Which Voip provider?

I have a Bt homehub and want to use it as a VOIP phone, I don't want to use broadband talk since BT seem incapable of billing the calls to a different person than the land line account holder. (live in a shared house)

I followed the tutorial on homehubhacks to get the hub to

A) route to the ethernet port allowing me to use my existing router
B) use sipgate as the VOIP provider.

Hub works fine with SIpgate with the execption of the voicemail number which routes to the german platform (after you remove the prefix 5 from switching to pstn :P ) they are still looking into that.

I also briefly tried voipfone.co.uk to proove that by using the instructions as a template and modifying them to suit its possible to use the homehub with pretty much any SIP provider however I do not think its possible to use multiple as although accounts are added as profiles the sip proxy is general to all profiles.


I choose sipgate at first simply because that was what the instructions were aimed at and they offered a free geographical number.

But before i go putting money on the account i'd like to take a moment to ask whether there's any other providers I should be considering instead.

Things i'm looking for are

1. Quality/clarity
2. geographical number (i don't mind paying for it as long as the cost is not excessive)
3. Stablity
4. Voicemail
5. No contracts/tie-ins.
6 price.

I don't mind paying a bit more if it means i'm getting a better standard of service.

Hi.
I have a Sipgate and a Voipfone account. The Sipgate account doesn't get used now as I found the call quality better with Voipfone. The Geographical number is only 99p a month and call charges might not be the cheapest around but the platform is stable and I like the way Voipfone works. No tie in that I'm aware of, you don't want the geographical number anymore you just stop paying for it.
Cheers
Jon

�2 a month is what i was quoted for the Geographical number with voipfone however I don't mind paying that if the service is better

Hi.
Sorry, you're right. 99p I think it is for extensions.
I moved to a house where the bb connection is shared and I don't have a personal bt line so I ported the bt number from my old place to Voipfone which saved me the hassle of letting all my contacts know the new number. So far it's working well. Just using a softphone at the moment but will get a proper voip phone when finances allow.
Cheers
Jon

You can buy adaptors that allow you to plug a standard phone in and use it for voip, tend to be cheaper than dedicated Voip phones, not sure if that helps at all.

Unlocked linksys pap2's sometimes go quite cheap on ebay or zoom do one for about �30 -�35

Edited by dragon2611 (Sun 12-Aug-07 12:46:33)

Thanks for the info. I'll look into the adaptors.
Cheers
Jon

Got voipfone all working with a geographical number.

Apart from a slight problem when i topped up my account it error'd and I now have an invoice for �5 that didn't actually credit to my account

Until my banks systems update I don't know if it actually charged it or not

Contacted their support to ask them to check to see if they can tell.

EDIT:

They voided the transaction that didn't go though properly so it shouldn't come out of my bank account, i'll check my statement when it updates, Must say was impressed with the response from their support particularly as its a Sunday as well.

Edited by dragon2611 (Sun 12-Aug-07 16:47:59)

Good to hear you guys are using Voipfone (The UK's leading internet telephone service provider, says someone)

How you guy's getting on with the service?

Edited by sean2003 (Sun 19-Aug-07 01:10:38)

homehub stays connected happilty apart from when i switch it off at night

But haven't really used it much given a couple people the numbers made a short call and used the free test minutes up, still tend to use my mobile for calling since i get a load of inclusive minutes.

When I have used it the calling qualitys been great and also their staff on the forums were quite helpfull at anwsering my questions.etc

Did have a small issue with my first payment to them failing to complete succesfully but getting invoiced, contacted them about it and they sorted it out quickly though

Edited by dragon2611 (Sun 19-Aug-07 01:56:11)

No problems at all, call quality is great although some callers say they can hear a slight echo to their voice but at the moment I'm putting that down to using a softphone.
Cheers
Jon