[kwlug-disc] Voip.ms or Unlimitel?

[B.S.]

The way I approached it was number of minutes per month x $0.015 + 
$2/line to give a rough number. If the number was far enough away from a 
fixed cost, then it wins.

Note that this is outside of any hardware costs. (Since I already have 
it.) [SPA-3102 (?) + 2-line 8-handset DECT 6 cordless phone.]

Note that the 1.5 cents is an 800 line and not the cheapest rate of it. 
i.e. If it still 'won', any rate below was gravy.

So, hopefully your bills show total minutes, and you've got a reasonable 
approximation of what your costs might be.

Couple other considerations might be a hybrid (voip.ms DID forwarding to 
your Ooma if that makes any cost sense), and if you're willing to live 
with a soft phone (including Android) during trial, you could fire up a 
separate number for your cell until comfortable. [Just make sure you 
blame any lag on your house wi-fi speed, or if you have poor results 
compare against voice quality of computer soft phone to eliminate last 
(air) mile impact.]

The other thing to evaluate, and I know nothing of Ooma, is whether or 
not the voip.ms call processing brings value to you. Be it extensions 
for each family member (no additional cost), or special treatment by 
caller id - e.g. Mom or Dad calling a child auto-forwards to both 
extensions and cell phones [let your fingers do the walking to call them 
for supper], or your siblings ringing all (soft+cell) phones or only yours.

The call processing flow is a bit of a learning curve due to plainness 
of the interface, but quite usable once you realize that call processing 
is call processing and the nature of the beastie. It can be as simple or 
as complex as you like - voip.ms call processing seems extraordinarily 
capable (if that's useful to you). The linchpin seems to be the entry 
point is call processing by time of day - everything else can be done in 
any sequence you like, but time of day is the head end. (If you use it. 
e.g. Calls between 01:00 - 06:00 go straight to voice mail only, unless 
from family members?)

I just wish callerid wildcards wasn't broken - then I'd send everything 
outside of a few area codes direct to voice mail only. Since spam almost 
never leaves voice mail, such would reduce the number of interruptions 
and distractions. As it stands now, every call I have to go look at 
callerid and decide to pick up or not.

Please note: I have not yet done this at home yet (been meaning to sit 
down and diagram out the call flow I want, but no time), but I have for 
OOTC that needed a 'physical' phone number point of presence. That has 
worked very, very well, and a 'no brainer' (low maintenance attention) - 
including time of day processing and cell as both direct extension 
(wi-fi) and forwarded (to as many as 6 destinations - soft phones, hard 
registered, cells, homes). Bonus is leaving a soft phone up (linphone) 
as a flag that calls went by and someone else picked up. Voice mail 
auto-forwarding to e-mail has made this all substantially fire and 
forget. But then we've only burned $15 of $25 in a year - this is 
minimal call traffic.

In your case, by my calculation above, $14 leads to $14/1.13 - $2 = 
$11.82, or 788 minutes or 13 1/4 hours of talk time, worst case. I would 
never hit this, but I don't have kids.

If the numbers are close, and the voip.ms call processing brings nothing 
to your party, then the more turnkey non-voip.ms solutions are probably 
the way to go. (Perhaps with additional / forwarded DIDs from voip.ms, 
if that makes cost sense and is setup/maintenance level acceptable. 
Maintenance level would only be to set the forward, unless you 
anticipate regularly changing the forward destination.)

My conclusion based on the last go around threads on this is Ooma, 
MagicJack, and the like are buying you a more turnkey system than 
voip.ms. Once set, voip.ms will be no less 'turnkey', but then we here 
are 'technical'. I would recommend voip.ms to my extended family, but I 
would know, like internet, I would be the one that would have to do the 
setup for them - unlike those other services. In my brother's case, I 
know even if I set it up for him, and he's more than capable of rolling 
with it once set, it's not for him - if he can't call someone and have 
them do a minimal setup for him, he wouldn't be interested, doesn't have 
the patience or mindset for detail work. So, voip.ms may be all well and 
good for you, but you might not choose it for your in-laws unless you 
knew you would become their support mechanism.


On 14-10-18 01:14 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 7:07 PM, Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com> wrote:
>> I know we've beaten this to death several times, but I'd like to beat it one
>> more time: Unlimitel or voip.ms? Ooma is not an option for me this time.
>
> Short version:
>
> I am interested to hear from others a cost analysis of Ooma vs.
> voip.ms, specially when there are several people in the household.
>
> Longer version:
>
> Ooma offers a flat rate of $14 per month for unlimited outgoing and
> incoming calls from/to Canada and the USA. That includes two numbers
> (which can be 2 lines if you get the $50 Linx adapter. The lines can
> be pooled, or assigned to different handsets)
>
> When I evaluated Ooma, I looked at voip.ms, but it was hard to
> calculate how much it would be exactly. So, I opted for a simple flat
> rate per month solution where I don't count anything. By the same
> logic I went with an internet provider that offers unlimited.
>