VoIP Options?

A

aktick

Gawd
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Jun 17, 2001
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Here’s my deal…I just graduated college, and am starting my career as a financial planner (read: lot’s of time on the phone). Thing is, I’m currently living at home to keep costs down, and probably will be for about the next year. I do work out of an office, but will still be doing a lot of calling from home. Also, we live in a rural area down in a valley, so get basically zero cell reception.

We DO have 3 mbps DSL – does this alone say “yes, you can get VoIP service where you are?”

I had looked at Vonage a while ago (more for my parents), but it said they wouldn’t be able to use their current phone number, and that alone was a deal breaker (they’ve lived here forever, and have a very easy to remember #). They would change to VoIP if they could keep their #.

At the same time, it might be better just to get it for myself and have them continue with the local company – would be much easier to keep records straight for tax purposes, it’d be more of a “business” line, etc. I’m guessing I’d also be able to take the number with me wherever/whenever I move?

Another thing I’m interested in is being able to integrate it with my cellphone as much as possible.

Sound quality has to be decent, since I'll be talking with clients and such. The VoIP provider sites make it sound like the quality is supposed to be better than analog, but on boards like this I've seen differing opinions.

So, what are my options? For reference, my zip is 53566, and area code is 608-325-XXXX.

Any help/advice is much appreciated.
 
If you don't mind using your computer, you could always get a SkypeIn number. They're dirt cheap and you can take them anywhere, even out of town with you on a buiness trip and to the office.
 
I would recommend using Asterisk (which is what TrixBox is using as well, like MorfiusX mentioned). The great part is that you can customize it to do whatever you want. If you want an inbound IVR for customers then that is easy, you can change/update it whenever you want. You can also route calls through the cheapest VoIP provider instead of getting stuck with just one company. The possibilities are limitless and of course the great part about VoIP is that yo can have a phone number from ANYWHERE route to your phone. In terms of integrating with your cell phone you can easily setup stuff like "Follow Me" features to forward calls to your cell phone when you are out and about. You'll have to know a little about Linux, or have a friend that does to help you get it setup, but it would definatley be worth your time. It adds a great professional edge to your business instead of people calling and just getting your voicemail.

Plus you can implement features like call recording just as a fall back to help protect yourself from irrate customers?

Just an idea. You should give it a try.
 
I dunno about the Asterisk suggestion...

The reason is it seems like the OP is looking simply for a second phone line. They made no mention of needing their own Voicemail system, IVR's, etc. Given this, I would probably just get a VoIP account from some provider and then either configure a SIP phone to connect directly, or get an ATA (adapter) that will connect to your network and allow you to plug in a standard telephone. Then use the voicemail feature of the provider.

I have one of these and have been pretty happy with it.

Here are some examples of the adapters I've mentioned. I've never used this brand/model.

The nice thing about VoIP is that you WILL be able to take the number with you, like you asked. The number can go anywhere you have broadband internet connectivity.

The other thing that you can possibly setup that should help your voice quality is QoS. QoS will allow you to prioritize the voice traffic on the network so that downloads and such dont kill the voice traffic. I believe the Vonage hardware does this as well, so that's also an option so you dont have to worry about fighting with any of the tech details.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

You are right, I don't really need incoming VM at this point - I have that at the office, and can check it from home easily enough. I'm looking at it more as a way to separate business from personal expenses in an easy (and cheap) way. I'll probably be using it from home a good 10+ hours a week, and a lot of the calls will be long distance, so it'd get awfully pricey using a traditional setup. Inbound calls aren't even that necessary now, but I think it'd be nice at least to have it.

However, I do appreciate the info about Asterisk...within the next couple years, I hope to be based out of my home office, so a lot of those extra features would surely come in handy then.

Of course the VOIP environment will be completely different by that time, but such is the nature of the industry, I guess. ;)
 
One more thing...according to the Vonage site (and others), my location (Monroe, WI - the rest of the area info is in the OP) isn't available. So how's that work? It sounds like I can still GET the service, but my # will be based out of the nearest eligible location, or something like that? This seems to be more of an issue with INCOMING calls though (the caller being charged for a long distance call when they think it's local)?

Any light you can shed on this issue is also appreciated.
 
aktick said:
One more thing...according to the Vonage site (and others), my location (Monroe, WI - the rest of the area info is in the OP) isn't available.
Click to expand...

You have it exactly right. Since the service is provided over the internet, you can take it anywhere. Those companies get assigned large blocks of numbers and it stands to reason that they may not have any in smaller, more rural areas. They should still let you get it; you'll just have a number from the closest region.
 
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