Cell Phones, Blackberries, and Vonage- Help??

[Meghan Kelly]

I'm looking to buy a Vonage adaptor and am wondering if there are any locations in Buenos Aires that sell this or if anyone has an adaptor they are no longer using and would be interested in selling to me? I am needing this within the next few weeks and unless I hear anything I guess I will need to buy one in the US and have it shipped to me here... Please let me know. Thanks!

 

[Postmodernchild]

I have a Skype US number that is forwarded to my Argentine Blackberry and I never ever missed a call. It is not that pricey the only thing is that I have not been able to get texts through my skype number but i heard that is changing now. I also use my ipod touch to call people and to itime often. Since wifi is widely available in BA at no extra cost is a bonus to call abroad on regular skype.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Another warning. Most VOIP companies use ports 5060 through 5064 UDP for their technology and ARNET (DSL through phone company) blocks these ports. (Typical narrow minded Argentinos.) My temporary apartment had ARNET DSL (I have always had internet through cable company in prior apartments) and I could not get my VOIP to work (no matter what changes I made to the firewall on the router) on OUTGOING calls. Incoming worked fine. I had to sign up with SKYPE (as they use different ports) to make my outgoing calls.
So ... I continue to use Broadvoice (which is much cheaper than Vonage, especially if you are only making "in-state" calls for the number you obtain) for my incoming calls (thus everyone continues to call my same U.S. number) but had to sign up with Skype for outgoing. When I get permanent apartment (or my next temporary apartment) I will make sure they use cable (Fibertel, I think). I think there may even be a fiber-optic provider here (similar to ATT Uverse or Verizon FIOS) which is, of course, the mama-jama for internet and TV.

 

[2GuysInPM]

RoadWarrior, we had the oposite experience. Vonage, Arnet and Fibertel for years. Vonage worked better for us through Arnet DSL than the Cable Modem. But in the end both still sucked, so we ended up switching to Skype this year w/ Skype online numbers.

Skype works pretty good for us now. We both have Skype on our iPhones here and have our cell lines from the US forwarded to our Skype online numbers. You can even set the caller ID on your Skype number to match that of your cell phone in the US, so its essentially like using your US number here to receive and make calls.

iPlan offers fiber-optic here but I don't know if they connect to residential. In any case, no matter how fast the network is here within AR, it still has to get through the same international pipe all providers use and that seems to be the biggest bottleneck.

 

[sam3g]

FYI , you can make FREE calls to the US through 2011 in gmail (google mail) now. It's in your chat bar labeled "Call Phone". Works just like Skype.

 

[Sleuth]

FYI , you can make FREE calls to the US through 2011 in gmail (google mail) now. It's in your chat bar labeled "Call Phone". Works just like Skype.

This only works if you have a US IP address. It will not work with in Argentina unless you use a US proxy server.

 

[Sleuth]

Another warning. Most VOIP companies use ports 5060 through 5064 UDP for their technology and ARNET (DSL through phone company) blocks these ports. (Typical narrow minded Argentinos.) My temporary apartment had ARNET DSL (I have always had internet through cable company in prior apartments) and I could not get my VOIP to work (no matter what changes I made to the firewall on the router) on OUTGOING calls. Incoming worked fine. I had to sign up with SKYPE (as they use different ports) to make my outgoing calls.
So ... I continue to use Broadvoice (which is much cheaper than Vonage, especially if you are only making "in-state" calls for the number you obtain) for my incoming calls (thus everyone continues to call my same U.S. number) but had to sign up with Skype for outgoing. When I get permanent apartment (or my next temporary apartment) I will make sure they use cable (Fibertel, I think). I think there may even be a fiber-optic provider here (similar to ATT Uverse or Verizon FIOS) which is, of course, the mama-jama for internet and TV.

I never had a problem with Arnet or Fibertel. I will say that Fibertel's new 6Mbps connection has made a huge difference. Plus, I configured my router to give priority to my Vonage calls and I never have a problem.

 

[jenandj]

I've been using Skype to work remotely, and it's a great value and generally reliable.

When I first started I constantly routed all incoming calls from Skype to my Blackberry. After a few weeks I decided that although I like to have the option of always being accessible to everyone in the USA, in reality I'm fine with routing calls to my Skype voicemail and returning the calls from the tranquility of my apartment rather than answering business calls in the grocery store or chatting obnoxiously on my phone at a neighborhood cafe.

At first, I really missed being able to look up anything, anytime, anywhere, though after my first few months in Argentina I realized that I rather enjoy having a work/life balance and decided not to purchase a data plan for my Blackberry. When I need to go online, a laptop meets this need, and the rest of the time I'm able to focus on conversations with my friends and family rather than constantly multi-tasking, which is a change I rather enjoy.

 

[barnaby33]

Is the skype routing to a local phone reliable? I've bought a Skype in number for my time there but didn't know I could forward to a cell at reasonable prices. What does it cost per minute.

How does Skype compare with Google voice?