VoIP phone service

[jamila]

Hello all! I will be in BsAs the 1st week of Sept. I will need to be able to receive calls from the US as I will be working remotely. I am trying to figure out if i need to purchase a VoIP service now... I already have skype and I think i can just buy a US number.. but wanted to get other opinions.

Anyone use a VoIP phone service like Majic Jack, Vonage or Ooma? what did you think? Any other ones out there I should look at?

 

[Ceviche]

get Majic Jack. It works best

or take google voice..its free

 

[jamila]

I have google voice.. but right now it is forwarded to my US cell phone? can you do it the same way to a local mobile phone there?

 

[Ceviche]

No u can not.

on majic jack u can

 

[Holden]

I use magicjack and it barely works... I have a pretty fast connection here (3 Mega) and calls drop all the time, sometimes the phone never rings, etc. It's really embarrassing when you are trying to secure a deal back in the US or Canada.

I used to have BroadVoice which worked better but was $20+ a month.

In the end, the best option is Google Voice... whatever they use for voice compression is much more effective than any of the VOIP companies... I would just leave you computer on all the time and keep Google Voice connected and use your laptop to make phone calls.

After using these VOIP companies and having important sales calls dropped, I just call the clients back on Google Voice and while it isn't 100% it's success rate is better than BraodVoice or MagicJack.

Finally, 6 years ago my friend had vonage here and I don't recall him complaining that much so you may want to consider that if using your computer with Google Voice doesn't work for you...

 

[2GuysInPM]

If you have Skype, buy an online number. Then just before you leave the US, forward your US phone number to your new Skype number. That way when you're in AR any call to your number will be routed to Skype. Be sure to setup Skype voice mail and notifications in case you loose internet access.

If you you have an iPhone, you can setup forwarding from Settings.

 

[Greg2231]

I use a combination of Google voice and LocalPhone (LocalPhone.com) I give people my Google voice number which when I am in Argentina forwards to my US LocalPhone number which costs 99 cents a month that in turn is set to Forward to my Argentine home phone, this costs an additional .7 cents per minute, you can also forward to Argentine cell numbers for 9.8 cents a minutes, and you can also Forward the LocalPhone number to most other countries, but the rates vary by country.

For calling out through Local Phone you have to preregister the phone numbers you want to call on there web interface and then you call a local Argentine access number which recognizes your caller ID and connects you to the phone you want to call, there US rates are .5 cents a minute. They also have SIP settings so if you have your own VOIP device you can link it to your LocalPhone account just like Vonage or Broadvoice. There are also incoming numbers for many other countries available, that you can have forwarded to most major countries.

If you register with localPhone this link should give you a 10% discount
http://www.localphone.com/?rb=X0U1Gk_wv5VFM0WnVApD50woz0o5iBZB1315TPvnDsI

Also I did use Broadvoice in the past, and didn't have any major problems with it on my Telefonica 6mg dsl service, the main reason i have switched is I travel often and wanted a phone that could follow me, and my LocalPhone setup allows that, I can get off a plane in most any country buy a cheap SIM and set my Localphone incoming number to forward to it.

 

[wineguy999]

VoipStunt has worked very well for us.

 

[jeff1234]

I suspended my Verizon service and forwarded my US calls to google voice (both at no cost now). Google Voice takes a message and immediately sends me an email containing the voice message and a enough of written transcript for me to read most of the message.
Its not the same as getting a phone call here but its simple and free and alot of the time the message is contains all the info I need. It also leaves me with a written record of the call.
I use Google Voice and Skype to return calls with clear cheap connections.
Its not for everybody but it works great for me.

 

[mjackson1946]

Im using magicjack, works great here