Looking For A New Telephone Provider

[dankup]

We've got Bell and pay $30 a month for unlimited local calling, no caller ID, no extra features. Literally, $30 a month just to call locally but we're only using the phone once or twice every few days and our usage doesn't justify the cost (home phone). Thinking of switching to something much cheaper but still need unlimited local calling. Don't care about long distance, don't need caller ID, call forwarding, etc. Just need unlimited local and an answering machine. What company do you guys suggest and how much do you pay? Open to internet telephone also depending on the quality. Friend of ours just got something that looks like a Magic Jack but isn't exactly it - doesn't sound too good when he calls.

[death_hawk]

voip.ms

While it's not unlimited, $30/m buys you a $5 DID (phone number) and 1666 minutes of outgoing calling with 3500 minutes of incoming calling.
So as long as you limit your calls to around an hour each incoming and outgoing you'll be paying roughly the same.
Anything less than that is pure profit.

With 15 DIDs and a buttload of calling I manage to pay about $50/m.

I wouldn't use a MagicJack if it was free. Oh wait. It is basically free. Read their EULA.

[dankup]

voip.ms

While it's not unlimited, $30/m buys you a $5 DID (phone number) and 1666 minutes of outgoing calling with 3500 minutes of incoming calling.
So as long as you limit your calls to around an hour each incoming and outgoing you'll be paying roughly the same.
Anything less than that is pure profit.

With 15 DIDs and a buttload of calling I manage to pay about $50/m.

I wouldn't use a MagicJack if it was free. Oh wait. It is basically free. Read their EULA.

I'm already paying that same amount for unlimited incoming and outgoing local calling.. why would I pay the same and limit myself in minutes?

[PianoGuy]

As you've already discovered, your usage is far below the need for an unlimited plan, however, you still want an unlimited plan which is going to make a recommendation tricky. No VoIP provider in North America offers truly unlimited calls for less than the price of a POTS line. If you want to reduce your costs significantly, your VoIP options are Pay-As-You-Go VoIP, VoIP providers that charge a flat rate for a specific number of minutes, or VoIP providers that advertise unlimited but hide a clause in their ToS that allows them to terminate your account if your usage is high.

A non-VoIP option is a Bell reseller, such as TekSavvy. Their pricing starts at $21.48 per month, but with it comes TekSavvy's dubious-quality support. http://teksavvy.com/en/res-homephone.asp

[JAC]

but we're only using the phone once or twice every few days and ...Just need unlimited local and an answering machine.

Well, which is it? Infrequent use or unlimited?
VOIP.ms will cost you $0.99 for a DID, $1.49 for e911, and $0.01 per minute. Or you can try FreePhoneLine.ca. Either way, you need an ATA, which runs about $50-60.

[xalex0]

Internet telephone quality in big part depends on your internet connection.

[Ritchie3]

Freephoneline. Thread closed.

Unlimited Calling to Most Cities in Canada, Voice Mail, Caller ID, For just a one time fee of $50 !!

[_Allan_]

What about MagicJack (http://www.themagicjack.ca/)?

[silvy]

PianoGuy: With respect to TekSavvy, you say is a "Bell reseller" does that mean it comes via copper ("normal") phone lines? Their website is awful with no information. Thanks in advance.


As you've already discovered, your usage is far below the need for an unlimited plan, however, you still want an unlimited plan which is going to make a recommendation tricky. No VoIP provider in North America offers truly unlimited calls for less than the price of a POTS line. If you want to reduce your costs significantly, your VoIP options are Pay-As-You-Go VoIP, VoIP providers that charge a flat rate for a specific number of minutes, or VoIP providers that advertise unlimited but hide a clause in their ToS that allows them to terminate your account if your usage is high.

A non-VoIP option is a Bell reseller, such as TekSavvy. Their pricing starts at $21.48 per month, but with it comes TekSavvy's dubious-quality support. http://teksavvy.com/en/res-homephone.asp

[PianoGuy]

TekSavvy has two types of phone service. One of them is in fact standard copper phone service. It's not only just like Bell service, it IS Bell service - the difference is TekSavvy bills you instead of Bell. TekSavvy's customer service isn't great, but, there's not much that goes wrong with a POTS line so you can probably just "set it and forget it".

The other service they have is TekTalk, which is VoIP. In my opinion you can definitely do better. There were a great deal of complaints about the service when it was first launched, but these seem to have died down. Even so, they're using mediocre equipment, for example, the SPA2102. They should be using the new OBiX02. The problem with the SPA2102 is the router is limited to 7.5Mbit/sec. If your internet speed is faster, the VoIP equipment will slow it down much more than necessary. If you don't use the router, then your VoIP audio quality will suffer when you use the internet for other purposes.

Their SPA2102 is also quite overpriced at $69.99+$10 shipping. A SPA2102 elsewhere is about $60.