User Provider Reviews - Updated 06/06/06

[mattpark]

It's my intention to have this thread include reviews of providers. If you would like to add anything to this section you can either PM me, or drop an email with you review in to admin@ukvoiptalk.com

I'll be adding my review of Aql (http://www.aql.com) later tonight!

Cheers

Matt

[mattpark]

Sipgate and Voiptalk Comparison - provided by thecaretaker

Here is a comparison between Sipgate and voiptalk. Both companies
provide similar products.

Firstly, my needs. I want an ip phone provider that offers me a local geographic phone number, who provides voicemail services on a pay as I go basis. Both Sipgate and voiptalk offers these services but in slightly different ways.


Website
I'm a simple fellow who needs a clear, simple and easily understandable web interface to control my account. Sipgate is the clear winner here. I find their website account section very easy to navigate and understand. voiptalk offers the same options but is much harder to find my way around.

Accounts
Both offer a free account. However, with Sipgate, you automatically get a geographic number for free. voiptalk provides you with a 08700 national rate number. If you want a local number, you have to sign up for their pre-pay silver option. But at only £2.99 per month isn't going to break the bank.

Tariff
Both offer similar tariffs for the free service. However, if you do pay voiptalk for a their pre-pay silver account (to obtain similar features) voiptalk rates are much lower at just 1p a minute to the US, Australia and for UK calls. Even calls to mobiles are cheaper. So what you spend on your £2.99 subs, you can easily make up if you use your phone regularly.

Voicemail
The same applies to voicemail. With Sipgate, voicemail is free but you need the pre-pay silver account to have this function with voiptalk. Also, you can specify how many rings sound before the voicemail cuts in with Sipgate, you can't with voiptalk.

So far, it looks like Sipgate are the clear winners, but hold on. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. A number of other factors like quality and reliability also matter a lot to me and it is in this area, voiptalk wins hands down.

Speed
I have noticed a short wait from the time you dial a number to the time the connection starts ringing at the other end with Sipgate. This maybe due to Sipgate being based in Germany and it takes longer for calls to get routed from the UK. The same test with voiptalk and connections ring almost instantaneously.

Sound quality
Sound quality does seems better with voiptalk. It's a subtle difference, but voices do seem louder, sharper and crisper using the voiptalk service.

Reliability
Reliability is the main issue with Sipgate. I admit this has improved recently, but I still frequently find I get engaged tones. When switching to voiptalk, the call rings and connects to the person I want to speak to every-time. Incorrect engaged tones are a frequent occurrence and a user could be easily fooled into thinking the caller is unavailable.

Although my phone tells me I am connected to the service, I often get stuck with no connections and have to dial a second time. I have never had such issues with voiptalk. The service is always available and works well every-time.

Billing
I've not had any issues with either provider over billing.

Conclusion
I tend to feel that voiptalk is more focused on the business user and therefor I feel this has an influence on the reliability of their service. It also means you need a little more background knowledge of how to set your phone up. But once set up, voiptalk clearly provides the more reliable service.

For beginners, Sipgate is much easier to understand and set up your phone, they provide specific set-up guides showing your phones configuration page using all your own details. So all you need to do is copy it from their website into your phones configuration page and reboot. Easy! However, in saying this, I have a Cisco 7940 phone and this option isn't available for my model.

All service are provided free with Sipgate. To get the same level of options with voiptalk, you need to buy into their pre-pay silver package. However, calls are much cheaper by doing this.

Now I have a little knowledge under my belt, given the choice between the two companies, I place my money on voiptalk. What I need is a reliable, good quality phone service. Lets face it, you only need to set your phone up (and configure your router) once. Once your phone is set up, you want to enjoy your experience making lots of free and cheap calls around the world and voiptalk will let you do this.

Marks out of 10
Sipgate 7/10
voiptalk 8/10

[mattpark]

Vonage Review Provided by Fred

I recently bought the Linksys Pap2 through my local retail store as my dad was looking for a cheaper way to make calls. On opening the box I was impressed at the dimensions of the ATA as it was a sleek silver colour with optional stand. Configuration was very straight forward. Firstly I had to create an online account via vonage's website followed by physically connecting the unit to my Linksys WRTG54 router. All went very smoothly and within a couple of minutes all the blue lights on the ATA had settled down. I picked up my dect handset and immediatley got a dialling tone!

Call Quality
I had previously been using a Freetalk adaptor (DSG) and had been happy with it except for the 1 hour call hang up and redial routine. (To avoid charges after 1 hours continous calling to one number). The call quality of the Vonage was very impressive, indistinguishable from my Telewest landline. My dad has been using it and has said he hasn't noticed any difference in call quality from his Telewest line and likes the freedom to make completely unlimited calls of any duration! Even my brother who was initially scepticle of the whole idea has turned round his opinion after using it. I myself may even switch over to Vonage eventually unless Freetalk drop the hour call charges.

Pricing
Although the monthly cost of the service is £7.99 and a pound a month more expensive than Freetalk, I think for what you are getting it is worth the extra. This makes a huge saving if your broadband provider is a cable company as you can actually get rid of your landline if you so wish. We still have a landline for incoming calls though, which leads me on to number portability.

Number Portability
The main thing holding us back from ditching our Telewest line is the fact that we cannot port our Telewest line over to Vonage or any other voip provider at present. This is a major issue for us as we do not wish to hand out a new number to everyone. I also believe this is holding back alot of people from crossing over to voip in general. Although Ofcom are making a statement on this issue in August 2006 and changing the rules on number portability by September 2006 so this may allow us to transfer the number.

Features
All the features you can obtain from BT/Telewest etc (chargeable) are all free with Vonage. I really like having all these features available to us at no extra charge and they do come in handy. I have always liked Caller Display in particular. Plus you can have all calls forwarded to a chosen number in the event you have no broadband connection.

Billing/Website
The Vonage website is very easy to follow and the account section is splendidly laid out. It's very easy to keep track of all your calls/billing information. Very intuitive.

Conclusion
Overall, I would thoroughly recommend this service to anyone looking for a no hassle switch to Voip but who is prepared to accept a small monthly charge for the service.

Fred.

[mattpark]

FreeTalk Review Provided by fred

I purchased the Freetalk ATA adaptor just over 2 months ago now and here is my review.

Initial Set Up
The initial set up for Freetalk is very straightforward. You simply register your adaptor on the Freetalk website and then connect it to your router and then connect a phone of your choice to the Freetalk ATA and you are off!

Call Quality
The call quality of the service is very good. There have been occasions when I have had slight echo but this is quite rare to be honest. It is far superior to any softphone I have used eg Skype and never suffers from lag/dropouts or delays. Most people do not comment on what kind of device I am using when I call them. They are more interested in the number I am calling them from! I have also noticed that if I change dect handset the perceived call quality changes slightly! I mainly use a new Philips 511 dect handset with Freetalk but have tried others out too. Trial and error I would say although the differences are very slight and I do have very good hearing! I once called the Freetalk Technical helpline and they admitted they use lower bandwidth for calls than Vonage and the user cannot adjust call bandwidth, unlike Vonage.

Pricing
The cost of the service is a two tier set up. You can either pay £79.99 for 1 years service up front or £6.99 per month (plus £19.99 for ATA). This is £1per month cheaper than Vonage which operates a very similar service. The only gripe I have with the pricing is that if you are on a call and it exceeds 1 hour duration then you will be charged 2p per minute thereafter. I have not exceeded the hour duration to date but have come close. Of course if you end the call and re-dial then you would not incurr any charges-inconveniant though. There is a 14 day trial period too in case you really do not like the service. If you wish to terminate the service during the first 12 months of use then there is a termination fee of £23.99.

Features
One of the plus points of the service is the ability to enjoy many calling features for free which would be chargeable under domestic telephone providers. I really like Caller Display and personalised voicemail. There are loads of features including Call Waiting/Call Fowarding/Three Way Calling/Anonymous Call Blocking to name but a few.

Billing/Website
My experience with Freetalk's billing wasn't what I expected. I did not receive a bill for almost 6 weeks and I had to contact them 2 or 3 times to establish the reason why there was such a delay. They announced it was due to server upgrades and sure enough my bill arrived after the upgrades were complete. The website also has a listing of new UK dialling codes but it isn't updated very quickly from what I have seen so far and I still am unable to get my local dialling code. This needs to be improved upon. The website is very easy on the eye and very simple to navigate. I do enjoy the online account features and being able to call logs right up to the very last call made/received.

Conclusion
Overall I highly rate the Freetalk service. It has never fallen over and call quality is very good. The only downside is that calls that exceed one hour incurr charges and some UK dialling codes are not yet available. I would rate the service as 8/10 overall.

Fred.

[mattpark]

freetalk Internet Phone Service - provided by Dan

For anyone considering VoIP as a primary or second line phone service, I can recommend freetalk. While it’s not technically correct to call freetalk a “phone line”, that’s how freetalk looks, feels and sounds – like a “normal” home phone service.

Low call rates, easy to find

Before you choose freetalk, take a look at their website at www.freetalk.co.uk You’ll find details of the 2 current calling plans, One Year and Monthly (more about that later). What impressed me the most was how easy it is to find different call rates. For example, it takes about 5 seconds to find out it costs 10p a minute to call a mobile phone in Egypt. Log on to BT at www.bt.com and see how long it takes you to find the same rate!

…Are you there yet? I gave up on BT after about 5 minutes – I still don’t know how much it costs! I know that my previous provider (I’ll spare their blushes) charged me £1 a minute to call my Egyptian friend – those days are over.

Where can you buy it?

I bought the One Year freetalk plan from The Link – see www.thelink.co.uk if you want to order online. I know that you can buy it in PC World and Currys too, as well as Dixons, sorry make that Currys Digital.

What does it cost?

The Yearly plan costs £79.99, which includes all calls you make to UK local and national landlines for a year. So, that’s £6.67 a month if you’re splitting hairs, but why not split a few hairs when you’re comparing freetalk to BT’s Together 3 plan at £14.50 a month, plus the £70 BT will charge you to install a second phone line!

BT have their own VoIP service, BT Broadband Talk. It costs £7 a month, the same as freetalk’s £6.99 Monthly plan. However, many non-inclusive BT Broadband Talk rates are charged at higher BT Together rates – overall, it doesn’t stack up.

freetalk mobile rates are competitive and easy to understand. freetalk's international call rates are very low – see www.freetalk.co.uk

All features are free

I’m using freetalk to call friends and family in the UK and overseas, as well as using it as a second line when working from home. For that, I need a normal UK phone number and some features like voicemail and 3-way calling.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Again, BT, Talk Talk and many other providers will charge you £1 or £1.50 for each feature you need. The most extreme case I’ve come across is a friend who wanted Call Barring with her Talk Talk service – www.talktalk.co.uk – they wanted to charge £3.18 a month! All features with freetalk are free – see http://freetalk.co.uk/Features_.aspx

How does it work?

The technology behind freetalk internet phoning is VoIP. The backbone is provided by one of the best US VoIP providers, 8x8 - www.8x8.com. freetalk the product is a small box that connects to your broadband connection and to any normal home phone. Mine is plugged into a Netgear modem-router and a Panasonic multi-handset phone.

Why is that a BIG DEAL?

That means a couple of things: firstly that I don’t need my computer switched on to make and receive calls (coz the freetalk box is not connected to the computer. This is a key difference vs using Skype or Tesco Internet Phone, which require a headset or USB phone plugged into your PC - see www.skype.com and www.tescointernetphone.com). Secondly, it means that while I’ve got my freetalk box tucked away in the study next to my router, I’ve also got phone handsets in the kitchen and living room – I’d say that freetalk is for people who want a cheaper, quality home phone service, rather than those who want to play or dabble with VoIP only.

What set-up is best?

Whilst freetalk will work with any broadband connection (it’s “broadband-agnostic” vs tied services from BT or Wanadoo etc), it’s best to use it with an ADSL modem-router or a cable modem. If you’re connecting to broadband with a USB modem, your PC will need to be switched on. Also, a colleague with AOL broadband needed to do some extra configuration, to share the internet connection (there are details on the freetalk site).

What about billing?

Billing is monthly, online, with an email telling you that you can review your bill (i.e. for non-inclusive calls). Also online, you can change your feature settings. So that means I’m now doing all my shopping, banking and phoning on the web!

What’s the quality like?

I’ve listed a few reviews I’ve come across:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/82397...etalk+freetalk
http://www.webuser.co.uk/products/fr..._2945-665.html
http://www.ciao.co.uk/freetalk_co_uk__Review_5582093

Overall, my own experience has been very good. Most people I call or who call me don’t know that I’m using a VoIP service. My number shows on their caller ID as per normal. The call quality is good, with no lag or echo. Sometimes the call is a little quiet, but this is nothing serious and no different than many mobile calls. I agree with one of the above reviews, that freetalk is almost indistinguishable from landline.

Conclusion

When you add the quality of landline to low cost calling and a rich feature set, I’d say that’s worth having!