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Review by srinigar 
member for 217 days, 5 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 215 days ago
 undisclosed location
 Contract price not specified.  "Nothing But The Best" "Nothing But The Best"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I am a long-time, 3 years+ user of voip.ms. I do not use it heavily, but over
a long period of time I can hardly remember a call that did not
work, or that sounded under par.
It has been used with basic sipura/linksys ATAs and a medium-speed
dsl line.
What makes it stand out for me is the extremely 'fine-grained'
call-flow handling and the ease with which it can be manipulated.
For example, I can have a given caller-id routed to one destination
at certain hours of the day and/or certain days of the week, and to
another destination at other times.
Some calls ring through immediately - relatives, friends - while
others get a greeting and an invitation to enter an extension to
ring through, failing which they go to voicemail.
You can cause a given extension to get a dial tone, and then dial
out anywhere at voip prices.
There are a lot of possibilities, and even somebody like me, using
it as a home phone only, can find uses for many of them.
Basically, for me it means no more telemarketers or cranks. I hear
only from people I want to hear from, when I want to hear from
them.
The price for this? 1.25 cents/minute to call out to the US, less
than 2 cents/minute to call most European countries; and if you
want the 'value' line, it is 1.05 cents/minute to call the US.
See »voip.ms/rates.php for a list of rates.
There is a large selection of DIDs (telephone numbers) for almost
everywhere in the US - see »voip.ms/dids.php for US
numbers.
They really give a lot of value for the money.
If voip.ms were feeling pinched for cash, I do not think they
would lose existing customers or turn away prospective customers,
if they raised their prices a bit.
Comments:
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Review by FastAtLast
member for 9.2 years, 1694 visits, last login: 6 days ago
updated 219 days ago
- SW Florida
- $9 per month
 about 1 days- "Call Quality, Flexibility, & Value"
 "Nothing"- "Great!"
| Web-site:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I have been using VOIP on my main household telephone line for over 8-years and switched to Voip.ms in Nov. 2010.
Because of my background in electronics, I have always preferred services and applications that allow personal configuration of operating parameters. Voip.ms does this and more!
Although I am not using all the possible features available; what I do use works very well. My PAP2T is configured with two subacccounts and being able to simultaneously utilize two lines has been great, Other subaccounts are used on laptop softphones and has allowed me to communicate (as if I were at home) from both domestic and foreign locations.
Voip.ms is a first-rate VOIP provider when factoring-in call quality, flexibility, & value.
************************
Update Nov. 11, 2012:
Wow, times flies! I have been using VOIP.ms for two years and it's better than ever.
I have been using Premium routing and the call quality has been excellent. The small cost premium over Value routing is worth the piece of mind that I am getting the best quality. Although the free 800 calling uses value routing, the quality is as good or better than other calls.
I'm also paying for CID lookup, but after populating the Phone Book with frequent callers, the cost is minimal.
The Ring Group feature allows tremendous flexibility to route calls when traveling.
A few other features that I've been using are music-on-hold and CallerID Filtering (great for blocking telemarketers!).
Recently, I set up IVR and DISA so I could complete international calls from my cell phone - It works perfectly.
Now, if there was only a way to slow down the clock 
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 Review by jimk
member for 7.1 years, 2846 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 219 days ago
- Raleigh,Wake,NC
- $10 per month
- "Everything"
- "Nothing"
- "Reliable and affordable VoIP"
| Web-site:
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(ratings match consensus)
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VoIP.ms is a very good choice for those who want reliable, cost effective VoIP service and who have the technical knowledge required to set it up.
Paying per minute even for local and toll free calls (on the premium route) may seem unusual if you are used to something like Vonage or even a traditional land line. However, the cost per minute is extremely low, and there are no hidden surprises.
There are a few issues with so-called unlimited services: First, if you use them too much, there's usually something in the terms of service that give the provider the freedom to discontinue your service or move you to a metered plan. Second, if you don't consistently use a ton of minutes, you're overpaying.
There are some months when I hardly use the phone at all, and other months where I might be on several long calls. With a more traditional service, there would be some months where I would be massively overpaying. Those days are gone now that I only have to pay for what I use.
The call routing features are very nice for a residential or very small business user. IVR (Auto Attendant), multiple voicemail boxes, DISA, Caller ID filtering (lets you route calls differently based on Caller ID) are all useful.
Businesses with more than a few phones will want to install an IP PBX like Asterisk, or get creative and use a device or small Asterisk server to deliver the SIP trunks to a legacy phone system over a PRI interface (or even analog lines if that's all the system supports).
Call quality and reliability have been excellent so far. I had a few issues calling certain numbers, but support determined the cause quickly and had a fix in less than 30 minutes. This isn't an issue that is unique to VoIP.ms... I have had similar issues on business class service delivered over T1s (and they took longer to fix). It is just one of those things that happens sometimes.
There really isn't anything bad to say. Just realize that you have to configure the service and that it isn't like Vonage where you can pick up a piece of hardware, plug it in, and forget about it. You need to have a basic understanding of networking. This applies to any BYOD VoIP provider.
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 Review by Serop
member for 10 years, 406 visits, last login: 15 days ago
updated 222 days ago
- Laval,QC
- $5 per month
- (month by month)
- about 5 days
- "cheap, lots of features"
- "too many features :)"
- "better alternative to my previous voip provider"
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I left Iristel for voip.ms and it's 3 times cheaper and with 30 times more features 
It was a $10 promo for phone # transfer, which went well and fast enough (5 days).
Many connection options, forwarding, voicemail etc. It's like having a small PBX online
Easily adding new phone # including toll-free ones, low rates for numbers and voice.
So far so good.
N.B. - I use them for my home phone number which I do not use a lot. But cannot get rid of it as it known to many orgs. So it's good/cheap "number parking" alternative.
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Review by Rastan
member for 6.1 years, 356 visits, last login: 13 days ago
updated 222 days ago
- Canada
- $5 per month
- "Reliable, great quality, fairly inexpensive"
- "Expensive if you use a lot of minutes"
- "Solid service"
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I'm paying about $5/month. Here's the breakdown:
$1.49/month for a phone number (DID) and around $3.20 - $3.60/month for local and long distance calls. No 911 service.
When I signed up I paid with Paypal and I was able to setup my account instantly. There were a few snags setting it up with my Linksys PAP2-NA but I was able to get through to their online tech support pretty quickly and they helped me configure a few settings and everything has worked fine since then.
The service has been reliable. I haven't noticed any downtime and the quality of the calls is great. They provide two types of routing for outgoing calls: premium and value. The rates for premium routing are a bit expensive when compared to other VOIP providers but their value rates are good.
If you don't plan on using many minutes then I highly recommend VOIP.ms. However, if you anticipate that you will use the line regularly then this might not be the service for you. Heavy users would probably go for the $4.95/month option that includes unlimited incoming calls. Outgoing local calls are are not included.
VOIP.MS also offers many great features such as Direct Inward System Access (DISA), which allows you to configure your account in a way that will let you (or anyone else you give access to) call your number, enter a pin # and gain access to your account. You are then able to place calls from your VOIP.ms account from wherever you are. You can also setup sub accounts, an IVR and there are many other features as well.
In conclusion, unless you're a heavy user I highly recommend checking out this company.
Update: 09/24/11
My rating remains unchanged. There have been a few problems with server I primarily use but I haven't noticed much downtime. It's been a solid service from the start. Highly recommended.
Update: 11/08/12
My rating is the same. VOIP.ms continues to be a solid and reliable service that offers great features.
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Review by ds
member for 223 days, 0 visits, last login: 223 days ago
lodged 223 days ago
- New York,New York,NY
- Contract price not specified.
- "Call quality is good. Good number of features."
- "Customer service is below average. Unjust requests. No auto-recharge."
- "Do not appreciate customers."
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I've used VOIP.ms as a backup provider for outgoing calls and the call quality is fine.
First problem arouse when international calls were blocked. Turns out they require a photo of an ID to enable intl. calls to a number of countries. Fine, our international calls have been routed through another provider.
Then Irene came and our primary provider (CC) went down, so we've decided to port some numbers to the VOIP.ms.
It took 0.5 business days to make money from paypal to appear on VOIP.ms's account, although there is no warning about that on their web site, confirmation email said that it "may take a few moments" and their support guy kept me online for about 1.5 hours "trying" to reach someone from their billing department.
After money have been transferred, they demanded to disclose *all numbers and services* that i have with another provider in order to do the port. The explanation for that is that its their provider's demands.
Question "who is that provider" has been ignored. "Why do they need it?" -- "to make sure that other services are not canceled and to make sure your port is not refused by the losing provider".
We have been doing ports with many different providers and this was the first time we've been asked such nonsense questions, since it is nobody's business what other numbers or services we have with which provider(s).
I was assured that that information "will be safe and used only for the port process" by the same guy who promised a refund next day and we are still waiting for it 5 days after.
Our porting process was cancelled because they would not proceed without us disclosing our business with another provider and they still hold our money (supposedly it takes "7 business days" for a refund).
So the bottom line that they are an average provider with "my way or highway" attitude, average customer support who would do the usual support tricks just to get rid of you and weird business practices (blocking of intl. calls for prepaid accounts, demand to disclose irrelevant private business info).
Also, since this is a Canadian business, the US laws for customer identity protection may or may not apply, and it could be more difficult to get jurisdiction over them if they will lose your information.
Comments:
 Reviews:
 ·Cablemas
| Regarding your review Hello
Regarding the ID, it is required since any customer can send up 500 USD per day on payments, and as a VoIP provider with low margins, we have been victims in the past of several cases of impersonation and loses in the five figure department within the last year, please note that the ID can be blanked out of all confidential information as long as the name and expiration date are visible. You can verify our reputation online and on this forum in order to see that we have shown to be a reliable company.
Regarding the requirement to disclose all the remaining services with the losing provider, this is entirely a requirement from the losing carrier in order to authorize the port out. I have been overlooking all the VoIP.ms ports for over 3 years, and this is in no case a very unusual requirement. We love to have fast ports, and on this case the only reason why that is being required is because the losing providers wants it to release the numbers.
By the way you mention that you requested a refund, the timeframe to complete them is 7 days, and we will refund all the remaining balance if that is what you have requested. We have tried to be clear. show good faith and tried to be upfront with all the information we received when we tried to port in your numbers.
Please let me know if you have any other questions or comments to my email peter@voip.ms Ill be glad to assist.
Regards,
--
Peter Sahui - VoIP.ms | |
| | ds
join:2012-11-07
New York, NY Reviews:
 ·voip.ms
| Re: Regarding your review You say that it is a requirement from the losing carrier.
Other VOIP.ms staff said that it is a requirement from VOIP.ms's carrier:
"Unfortunately, it is a required for our carrier a list of all the numbers and/or services that should remain in the losing carriers account."
Every explanation about this is vague and different, maybe because this is actually not required and other providers are doing ports without it.
Also, the losing provider already knows which numbers or services they provide us with, so why would they require this information from you?
As per porting fees refund, as per VOIP.ms's staff (written on 2012.11.01):
"The porting fee will be refunded by tomorrow." | |
| | | Reviews:
·Cablemas
| Re: Regarding your review Hello again DS
To be completely accurate, this is a request sent to us by the CLEC handling these ports on our behalf, upon request of the CLEC that is currently holding your numbers in order to release them. This is not a rare request, we do see several of these every week.
You can bet we would love to offer 1-hour ports where there are no rejections, however this is the current state of the system of porting numbers between American carriers at the moment, where the losing provider can always request for additional information just to agree to release the numbers.
Please let me know if you have any questions, I now see why you may have thought it was just a bureaucratic requirement from us, however this is truly not the case.
The refund that you have requested will be processed within the originally promised 7 days timeframe, and we will refund your complete initial deposit to your Paypal account.
Please let me know if you have any other questions, Ill be glad to help clear them up.
Regards,
--
Peter Sahui - VoIP.ms | |
| | | | ds
join:2012-11-07
New York, NY | Re: Regarding your review Our request was not sent to any CLECs.
It was canceled by VOIP.ms staff about 12 hours after submission, without even sending it to provider.
I am aware that 1-hour ports are not possible at this time and was not requesting one. | |
|
| | | | | | | Re: Regarding your review said by ds:As per porting fees refund, as per VOIP.ms's staff (written on 2012.11.01):
"The porting fee will be refunded by tomorrow."
Was the fee refunded? If it was, and if you believe the comments of others that voip.ms acted in a standard way, would you consider changing your evaluation of them? It does not seem fair to leave such a poor review with them if they do not deserve it? | |
|
PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River
kudos:13 | Agree with Voip.MS I agree with what Peter of Voip.MS has written.
I've had to supply the same types of information when doing other ports. | |
| jimkPremium
join:2006-04-15
Raleigh, NC Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
·voip.ms
| These are not abnormal requests There's nothing wrong with a VoIP provider wanting some form of ID for unlocking international calls. Fraud is way too common and they have to protect themselves. For what it is worth, I had no issues with providing my ID to them in order to unlock international calls on my account.
Regarding the information needed to port, this is not unusual either. I have dealt with numerous CLEC providers where number ports were involved, and the information required can be quite substantial. Generally, the more you provide the better. For example, when you provide a list of services, they will be able to determine if any of those may impact the porting process.
So there's really nothing wrong with how VoIP.ms handled the international calls or porting process.
Regarding the refund, I don't know why they are taking a few days, but if I had to guess, this would be an anti fraud measure as well. Their refund policy is very generous for a prepaid provider. | |
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Review by fragonard
member for 357 days, 9 visits, last login: 31 days ago
updated 228 days ago
- undisclosed location
- Contract price not specified.
- "Unbeatable combination of features, reliability and low cost"
- "Voip.ms works when a disaster strikes!"
| Web-site:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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2012 11 03
Voip.Ms has shown that it has a disaster plan that works. Its dispersed server plan - they have 10 or more over the US and Europe - has proven its worth with the disaster in New York. The New York server was mirrored elsewhere before the power went off and users hardly noticed a problem.
Voip.Ms continues to provide excellent-sounding, reliable phone calls, while allowing me to focus on the people I want to hear from and excluding telemarketers, cranks and psychos.
When the phone rings, I answer - I do not care who is calling because I know it will be somebody I want to hear from.
People I am doing business with get a temporary 'extension' that they enter and when we are finished doing business, the extension no longer works and any calls from them go to voicemail.
I can allow calls to come in during certain hours and go to voicemail at others.
An IVR guides callers to enter the extension.
Family and friends are whitelisted and their calls ring through immediately.
I gave free phone numbers, from DDI, to relatives in the UK. The numbers point to my voip.ms sip url, so they are free. In case the relatives forget about the 5 hour time difference, and call at an inconvenient hour, I have the calls ring through at convenient hours, and go to voice mail otherwise.
I am not a techy person yet I found that doing the call managing was fairly easy.
Get Voip.MS and keep your phone on tap, not on top! And do it more cheaply and far more flexibly than a certain strangely highly-rated company.
Comments:
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Review by xraminx
member for 5.1 years, 245 visits, last login: 119 days ago
updated 229 days ago
- Oakville,ON
- Contract price not specified.
- "Cheap. Flexible."
- "Tech support is pathetic."
- "Don't count on their tech support"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I bought a DID number from them and tried to set up DID based inbound routing on my PBX.
Turns out their servers do no include the DID number in the SIP request making it close to impossible to set up DID based inbound routes on your PBX. (Edit: it does, you need to set the SIP URI properly).
Their tech support is not knowledgeable. The first response I got to my detailed question was like the tech support was brushing me off, hoping I would resolve the issue myself. (And I resolved the issue myself at the end.)
Their support system is ridiculous: I gathered some valuable SIP debug information from the Asterisk log and pasted it in the support ticket but when I hit the "Submit" button, some crucial information was stripped from the log I pasted, rendering it useless.
Use their service if you think you can solve the problems yourself. Don't count on their tech support. You are on your own.
One serious issue is that it takes a long time for an incoming call to get connected. They have to fix this. The person calling your DID number will have to wait a long time before they hear the ring.
Comments:
Mangowww.toao.net
join:2008-12-25
Alberta
kudos:11 | So... ...did you remember to set "Device type" to "IP PBX Server, Asterisk or Softswitch"? | |
| | Reviews:
·voip.ms
| Re: So...Yes I did. sip debug shows the TO: field is missing the DID number:
To: <sip:my_pbx_ip_address>
It is supposed to look like:
To: <sip:my_did_number@my_pbx_ip_address>
| |
| | | Mangowww.toao.net
join:2008-12-25
Alberta
kudos:11 | Re: So... Testing it and will post back shortly. | |
| | | | | | |
2 edits | Re: So... Thanks  Looks like I found the solution 3 minutes later than you  | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | Re: So... I updated the review. | |
| | | | | | | Mangowww.toao.net
join:2008-12-25
Alberta
kudos:11 | Re: So... Thank you!  And feel free to let us know if you have any other questions we may be able to answer. Have a great day! | |
|
| | Reviews:
·voip.ms
| Okay I figured out what the problem is and the DID based routing works now.
The SIP URI that you forward your DID to, must look like:
1{DID}@my_pbx_ip_address
But I had set it to
my_pbx_ip_address
One serious issue is that it takes a long time for an incoming call to get connected. They have to fix this. The person calling your DID number will have to wait a long time before they hear the ring.
Nevertheless, as I mentioned before, you cannot count on their tech support. You are on your own. | |
| | | | MartinMVoIP.msPremium,VIP
join:2008-07-21 | Re: So... I do not agree that you can't count on our technical support. There's a lot of documentation in our wiki, and "my_pbx_ip_address" is clearly something you need some technical knowledge. Let me know if there's anything else we can do to help you get you started with your first PBX.
--
Martin - VoIP.ms | |
| | | | | Reviews:
·voip.ms
1 edit | Re: So... MartinM, you are entitled to your opinion.
I wrote about what I actually experienced. Tech support was useless.
They have access to all my settings on their servers. I also sent them detailed logs from my Asterisk CLI. They could not find the problem.
Here is the issue number. Go check it out for yourself:
Ticket #37355
BTW, it's not my first PBX. | |
| | | | | | MartinMVoIP.msPremium,VIP
join:2008-07-21 | Re: So... I will take a loot and try my best to help you, from a quick look at the ticket is that you tell the technician that he used a crappy canned response and that our ticketing system trunks parts of your logs. That is normal, I would recommend perhaps attaching the log in a text file, as is the standard in the industry, and perhaps, refrain from using juvenile language.
Regards,
--
Martin - VoIP.ms | |
| | | | | | | Reviews:
·voip.ms
| Re: So... Yes. I did say the first answer was a crappy canned response because it was. And I feel insulted to get a useless response to a detailed question I asked.
If you do not consider the first response a crappy canned response then you have no idea what an acceptable customer service is like.
And the problem is resolved by myself so you don't need to look further.
I suggest you improve your tech support instead of defending it. | |
| | | | | | | | MartinMVoIP.msPremium,VIP
join:2008-07-21 | Re: So... At the end of it, it is working and we had nothing to fix, I understand your frustration in not getting an immediate answer in fixing your error. For that, I deeply apologise and I will make sure the technician who attended your case gets interviewed about your case.
I'm happy that the service is working as intended,
Best Regards,
--
Martin - VoIP.ms | |
| | | | | | | | | Reviews:
·voip.ms
| Re: So... And I appreciate you looking into this. What you need to fix is your customer service.
Looking forward to using your service and buying more DID's from you.
If in the future I use your customer support and I am satisfied, I will certainly change my review.
Regards
Ramin | |
| | | | | | | | | | MartinMVoIP.msPremium,VIP
join:2008-07-21 | Re: So... Glad to hear that.
Make sure you include your traces in an attached text filedocument (SIP Traces contain HTML QUOTES). The best format is a .pcap file that can be parsed properly, like wireshark, if you don't know how to do that you can copy the asterisk output but as mentionned, in a text file.
Also, always make sure your account and subaccounts are set as PBX and not ATA Device, as documented in our wiki, if you want to have the DID included in the invite string.
Regards,
--
Martin - VoIP.ms | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| |
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Review by shmuele
member for 232 days, 0 visits, last login: 232 days ago
lodged 232 days ago
- New York,New York,NY
- Contract price not specified.
- "Such a Wonderful Provider of Voip!"
- "An Eye-opening Experience. Wonderful. Amazing."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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(ratings match consensus)
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Signed up with voip.ms as a second backup / maybe prime service.
After I figured out how the 'call flow' works I was very impressed
with the IVR and the ability to route blocks of calls to one place.
For example, I can send calls by default to an IVR message asking
for an extension to be entered. People I want to hear from do not
get the message, the phone just rings and I pick up.
There are a ton more options that I have not yet fully explored,
but it is obvious this is a top-class voip service. We are talking
top world-class performance.
The per minute prices are surprisingly low for such quality: about
1.25 cents/minute for premium connections within the US; some W.
European countries are less than 2 cents/minute for a premium
connection. Israel 1.6 cents/minute!!
Such a find!
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Review by mbourd25
member for 7.7 years, 1085 visits, last login: 2 days ago
lodged 237 days ago
- Hammond,ON
- $5 per month
- about 1 days
- "Cost"
- "Voip servers not that reliable"
- "Can't complain about the price/reliability of the service."
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For the cost of the service, can't complain. But there voip servers are not that reliable and they don't have in place a system where a server would be down for a long time that they can change the address of the server to another server. You have to switch everything yourself in account at voip.ms and also in your voip box which can be a hassle. Other then that, there technical staff are good at solving problems for you.
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