Quandary with regard to VOIP provider ? Vonage or A&AISP ?

I'm in a quandary with regard to a VOIP provider.

My ISP is Andrews & Arnold, and I am delighted with them.

I currently have a telephone service from BT, but have decided to move, probably slowly & cautiously to VOIP.

It would seem logical to sign up to VOIP with A&AISP, but their packages don't work for me.

However for £15.00 per month inc VAT Vonage offer me:-

Unlimited UK Landline calls,
Unlimited calls to UK Mobiles
Unlimited calls to 5 international destinations - inc USA which is important to me
Choice of UK area code & number or Port my existing Number
Free Vonage Box which I can take with me when travelling - subject to conditions
The ability to make & receive calls on their mobile app
No activation charge

Once my VOIP is operating 100% satisfactorily I intend to port my land line number to the VOIP service.

I assume that at this time I can discontinue my BT line altogether as I am on A&AISP's "Home 1" package which costs £25 p.m. for 150GB, plus £10 p.m. for a copper pair.

Thoughts & advice please from those with more experience of VOPI than I - that means almost everyone !

NJSS

Edited by NJSS (Sun 06-Aug-17 18:41:08)

My main Voip supplier is Voipfone, who are very helpful. I also use Sipgate.

I use Gigaset N300 Voip Dect base stations and Gigaset C430 handsets.

I've not found that making voip phone calls using my laptop in hotel rooms to be particularly successful.

Porting your landline number might kill the line and stop broadband working.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Porting your landline number might kill the line and stop broadband working.

OR do support something called "number change on export", so you'll get a new number assigned when the main number is exported which avoids (or is meant to) that happening.

Matt

Michael & Matt

Thanks for your replies.

What I was hoping is that I could do away with BT altogether, as I am paying AAISP £10 per month for a
"Home::1 Ad;On: VDSL/FTTC" .

In so far as hardware is concerned I am already using Gigaset SL450A Go Digital kit, which I can connect to VOIP as soon as I have decided whom to use..

As a last resort I could simply continue the BT service which only costs in the order of £20 p.m. - but I was hoping I could avoid this expense.

NJSS

So do you have 2 phone lines one with A&A and one with BT? I wonder why. If you move to voip there is no longer any need for the BT line, or have I misunderstood your situation.

I use A&A for VOIP (previously Sipgate and Localphone) and find that it works well. Only you can tell if you're ever likely to make £15 worth of calls *every* month to make the Vonage option worthwhile but, in my case, my monthly bill is generally only a couple of pounds so definitely not! Don't make comparisons based on your BT bill - Call rates are significantly less and there's no rip-off call set up charges...

It's worth pointing out that Vonage don't give out SIP details so you're tied to using their box (to connect a real handset) or their app.

Correct - The Home::1 'copper pair' from A&A is naked DSL i.e. no phone service. The OP has a BT line in addition to the line for broadband.

You might want to consider how A&A handle voice mail. You can'r ring 1571 (etc) to get your messages. I prefer the Voipfone and Sipgate facilities.

I think A&A allow you to have two devices(phones) at different locations with the same SIP details. Both phones should ring. I don't think you can do this with Voipfone or Sipgate.

Discountvoip are cheap for calls to mobiles.

I do use Voip, but I would say that not all calls are as good as I would like.

As the OP has a Gigaset SL450A I suspect that the phone answering machine will be easiest to use rather than the provider's voicemail system.

Sipgate support multiple device registration and I would think that Voipfone will as well, if needed.

In reply to a post by ferretuk:

As the OP has a Gigaset SL450A I suspect that the phone answering machine will be easiest to use rather than the provider's voicemail system.

It is unlikely to send text messages about missed calls which Voipfone and Sipgate do, but of course just depends what you want.

In reply to a post by ferretuk:

Sipgate support multiple device registration and I would think that Voipfone will as well, if needed.

Sipgate did not work properly when I tried a little while ago. With regard to Voipfone see.