[ale] Recommendations for cheap phone service?

[Michael Trausch]

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 11:40 AM, George Carless <kafka at antichri.st> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My girlfriend's non-profit organization (www.ahimsahouse.org) is in the process of moving into its first office, and
> they're looking at options for getting phone service there. Ideally, a low-cost solution that would allow multiple people
> to make calls at once (though only a single inbound phone number would be required). Here's what we've been looking at so
> far:
>
> - MagicJack -- seems like a viable option, although I have to say that their marketing techniques put me off a little.

I've only heard bad things of them.

> - Skype, with a dedicated phone number and calling plan. Seems a pretty good option, but I'm not sure what the best
> approach is for getting a physical phone (or phones) attached. (Money is really an issue here, too - they can't afford to
> spend $200 just to get a phone working)

Probably a bit kludgy, and officially I think they only support
Windows (Linux support last I heard was 32-bit only, best-effort
only).

> - Vonage -- we use this at home, currently, and it works well -- but it seems pretty expensive, nowadays, compared with
> the other options.

What I do is this.  It works for me, but we do not do that much
outbound calling:

  * BroadVoice provides our inbound calling and phone numbers.  We pay
$15/mo on the bring-your-own-device plan, and use FreeSWITCH.
  * DiamondCard for outbound calling.  1.6¢ per minute in the U.S.,
pretty inexpensive elsewhere.  I mostly use it myself for
international calling or when I am over minutes on my cell.  That
said, it's worked out really great for us.
  * TollFreeGateway for 800/888/877/866 calling.  That way, I don't
have to pay DiamondCard for calling toll-free numbers.
  * Finally, I map 411 to Google's toll-free 411 service.

Do note that if you setup such a thing, you will want to set it up so
that there are two outbound calls that go through BroadVoice: 611 (for
BV support) and 911 (for, well, duh).  You also need to give BV your
physical address so that they do not charge an exorbitant fee when you
call 911.

> They currently do have an inbound phone service - I forget its name, but it's one of the hosted PBX solutions where they
> pay $10/mo and can have it forward to wherever. I've signed them up for a google voice invite so if/when that arrives they
> would probably be able to switch over to that and save the $10/mo.

Using other services like Google Voice or Skype or Google Talk's
"Jingle" service should also be possible through something like
FreeSWITCH, enabling them to take calls in less than traditional ways.

FreeSWITCH, if you haven't heard of it, is like Asterisk, but
lower-level.  It is a software switch, as opposed to a PBX, though it
can do PBX functionality with the right setup (our setup is more or
less the same as it was with Asterisk, with a bit more niftiness to
it).  That said, you might want to use Asterisk as it is probably more
stable than FreeSWITCH, though the latest version I have installed is
actually pretty reliable so far.  YMMV.

> Right now I'm leaning towards Skype, but I want to make sure this is pretty easy for them to use, and they would need a
> way of making calls private - i.e. no using a PC's speakers etc.  The two main people who will be in the office both have
> Droid phones; does anyone know whether it's possible to use a Droid Skype client with Skype's subscription plan? Any other
> thoughts/input?
>
> Oh, finally, I've been telling them that if they get business-class internet service (they're looking at Clear and Comcast
> at the moment), port-blocking etc. shouldn't be an issue for them--is that an accurate statement? (The new office is in
> the Decatur area.)

I use Comcast Business Class, which I like.  They are responsive to
calls for support, and actually know what you're telling them if you
have problems like routing issues that require the use of
traceroute/mtr to diagnose.  The downside to being in Decatur is that
they're still running DOCSIS 2 there (as of December, anyway).  In
Dunwoody, they have DOCSIS 3 going for business class customers (which
is where I am currently located).

    --- Mike