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Review by ameyer See Profile

  • Location: Saint Paul, Ramsey, MN, USA
  • Cost: $12 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
Inexpensive; IAX2 and SIP support; e911; Lots of setup guides on the Wiki
Calls terminating to a toll-free are billable if using
Great service that I highly recommend, as long as you don't need encryption.
Web-site:
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I ported a number from CallCentric because CallCentric has a single point of failure in their network design. VoIP.ms has points of presence throughout the US and Canada.
Origination (Incoming): US DIDs are 85¢-99¢ each per month, and 0.9¢-1.0¢ per minute.
Termination (Outgoing): 1¢ per minute for standard calls, and either free (value route) or 1.06¢ per minute (premium route) for toll-free calls.

The charge for the premium route for toll-free calls is the biggest negative; I conduct lots of business via conference bridges, so I'm not willing to use the "value" route.

I'm really very happy with the service! I've never had downtime attributable to VoIP.ms as I've configured Asterisk to use alternate VoIP.ms servers. I just wish they would start supporting TLS and SRTP...

member for 9.1 years, 155 visits, last login: 252 days ago
updated 7.1 years ago

Stewart
join:2005-07-13

1 recommendation

Stewart

Member

Toll free and conference calling

> The charge for the premium route for toll-free calls is the biggest negative; I conduct lots of business via conference bridges, so I'm not willing to use the "value" route.

IMO toll-free conference bridges are mostly obsolete -- mobile users don't care, nor do those with ISP-supplied VoIP, Vonage, Ooma, etc. If you have any say in the matter, consider switching to a service that also supports wideband VoIP access. You'll have an extension on your Asterisk that connects directly to the conference without entering a PIN. Take a look at »www.freeconferencecallhd.com/ ; if it doesn't meet your needs, check out »www.uberconference.com/ . If you have an occasional user with a traditional landline, not local to you, no long distance plan and who won't use a VoIP app, consider putting a toll-free DID on your PBX (probably less expensive than the toll-free conference bridge).

Alternatively, sign up for Flowroute, IMO excellent quality, reliability and support, with toll-free termination priced at zero. You get $0.25 test credit when you register (no financial info needed). If you are careful to send only toll-free calls, that will never get used up and you can run forever without funding the account.

Review by LanAdmin See Profile

  • Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $10 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
Fiabilité et Qualité du service, options, personnalisation.
Same password to access SMS for every DID. Tous les prix sont en us$
Une multitude d'options
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Very bad. No separate SMS login credentials for each DID. One password for all DID. Everyone in the family can see everyone SMS.

Gros problème. Un seul mot de passe pour accéder aux SMS de tous les numéros (DID). Tous les membres de la famille peuvent voir les SMS de tout le monde.

J'utilise leur service depuis 5 ans, mon utilisation est d'environ 1000 minutes par mois et j'étais très satisfait jusqu'à l'utilisation des SMS.

J'ai transféré ma ligne Bell sur voip.ms et la qualité est excellente. Le transfert a pris une semaine.

Appel gratuits entre abonnés, aux numéros 800 et à une adresse SIP.

Pour appeler au Canada j'utilise la value route à 0.5 cent us la minute!
et aux états-Unis: 1 cent us la minute.

Vous configurez votre compte à partir de leur site Web, l'interface est très bien faite. (Tous les changements sont disponibles à partir du site web et son actif en moins d'une minute.)
Pour ceux qui veulent s'amuser, beaucoup, beaucoup d'options sont disponibles gratuitement.

J'utilise des Cisco SPA112(G711u) , softphone sur mon cellulaire (codec G729) et 3CX sur mon laptop.

member for 13.3 years, 1672 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 7.2 years ago


Review by dsl1234 See Profile

  • Location: Littleton, Jefferson, CO, USA
  • Cost: $9 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 1 days
Extremely reliable, excellent pricing, excellent tech support, compatible with OBI
May require some effort to setup.
Great value and service
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Have used voip.ms since early 2013 thru today Dec 2016 at two locations in Denver metro with no provider-related issues. I am responsible to support my OBI 100 telephone adapter(s) and for some users that may be an issue. Once the OBI device is initially setup and configured, that is not problematic. They also do not bill you, but you can generate statements on-demand and also request a reminder when your balance drops below a limit you set. I also have e911 service thru them which costs $1.50/mo. Previously used voipo which was a nightmare.

member for 10.3 years, 4 visits, last login: 7.2 years ago
lodged 7.2 years ago


Elector
join:2000-05-25
Albany, NY

Elector

Member

That may be a good service

However over the years I have used (still use) Magic Jack which is great for the money of $109 for five years. We use to have the NetTalk Duo Wifi but finally got rid of the service when it became a non functioning device and NetTalk has no support services. And I mean none.

We replaced it with Ooma which when you factor it costs $99 for the Ooma Telo device however they immediately give you a $50 credit for international calling so it is then $49 for the device. The monthly charge is taxes paid to your locale. So for me it's $4.43 so around $51 a year. The service is crystal clear. And the calling is easy to do.

Now realizing if you opt for the premier service it is another $138 a year (for me) but the features are great for the price. So break that down $9.99 plus $4.43 ($14.42 per month) still very cheap.

But glad it works for you with VOIP.ms service.

RobThompson
Caution - VoIP Challenged Alert
Premium Member
join:2012-02-14
J8G 0C9

RobThompson

Premium Member

How do you get to $9.00 per month?

Hi dsl1234:

How do you get to $9.00 per month?

Rob.

Review by commbunch See Profile

  • Location: Hampshire, Kane, IL, USA
  • Cost: $10 per month
Web-site:
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I use them for my home office. I like that you can set your caller ID do what you want, that I can have multiple numbers to ring to multiple locations at once. I also have a fax line with them. I've really never had many outages or issues compared to some of the other providers they used.

Setup is fairly straightforward and once it's done I haven't had to mess with it.

I also like that you can get just about any service al a cart. I paid for every minute inbound and outbound, but I'm only paying for what I use. So far this is proving to be a better deal then going with an unlimited plan.

member for 16.7 years, 4093 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 7.5 years ago


Review by Master5c8 See Profile

  • Location: Mansfield, Piatt, IL, USA
  • Cost: $5 per month
Cheap and Reliable VoIP Phone Service
Had some trouble with SMS
Great Value
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I've been a voip.ms customer for several years and I have a few phone numbers with them: my business line and two old cell phone numbers that I didn't want to lose.

The price, call quality, and reliability have all been great. The only trouble I've experienced with them was that their SMS system stopped working at some point. I didn't know anything was wrong until a customer asked why I didn't receive their text. I ended up having to put in a ticket for each line to get SMS fixed, but they did get it fixed.

Overall I'm a satisfied customer and I will be continuing to use their services for the foreseeable future.

member for 21.5 years, 4144 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 7.5 years ago


Review by thehammer86 See Profile

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost: $5 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
High voice quality, low latency, inexpensive.
SMS administration needs to be more granular.
Better offering price and featurewise than any POTS or ISP VoIP service.
Web-site:
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By far the best VoIP provider I have ever dealt with!

They offer a number of wiki pages for setting up a lot of different ATAs, softphones, and PBXs. I currently use FreePBX 13-64bit distro with their service and the amount of granular control with VoIP.ms is amazing.

Their calling rates are insanely low and the voice quality is superb.

I only wish there was a way for them to separate the SMS login credentials for each DID in the same account. Basically, if you're sharing this account with your household family members then they can easily see each others text messages.

If you ever have and issue their online chat support is friendly, knowledgeable, and very efficient at helping you diagnose problems.

member for 8.4 years, 1482 visits, last login: 270 days ago
updated 7.5 years ago


N9MD
Too busy to chat
Premium Member
join:2005-10-08
Boca Raton, FL

N9MD

Premium Member

Sounds like an Anthony Weiner dilemma!


I hope Huma doesn't check my texts!

I only wish there was a way for them to separate the SMS login credentials for each DID in the same account. Basically, if you're sharing this account with your household family members then they can easily see each others text messages.

You bring up a good point (especially if you are sending lovey-dovey texts to a paramour without your spouse's knowledge.)

However, there is a solution to your SMS dilemma! The cost for a single account with two or three or more DIDs would be identical to the cost of two or three or more separate accounts (each with its own DID) ... since the monthly charges are based on the number of DIDs in the account.

I'm sure that a request to Customer Service would succeed in having Voip.ms split your DIDs into separate accounts ... thereby providing privacy for each of your family members.

Also, the Phonebook data can be exported to the other Voip.ms accounts.
thehammer86
join:2015-10-18
SmartRG SR505N
TP-Link TC-7650
(Software) pfSense

thehammer86

Member

Re: Sounds like an Anthony Weiner dilemma!

Hahaha, nice pic!

Although it is possible to split up the accounts as you suggest, I would have to create separate sip trunks in my PBX for each DID. This is not very efficient, has been know to cause issues with asterisk if the DIDs are on the same voip.ms server, and is actually recommended against by their support staff.

N9MD
Too busy to chat
Premium Member
join:2005-10-08
Boca Raton, FL

N9MD

Premium Member

Re: Sounds like an Anthony Weiner dilemma!

Good response, Hammer, but my solution would resolve your issues!

• From my perspective, it would be 'efficient' to achieve your desired end-point... but require only a one-time 'effort' to modify your PBX setup.
• The 'same SIP server' issue is easily dealt with, given that Voip.ms now offers 45 different servers throughout the US and Canada.
• Assigning each independent account (and associated DID) to a different server ... noting that most of the city locations have more than one server ... should render same SIP server / asterisk issues moot.
• While I totally respect the customer support offered by Voip.ms, oft-times their recommendations are (benignly) self-serving ... aimed at minimizing future time-consuming calls for help from folks with complex asterisk issues.

Note 1: I am not trying to push the issue ... just looking to present an alternative methodology for your consideration ... one that addresses your quest.
Note 2: I have several Voip.ms accounts, most with several DIDs ... and have given 5 stars to this provider in my DSLReports review.
thehammer86
join:2015-10-18

thehammer86

Member

Re: Sounds like an Anthony Weiner dilemma!

I have 9 DIDs and VoIP.ms has 8 Toronto servers.

Review by vitesse See Profile

  • Location: Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $3 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
price, quality, feature
give me time to find something....
Web-site:
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This is definitively something everyone should try.

Technical support seem good so far.

Price is unbeatable. 30 to 80 time less expensive than Bell Canada, my local phone company.

Probably not for everyone as you have to configure your system yourself.



member for 21.2 years, 2998 visits, last login: 5.5 years ago
updated 7.5 years ago


RobThompson
Caution - VoIP Challenged Alert
Premium Member
join:2012-02-14
J8G 0C9

1 edit

RobThompson

Premium Member

Using voip.ms for cheaper long-distance on my Bell Canada line...

Hello:
Where my cottage is located, north of Montreal, Bell Canada only offers telephone & satellite TV - this means that I cannot get the 3 product bundle price for long-distance, which is $10.00 per month (unlimited Canada & USA). I would have to pay $34.95 - the unbundled price.

So, I set up a $5.95 voip.ms number in the 819-717 (St-Jovite) exchange which is a local call from my exchange 819-687 (Arundel). I use their DISA functionality to give me an outgoing dial-tone. Bottom line is I can call anywhere in Canada for $0.0052 per minute plus the monthly charge.

Yak.ca is cheaper if you use less than 3.3 hours per month, and, Bell (at $34.95) is cheaper if you use more than 92.8 hours per month.

I also use a $5.95 voip.ms phone number on my cloud hosted PBX which uses the DISA functionality to give me a dial-tone on Google Voice for free calling.

All of this without using my 'marginal' internet connection plus an ATA.

My no-frills Bell Home Lite line costs $36.95 per month - if I had better internet here, I'd trash that too.

Just testing the options...

vitesse
join:2002-12-17
Saint-Philippe, QC

vitesse

Member

Re: Using voip.ms for cheaper long-distance on my Bell Canada line...

This is possible to run voip even on 3g modem, so it's not that hard to get rid of your bell line.

RobThompson
Caution - VoIP Challenged Alert
Premium Member
join:2012-02-14
J8G 0C9

RobThompson

Premium Member

Re: Using voip.ms for cheaper long-distance on my Bell Canada line...

Hi vitesse:
I am not sure I understand what you are suggesting but if '3g modem' means "cellular", we don't get reception there.

Is that what you meant or is it something else?

I sure would like to dump Bell!

Rob.

elvey
Spamassassin
join:2001-02-17
San Francisco, CA

elvey

Member

Re: Using voip.ms for cheaper long-distance on my Bell Canada line...

said by RobThompson:

Hi vitesse:
we don't get reception there.

How do you get online to post? I think the implied suggestion is to use that if you can.

Which makes me wonder if you're on dial-up and how well VoIP works over dial-up. I can think of reasons for it to work fine in most cases, but dial-up is so rare where I am I can't recall someone trying it.

RobThompson
Caution - VoIP Challenged Alert
Premium Member
join:2012-02-14
J8G 0C9

RobThompson

Premium Member

Re: Using voip.ms for cheaper long-distance on my Bell Canada line...

Hi elvey:

I do have internet from Groupe-Acess. But it is LOC WIFI and the reception of that is not great either. I do pay them an extra $10.00 per month for 0.400 Mbps upload, which is the bare minimum for voip. But, do the the reception issues, conversations on my Obi or my ipPhone can be simply useless.

All of this to say, that is why I wrote my post - I don't need "internet" to save some money on long-distance if I use voip.ms where my cottage is.

elvey
Spamassassin
join:2001-02-17
San Francisco, CA

elvey

Member

Re: Using voip.ms for cheaper long-distance on my Bell Canada line...

400 Kbps is plenty for most VoIP if that's all that's in use. For authoritative data, see, e.g. the chart at »www.cisco.com/c/en/us/su ··· ume.html
About half the CODECs would even work OK over a modern modem on a regular phone land line. If you're getting bad or useless VoIP service, it's likely because of reception or latency issues, so I'd test for latency and jitter. But it sounds like you know what you're doing and have pretty high service quality expectations, which is why you're keeping the $36.95 land line.

RobThompson
Caution - VoIP Challenged Alert
Premium Member
join:2012-02-14
J8G 0C9

1 edit

RobThompson

Premium Member

Re: Using voip.ms for cheaper long-distance on my Bell Canada line...

said by elvey:

which is why you're keeping the $36.95 land line.

Around the cottage, most people keep the Bell line for their alarm system - at the moment so do I.

I am working with a member of this forum (Voip2Go) on using my Groupe-Acess internet for my ADT alarm. If that works ok, I may drop Bell and put up with the sometimes poor voice quality on the voip phone. Also, I may remove some trees which are too close to the house anyway.

Most this voip over telephone research is for people in the area who are getting hosed for long-distance and who would never consider using VoIP, especially the older people who like the security that a copper wire provides, given the frequent power outages in the area.






Review by ReVRiN See Profile

  • Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
  • Cost: $3 per month
Service is fantastic. Sound quality is perfect.
None
Stop wasting money and sign up with VOIP.MS!
Web-site:
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Value for money:

Since I help manage a VOIP system at work (1000+ staff), and I know the true cost of these calls I had to ask myself why am I paying $80 or more dollars a month for a home phone line? I purchased a couple pieces of hardware and researched a solution for home and voip.ms was what worked best for me.



member for 19.6 years, 68 visits, last login: 1 year ago
lodged 7.6 years ago







Review by restamp See Profile

  • Location: Pickerington, Fairfield, OH, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Too numerous to mention
zero-length voicemails
One of the best VoIP providers around for the technically competent user
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After playing with the (excellent) voip.ms website for a year, last March (2015) I finally got fed up enough with AT&T relentlessly raising their prices to cut the cord: I ported my landline number to voip.ms and have never looked back. The monthly costs from voip.ms are 1/10th of what they had been with AT&T. Call quality is generally quite good. Porting my number to voip.ms was fast, free, and painless.

The good: Almost too numerous to mention. Prices, as noted, are reasonable. Their website / control portal is superb, providing a myriad of options, most of them free. Their online documentation is extensive. Their support folks are competent and responsive. They have many POPs across the US and Canada. They don't try to to up-sell you (by demanding you subscribe to E911, etc).

The bad: My number one (and perhaps only) beef with voip.ms is their voicemail system. For some reason it appears they cannot detect and ignore zero-length messages. Instead, about half the time when I receive a VM indication, the message turns out to be simply a hangup. They really need to have an option to automatically ignore voicemails that are less than one or two seconds long. Another minor quibble: They were never able to make SMS work reliably with my ported number, although it did work well out-of-the-box with another number I obtained from them. They were responsive to my complaint, but I eventually gave up on making it work, as it was not a high priority for me to have it there. Sometimes it's easier to plow around the stumps.

Bottom line: Excellent VoIP provider for those well versed in this field. Neophyte VoIP users OTOH would be best served by creating a free account first and using it to learn and understand how to use their website first. If they are not interested or willing to do this, perhaps a pre-packaged VoIP product (Ooma, Magic Jack) might be a better option.

member for 7.6 years, 1013 visits, last login: 2.5 years ago
lodged 7.6 years ago


Anon80123
@iusacell.net

Anon80123

Anon

Voicemail

For the voicemail issue you mention, this has now been set to record the Voicemail if they last 2 seconds or more. No more 0 seconds Voicemail messages.

Cheers!

Review by kenja00 See Profile

  • Location: Brooks, AB, Canada
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Easy to navigate website, good quality, good prices, two tier voice quality
Sign up process from some countries can be delayed
They're my favorite!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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Tech Support:
Value for money:

(July 27, 2016) 7 years now as my main provider... No complaints here! Sound quality is good, servers around the world, price is excellent... Can't go wrong...

(Jan 8th, 2014) I can't believe it's already been 5 years with these guys! Mostly calling North America from Eastern Europe and I don't think I've had a single problem for a couple of years now! (the problems I have had, are on MY end).

Glad to see they are working on getting Canadian SMS going!

Support has gotten way better than it used to be at first! I put in a ticket asking questions about SMS, responded in 15 minutes! Not bad for a value provider!

Edited Inital post again: (2/23/2011). A few bumps along the road, but the last six months, I haven't had ANY problems! They're really come along ways from when I first signed up. Just upgraded my ratings to reflect this.

Note:Sign up process did not go smoothly and was later notified it was because of my IP location in Ukraine which has a high incidence of fraud. After being explained the situation, it was not a problem. Be aware that the sign up process can take 24-48 hours from countries that are regularly fraudulent. After customer support contacted me, they were very helpful and accomodating.

Note: Initially tried this for outgoing using DIDWW for my number. This DID NOT work. VOIP.MS outgoing providers recognized my caller id number (with DIDWW) as an incoming only number and would not let me dial out! Gave some cryptic error message. After porting my number to VOIP.MS, smooth sailing.

member for 15.1 years, 1268 visits, last login: 158 days ago
updated 7.6 years ago

MartinM
VoIP.ms
Premium Member
join:2008-07-21

MartinM

Premium Member

Explanation

Customer signed up from Ukraine and provided a Canadian address. This kind of application requires a 24-48 hours review process before we activate the account due to a high level of fraud attempts coming from sign ups from this country.

Account was activated the next day of the sign up. I'm really sorry that the aforementioned circumstances did lead to a delay in your approval process but I do not believe this is a fair review of our service.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

1 edit

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Voip.MS support problems

You said:
"UPDATE: (Feb 14/09) -- Two weeks without a response from customer support for both emails. At this point, I'm not ever expecting a response, but will update if they ever respond to their emails."

-----------------------------------------

They sent out a mass e-mail on February 12, 2009, saying that they realized their e-mail trouble ticket system was messed up for several weeks.

This may account for the lack of response that you experienced.

Please note, I am NOT defending them. In my view that sort of thing should not have happened at all. And if it did occur, it should not take them several weeks to notice.
Uberhare
join:2009-02-15

Uberhare

Member

tech support

Try contacting them again. I was able to get help even on a Sunday via email.

Arne Bolen
User of Anveo Direct, 3CX and Qubes OS.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-21
Utopia

Arne Bolen

Premium Member

Terms and conditions of service

The following from Terms and conditions of service is important:

"3. VoIP.ms is not intended for end users, and the customer shall understand that the level of support, and the service offered is intended to customers with a higher technical level."

Any end user without "a higher technical level" should be aware of this.

I think it is not fair to expect the same level of support as Callcentric and other providers intended for end users. VoIP.ms clearly is intended for customers with very good technical skills.
MartinM
VoIP.ms
Premium Member
join:2008-07-21

1 edit

MartinM

Premium Member

Re: Terms and conditions of service

I would like to clarify that it's not a common but isolated case. Basically, customer uses a CallerID number that is not one of our numbers. We have no problems with that, but some of the numbers owned by a carrier that the customer called block this specific CallerID number. Because the number is not with us, we are not able to go further in our investigation. Solution is to use a different callerid number, or contact his provider that owns the CallerID number set with us.

The fact that the problem was his callerid number has been reported to the customers the first time he has contacted us about this issue.
kenja00
join:2009-01-28

3 edits

kenja00

Member

Re: Terms and conditions of service

said by MartinM:

The fact that the problem was his callerid number has been reported to the customers the first time he has contacted us about this issue.
Please be honest, I'm just trying to get to the bottom of it, not make you look bad...

-----------------------------
REFERENCE NUMBER: LTK151029939147X

Dear Ken,

I've been able to reproduce the issue when calling from UK Server with CallerID starting with 403 291.

We've changed the route for Canada on this server and this should resolve your issue. Let us know if this happen again. We apologize for the inconvenience.
----------------------------

In all other responses, there was mention of caller ID problem, but each response there was a "We'll look into it" or "We're still on it" Like I said earlier, I like VOIP.MS service when it works - but FOR ME it doesn't work with my caller id... My caller id works perfect with Callcentric, LES.NET and Internetcalls to the same carrier... I'm still thinking it's something on your end...
kenja00

1 edit

kenja00

Member

Further update

For those who may be having a similar problem... I contacted DIDWW support and this was their response

-----------------------
DIDWW have nothing to do with VOIPMS provider, Also DIDWW offer only DID numbers for incoming calls.
The issue you are just describe here related only to your Voip provider.
If call failed from any provider the first thing you should do is check with your provider what is the reason for this fail.

We are sorry but your issue is out of our hands and should be investigated by your Voip provider more deeply.
------------------------

mobiletelco
@netvigator.com

mobiletelco

Anon

Not our Problem....

Its called, "PASSING THE BUCK"