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Review by Denis D See Profile

  • Location: Trois-Rivieres, QC, Canada
  • Cost: $7 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Very good quality calls, Pricing,
Good quality for a cheap price. No use staying with major telcos.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Got a DID number for testing before i transfered my home line. Finally after 2 week testing i ported my number from Videotron to VOIPMS. It took 5 days to transfer the number. I am using a cisco SPA 112 ata for my analog phonesets and it works fine. All the instructions to program th cisco device in on the VOIPMS website. So far so good.

member for 6.1 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 6.1 years ago


suppafly
Premium Member
join:2009-11-27
97000

suppafly

Premium Member

Review

Hello

Can you let us know of the issues that you may have run into, that made you score lower in several aspects? Thanks for your review






Review by SammyBK See Profile

  • Location: Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost: $40 per month
  • Install: about 90 days
Great pricing, great support, good enough for small business
Some workarounds to get close to the features of hosted PBX
Lost some features going from full service VOIP with hosted PBX, but dropped $1000
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

It took us over 3 months to get all of our lines ported out of Birch (worst service provider I have dealt with). Once ported out, it took a few hours to get sub-accounts spun up for 25 employees, setup voicemail, internal extensions and ring groups. Changing settings on each voip phone took another half hour or so. Easy to do once settings were worked out on the first one and documented.

Took quick ticket to support to have conferencing/transfers setup and we were done.

The only downside was without a PBX, our receptionist cannot see call status of each line on the sidecar.

Monthly bill went from about $1200 per month with Birch to $40/month with VOIP.ms with no loss in quality. Employees love getting voicemail as MP3 attachments to e-mail.

member for 23.5 years, 2312 visits, last login: 6.8 years ago
updated 6.8 years ago


suppafly
Premium Member
join:2009-11-27
97000

1 recommendation

suppafly

Premium Member

96% discount not good enough?

So in general, you went from paying 1200 to paying 40, for a 96% discount and still rate the company a 83? Man people here can be so tough lol
PX Eliezer0
join:2017-01-15
Ho Ho Kus, NJ

PX Eliezer0

Member

Re: 96% discount not good enough?

said by suppafly:

So in general, you went from paying 1200 to paying 40, for a 96% discount and still rate the company a 83? Man people here can be so tough lol

Agree!
shanghaista
join:2014-08-03
Canton, MA

1 recommendation

shanghaista to suppafly

Member

to suppafly
96% discount is reflected in the 100% "Value for Service"

Ease of Installation, Tech Support shouldn't be rated 100% if they're not actually worthy of it.

83% is still an impressive rating overall, but simply because a company is cheap doesn't mean it deserves and auto 100. That's why there's a multi-category rating system; because other factors matter.

suppafly
Premium Member
join:2009-11-27
97000

2 recommendations

suppafly

Premium Member

Re: 96% discount not good enough?

Well the review rates 50% for ease of installation. I dont see anything in the review making it deserve that low grade.....more so it mentions "Easy to do once settings were worked out on the first one and documented."

Calling a grade of 83% impressive as you do , reminds me of Trumps hyperbole...
PX Eliezer0
join:2017-01-15
Ho Ho Kus, NJ

2 recommendations

PX Eliezer0 to shanghaista

Member

to shanghaista
said by shanghaista:

83% is still an impressive rating overall, but simply because a company is cheap doesn't mean it deserves and auto 100. That's why there's a multi-category rating system; because other factors matter.

I agree with that sentiment, but sharply disagree with the mediocre scores because with a large and complex installation Voip.MS actually did provide an easy installation and good support AFAICT.

And btw, I am not a Voip.MS supporter but rather I go with one of their competitors.

I don't know what else the reviewer wanted. That Voip.MS should have come and given him a back rub? Sent over a case of beer??

SammyBK
I'D Rather Be Skiing
join:2000-09-07
Los Angeles, CA

1 edit

SammyBK to shanghaista

Member

to shanghaista
As the reviewer, I think VOIP.ms is absolutely superb. The downside, is I had to do all the configuration manually on each phone and review documentation. Before I could do the installation on all the phones, I had to spend a few days trying to get the service to work on one phone, write up documentation and verify all the settings. It was not plug and play with a single wizard. I will absolutely recommend them. I consider 100 on ease of installation plug into network and everything is already working. Just can't do that on roll-your-own VOIP service.

suppafly
Premium Member
join:2009-11-27
97000

1 recommendation

suppafly

Premium Member

Re: 96% discount not good enough?

I see that your ratings changed too. I cant see exactly how, but I see it raised from 83 to 87.

Thanks for your comments about your ratings, Its easier to see now what you meant in the original review.
grand total
join:2005-10-26
Mississauga
·Fido
MikroTik RB750Gr3
MikroTik wAP AC
Panasonic KX-TGP500

grand total to suppafly

Member

to suppafly
said by suppafly:

So in general, you went from paying 1200 to paying 40, for a 96% discount and still rate the company a 83? Man people here can be so tough lol

If you still work for VoIP.ms you should at least declare that fact when making comments such as this in reviews. I realise you are posting under your personal account, but still.

suppafly
Premium Member
join:2009-11-27
97000

2 recommendations

suppafly

Premium Member

Re: 96% discount not good enough?

I havent worked there since 2014, and this is currently a personal account. Now I can enjoy the freedom of posting what I really think. Thanks!
Weedz
join:2014-06-17
mexico

1 recommendation

Weedz

Member

Re: 96% discount not good enough?

we miss you! :V

suppafly
Premium Member
join:2009-11-27
97000

suppafly

Premium Member

Re: 96% discount not good enough?

I miss you guys too, Good luck with DMC

Review by bitseeker See Profile

  • Location: San Jose, Santa Clara, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Install: about 1 days
Free extensions, IVR, ring groups, and more; many registration servers to choose from
No failover for inbound calls (DID), no auto-refill
Good rates and features plus an API to get your phone geek on
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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Tech Support:
Value for money:

VoIP.ms is a Pay-as-you-go service, so cost depends on your usage and where you call. They're not as low as a wholesale VoIP provider, but significantly less expensive than the well-known brands of retail business/residential VoIP. We're saving a bundle and getting more features.

Once you have a balance on your account, all of their PBX-like features (voicemail boxes, unlimited extensions, IVR, ring groups, calling queues, failover destination, forwarding, DISA, etc.) are included. This can make a huge difference as compared to some providers that charge per extension, subaccount, feature, or complexity of functionality.

I set up a dozen or so devices and softphones in the office including 2- and 6-line Polycom IP phones and an Obi110. The Obi110 has a cellular voice interface connected to its line port (POTS) as a backup trunk.

Porting of US numbers is currently free. We ported two numbers after successfully using the service for a month. One number went easily and was completed in about a week. The other took several tries so that one took several weeks.

The LNP and support staff are friendly. The wiki documentation is extensive. All good things to have.

The web interface for setting up some of the features such as IVR took some time to get the hang of, but works well. If you're ambitious and want to make your own management interface (mobile, web, etc.), VoIP.ms also has an API.

At this time, three features I wish VoIP.ms had are (1) the ability to upload outgoing messages for voicemail boxes, (2) the ability to listen to voicemail online, and (3) failover for DIDs. Our IP phones can register to more than one POP so we can still make calls if one goes down, but we need our DIDs to also change POPs so incoming calls can still get through if our selected "primary" POP goes down.

Very happy so far with VoIP.ms. Definitely recommended if you have more than a couple of phones and/or need PBX-like functionality.

Update 2017-03-15:

Since this review was written almost three years ago, I've also put my personal lines on VoIP.ms and helped some other folks I know to switch from A-brand VoIP providers (business use) or traditional landlines (home use) to VoIP.ms. They all like the features and the significant cost savings.

member for 10 years, 577 visits, last login: 2.9 years ago
updated 7 years ago

taoman
Premium Member
join:2013-09-13
Seattle, WA

2 recommendations

taoman

Premium Member

Voicemail message

FYI: You can upload voicemail announcements to VoIP.ms support and they'll make it happen for you. I've sent them a couple professionally made announcements. Works great.

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:
Ease of Installation:
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Reliability:
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Value for money:

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
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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Tech Support:
Value for money:

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
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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Tech Support:
Value for money:

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:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

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, 4092 visits, last login: 3 days 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
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

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:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

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:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

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.