VoIP Service? (and cheap land lines)

[Diggs]

Do many here offer VoIP services and/or installs? It's something I've tended to stay away from probably out of ignorance. There's a plethora of choices out there for conventional services which doesn't help. Not a project I'd take on for a small business, but-

I'm embarrassed to admit it but we have several MagicJacks installed around the house and shop for the last 5-6 years and they have been phenomenal. (We don't get reliable cell service.) It started out as a venture of curiosity into the unbelievable advertising claims and quickly became part of daily life. I service a vacation lake area and have clients that are part time residents. Again, cell service is spotty and some wanted a CHEAP land line. I very reluctantly installed a few MagicJack and NetTalk devices (with many disclaimers) on UPS with their modem/router and they have been bullet proof! (Thankfully as there is almost non-existent support.) It's all these clients talk about when I see them. (Most like the fact that their voice mail from their "cabin" comes to them as an email two states away in almost real time.) Heh.......

@edit - I suppose I should add for those out of the States that MagicJack and NetTalk are unlimited VoIP phone services for $20/year (with a 5-year plan) or $40/year as you go.

(And move this to a more appropriate topic if desired. Couldn't decide where this discussion should go...)

 

[fencepost]

One thing to be careful about and be sure your customers know about is 911 limitations. I suspect that both of those have big disclaimers all over about it, but it's worth mentioning to people as well.

 

[Moltuae]

For larger VoIP installations, I leave the equipment installation and configuration to the telecoms company. I still do all the cable terminating, networking, and associated switch/router configuration though, which is probably 80% of the work anyway.

For smaller VoIP solutions, where maybe just a cheap extra phone line or two is required, for non-critical use, I've used Linksys PAP2 units and, more recently, Gigaset's N300 IP, which is a great little combined VoIP/DECT base unit that can connect to both physical landlines and VoIP lines, making it a very effective and cheap mini PBX.