many countries (esp Canada). Servers have issues tho from time to time..
6. Can use almost any adapter.
7. voip.ms should choose a few adapters (Obi  and have detailed setup or support options.
8. Love it for softphone usage on droid (iphone works too - whistle).
9. Rates very competitive now that MSFT jacking Skype rates.
10. If you are cheap you can use GV for outgoing on Obi and voip.ms for incoming (GV not always stable on incoming). GV quality hit of miss.
11. If you are 2000min month PAYG is good here.
12. Options for "unlimited" incoming ($5/month)
member for 2.8 years, 400 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 1.6 years ago
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