moving home phone to VOIP and advice?
- Thread starter edscdk
- Start date
I wouldn't do it personally. I keep the mobile handy with a minutes allowance (although you could go PAYG) to minimise costs - but VOIP is still flawed to say the least; certainly not reliable enough to use it as a main phone line.
Soldato
- Joined
- 25 Aug 2010
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- 3,029
did this for a business using voipfone - never had any issues with reliability tbh and was a big saving on previous system.
But for home phone, I don't even have the thing plugged in, pointless expense when we've both got mobiles (have placed a forward on the landline number to the wifes mobile number too, just in case someone phones it)
But for home phone, I don't even have the thing plugged in, pointless expense when we've both got mobiles (have placed a forward on the landline number to the wifes mobile number too, just in case someone phones it)
You'll still need a home line for broadband though won't you?
Soldato
Have a look at Sipgate. I've used them for years.
As for it being cost saving, on their PAYG tariff, it takes about 3 to 4 months to use up the £10 credit each time.
I wouldn't do it again.
You have to dial the area code on local phone calls - this confuses most that use the phone for a local call.
The NHS number didn't work on the VOIP phone. I felt really bad when my wife was trying to call it early one morning.
I spent about £100 in total on various Grandstream VOIP phones for each room of the house. This could have paid for a couple of years worth of calls with BT.
I thought the auto attendant would be great. - No one cares.
I always forget how to pickup a call or transfer it which I thought would be great. - No one cares.
The best feature was leaving a welcome voicemail to guests that stayed overnight, that they could listen to on arrival.
As for it being cost saving, on their PAYG tariff, it takes about 3 to 4 months to use up the £10 credit each time.
I wouldn't do it again.
You have to dial the area code on local phone calls - this confuses most that use the phone for a local call.
The NHS number didn't work on the VOIP phone. I felt really bad when my wife was trying to call it early one morning.
I spent about £100 in total on various Grandstream VOIP phones for each room of the house. This could have paid for a couple of years worth of calls with BT.
I thought the auto attendant would be great. - No one cares.
I always forget how to pickup a call or transfer it which I thought would be great. - No one cares.
The best feature was leaving a welcome voicemail to guests that stayed overnight, that they could listen to on arrival.
we are on virgin cable
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Sep 2015
- Posts
- 3,673
I ported my home office line (previous a BT POTS line) over to Gradwell about 5 years ago and it's worked out very well. I've moved house twice since then but still have the same phone number and I have a SIP app on my phone so that I can make and receive calls using my home office line when I'm away from home.
Problems, well if your internet connection is messing about then phoen calls will be very hit and miss but I've had very few issues. The convenience outweighs any problems I've had.
Problems, well if your internet connection is messing about then phoen calls will be very hit and miss but I've had very few issues. The convenience outweighs any problems I've had.
Commissario
IIRC the last time I checked you barely saved anything by dropping the phone with VM, the price of the broadband increased by almost as much as the line rental for the phone.
Most companies seem to use the line rental for the phone to subsidise the internet connection cost.
Personally I wouldn't drop a land line for VOIP or mobiles as the land line will continue to work when the mobile or VOIP may be down.
The thousands of businesses using VoIP for their phone systems would probably disagree with you. It all depends on the system behind it all, if it's junk then it's not going to be reliable.
Our system is carrier grade, hosted across multiple sites and multi-tenanted designed to host thousands of users.
I've used Skype Consumer with my 'proper' landline for years, have rarely had an issue.
Ref VoIP being flawed - I assume you mean in the context of home telephony, as pretty much all corp/work telephony now is VoIP in one shape or another.
Ref VoIP being flawed - I assume you mean in the context of home telephony, as pretty much all corp/work telephony now is VoIP in one shape or another.
Soldato
i've no idea why anyone has landlines. i've never had a landline phone and never will i ever see a need for one. my parents have them. it's used for one thing. to answer calls from people selling rubbish.
if for instance i ring my dad when he is home, if i ring the landline that means him having to get up and walking over to the landline phone in the hallway, if i ring his mobile, it's on him and he can easily answer. the landline has just become a hassle.
if for instance i ring my dad when he is home, if i ring the landline that means him having to get up and walking over to the landline phone in the hallway, if i ring his mobile, it's on him and he can easily answer. the landline has just become a hassle.
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Commissario
Aye but how many consumers are going to go with business level equipment and contracts
(a lot of small businesses try to manage with consumer internet services as well).I wouldn't rely on a consumer ISP or VOIP service for some as important as a home phone service, as internet services tend to have looser requirements for fixes compared to a dedicated landline (at least at the lower end/residential service part of the market).
Soldato
Old thread but same topic,
Moved my number from Virgin to sipgate last week.
So far so good, family are very happy with it and quality.
Ive just also signed up to VoipFibre for cheap international sip calls and set this up on a dect n300ip base station . It will now route international calls through this provider instead of sipgate,
Works spot on!
Moved my number from Virgin to sipgate last week.
So far so good, family are very happy with it and quality.
Ive just also signed up to VoipFibre for cheap international sip calls and set this up on a dect n300ip base station . It will now route international calls through this provider instead of sipgate,
Works spot on!
I have a Skype number which starts with an 0203 prefix so it looks like I am in London. But I don't use it for cost saving. I hand it out to work when I don't want people to have my mobile number. It means I can answer the phone on any of my devices (mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop) wherever I happen to be. As far as the caller is concerned I'm still in London. I also do find it very cheap tocall other countries. It's a lot cheaper than a mobile and also cheaper than a BT landlone.
Overall it isn't a cost saving because I have it in addition to a landline and mobile. But I find it convenient and flexible.
Overall it isn't a cost saving because I have it in addition to a landline and mobile. But I find it convenient and flexible.
I've never given VoIP much thought in a residential context because I have a mobile - I've not cared about keeping my landline number or anything like that. If for whatever reason your landline number is important to you then I would recommend porting it to a (UK-based) VoIP provider rather than hoping it survives being moved onto Sky's network, or successfully following you in a house move. Just bear in mind that bad things happen if you port a phone number away from a line that you're using for your Internet.
I use Sipgate on a PAYG basis, works pretty well. I've built an Asterisk PBX for it to work with which gets around the area code issue mentioned by @!bluetonic!, and allows for some of the premium features you would otherwise have to pay for with Sipgate. I've gone for a bit of an overkill with it all and put it into a HP N36L as I had one lying around, but it could easily be scaled back onto a Raspberry Pi.
Edit: just realised what a thread revival this is!
Edit: just realised what a thread revival this is!
Soldato
This sounds good, I may try this.
£2/m for VoipFone, £14 to port in if you want your number kept and then PAYG for outbound, it removes all the messing about with your own PBX.