What Kind of Internet Connection
Do I Need for VoIP?
Posted by Mary
Q: Does VoIP work with DSL internet, or only with cable internet?
Source: Razor512 on Flickr
A: Good question! With a few caveats, yes, you should probably be able to use VoIP over DSL. We often get questions about whether a specific internet connection will work with VoIP service. Unless there is something very unusual about your internet connection, the only things your internet connection must have to support VoIP are:
1. Sufficient speed
2. An ethernet connection for the ATA (more about ATAs)
First, speed. Various providers have different recommendations about the minimum internet speed required for VoIP service, and most providers offer speed testers on their sites that will allow you to determine if your connection is fast enough. Most services agree that a connection with 256 Kbps upload and download will do fine with VoIP. In general, any internet connection identified as "high-speed" will work with VoIP, including DSL, cable, satellite and T1.
A note about DSL: If you have DSL internet and it is currently delivered along with your phone service (ie, not as a "dry loop") you may have trouble porting your phone number to VoIP. Ensure that you will be able to cancel just the phone portion of your service and keep your internet connection before you commit to VoIP. If your DSL and your phone service are delivered together, ask your phone company to decouple your service and give you a separate phone line and dry loop DSL before you attempt to port your number.
Second, the ethernet connection. You must have a wired internet connection in order to use VoIP. If you have WiFi, you probably also have a wired connection, as most people get WiFi by connecting a wireless router to a wired internet connection. If you share WiFi or do not have access to your router for some other reason, you probably will not be able to use VoIP.
Got more questions about setting up VoIP service? Check out our guide to VoIP equipment, read the FAQ, or take a look at some previous blog posts. You can also leave us a comment below.
Does Phone.com Count Incoming Calls Against My Monthly Minutes?
Posted by Mary
Q: With Phone.com, are the 250 included minutes air time? Do they include incoming calls?
A: No, Phone.com's 250 minute a month plan only counts outgoing calls. Incoming calls are free. If you go over your allowed minutes for the month, you will pay 3.9 cents per minute for the extra time. Phone.com minutes can be used to call Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom and the USA. If you'd like unlimited calls, you can pay $17.88 per month annually or $19.88 per month on a month-to-month plan.
Got more questions about VoIP service? Check our our individual reviews, the FAQ, and previous blog posts. You can also leave us a question or a comment below.
Do I Have to Use My Cable Company's VoIP Service, or Can I Choose?
Posted by Mary
Q: I currently have traditional telephone service and a cable TV and Internet connection. My cable company offers VoIP telephone service in addition to TV and Internet. If I want to switch to VoIP, do I have to go with their service, or can I use another company's VoIP service with my existing cable TV and Internet?
Source: billselak on Flickr
A: Good question! As long as you have a sufficiently fast Internet connection, you can choose whatever VoIP company you want, regardless of who provides your Internet service. Most cable companies who offer VoIP service will provide some sort of discount to customers who choose to purchase VoIP, Internet, and TV together. This practice is called bundling.
Though bundling can be convenient, it is not always the best deal for consumers. As you shop around, be sure to compare the features, prices, and ease of use of a variety of different companies. In particular, look at features like low international rates, free long distance, unlimited calling, access to customer service, and free trial periods when deciding which company is best for you. Many users find that third parties like our favorites, Vonage, VOIPo, Phone Power, and Phone.com, offer more features at a better price than cable companies, even with a bundled deal.
Have more questions about VoIP service? Check out our FAQ, some previous blog posts, or the comparison chart for more information.
Can I Cancel AT&T Phone Service and Keep My Internet Connection?
Posted by Mary
Q: Currently we have AT&T for our home phone line. We also have AT&T as our high speed internet. If we go with VOIPo service, can we cancel all AT&T phone service and keep the AT&T internet?
Source: David Davies on flickr
A: Though you should check with AT&T to be sure, yes, you should be able to cancel just your phone service and keep the internet connection to use with VoIP service. The one complication with this is if you have a DSL internet connection. DSL service can be delivered in two ways: over your landline along with the phone, or as a "dry loop" on a line without a phone connection. If your DSL is coming over the phone line along with your landline connection, you may have trouble porting your number to VoIP service and canceling the phone portion of your contract with AT&T. If you have cable internet or another kind of high-speed connection, you should not encounter this difficulty.
To separate your AT&T DSL service and cancel the phone portion without losing your internet connection, you may need to decouple your service before you begin porting your phone number over to VOIPo. Have AT&T switch you over to separate phone service and a dry loop DSL connection before you ask VOIPo to initiate the transfer of your number. Then, when you port your number, just your phone service should get cancelled, and not your internet connection. If you tell AT&T this is what you plan to do, you may encounter some resistance from them, but this process IS usually possible. Remember to completely separate your phone and internet service with AT&T before committing to VoIP service and beginning the number transfer. You must not cancel phone service with AT&T until you have begun the porting with VOIPo, as an out-of-service number cannot be ported.
If you have more questions about VoIP service, check out our comparison chart, the FAQ section or previous blog posts. You can also leave a comment below.
Is Google Voice the Same as VoIP Service?
Posted by Mary
We recently got a reader email pointing out that Google now offers free calling through Gmail and Google Voice to users around the United States. While this is true, we'd argue that Google Voice works more like a virtual phone service than full VoIP. Though it can be a great tool to add functionality to your existing VoIP, landline, or wireless service, it shouldn't completely replace your existing phone service for a couple of very important reasons.
Google Voice allows you to choose a new Google number or port in an existing wireless number. You cannot yet port in an existing landline phone number or a corporate phone number. Then, when you receive phone calls to your Google number, you can set Google Voice to ring a number of different phones, including your cell phone, home phone, or the web application. This allows you to have your phone calls follow you wherever you go, much like a virtual phone service would. Google Voice can also offer enhanced voicemail service, including email transcriptions of your voicemails, visual voicemails, and Gmail notifications of text messages. Calling within the US and Canada is currently free (though Google has not guaranteed that this pricing will continue beyond 2012), and Google offers low-cost calls to many countries around the world.
However, in addition to not allowing porting of landline and corporate numbers, Google Voice notifies consumers that it is not a full telephone service and lacks some basic features included with VoIP or traditional telephone service. The following are the limitations we consider most important:
- No 911 Service: Perhaps most importantly, Google Voice cannot place or receive calls with emergency services (911 calls). Google describes the service as an "enhanced call management application," and as such does not provide E911 service. If you attempt to call 911 via Google Voice, the service will notify you that it is not a valid number.
- No MMS Service: Users replacing cell service with Google Voice will quickly discover that the service does not currently support MMS. This means you will not be able to text message photographs or videos to other users.
- Limited Support: Currently, Google Voice support is "best effort," which means that Google does the best it can to provide service and support for users, but does not guarantee any specific reliability and does not provide phone, email, or chat support beyond the help offered in its forums. This is fine for those using Google Voice to supplement existing phone service with advanced features, but will be a serious limitation for anyone who attempts to use the service for all phone needs.
Bottom line, even Google does not promote Google Voice as a full service phone option, but rather a way to enhance your existing service. If you're looking for better handling of voicemails or a way to have one phone number ring through to all your phones, Google Voice might be the way to go. If you want to replace your existing phone service with a low-cost alternative, you should probably look to full-featured VoIP service.
If you have more questions about VoIP service, check out some of our detailed reviews, the comparison chart, the FAQ, or previous blog posts. You can also leave us questions and comments below.
How Can I Find Out the Rate to Call a Specific Country with VoIP?
Posted by Mary
Source: Jason Bachman via flickr
We get a lot of questions asking about the per-minute rate to call various specific countries with VoIP service. The answer varies from provider to provider and country to country. For some places, calls to cell phones are billed at a different rate than landline calls. In some countries, specific cities or area codes carry different rates. The best way to find out the billing charges for a specific country or phone number is to check the provider's rate chart. Most of our top providers offer detailed international rate charts, often with very easy, searchable interfaces. For your convenience, here's how to find the rate charts of our favorite VoIP providers, including any special NextAdvisor deals or discounts:
- Vonage: Vonage World includes free calling to 60 countries around the world. To see a list of those countries, click through from the review and click on "60 other countries." If you do not find the country you are interested in on that list, go to Vonage.com, hover over the "Calling Plans" tab at the top, and choose "See international rates for all plans" to look up your country or number in their interactive chart.
- VOIPo: Includes 60 free minutes each month to selected countries and low rates around the world. To see if the country you're calling is included, or to look up the rate if it's not, click through from our review and click on the "international" tab at the top of the page for their interactive chart.
- Phone Power: Allows users to look up rates by phone number or country. To see their chart, click through from the review and then click on "international calls" at the top of the page.
- Phone.com: Phone.com's international rate chart allows users to look up rates by country. To access it, click through from the review and then choose "International Rates" in the left sidebar.
International rates can vary widely from provider to provider, and some VoIP plans include a number of international countries at one low or flat rate. If you have friends, family, or business associates abroad, it's probably worth it for you to look up the charges to call their countries with a number of different providers to find the best deal.
Got more questions about VoIP service? Check out the FAQ page, compare providers, or read some previous blog posts.
Can I Use VoIP to Call the United States for Free if I'm Abroad?
Posted by Mary
Q: How much does it cost to call FROM other countries? They tell me I can call the U.S. for free, unlimited, from the Philippines with magicJack. Do any of the VoIP companies on your website offer this?
Source: Loren Sztajer via flickr
A: Yes! In fact, most of the companies we review will allow this for most countries. Often, you will need a US, Canada, or UK-based billing address to sign up for the service, but if you travel or move abroad, you should be able to take your ATA (VoIP adapter, click here for more information) with you and use your VoIP service to call the US and often Canada using your existing plan minutes, just as if you were still in the United States.
Remember that since you will be calling from a US-based number, any calls to foreign numbers will be billed at international rates. So, for example, if you take your American number to the Philippines, you will be able to place "local" calls to the United States, but you will be billed at the international rate for calls within the Philippines, unless your VoIP provider offers free calls from the US to the Philippines.
The only restriction on where you can take your VoIP service, in general, is if the country you are in or the internet provider you are using in that country specifically blocks American VoIP IPs. This would disrupt the magicJack as well as more "traditional" VoIP service. Many people report trouble using US-based VoIP services in China, for example, since China has outlawed all VoIP services except the state-run company. Before you sign up for a service, check with the provider to be sure they aren't aware of any common reason you could not use your service from abroad. Often, searching customer forums will turn up other users who have tried the same thing and who can provide advice about its feasibility in the country you plan to take the device to.
If you have more questions about VoIP service, check out our FAQ, read detailed reviews, or take a look at some previous blog posts.
What Does "Unlimited Calls" Really Mean with VoIP?
Posted by Mary
Q: Is there a maximum number of minutes per month with VOIPo?
Source: Earls37a on flickr
A: This is a great question! While many VoIP providers offer plans with "unlimited calls" each month, most also have stipulations in their Terms of Service that say their plans only apply to people with "average" or "typical" use. These restrictions are designed to prevent people from running call centers or other super-high-volume calling operations on the regular VoIP networks, monopolizing the bandwidth and reducing service for everyone while paying the same low price.
In the case of VOIPo, the company defines typical use as any number of calls totaling less than 5,000 minutes per month. To put that in perspective, to hit 5,000 minutes in an average month, you would have to spend nearly 3 solid hours on the phone every day. For most individuals and even small businesses, 5,000 minutes a month should be more than enough.
After a brief survey of the fine print behind the unlimited plans of our other recommended services, we've found that about 3,000 minutes per month is a fairly common cutoff for providers to begin considering whether a user's use is typical or reasonable. If you call a lot, it's probably worth it for you to read the Terms of Service carefully when you sign up for an unlimited plan, and to go with a VoIP provider with a relatively high monthly cap, like VOIPo.
Can I Have a Second Line for Business Calls and Faxing with VOIPo?
Posted by Mary
Q: I have a home business and use a second phone line for the business and fax machine. Can I have two lines with VOIPo and what is the additional cost for the second line?
Source: nikcname on flickr
A: Having a second line with VOIPo is pretty simple. The VOIPo adapter has two outbound phone ports. By default, they are set up as cloned lines. This means that if a call comes in while the first line is busy, it forwards onto the second line, and you can still pick it up. If you'd like, you can assign a separate number to the second line for a small additional fee. VOIPo handles the second number as a "Virtual Number," which can be either a new number or an existing number, ported in. Once you have your virtual number set up on the second line, the second line will only ring when its specific number is dialed. Virtual numbers cost an additional $4.95 per month, or $36 annually.
However, if you plan to use a fax machine regularly, there are a few things to consider. Because the technology behind VoIP is designed to carry voices, not data, faxing can be problematic. Most people have some trouble getting their traditional fax machines to work with VoIP, though some customers report success. For this reason, VOIPo highly recommends using their virtual fax service. With virtual faxing, you can both send and receive faxes through email. When you send a file using the virtual fax feature, VOIPo translates that document into a fax and sends it over a traditional phone line for you, which offers increased stability and reliability. When someone sends you a fax, the system automatically converts it into a PDF and delivers it by email. Adding virtual faxing to your plan costs an additional $4.95 per month or $36 per year.
Got more questions about VoIP? Head over to the FAQ section, check out previous blog posts, or read our detailed reviews.
Can I Use One VoIP Line for Two Condos if They Use the Same Internet?
Posted by Mary
Q: I own two high-end ski rental condos in one building that are served by a common DSL internet connection. I am now providing a separate phone line and number to each condo to serve the guests. I need a VoIP system that will work off the single DSL that will allow calls to be made and received in each unit independently – does this involve two separate accounts or can it be implemented with one account and a second line? I am looking for the cheapest domestic calling and don't need a lot of minutes.
Source: Judit Klein via Flickr
A: This depends on how your current network is set up, but while you should probably be able to get VoIP service in both condos, you will almost certainly need two separate accounts.
Currently, VoIP adapters (click through for more information about adapters and other VoIP equipment) cannot operate wirelessly; they need wired internet access. If the condos share internet access via a single wireless network, then you will only be able to have VoIP service in the apartment where the router is, since the adapter must be plugged into a wired connection. If, however, each condo has wired internet access, you should be able to have VoIP service in both places running off the same DSL account.
Most VoIP adapters only provide one phone jack. Therefore, each condo will need its own adapter and VoIP account in order to have its own phone number. The least expensive way we've found to do this is with VOIPo's current sale. By clicking through from any NextAdvisor link to VOIPo, you can purchase two years of unlimited service for $149, which works out to just $6.21 per month. To serve two condos, you'd need two accounts, which would work out to $12.42 per month. For your convenience, VOIPo can merge your two accounts after you have set them up, so you will be able to administer them jointly.
Got more questions about VoIP? Check out the FAQ, read our detailed reviews, or look at some old blog posts and reader questions.
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