Voice Over IP

I am in the market for a cheap VOIP phone. I mostly just want it for voicemail, not incoming or outgoing. Who have you used, who was the best for the best price?

For those of you at Telus, is there a cheap option that I can add to my existing home phone, under a smart ring, without having a second number that actually rings into my home?

[LDUB]

Originally Posted by Avana

I am in the market for a cheap VOIP phone. I mostly just want it for voicemail, not incoming or outgoing. Who have you used, who was the best for the best price?

For those of you at Telus, is there a cheap option that I can add to my existing home phone, under a smart ring, without having a second number that actually rings into my home?

Not with Smartring, it would have to ring and would share your primary voicemail... TELUS doesn't have digital phone yet.

Is there a reason you want to go digital? I would just get a prepaid pager (and not use the pager) for Voicemail only.

Well, you probably guessed why I want it....

I don't want my cellphone as primary contact for my business anymore just because of the amount of calls I get.

The problem with a pager, is that if you get too many pages, you get overcharged. Also, the outgoing message is short, too short, I want something that I can leave an extended message on.

wait, what about a stand alone vmail box?

[clevich]

I use a tollfree for all my business calls, which get directed to my cell.

check out http://voipstreet.com/index.html
or: http://gotvmail.com/

[FireWire]

www.voipdiscount.com - free!

[Pegasus]

have you checked out vonage?
i just signed up for it.. i dunno if thats the type of thing you're looking for, but they got lots of cool features.

best of luck :)

[LDUB]

Originally Posted by Avana

wait, what about a stand alone vmail box?

You can get VMO (voice messaging option) although I'm sure it's changed names. It's business class service -- I'll find the CTA number tomorrow.

Originally Posted by LDUB

You can get VMO (voice messaging option) although I'm sure it's changed names. It's business class service -- I'll find the CTA number tomorrow.

Do you remember the infoline numbers that people used to get? Do they still offer those?

[b0ld]

just hope to god the VOIP phone you get is gonna be of great quality out there cause there are alot of VOIP phones that just sound like complete shit.

[thebobman]

My Suggestion: Telus offers a calling card that just gives you a voicemail box attached to a fake number. Use your smart ring to auto-forward to the calling card voicemail box or your cellphone depending on if you want to take calls or not. Otherwise just get a basic phoneline from Telus. The hassle it'll be to get a VoIP system setup and the quality you'll get off it just isn't worth it. You can haggle your way out of the hookup fee (when told it, tell them you'll just use shaw phone instead, they'll make you an offer) and I think a phoneline in Vancouver is something like $18/mo or so. Somebody who still works for them can fill in the blanks I've left here.

[rustybob]

I use Digital Voice (www.digitalvoice.ca) for my voip phone. If you buy the voip adaptor, you only pay $13/month. All 604 numbers and Victoria numbers are free, and long distance is cheap. From what everyone has told me, the sound quality is fine, and basically indistinguishable from a landline.

Since you're mainly using it for voicemail, one of the best features I've found is that you can check you voicemail online. Should you happen to find yourself out of town, you won't have to call long distance to check your messages. You can also get all voicemail messages auto-forwarded to your email as well.

[ppcock]

vonage is crap, any service that runs off of a router is terrible. you need to ensure your bandwidth is really high in order for it to work properly.