Anyone Using Skype Or Other VoIP Phone Services?
 

Just curious.

I'm moving this year, and am wondering if I will bother with a traditional landline phone. Or if an Internet (VoIP) phone plus mobile phone will be enough.

John,

Cut my cell phone bill by 90% using skype. Calling to and from overseas its a wonderful thing. Have not had any quailty problems with 99% of the calls and have had to redial one or three due to lead/lag issues but usually its clearer than a normal phone.

JoeA

I use Time Warner Cable and have their digital phone service, which goes through the cablemodem. It's okay, I've never had any real problems, just little annoyances... like the phone forgetting to hang up. Sometimes the router needs to be restarted. I called the phone using a cell phone, and the cell phone heard seven rings before my house phone even rang. I haven't done much more testing.

I hate phones, but it's cheap and just good enough to be tolerable.

When the phone forgets to hang up... basically what happens is I pick up the phone to make a phone call and there's nothing there. No tone or anything. Sometimes it's fixed by unplugging the phone from the wall, other times the router has to be restarted. During this time, anyone who tries to call just hears the phone ringing, but it doesn't actually go through.

We' re still in this apartment in Spain, and my daughter really wanted to call her best friend, so I downloaded Skype, installed, signed up for Sype Out, and we called California. Ended up making several calls. They worked fine, considering the laptop is old, we didn't have a headset, and we're just using some neighbor'd unsecured WiFi signal. I'm impressed. We're going to seriously consider VoIP when we move.

The one point that kept me from going VOIP has been the lack of 911 service. Many do carry it now though.

Pretty much sums up my experience with Vonage except sometimes the phone doesn't work at all. I have to reset the modem to get it back. Not bad if you're home, but sucks if you're not and trying to call home. We all have cell phones in that case so the huge savings makes it worth it. Plus I love the commercial.:)

I have 911 service btw.

I use Vonage at home. Good service with lots of features. Occasionally it loses a little quality when I have a lot of stuff downloading. Otherwise, it's great, the extras are great,and work well.

If you already have a broadband internet connection, I'd recommend Vonage.

I have Vonage, overall for the money we're pleased. Sound quality is good enough, our only issue has been going through three phone boxes in three years, always replaced for free but still a pain. We have 911, and it forwards to our cell phone when the service has gone down so we don't miss our calls. My wife calls and faxes a lot of long distance for her home business, if we had SBC her entire paycheck would go for the phone bill. Overall I would recomend it, but if money were no option we would just get a landline.

Something nobody tells you, one phone box will operate an entire home. Just plug the phone box output into a regular household phone jack, and since phone lines are wired in series, you'll have it through your entire house. I have had to unplug the land line in the SBC box, it seems to screw with the Vonage signal. Also very sensitive to poor connections within the phone circuit, when we move it normally takes a few hours to get everything straight. Just thought I'd throw that in, most people hate the idea of only having one phone.

I use Skype with video and while not perfect, it's nice to see family in Germany.

Dave

I use Vonage over time warner. I replaced SBC land line and DSL. Cut about $35 per month off of my bills before a single phone call was made.

Quality is good. heavy uploads can cause some breakup in the voice call, but a router with QOS (quality of service) can prevent that.

Just a quick check of the big players out there:

Earthlink: $24.95 Unlimited calling - $14.95 for 500 minutes

Vonage: Same as Earthlink

OptimumVoice: $34.95 Unlimited (May be cheaper with Cable TV or IO bundle)

ATT: $29.95 Unlimited


Am I missing any?

I was thinking about getting Packet 8 VOIP service. It would take McCloud a month to port my number over though.

Packet 8 is 20 bucks a month unlimited

I'm using Sunrocket with very few problems . When I signed up in Dec . I paid a yearly flat fee of $199. I'll renew my subscription next Dec.

A friend of mine used skype almost exclusively while in Hungary. He said it wasn't perfect but perfect for him.

Myself, I've only used it a couple of times - I didn't mind it.

Ty,

Skype or any other VOIP is only as good as your internet connection.

Everyone I have talked with or who used Skype with a descent interent connection was very happy.

Skype rocks. I'm amazed at how well it works. I have a cable modem which is a sunk cost, so te free international calls are great.

I'm thinking Internet via cable modem and then phone via VOIP. Cut out the landline entirely. Use cellphone as a backup.

Reviving this thread... so Skype is advertising $14.99 per YEAR for outgoing Skype calls. Another $2.99 per month for incoming. This seems a lot cheaper than Vonage, SunRocket or some of the others - most of them are around $25-$30 per month. Am I missing something, or are they that much cheaper?

I have the Earthlink thru my cable modem, have had it for about 3 months now and so far no issues at all. For $24.99 a month you get unlimited local and long distance within the U.S. I was paying twice that with Bellsouth standard phone service. And I do have 911 service. For me it's a no brainer to switch.

Motion,

If you call computer to computer (and who does not have a computer these days) skype is free for everyone.

I just got off of three calls with three friends. One was in Moscow, another in Dubai and another in Singapore. Yes there was some lead and lag but not enough to worry with and it did not cost a penny.

I still have a phone at home but going to cut the line soon as I really do not use it anymore.

Joe A

Joe,

Excuse my ignorance on this, but how exactly do you talk to each other computer-to-computer? The speaker part I get, but what do you use for a mic? TIA.

Denis,

I have done both. Using a laptop with a built in mic and speakers some work fine, while others need a headset. The Dell 600m I use on the road works fine as is, but better with a headset.

My home computer has a mic plugged into the soundcard and speakers. The gent taking care of my house and I talk from time to time when I am overseas and its as clear as a telephone call, and for free.

Have to laugh recently as when I am talking on the computer the cat has started coming to the office as it hears my voice and expects to find me at home, when I am really 7000 miles away. Its that clear and good a connection.

We have been using Vonage and Skype for quite a while.

Vonage at home is over a 10Mb Cox Cable connection and we never had any issues with the router or other equipment, the Vonage Router is connected to my phone distribution panel, so all the phones use that line, also we have the international plan (free calls to several countries in Europe and dirt cheap to the rest) with Vonage and I even have a local number in Spain that rings home in Las Vegas, ideal for my family and friends back in Spain. If we have to travel on vacation within the US we take the Vonage router with us.

Skype is mostly for busines travel but now limited to PC to PC talks (no Skype out now that we have to pay again), I use my cell phone mostly while travelling.

Our niece and her b/f just moved here and decided to go with Vonage. When they call and we talk, I can tell they're on VoIP due to the delay. I find it a little annoying. We also recently had a few storms through here where many areas lost power. You're out of luck when the power goes out as compared to regular land line. We've considered it, and it would certainly be the cheaper way to go, but maybe I'm a little old fashioned and like the quality and reliability of a land line. BTW, 911 service is what we do for a hobby:D

I use skype on my Mac book pro with the built-in camera and wireless connection. That makes a free portable videophone to talk to my familly in France. It totally rocks. The quality is amazing. I can show them stuff all over the house and even in the backyard. We spent 6 hours together for Christmas, it felt like I was with them.

Aurel

I use Vonage for my work number and fax. I have been very happy with the service. The conection quality is directly linked to the bandwidth capacity. If I have a ton of windows open, some internet music playing and surfing Pelican of course, the phone will bog down a bit. Otherwise, a very reliable product.

So can anyone comment on the pricing? Just trying to figure out if I am missing something here... Skype seems MUCH cheaper than the others. Too good to be true?

I use packet-8 here in my home office for work. Sound quality to Asia is better then land-lines. My only complaints are that the internet phone doesn't seem to like being attached to a conference phone on the other end, I'm guessing because of the lower signal-to-noise ratio. The line quality also is kind of iffy for incoming faxes, even from geographically locations.

All in all though, I like it.

BTW, it does have 911 capability, but not if the power goes out (at which point the network goes down). That's the nice thing about land lines, they'll often work even if the power goes out. But on the other hand, the last couple of times that we've needed to call 911, one of the times we ended up having to use a cell phone because the phone lines were down.