WhichVoIP Blog

This is one of the most common questions I get asked, be it from friends and family or from customers trying to find a provider. If I worked for Packet8, SunRocket or Vonage then it would be easy but with dozens of providers to choose from, there is no one provider that will suite everyone. 

The easy bit is identifying the type of caller you are, is it mostly local calls, are you on the phone a lot or more likely is your teenage daughter on the phone a lot, do you call internationally? Some providers like ZingoTel offer plans starting at less than $6 for limited monthly minutes other providers like VoicePulse offer unlimited minutes per month for less than $25 a month and some providers like Packet8 and Lingo offer international plans starting at only $22 a month.

One of the huge advantages of VoIP is the number and variety of and features available. However, this can prove choosing a provider rather difficult. The only advice I can offer here is only choose the features you truly want and need, any others you get after you choose your provider, you can just think of them as a bonus. Now that you think you have found your provider how do you know if they are any good or not?

The only way to know without trying the service yourself is to rely on the opinions of others.  Unbiased customer reviews are invaluable when you are thinking of trying a service. We now have over 600 customer reviews spanning at least 30 Service providers.

As the question “Who is the best VoIP provider?” was one of the most common we thought it best to write a step by step guide on how to select a VoIP provider.This article guides you through the selection process and ensures you get the right provider and plan.

Calum

So how was it for you?

This is a question I often get ……no, not from my good lady at home (we have 2 young kids  )  but from friends and family regarding VoIP or Broadband phone service as many people call it.  They generally seem a little tentative about switching over to VoIP, probably fear of the unknown.

I want to use this opportunity to give you my opinion on VoIP service and share my VoIP experiences.  Yes I am involved with the running of this website which promotes VoIP but we are truly unbiased when it comes to helping you choose a VoIP service provider.  Check out our VoIP reviews, there are a number of bad ones!

My first step was to move to for Broadband over Cable rather than DSL so I could remove my local phone service …. and its extortionate line rental fees. 

Once I had installed the broadband connection and was happy with the bandwidth I was getting I jumped into VoIP.  Who did I choose?  Well at the time was the only VoIP provider that gave unlimited international calling to Western Europe and since I have family members in the U.K, Lingo was an obvious choice.  However, I was hesitant as I had read some bad reviews on Lingo but if you don’t try you’ll never know, right.

Received the VoIP box in the mail a few days after ordering and installed it as per the instructions.  Made loads of calls within the U.S and to the U.K and the quality of the calls were very good, far better than cell-phone calls and almost on par with the regular land line.  The only difference, a little louder background noise but only really noticeable to a trained ear.

Next step, asked my wife to phone the Lingo number from her cell-phone so we could test incoming calls.  The call wouldn’t go through, OK here we go…..this is where it all comes crumbling down.  The Lingo number wouldn’t even ring.  Immediately phoned Lingo customer service and got through to a LIVE person very quickly.  The gentleman spent the next 20 minutes making various calls to my Lingo number from his land-line, his cell-phone and from his VoIP line.  All of them came through - the beauty of VoIP, call waiting feature for FREE!  So what’s going on?  Went to the car and got my work cell-phone.  Tried calling our Lingo number, it WORKS!  Much head-scratching at this point, what’s going on…..some investigation work that Sherlock Holmes would have been proud of and it turns out my good lady hadn’t filled her “pay-as-you-go” phone….AAAARRRGGHHHHH!!!!  Yes my wife was very embarrassed.

Next step, port my number over and get rid off the local phone service provider.  Took about 10 days and no more line rental fees.

Still going strong with Lingo for a few years now and still no complaints.  Occasionally (very rarely) we hear a loud noise in the background for about a second during International calls but this is about once every 6 months and only seems to happen when my wife is on the phone (cynical I know)!

How was it for you?  Excellent and you know what even pretty good for my wife on this occasion.

Andy

When you talk about high speed Internet access with friends, family and colleagues often the first question asked is “Do you have DSL or Cable?”.  This is a common question we get in our Inbox at WhichVoIP too.

If you are currently shopping for a Broadband provider and are trying to decide between DSL and Cable Broadband, read our Advantages and Disadvantages of DSL Service Versus Cable Internet Service to see which is best for your needs.

If you plan to move to VoIP, and why wouldn’t you , at the time of writing Cable Broadband makes more sense than DSL in my opinion.  Why, you ask?  Well until “Naked DSL” becomes mainstream you will still have to pay line rental to your local phone provider.  Remember, DSL high speed Internet access is transmitted over your regular phone line and your local phone provider wants YOU to keep paying for the maintenance of the line to your house.  So you can’t get completely rid off this service.

Using a cable connection for your Broadband needs, for example and a VoIP provider, say  will allow you to cancel your local phone providers service.  No more ridiculous line rental fees and one flat monthly fee that covers all your telephony needs!  Of course this assumes you already use this cable provider for your television service.  Once the local phone providers move to naked DSL and/or launch new services such as television over your regular phone line, the tide may turn.  Watch this space….

Andy

I really enjoy reading the many VoIP reviews we receive each day at WhichVoIP.  The majority of these VoIP reviews are very informative, carefully written and extremely helpful to other readers trying to decide which VoIP service provider is best for them.  We get many promoting a particular VoIP provider, some critical of them and a few that are just plain ugly

Our feedback form for user postings really does attempt to get a true reflection of the VoIP provider in question.  We ask for feedback on such things as voice quality, reliability, customer service, time to install and many other important factors.  The benefit of this is of course that our current readers interested in selecting a VoIP service provider can collect a vast amount of data to assist in the decision making process.

A word of caution however, often those who have had a bad VoIP experience are the ones most willing to post a review, which of course turns out to be negative!  We do receive a lot of very good VoIP reviews too but those happy with their service have little reason to be looking at our site and post a user review - why would they be shopping for another VoIP service provider?

What is our current best reviewed VoIP service provider you ask?  Well, if we disregard those VoIP providers that have less than 5 user review postings, the current winner is , with an overall score of 4.7 out of 5 from 16 postings.

Our VoIP review section is updated daily, take a peek and read some very informative user reviews….some will give you a laugh too. 

Andy

Everyone can see that VoIP saves you money on your phone calls.

However, did you know that your VoIP service can help save your family and friends money too?

“Virtual number” is the VoIP feature you need to be aware of and most VoIP service providers have it.

A VoIP virtual number gives you a second (and more if needed) telephone number, but more importantly this number can have ANY area code (even international in some cases).  Your VoIP service provider will simply pass a caller on to your primary VoIP telephone number when he or she calls your virtual number.  This is for incoming calls only by the way!

How does this save you money I hear you ask?

Well say your parents live in Boston and you are in San Diego.  Add a VoIP virtual number with the Boston area code and then your parents simply make a LOCAL call rather than a long distance call.  Your VoIP provider knows you live in San Diego and passes the call over the internet to your primary number in San Diego.  Pretty neat isn’t it?

Some VoIP providers actually give you a virtual number for free such as  

To see which VoIP service providers have this cool feature and how much it costs use our FREE VoIP feature search and select Virtual Numbers as the feature to search for.

So the only downside to all of this…..you may get more calls than you want

Andy

We receive many emails each day asking us everything from how to connect VoIP ATAs to VoIP system configurations for remote offices.

However the most common question we get is “Which VoIP provider should I choose”.  Unfortunately without additional information there really are too many variables to consider before we can answer such a question.  That being said, let’s consider a couple of scenarios and highlight some providers we feel would be decent fits at the time of writing:

Scenario 1: You live in the U.S and make 700 minutes of local and long distance calls per month, you make weekly calls to relatives in the U.K lasting around 60 minutes per call and you need caller ID and call waiting.

 Lingo would be an obvious choice here.  They have unlimited calling within the U.S and Canada and unlimited calling to Western Europe all for $21.95/month.  Lingo also have a vast feature set and a very good user review score at WhichVoIP.com.

Scenario 2: You live in the U.S and make 1200 minutes of local calls per month, 100 minutes of long distance and no international calls.  Voice quality and customer service is very important to you.

VoicePulse would be a great choice here.  Their Local Unlimited plan gives you unlimited local calling and up to 200 minutes long distance calling.  VoicePulse pride themselves on their customer service and voice quality and indeed they currently have our highest rating for user reviews.

Let us help you choose the best plan for your telephony needs.  Use our VoIP plan search engine to help narrow the field and our VoIP Review section to read what other readers have to say.

Andy

We have officially launched the WhichVoIP Blog! 

Read our thoughts and opinions on everything related to VoIP.  The WhichVoIP team has been together for over 2 years and each team member has over 12 years experience in the Telecommunications field, from hardware and software design through to system level design and test. 

Our goal for WhichVoIP.com has never altered and that is to provide a website full of great content on VoIP and help our readers choose the best service provider for their telephony needs.

The aim of this blog is to add a personal touch to the site and please join us and help provide more great content.

Thanks!

Your WhichVoIP Team