Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with VOIP and calling

Vonage World plan, 60 countries included, is it good enough?

zaxour — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 05:52:19 -0800

Anyone here using Vonage World plan? Is it good enough? Any alternatives? I call Australia, Canada, China, India and Sweden a lot for work issues. I didn't want to use different services for different countries so I have been using Rebtel and ActionVoip for all of these together.
Today, I noticed Vonage World plan that includes unlimited calling to all of the countries of my interest for $36.60 per month (including local taxes). I am currently using Cablevision service that costs me $32 per month or so and except US, I can not call anywhere for free.

I am seriously considering switching to Vonage World, as there is no contract involved. Before I make a switch, I would like to know if the service is really good. Since I am using it for work purposes, I can not really afford to have any disturbance with the service. Anyone using this plan at the moment? Are there any other strings attached in the fine print?

Thanks for all the comments in advance.

P.S. - I live in NY, if that makes any difference.

Prepaid iPhone data plan in Mumbai?

jesseendahl — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:40:15 -0800

Hi, I will be living in Mumbai for 11 weeks next summer. I have an unlocked iPhone 3G. What is my best bet in terms of carrier and plan for the cheapest and most reliable data access? I plan to do local calls over the cell phone voice network and international calls via Skype on the iPhone. Thanks in advance!

Adding virtual guest participants to a physical meetup

jeffmacintyre — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:04:28 -0800

Best way to add virtual guests to a physical meetup? No, I'm not looking for a simple conf calling solution here; angling for something better and more leading edge.

I'm wondering whether there is some apt web app, videoconference or SIP solution for easily adding virtual guests to a physical meetup?

We don't have a location yet so it's still possible that we could get the technical infrastructure in place to make this happen, between phone lines, wifi, VOIP/SIP, etc. Surely this has been solved before by someone far more intrepid than myself.

Give me a voip voip!

prophetsearcher — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:09:10 -0800

What's the best way to make calls from Israel to North America, and to let others from North America call me at little or no expense? I'm moving to Israel. I'm going to be keeping in touch with friends, family, and clients in the U.S. and Canada. There are many ways to do this, but none seem perfect.

Vonage? Has the advantage of being established, pretty straight-forward, and I can use my current number. Downsides: Going under? Quality? Expense?

SkypeIn/Out. I admit it. I just don't get it. I've been through the site and it doesn't seem to be very clear. Is it only for softphone usage?

Unlocked Nokia e61 (for example) with Gizmo Project . In theory, I can have call-in numbers in USA and Israel, which would mean 1 phone for everything. Right? That would be pretty sweet. Though, even if that part doesn't work out, it might be a good deal. But there's a high up front cost, and it's still kinda confusing. Does it really work?

Others : Ooma seems cool, but who knows if I would get my hands on it; Local VOIP providers; Figure it out when I get there. I also just got my GrandCentral account. Don't know if that can figure in somehow.

I'm leaving pretty soon, so if I need hardware, I'd need to order it now. But I'm worried about committing, especially if it means porting a number and then losing it.

Any advice, anecdotes, assurances, or alliterations would be most welcome. I'm a generally bright guy, but this has got me at a total loss.