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Low Cost VOIP Providers

M

miso

Jan 1, 1970
0
Most people have full duplex conversations. I have a friend that has a
satellite hookup in his travel trailer. You have to say "over" a lot
during conversations. OK for ham radio, not so good for phone use.
 
R

rickman

Jan 1, 1970
0
No. One phone call does not constitute a test. You don't have any
measurements, just pass/fail. You should see what happens under worst
case situations, such as you downloading something on another
computer, or running Bitorrent. Otherwise, you run the risk of having
it only work when nobody else is using the internet.

Did I say it was "one phone call"? She was here working, running her
VPN while two other people were doing all the usual stuff of surfing,
email and downloading. Her calls run for hours. So I think we did a
fairly good test.

Sorry. When talking telecom, everything is in acronyms. I tried to
avoid doing that but missed the WISP acronym. It's short for Wireless
Internet Service Provider. I used to work with one in Boulder Creek
about 15 years ago.


That's typical with VoIP. The quality of the service is largely
dependent on the quality of the internet connection. If you have lots
of bandwidth, little jitter, and a proper router, you'll have no
problem. If any of these are lacking, you will have problem. I kinda
like the vendors where the review sites are full of billing
complaints. That means that the service works just fine and that all
that's left to complain about is the billing.

You would think they would provide an app on their web site to test the
connection wouldn't you?

I worry a little when that happens. Quality products don't need much
support.


Sorry. I'm in AT&T territory and know little of Verizon POTS pricing.
I didn't know they could do it that cheap. I would probably use the
same plan if I could get it here.

Since you have two location, you can get two phones setup as
"extensions" on one phone number. That cuts your phone bill in half.

Normally I only need one at a time, so I take the unit with me and only
need one extension.

Correct. It's really a CallCentric ID number.


The only question is whether the ingoing only service provides
dialtone. If it does, you can make 911 calls. If not, you can't make
911 calls. When I was using CallCentric, I had both incoming and
outgoing, so it wasn't an issue. I don't see it as much of an issue
as you're more likely to be buying both in and out service.


I vaguely recall some kind of regrettable incident, where AT&T
suddenly cut off service for non-payment, where the resident needed to
make an emergency call but couldn't. After that public relations
disaster, AT&T leaves dialtone and 911 service enabled for
non-payment. I'm not sure how long they leave it on, but when I took
possession of a rental house that had been empty for about 90 days, I
still had dialtone on the previous owner. Verizon may be different.


I prefer the other type of wealth, where I'm somewhat lacking.


It's usually a separate line with a separate phone number or a
separate phone extension on the same phone number as the main line. It
totally depends on how it's provisioned with plenty of creative
options. If you buy your ATA from a VoIP provider, it's most likely
going to be setup as an extension, where you can have two
conversations at the same time over the same internet connection (but
not via two different providers as the VoIP provider isn't terribly
thrilled with you using his equipment on the competitions system).

On a more complexicated ATA, like the SPA3102, the 2nd line can be:
1. A 2nd service provider with a separate phone number.
2. An extension on the same phone number as line 1.
3. A POTS fallback or pass through.
The last is a bit tricky. It's commonly used direct local calls to a
POTS line, where the CLEC provides a large number of bundled "free"
minutes, and switch automatically to the VoIP line, for toll and long
distance calls, which would be charged by the minute.

On the various provider's web pages they list things like "Included
channels - 3". Does that mean three extensions or simultaneous calls?

Also available from CallCentric:
<http://www.callcentric.com/dids/free_phone_number>
The catch is that you have to be in New York state and you are
required to pay for E911 service. The service originates with
Telengy, which is a NY area CLEC and the parent company of
CallCentric. I don't know how NetTalk got into the puzzle, but my
guess is that they also get their DID (dial in direct) lines from
Telengy and may have a similar billing arrangement.

Yeah, but I'm not in NY... Oh, my use of NetTalk about is a typo, that
should have been CallCentric.

NetTalk is a service sold retail that I am going to buy today if they
have it in the store. At $30 a year, it beats any of the "low price"
providers... if you aren't in NY.
 
C

Charlie E.

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jeff,
Just one quick question - How do you interface your POTS phone to a
VoIP box? Do you know of a readily available phone line interface
card?

Charlie
 
D

Don Y

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi Charlie,

Jeff,
Just one quick question - How do you interface your POTS phone to a
VoIP box? Do you know of a readily available phone line interface
card?

Analog Telephone Adapter. Freestanding units start in the ~$30 range
(of varying quality).

Some modems can act as FXS gateway/adapter -- though you are then
stuck with the provider on the other side of that "modem". Ditto
for routers. (e.g., I have a couple of cable modems with this
capability as well as some "routers". Typically, support two
"lines")

I'm more interested in the other side of the equation: the FXO
adapter (let me interface a network to the PSTN). Freestanding
units introduce more latency (if they aren't *directly* feeding
a VoIP "switch"/exchange). I've yet to find a reference design
that isn't terribly tied to a particular architecture...
 
D

Don Y

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi Jeff,

You probably don't recall the 1950's style long distance calls, where
half duplex was the norm.

Even more recent than that -- depending on how TPC had to ultimately
route your *particular* call, *now*.
However, we will probably need to expose an entire generation
to it before it will be considered acceptable.

Folks who never had to watch folks "on the moon" visibly waiting
for outbound earth traffic to reach them and vice versa.
Some day, computahs will be powerful enought to anticipate what we
will say next. Then, we can eliminate the latency and half duplex
problem by producing that the caller would be expected to say.

Why keep the caller in the loop? Just let the two machines
talk to each other while you eat your burrito and watch TV!! :>
 
M

miso

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've read all of Bamfords NSA books. He knows his stuff. "Body of
Secrets" was probably the best of the bunch, especially if you never
read the accounts of the USS Liberty.
 
M

miso

Jan 1, 1970
0
People often think the price of something is defined by what it cost to
make. The price of a commodity has only to do with the market, supply
and demand. Your places in Nevada that charge a little less have
nothing to do with their proximity to refineries or oil wells.

There is a section of central Virginia where the price of gas is some 15
or 20 cents lower than most places in the state. No special reason that
I can see. They are further from refineries and any natural resource
for oil than other areas. I expect it is the economics of the area.
They are a little less affluent than much of the state and when the
price of gas goes up a little, they cut back on usage more than other
areas I would expect.

Supply and demand... that's all it is. Ain't nobody in Nevada gas
stations doing you any favors.

Oh, I never said I don't understand the pricing. I just think it is
funny. When the gas in the podunk towns is cheap, they probably didn't
get the fax from HQ to screw the public.

Incidentally, I am totally opposed to the Keystone pipeline going to
Texas. The whole idea is to get it to a gulf state refinery so they can
export the refined gas. Mess with Texas whenever possible since they
will mess with you anyway.

Hopefully we can get rid of John Boner and return some sense to the
government. Taxing the shit out of gasoline exports would be the first
thing to do once old Angry Orange is gone.
 
M

miso

Jan 1, 1970
0
"Democracy Now" podcasts are just regular downloads. But sometimes the
guests on the show are fed via Skype. They will mention this on the
lower third just so you know why the video sucks.

The show is also distributed live to cable systems via satellite, so all
the flubs are present. This way when someone on cable sees screwed up
video, they don't call the cable company to complain because they know
it is skype.
 
M

miso

Jan 1, 1970
0
Play the video at:
<http://www.exede.com/voip>
I think you can handle the delay and possibly half duplex.

You probably don't recall the 1950's style long distance calls, where
half duplex was the norm. Cell phones do the same thing. When the
error rate or lost packets start to climb, they revert to half duplex
before giving up and dropping the call. In a cell phone to cell phone
call, the accumulated latency can easily add up to a full second. It's
still full duplex but you still have to tell the other person when
it's time to talk. I have no problem using half duplex or saying
over. However, we will probably need to expose an entire generation
to it before it will be considered acceptable.

Some day, computahs will be powerful enought to anticipate what we
will say next. Then, we can eliminate the latency and half duplex
problem by producing that the caller would be expected to say.

Exede Speedtest.net video:
<
>
Note the 800 msec latency.

I don't think that is 800ms. I think we're talking Microsoft style CES
demos, i.e. faked!

I never met a happy satellite internet user, well other than they are
happy to get anything at all. Once anything else is available, the
satellite internet is the first thing to go. But that means more free
dishes for me to play with. If you go on Craigslist, people spend a long
time trying to sell old satellite internet gear before just dumping it.
 
R

rickman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Oh, I never said I don't understand the pricing. I just think it is
funny. When the gas in the podunk towns is cheap, they probably didn't
get the fax from HQ to screw the public.

Actually, I'm pretty sure you don't get pricing. The gas stations don't
set the price and they don't have much markup. The prices are
controlled centrally and any stations who charge less than the going
market are cutting their own throats by losing money most likely.
 
R

rickman

Jan 1, 1970
0
I beg to differ somewhat. What the user hears is the voice. If the
underlying technology isn't together, the voice suffers. Call a VoIP
vendor and try to complain that their protocols are broken (as I've
done a few times). They act dumb or claim it's someone elses
headache. The VoIP vendors know about voice, not networking.

I think you misunderstand what he means. He is saying the networks are
designed for data, not voice.
 
J

Jasen Betts

Jan 1, 1970
0
I appreciate your effort, but the issues of the protocol are not what
I'm asking about. The VoIP provider talks about "Free outgoing SIP
calls". I need to know what this means in their context.

Presumably free calls to endpoints on SIP services. you'd have to ask
them if that includes SIP enpoints that they are not currently aware of
or only SIP endpoints directly connected or peered with them.

Most SIP providers allow free calls amongst their peered endpoints.
 
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