Matthouse

VoIP (Reducing Household Expenses)

OK, so even though the economy does seem to be bottoming out (the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed its first positive week of the year today), I’ve recently been on a kick to reduce household expenses.  So far, this includes:

• Shutting down and winterizing the hot tub — should save at least $40/month

So that’s it so far…  I have a couple other things I’m looking into, but it doesn’t feel like there’s that much monthly expense that we can easilly do without (that is, going without being a no-brainer).

For a long time I have lothed Qwest.  Probably for many of the same reasons I don’t like Comcast…  So I’ve been with Liberty Bell Telecom for several years now.  They have excelent customer service (real people in my state answer the phone when I call), and are cheaper than Qwest when compared side by side.  They recently increased their prices though, so now I’m paying about $50 per month (times two, since OnTheSide Productions, LLC has a line with them as well).  True, this includes voicemail (with several nice features Qwest doesn’t have) and a ton of other calling features.  But seriously, $50 a month is a chunk of change…

Even only a few years ago I would never have considered VoIP for my home phone service.  Vonage would be the logical VoIP alternative, but I’ve had too many rough experiences calling friends with Vonage.  Several other residential VoIP providers exist out there, but even several of the big guys have gone under.  Even with that in mind, I think residential VoIP is probably ready for the prime time — or at least as ready as it’ll ever be.

Having built and maintained a VoIP phone system at work based on Asterisk, I’m well aware of how VoIP works and what its limitations are.  I was even tempted to build my own Asterisk system at home, but that doesn’t solve the issue of getting actual dial-tone (even at work we’re using a traditional T1 circuit for connection to the phone company).  So I went on the hunt looking for inexpensive, but reliable residential VoIP providers.

DSL Reports has a “report card” showing a number (actually a high number) of residential VoIP providers.  They rate the website, ease of install, call quality, reliability, tech support, and value.  I started at the top, and immediately ignored anything over $20, and anything that requires a computer to make work (eg, MagicJack).  I also skipped over anything that didn’t have at least A all the way accross.

Actually, lets back up.  Before I found the DSL Reports site, I did a google, and through a Adwords link, ended up trying out Voip.com.  Their price is $20/month, and their site has lots of information.  The activation fee is $36, but the first month is free, and they have a money back guarantee.  So for $10, I signed up, and got their adaptor in the mail about a week later.  It worked out of the box.  The bad news is that the quality was noticably worse than a traditional phone line.  When I called about getting the password to the phone adaptor they sent so that I could change my “Display Name” (linked to Caller-ID), I was told no-way.  I asked if THEY could change my caller-ID name, and they said no-way.  I picked up my own adaptor for $30, and used the settings provided on their website to set it up, but now outbound Caller-ID doesn’t work at all.  After several other phone calls, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth about the quality of their service, let alone their customer support.  So this week, I canceled their service, and mailed back their adaptor.

Now I’m trying VOIPo.  They have good reviews on DSL Reports, and people in other forums seem to think their service is pretty good.  Since I now have my own adaptor, I told them not to bother sending me theirs.  So far, the call quality has been good, and the service has been great (they answer the phone, and reply to email).

So far I haven’t transferred either of my two regular numbers, I’m just setting up “new” accounts to test out their service.

Anybody have any suggestions for other VoIP products?