I signed up to voipcheap but, before buying any credit, thought I'd try contacting them. I can't as it always comes up as bad url or I get no response. This sounded alarm bells as what happens if there's a problem?

I put voipcheap and contact in to google and found a few people say they were overcharged for calls and credit was removed. The posters said they tried contacting voipcheap but never got any replies.

Tesco have their voip, and are 'reputable' but it's 2p/min to landlines here and abroad, 10p to UK mobiles and and 22p to Irish mobiles. Most other voips tend to be cheaper but are they better at providing the overall service?

Does anyone know of a decent voip provider? What's the best value one around?

Give voipfone.co.uk a go!

I use them and their good!!

I've been a customer of Sipgate's for about 3½ years with only the very occasional connection issue in the early few months (they had a rogue server which was hard to tie down what the fault was, after it was replaced my connection's been as stable as the landline I replaced it with).

Their prices aren't as cheap as some, but they offer a free incoming geographical phone number. Their email responses are very good. The only down point I can think of is their not offering a 999 number, but I have my router set up as a rule if I dial 999 it goes over another provider who offers 999, and Ofcom's ruling on all VOIP providers having to give 999 access in the UK from next year will mean this has got to change.

VOIPfone.co.uk is good, but watch out for the extras, the prices soon add up (like having to pay for a geographical phone number etc).

You'll find that the Betamax group of brands (eg voipcheap) deliver the VoIP service nearly all the time, but deliver responses to any email once in a bluemoon, if that frequently.

That's their 'costsaving' model it seems - ie NO customer service, just VoIP service. You are risking under 10 quid and have plenty to gain. I've still got 30c left from 10 euros just over a year ago (used up at 1c/minute on daytime calls after the 120 freedays elapsed).

If you are using your PC and software for VoIP then I would suggest JustVoip as it's got very cheap UK Mobile.

If you're using a SIP ATA device then you could look at InternetCalls.

The Betamax brands vary in their 'free' countries, and free SMS and in their rates, but a major difference can be 90 or 120 'freedays' once you have put 10 euros+VAT in.

Here's a good price summarisation/comparison
http://backsla.sh/betamax

I currently am trying the Tesco service as got a free box and £5 credit, but sound quality wise it's pants by comparison with all the Betamax i've tried THOUGH it does give u a VoIP-IN number.

Thanks guys for all the info.

Tesco does seem good for getting a free voip-in number and you get £5 of free calls. But I've found the same as you, mk-donald, in that some people can't hear me and even hang up!

I've just had a look at the table with the prices and justvoip does look very good - I guess the sound quality must be pretty decent as you use it. 120 free days - voipcheap is only 90 so that's a bonus too.

I think I'll keep the tesco voip-in number and try out justvoip. Thanks for the info on voipfone but the international mobiles cost that bit too much unfortunately.

One day I might work out SIP ATA

Well I've been using the Tesco VoIP a bit more. Have to say I am totally UNDERwhelmed. UK phone calls while cheaper than BT are decidely poor quality.

This is with their locked Ethernet 'Internet Phone' box and a high speed ADSL2plus link!

My InternetCalls with USB was SO much clearer, but as I've got £5 worth of Tesco credit to use up I'm suffering it.

Have noticed there's an updated VoipBusterPro software (which is the USB integration software that many of the USB phones/boxes use to connect very seamlessly into Betamax software such as JustVoip InternetCalls VoipBuster etc) at
http://www.yealink.com/en/download.asp?tag=others

I took the advice on offer and gave justvoip a go.

However, I first tried tescointernet using a usb phone I bought from them for £10 - which included £5 free calls. I still have £4.82 left as I found the quality really poor.

justvoip... for €0.05 I can put in my home tel number and the destination number and it doesn't cost a penny more for the call (so long as it's one of the Free locations). Sound quality is perfect. Spot on - I'm very happy.

FWIW, we're with voipcheap.com, using a PAP2 adaptor and find their service very good. We topup with €10 every quarter to get the free calls to various countries, and find we use less than that for the chargable calls, hence a slowly increasing credit...

As for quality, no one can tell the difference between that and a PSTN. It's mainly used for UK landline and mobile, Western Europe, US and Canada, India, Sri Lanka and Australia. Never had an issue with them (touchwood), but I do agree that contacting them is hard/impossible.

B

I've been using www.draytel.org for a while now - still happy.