What are the best SOHO VOIP providers for Phone & Fax?

[Michael]

I have been scouring the internet trying to compare VOIP providers for small home office use. I would like phone and fax (ideally to email so I can get unified messaging) and a clear pricing structure so I can budget easily.

Vonage appear to offer one of the best phone offers with lots of free features - designed for the less technical and are a well established provider in the USA. Surprisingly though they go for a Fax service that goes to an old fashioned fax machine rather than fax to email. They appear to have very clear pricing and keep it simple for those new to VOIP.

Voipfone are a UK based offer with resaonably good phone features (diversion options are not as good as I would like) and fax to email. However, their pricing is hard to access with a pay for what you use basis and what appears to me to be a muddled website.

Any comments or suggestions would be most welcomed?

[mattpark]

Hi Michael.

Welcome to the forum.

VoIP is an excellent choice for soho telephony. Minimal investment and maximum flexibility. As long as you put a little effort in upfont you should end up with a system that would surpass a standard telephony solution.

Provider wise - I don’t actually use just one. We are signed up for almost every provider around now! We run a server with asterisk@home (now trixbox) installed to our datacenter, which allows us to setup provider stacking...

Every time someone makes an outgoing call, the number dialled is passed through rules, and is routed via the cheapest provider. It also gives us an element of redundancy should a provider go down as it will just go down the list until a call is routed successfully.

Sounds rather complex, but it is infact very simple... you can install trixbox on an old desktop machine, and stick it under your desk at home. Provider stacking is just one of the advantages you get from trixbox, should you wish, you can set up your own ivr system which would give your clients the impression that your business is much bigger than it is!

Oh yeah, trixbox is open source, so its free!

keep it simple for those new to VOIP

Vonage are a great provider if your new to VoIP. I used them ages ago when they first cropped up. I did find them rather restrictive if you wanted to go "off the beaten VoIP path" mind you. I haven't used them in ages, so cant really comment on how they are now. Watch out for their random charges:

Line Activation Fee £9.99
Fax Line Activation Fee £5.99
Virtual Number Activation Fee £5.99
Softphone Activation Fee £5.99
Line Disconnection Fee £23.99
Fax Line Disconnection Fee £5.99
Virtual Number Disconnection Fee £5.99
Line Reactivation Fee £5.99
Telephone Number Change Fee £5.99
Standard Shipping Fee £8.99

I would recommend VoIPfone, yes they have a rather higgledy piggledy website, but I cant fault their service so far.

Fax wise - http://www.ukvoiptalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=163 I would maybe try a service like efax. VoIP isn't quite ready to handle faxing just yet.

Im not completly sure if our new forum sponsor does small installations, but you could always give them a shout and see what they can do.

If you want more info on setting up trixbox just drop me a pm.

Matt

[JamesLovett]

Hi Michael,

I would like the opportunity to discuss how a solution from DEVIL7 would benefit you and your business.

Please contact me via any of the below methods or provide me with your contact details so that I may call you.

[Michael]

I am only a one man buisness with a single line for phone and a separate fax line. I want a simple to set up VOIP service with I can use with a standard phone. Ideally I would like a separate paired faxed number which sends faxes to email so I can decide to print, forward by email, edit etc...

Are there any providers that are consumer friendly like Vonage that also use fax to email with a VOIP phone service - the only one I have found to date is "Voipfone" which has a complicated website and pricing structure. I would like a simple £x's per month so I know where I stand with outgoings.

Any thoughts most welcomed!

Michael

[JamesLovett]

Hi Michael,

Currently Fax Over IP has a fail rate of approximately 80%. I recommend you utilise eFax (www.efax.com) which will suit your needs.

With regard to your telephony requirements; using a standard phone will mean that you need an ATA unit such as the Sipura 2002. We have supplied these historically but have found they do not deliver the highest quality. Therefore my recommendation is to opt for a true IP phone, thus ensuring the audible quality, reliability and functionality is at the optimum.

You can check out the Polycom IP phones we supply in the reviews section of this site. If you provide me with your email address I will happily send you a datasheet on the Polycom and provide you with any other information you require.

[acoolwelshbloke]

I use a pap2 to send fax's via voipfone and I have never had one fail!

[ash_k12007]

Vonage is certainly good, but then there are other providers too. You should try more than one and select which best suits your need.
Skype is one of the oldest. You can find all software and hardware details on Skype - internet calls - download Skype free now - free calls - official website.

[colin_thames]

I know this thread has been up for a while but...

I've used voiptalk.org for my outgoing fax line and haven't had any failures, so perhaps it's come of age. It's routed through a Fritz!box wirelss router which is ideal for a SOHO.

For incoming I use a faxtoemail service so I don't get spam faxes and don't get my faxmachine ringing in the house in the middle of the night (that said you can set up the Fritz!box to stop calls at different times).

I've tried a few services and have voiptalk 0845 (£8 to set up then no ongoing costs), but as I also want people from overseas to be able to fax me I have a geographic number from TTNC.co.uk (£25 to setup then 5p per minute for incoming faxes). Another possibility is flextel.ltd.uk who don't charge at all for 0844, 0845, 0870 or 0871 fax numbers. Don't know how they do it but they've been around for a while. There used to be a lot of operators offering 0870 faxtoemail but the OFTEL ruling forcing the cost to be reduced these have mostly stopped being offered.

Hope this helps.
Colin

[moby456]

Originally Posted by Michael

I am only a one man buisness with a single line for phone and a separate fax line. I want a simple to set up VOIP service with I can use with a standard phone. Ideally I would like a separate paired faxed number which sends faxes to email so I can decide to print, forward by email, edit etc...

Are there any providers that are consumer friendly like Vonage that also use fax to email with a VOIP phone service - the only one I have found to date is "Voipfone" which has a complicated website and pricing structure. I would like a simple £x's per month so I know where I stand with outgoings.

Any thoughts most welcomed!

Michael

Hi Michael,

We provide SMB in the UK with voip services that may be of interest. The choice out in the market is bewildering. To give you an idea about what we do. We run a hosted service with customers in the UK, France and Australia. We have equipment hosted in the UK, the US and Australia, depending on what the client wants. Basically our system is set up for small businesses like yourself (1-30 people) who maybe need a couple of lines, including fax, fax to email, IVR (press 1 for sales..etc) conferencing, and multiple office support.

We can provide DIDs (direct inward dial numbers) from most towns in the UK and non geo numbers such as 0845 etc. We can provide a voip line capable of supporting fax (depending on your fax machine in your office) and this can be used for incoming faxes, that can either be sent to the fax machine, or can be sent to an email address as a pdf. The fax over voip is quite sensitive, and we can advise you on how to set up the system to give you the best results. Our rates to UK and overseas numbers are very competitive..

Let me know of this is of use to you. You can send me a private message, or through our website.

steve

www.voiprofessional.com