Art_B
join:2008-11-25
Sunnyvale, CA | reply to nitzan
Re: Which VOIP provider would be closest substitute for CV? The ability to call in to the service, then have it dial out, while presenting my Vonage or CallVantage caller ID is important to me. I want to have all of my voice mail managed at a single point. I've found that many people will just auto reply to whatever caller ID was associated with ther incoming call. So if I call them back directly from my cell phone, or office line, then that is where their return call will go to. By making all outbound calls appear to be from a single number, this helps focus all responses at a single voice mail.
I manage my voice mail by having CallVantage or Vonage send me a cell phone text message and plus internet email with voice file attached. With either service I can then place a local call to access the voice mail. With CallVantage, I can then have the service call back the caller ID of the incoming call. But per Vonage support, I can remotely call in to listen to the Voicemail, but then cannot have it call out to the caller ID.
Both CallVantage and Vonage offer the ability to reach your voice mail at a number in every area code. I do like having a local number to call within the area code of my CallVantage phone line. This allows me to access voice mail from my local work site without having to make a toll call or use my cell phone. My work site is in the same area code as my CallVantage phone. Having an additional non local area code network is less useful for me. When traveling, I tend to primarily use a cell phone, with large amount of free long distance calling included to access my CallVantage voice mail. It is more convenient than keeping track of the "free" local number in every city I travel to.
My base objective is to have a phone number that can be consistently reached. And then allow me to call out, while presenting a single phone number to those I'm calling. CallVantage and Vonage both offer multi line ring forward. So I can be reached. But Vonage appears to come up short on several elements of managing the call back. My cell phone provides a very portable point of contact. But does not work reliably across portions of my work site and home. CallVantage seems to offer the best integrated single point of contact. But of course they are shutting down. The one other credible offering I've seen in the u-verse phone system. But that would require me to switch my ISP to ATT/u-verse. |
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PX EliezerPremium
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River
kudos:12 Reviews:
 ·voip.ms
·callwithus
·Callcentric
·Vitelity VOIP
·Optimum Voice
·Gizmo5
| I was trying to see if U-Verse was available in your town (Sunnyvale) and I saw this complaint just posted a few days ago by a California customer:
»www.complaintsboard.com/complain···448.html
Just FYI..... |
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Art_B
join:2008-11-25
Sunnyvale, CA | Thanks much for the comments about Google Voice and u-verse.
Doing a quick scan of the Google Voice info, appears they do not yet let you port your existing number. But do plan to start offering that feature. Overall the product sounds similar in features to CallVantage. I could be interested in this once they allow number porting.
I find u-verse a bit frustrating. Offer a great set of features. But you must use them as your ISP. And they are not compatible with TiVo. I prefer a solution such as CallVantage or Google Voice where my choice of phone provider is not locked into my ISP choice.
As I look more at Vonage, they seem to have completely dropped the ball on offering a call out from voice mail feature. In addition to lacking the ability to do a dial out from their voice mail system., they also apparently do not offer the ability to remotely access voice mail, then choose an option to respond to caller using the person's caller ID info. |
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