As you can see from an earlier thread I posted about Sipgate's 999 access (or more rightly their later correction to me that they won't be providing it), I feel Sipgate are becoming a bit complacent after some time being one of the best providers.

So I'm thinking about VOIP.co.uk as an alternative. They offer 999 access which I consider important, plus the ability to dial 141 if you ever wanted to without going through online menus. They also don't charge for an incoming number.

On the whole they look better than Sipgate, but are they really? Honest opinions appreciated, thanks.

I think voip.co.uk are better than sipgate - they're UK based.

Voipfone and Gradwell are also some highly rated UK suppliers.

Depends what you use VoIP for really

I used to be a Sipgate customer and changed to voip.co.uk about a year ago. voip.co.uk have been very very reliable, good audio, no dropped calls and their support is excellent, infact it's the the best of any company I've ever used, not just voip companies but all companies. I'm on the annual UK pack costing £19.99/year which gives you off peak calls for free and peak time calls for 2p for up to an hour, which is excellent value in my opinion. I would highly recommend voip.co.uk they are the best voip provider in my opinion.

Would be using it for landline calls - I could put on £10 credit on Sipgate and it would last months. Can I do the same on VOIP.co.uk or do you have to top up a minimum each month, or do they deduct some sort of fee each month to keep the account active?

Thanks for the feedback so far, is very useful.

Yes you can top up by £10 and it will last till you've used it. There would only be a monthly/annual fee if you wanted to sign up to the optional UK pack which is £1.99/month or £19.99/year.

This page has all the details on pricing etc: http://www.voip.co.uk/res_products.html

I spoke to someone at Voip last week and those are old prices that are/were meant to change on the 1st Aug,, nice of them to keep the only (to my knowledge) advert to their product up to date.....

They also only take credit cards not debit, hence not joined.

Do you have their current call rates then please?

no sorry i dont

I've been in touch with them, and they tell me their current call prices are still valid and current on the website, the only change is they are going to stop offering the UK pack yearly, it will be offered monthly instead (as is available now).

They also tell me their prices are about to change for some worldwide destinations, but only by a marginal change, so I think given their call prices right now are up to date it's a bit unfair saying they haven't kept their website up to date when they have.

I'm also informed they're about to cease taking Mastercard as payment due to a change in Mastercard's conditions, but they are introducing direct debit.

Direct Debit is definitely a step in the right direction, certainly much better than continuous payments on cards.

I decided in the end to stay with Sipgate and set up an account with Voipfone as well. Voipfone don't requre an account to be credited at all to use 999, whereas VOIP.co.uk do.

I've then set up my router to use all calls on Sipgate, except for 999 which goes over Voipfone, giving me 999 access. Not ideal, but it does the job, it's a pity Sipgate doesn't listen to customers more though.

I agree about Sipgate. I have been with them for maybe 2 years now and have seen improvements in service along the time, but my big annoyance is the fact that they still operate on per-minute billing. I am sick of making calls lasting 7 seconds and being charged for a full minute

CitySlicker - can I ask what router you are using that deals with conditional call routing? (unless of course you are running Asterisk/Trixbox)

Am actually using my PBX at the moment, which recognises if 999 is dialled it needs to route it to a seperate line, I have a Linksys WRT54GP2 router, which I daresay can deal with conditional routing as there's so much firmware to choose from for it with it being based on open-source Linux.

That may be the best option to go down - look at open-source routers like Linksys and see if you can obtain third party firmware to allow this. I bet we're not the only people with these problems, I do like Sipgate, don't make enough short calls to worry about the minute calling rates, but 999 is my main annoyance.

Ah... I too have a WRT54GP2 although have not yet ventured down the route of applying open source firmware - I have wanted to to give me more flexibility but wasn't too sure where to start - lots of different versions, updates failing etc. Might I ask what version you are running?

I'm running the North American latest firmware. The European version gives you more channels on the wireless side, but I've found NA gives you a lot more quality and stability. There's improved jitter buffers, and I've even been able to get a fax machine working fully with the buffers and noise cancelling set right.

(Let me know if you need the ring cadence settings etc. to return it to British ringing and signalling tones, I found it confusing the NA standard for number unobtainable is similar to engaged, totally different to British signalling tones).

Have a look at open source firmware, I was impressed with some of the firmware out there, as long as you back up your original firmware you can revert (follow usual rules about making sure the new firmware is designed for your router model and the router isn't powered off during upgrades etc).

Thanks for the advice CitySlicker. After another search though, I have struck a blank on the open source front - OpenWRT, Sveasoft, HyperWRT and DD-WRT all state they don't install on my device.

Couldn't find a later version of NA f/w either (although it's probably fair to say I struggle to find the front door on the way out of my house in the morning ). I am presently on 1.30.04(beta) which hasn't been too bad despite being functionally restrictive, so will just make do for now.

I'm on 1.30.06 North America final, not beta here.