VoIP phone service

[irina]

I work remotely from the US and I purchased a number from Skype, with an area code from my home town, works great.

 

[jamila]

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...

can you receive calls directly to your computer or to your Argentine mobile phone from google voice?

 

[jamila]

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.

so you just pay your US mobile bill? or are you forwarding a landline to your skype number?

 

[jeff1234]

so you just pay your US mobile bill? or are you forwarding a landline to your skype number?

I'm not paying anything for my phone in the USA. I have Verizon Wireless. When I left I suspended the service and they allowed me to have my calls forwarded for free.

 

[jamila]

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.

so you are forwarding your us home service?

 

[jamila]

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.

Greg, something like this might work for me.. since i already have a google voice number... I will check it out. I might have some questions for you

 

[jeff1234]

so you are forwarding your us home service?

I'm forwarding my cell phone (Verizon Wireless) from Florida to Google Voice at no cost.

 

[stl999]

I have used Vonage successfully here, US and India. Love the service!

 

[snowboarder]

Any reputable voip provider will work fine. the best are the hosted business PBX providers that give you the FreePBX/Asterisk combo that allows you to do all kinds of cool things. 8x8 and VoiceCarrier are very nice.

 

[Cordobese]

I actually love Magic Jack.......I saw a previous comment that was negative but I would mostly blame that on Argie internet connections. Under good connections, mine works perfect!