The VOIP Provider Guide

The current influx of new technologies for VoIP and Web 2.0 aficionados has made keeping track of who is worth checking out and who is not rather difficult. There are dozens of new services every week and each one has something “new” to offer that the others do not. There are certain issues in particular that new companies look to address. Five of these companies stand above the rest as possible next wave internet sensations.

Grand Central
Grand Central’s pull is an ability to link numerous phone numbers to a single account, so that whenever that account number is called, all of the phones listed in that account will ring simultaneously until one is picked up. The company uses the phrase “one phone number for life”, but really it’s a fancy way of connecting any future phone numbers you may get to a single central number. A GrandCentral account allows users to check their voice mail, make calling blocks, record live calls and much more.

Jangl
Similar to how Craigslist and other internet forums have made it possible to contact a user without actually knowing their email address, Jangl allows an individual to receive a phone call without their phone number being handed out to just anyone. Instead, a user with a Jangl account gives an email address attached to their account. The caller then enters the email address into Jangl and is given a masked, random phone number to call which will connect to the user who is trying to hide their true number. Jangl will then send the call through to your number or record a voice mail. Even if a user does not have a Jangl account, they will record the message and send the voice mail to the user’s email inbox. These features are being integrated into Social Networking profiles and blogs to allow users and commenters the ability to call you directly from a profile or webpage without you needing to reveal a phone number.

Jaxtr
Jaxtr allows both numbers to stay private. A user enters their own phone number into a widget posted on a website, blog or profile. Jaxtr then connects the user to the phone number associated with that widget, keeping both numbers private. At the moment, Jaxtra boasts more than 100,000 users and has a Facebook widget already in place with more than 6,000 users.

JAJAH
Similar to both Jangl and Jaxtr, JAJAH uses anonymous calling technology to connect two people over the internet. Users can decide how other users are permitted to contact them though, choosing only to allow voicemails during the day or emails during the evening. JAJAH also offers VoIP style service that connects you to any phone number via VoIP for 2.8 cents a minute.

TxtDrop
TxtDrop’s new service also relies on widgets, this time for text messaging users via the internet, utilizing the internet or Mac OS X and

With the collapse and sudden closure of SunRocket, more than 200,000 VoIP subscribers woke up and found their phone service unceremoniously turned off. The result has left many customers with a bad taste in their mouth and set the tech community ablaze with rumors as to why a company with yearly growth and a decent user base shut its doors overnight.  However, on the flipside of things, companies like VoIP Your Life have stepped up to ensure that customers still willing to stay with VoIP phone service are given the opportunity to quickly and easily transfer their number and services with minimal interruptions.

  All of the existing features, reviewed previously here, are intact, including the Virtual Phone Numbers, free hardware and porting, all steps above the service these users enjoyed while with SunRocket. The existing adaptors from SunRocket do not work with VoIP Your Life’s service, though they do provide a new one for free after shipping costs. VoIP Your Life has also made it possible to receive the adaptor and necessary hardware with enhanced shipping services for former SunRocket customers with no additional cost. While portability of a former SunRocket phone number is not guaranteed VoIP Your Life offers a service to verify all numbers and locations that it can port. They have made it easier than most of other services to prove that you had previous service and that the number you are porting is from a transfer to VoIP Your Life from SunRocket. For that reason, VoIP Your Life has offered one of the more appealing service plans for prospective transferred users. 

There is no special discount from VoIP Your Life; however they do extend all of their existing special offers including the free hardware, number porting and virtual numbers. Additionally, the contracts that many users signed and prepaid with SunRocket do not exist with VoIP Your Life, thankfully cutting out any chance of users being shorted on their service if something happens.   Most importantly, VoIP Your Life has established a specific FAQ for former SunRocket users to learn more about the transfer of service and the possible changes that might entail. Though there is a definite anger among those 200,000 users who were ignored so easily, many companies have done their best to pick up the pieces. Whether companies like VoIP Your Life and VIA Talk are truly trying to help old customers or snag easy new customers for their service is up to the customers to decide. Ultimately, the repercussions of the SunRocket debacle are still being discussed and felt out by the VoIP community. It remains to be seen whether there will be a service backlash over their collapse. However, as the Yankee Group recently reported, regardless of technical or legal problems, VoIP service continues to grow.

Even with the recent implosion of Sun Rocket, a VoIP service that boasted more than 200,000 users, and the soon to be collapse of Vonage, a service that at one time trumpeted the arrival of the next generation of telephone technology, startup company Ooma is poised to make the jump into the market with a  fresh take on phone service.

Their “new take” on phone service involves combining the solid security of land line telephone service and the less expensive, more versatile technology of VoIP into a single service with a one-time fee of only $399. To be sure, services like Packet 8 and Vonage have a varying degree of advantage over traditional phone service. The bills are cheaper, the service more versatile and the calls equally as clear.

However, the reliance on electricity, poor emergency services and unknown quantities of a startup company in a crowded market have kept many people firmly attached to their landline service. With Ooma, the option to obtain both the security and safety of a landline with the versatility of VoIP is on the horizon.

Basically, you make a single one-time payment and receive your Ooma hub. This machine works as a central connection to your landline, phone and computer. You keep your phone number and get a new digital number for use on your computer and remote calling access. To be fair, the initial payment is a large investment, but Ooma is banking on the fact that you will never pay another monthly bill, except for the monthly emergency service fees levied by your local government.

Okay, it sounds great right? Well, the technology being used to get all of this accomplished at such an amazingly low cost is not quite as great as we could hope. The call routing system encased in that Ooma hub is actually a simple P2P network interface. P2P has been around for a while now and is recognized as the ideal method of transferring files. However, it is also recognized for a complete lack of built in security and infamously poor ability to stop attacks.

The calls from other users are routed through each hub in each Ooma customers home; therefore anyone within the Ooma network could gain access to your hub if they had the time, malice and ability. There is no current way to know for sure that Ooma’s claims about the hub’s security will actually pan out.

For now, Ooma is engaging in a preliminary beta process to ensure their product works as they’ve advertised it. It looks as though the product will hit the market sometime in the coming 3 to 4 months, however it is still unknown how well it will perform and whether Ooma will, as they’ve claimed, be able to control the P2P traffic routed through each hub. If it does though, their service is an interesting concept that could very well open up a new avenue for VoIP services that are having trouble staying afloat in a crowded, cost riddled market.

Once again, there are way too many services out there offering VoIP plans and too many options to sift through when making your decision. So, let’s take a look at one of those services that we’ve been hearing a bit about of late, Lingo VoIP. Lingo has been around for a little while now, about three years or so, and in that time they’ve done a decent job of upgrading their service every now and then and offering the kinds of features that bring in new users. But, are they more worthy than any of the other three-hundred VoIP services on the market? Let’s take a look.

First the Good Stuff
Like almost every other major service out there right now, Lingo offers everything you could want in a telephone service. It’s no longer surprising or customer winning to offer call forwarding, call waiting, or voice mail with VoIP service. It’s expected. For those companies out there that don’t offer such features, you had better catch up quickly or you won’t be around for long.

However, something that Lingo does offer above and beyond some other services is easy use of these features as well as a few other features that many companies have trouble implementing properly. Universal Phone Numbers are always a fun option that allows you to take your phone number and Lingo service anywhere in the world and keep all of your calls local to the area in which you live. Lingo offers the service and it’s actually pretty easy to use. Not only can you move your Lingo number to any country in the world, you can port your existing land line number to Lingo as well. It takes about two weeks, but it’s a great option to have.

The real draw of Lingo is the inclusion of numerous plans for different users. Depending on what you need, Lingo tends to have a pricing plan to match. Their lowest end plan is $7.99 which allows you to call anyone who uses Lingo service and use all of their standard features. For full phone service, the next plan up is the $14.99/month plan, offering 500 minutes for use anywhere in the US and Canada.

The real deal though, is the $21.95 unlimited talk plan that Lingo offers. This plan allows you to call anyone in 21 countries, most of them in Western Europe, for free. It’s a great option for anyone who likes their features.

And the Bad
On paper, Lingo is a great service with lots of different options, but in actual application, it doesn’t quite live up to its promise. Compared to many of the other services out there, including Vonage and Allo, Lingo is fairly slow in connecting calls and the call quality is often suspect. This isn’t as much of a problem for other Lingo users as those connections tend to be incredibly high quality and quick, but calling a normal land line with Lingo’s service often results in diminishing returns.

The Bottom Line
Lingo is a great service in essence, but doesn’t quite live up to its own promises. With a large company backing the service though and the promise of such incredible pricing, Lingo could easily become one of the big players in the market. Unfortunately as the field starts to thin out, those services offering the lower quality calls and poor connection times are likely to fall off the map first. Lingo is in the latter category and only time will tell if they survive it. For those people who want a good, economy option, Lingo is the way to go. For those more concerned with high quality, go with a different, better supported service.

A service that you may have seen on the top of many of the review lists in recent months is that of the Via Talk. The service has been boasting some fairly decent service options in recent months, including their buy one year, get one free deal (two years of service for $199). As with any service though, there are ups and there are downs.

First off the Good Stuff
The quality with VoIP service providers is always a question that makes or breaks many people’s plans. It varies substantially and some services just drop the ball. Via Talk is thankfully one of those services with enough forethought to make sure their call quality is decent. It’s the backbone of a phone company’s service and they’ve made sure to set up a decent quality, high bit-rate system that sounds great. Similarly, calls are very reliable and rarely fail to go through or drop off half way. This is a must have in any VoIP service and we’re grateful to Via Talk for supporting their network.

Via Talk’s support lines have always been good and most people will tell you this is one of the reasons they’ve gone with their service above anyone else’s. With customer service that will actually contact and talk to you when you need help, Via Talk is fairly good about making sure your problems are solved in a decently quick fashion. They have a $1.95/month support plan option as well that allows you to upgrade your service to priority status. You’ll receive much faster service with almost non-existent hold times.

The pricing structure is highly competitive as well. For those looking to add only a simple support line to their home, you can pay $9.99 a month and receive 500 minutes of their basic service. The 1500 minute plan is $29.95 and the unlimited plan is $35.95. But, for those who are willing to sign up for the long term, a one time $199 payment will buy you phone service for two entire years, one of the best deals around (for those willing to pay up front).

And the Cons
There are the every less popular monthly “Regulatory Recovery Fees” that VoIP services are charging right off the bat, so count on a $2.50 charge added to your bill. This might go up in the future as the companies learn that they can just as easily have the customer pay the Federal fees as do it themselves. Similarly there have been a few complaints about signups and equipment as the company seems to be a bit disorganized with their procedures. Ensure that you research everything you need before signing up with Via Talk and get the right equipment and order the right service, because if you try to change it, you might be waiting a little while or paying unnecessary extra money.

There are also some issues with the equipment they send. The caller id has been known to cause problems as well as the phone adapter itself. You’ll probably need to have a Linksys router to properly use their equipment as their adapter is a Linksys (a brand notorious for not liking other equipment).

The Bottom Line
The things that matter in a VoIP service – call quality, customer service, and price – are all very good with Via Talk. You’ll receive everything you’re looking for and it will work as you expect it. However, you must put up with a bit of a messy start to get there. Shipping is slow, the equipment is suspect, and getting started is notoriously complicated. Once you’re up and running though, you can expect one of the higher quality VoIP services around.