Andrea.
You bring up an important point for VoIP.
It is possible to port numbers from BT to a VoIP provider now, and also from most VoIP - VoIP providers too. However people should take not that at the moment you can port over numbers from NTL.
Technically any VoIP provider can port a number, but only a few advertise that they can (or will). Some may charge, some may not.
Now, regarding an Italian number. To be completely honest, I don’t know much about any foreign number providers. I’ll have to dig a little deeper for you on that. Basicly there will be a governing body that manages Italian numbers, and telephony providers got to them and reserve blocks of numbers for their use. I’ll turf up some info and get back to you on this…
Gradwell seem to be pitching themselves towards the top of the market, targeting primarily business users. (Hence all prices on their site being ex VAT).
VoIPhone have been quite good for me (the review in the reviews area was just a test while i was building the new forum). My only issue is that while they have a support phone number, if you ring it you'll find that your simply taken to a front desk why they take your problem and get an engineer to email you back.. which can take quite a while. Having said that they now also have a volunteer helpline number you can punch in which will take you to other users on their service.
Rather than advise you on which provider to choose, i would say this - you get what you pay for! As with everything in life. Use a free service, you'll get a free service. Dont expect any comeback when you have an issue or their network goes down! VoIP service providers are sprouting up every which way at the moment and the only way to find the sweet ones from the sour it to use each and everyone... which on your own you cant do - one of my main reasons for starting this site!
Matt
