I'm looking to port an Anchorage-based landline number over to a DID provider and route it to my Asterisk box.
The catch about this particular question is that not all of the "major"/recommended providers will work with Alaska numbers. A few actually offer some Alaska DIDs, and several more (including ones that don't actually sell Alaska DIDs) appear to support porting my specific number, at least based on the testers on their websites.
In addition to some specific recommendations, I do have a general question: is there any benefit to porting the number to a provider that also resells Alaska DIDs? I'm left wondering if the providers who will take my number by porting but don't sell any numbers in Alaska may not be as reliable. Nothing to base that on, since I assume the traffic flows from the DID owner's TDM switch to me via IP regardless, but it's just a gut-check I have.
Anyway, what I'm looking for is primarily reliability; for origination, cost is a secondary concern (within reason). Also, I'll need E911, as this is a primary residential line.
So, I've uncovered the following:
VoIP.ms: sells Alaska DIDs and will port Alaska numbers; offers E911; proxies media
Flowroute: will port Alaska numbers; offers E911; direct media
Callcentric: sells Alaska DIDs and will port Alaska numbers; offers E911; direct media?
Vitelity: may sell Alaska DIDs and will port Alaska numbers; offers (free?) E911
CallWithUs: will port Alaska numbers; no E911
FutureNine: unknown; offers E911
Anveo Direct: no Alaska DIDs/porting; no E911; direct media
Alcazar: no Alaska DIDs/porting
VoIP Innovations: unknown--company based a few miles from me in Pittsburgh, though!
DID Logic: sells Alaska DIDs, does not port (AFAIK), supports G.722 (for whatever good that does here)
As for pricing, the only one that's really somewhat uncompetitive is FutureNine's $20 fee for number porting. The others that port Alaska numbers are within the same ballpark, so reliability/call quality is my main concern. That said, all other things equal, VoIP.ms and Flowroute come in at the low end of the inbound calling spectrum, at least among providers that work with Alaska number porting, though Vitelity has a slight edge if it's true that they have free E911. (VoIP.ms currently also has a promo with free porting.)
I have personally had good experience with both origination and termination with VoIP.ms and Flowroute, though Flowroute doesn't sell Alaska DIDs, so it's back to my first question about reliability with that arrangement. OTOH, VoIP.ms has a potential single-point-of-failure (since I must register to a single server that also proxies the RTP stream), whereas Flowroute has a few different servers with DNS SRV and does not proxy media, which I appreciate.
So, my question is, given all of the above, what would your recommendation be? I'm kind of leaning towards either VoIP.ms or Flowroute, but if CallCentric is going to be much more reliable, they may be worth the (small) premium; Vitelity remains an unknown, and the rest probably won't work for me. Am I missing anything?
---
I also have a related question about termination: Anveo Direct has (by a good margin) the lowest prices for calling Alaska (907 area code) numbers. How do they compare, especially for Alaska calling?
Back when I worked for and set up a PBX with a local company in Anchorage, I had experience with VoIP.ms for outbound calling to Alaska numbers. VoIP.ms's value route of 3 cents per minute was OK, but I had a lot of complaints from my sales staff about poor call quality especially to rural Alaska, so I ended up just moving intrastate calls to our PRI at 16 cents per minute for long distance with the local ILEC (ACS) versus 18 cents per minute for VoIP.ms's premium route. After moving state, I later discovered Flowroute's 5 cent per minute rate for Alaska, and my own limited personal testing seems to indicate that it is fairly reliable--at least it's much better than VoIP.ms's value route for Alaska.
But--Anveo Direct has rates as low as 0.2 cent per minute for many numbers in urban Alaska and peaking at 3.2 cents per minute--much lower than almost every other provider--for even rural Alaska calls, and even when looking at their intrastate rate table (that's another ball of wax). Anyone have any comments on the reliability of Anveo Direct's rates and routes, especially as it applies to Alaska? Any other things to look at for outbound termination as it relates to Alaska?
Thanks!
The catch about this particular question is that not all of the "major"/recommended providers will work with Alaska numbers. A few actually offer some Alaska DIDs, and several more (including ones that don't actually sell Alaska DIDs) appear to support porting my specific number, at least based on the testers on their websites.
In addition to some specific recommendations, I do have a general question: is there any benefit to porting the number to a provider that also resells Alaska DIDs? I'm left wondering if the providers who will take my number by porting but don't sell any numbers in Alaska may not be as reliable. Nothing to base that on, since I assume the traffic flows from the DID owner's TDM switch to me via IP regardless, but it's just a gut-check I have.
Anyway, what I'm looking for is primarily reliability; for origination, cost is a secondary concern (within reason). Also, I'll need E911, as this is a primary residential line.
So, I've uncovered the following:
VoIP.ms: sells Alaska DIDs and will port Alaska numbers; offers E911; proxies media
Flowroute: will port Alaska numbers; offers E911; direct media
Callcentric: sells Alaska DIDs and will port Alaska numbers; offers E911; direct media?
Vitelity: may sell Alaska DIDs and will port Alaska numbers; offers (free?) E911
CallWithUs: will port Alaska numbers; no E911
FutureNine: unknown; offers E911
Anveo Direct: no Alaska DIDs/porting; no E911; direct media
Alcazar: no Alaska DIDs/porting
VoIP Innovations: unknown--company based a few miles from me in Pittsburgh, though!
DID Logic: sells Alaska DIDs, does not port (AFAIK), supports G.722 (for whatever good that does here)
As for pricing, the only one that's really somewhat uncompetitive is FutureNine's $20 fee for number porting. The others that port Alaska numbers are within the same ballpark, so reliability/call quality is my main concern. That said, all other things equal, VoIP.ms and Flowroute come in at the low end of the inbound calling spectrum, at least among providers that work with Alaska number porting, though Vitelity has a slight edge if it's true that they have free E911. (VoIP.ms currently also has a promo with free porting.)
I have personally had good experience with both origination and termination with VoIP.ms and Flowroute, though Flowroute doesn't sell Alaska DIDs, so it's back to my first question about reliability with that arrangement. OTOH, VoIP.ms has a potential single-point-of-failure (since I must register to a single server that also proxies the RTP stream), whereas Flowroute has a few different servers with DNS SRV and does not proxy media, which I appreciate.
So, my question is, given all of the above, what would your recommendation be? I'm kind of leaning towards either VoIP.ms or Flowroute, but if CallCentric is going to be much more reliable, they may be worth the (small) premium; Vitelity remains an unknown, and the rest probably won't work for me. Am I missing anything?
---
I also have a related question about termination: Anveo Direct has (by a good margin) the lowest prices for calling Alaska (907 area code) numbers. How do they compare, especially for Alaska calling?
Back when I worked for and set up a PBX with a local company in Anchorage, I had experience with VoIP.ms for outbound calling to Alaska numbers. VoIP.ms's value route of 3 cents per minute was OK, but I had a lot of complaints from my sales staff about poor call quality especially to rural Alaska, so I ended up just moving intrastate calls to our PRI at 16 cents per minute for long distance with the local ILEC (ACS) versus 18 cents per minute for VoIP.ms's premium route. After moving state, I later discovered Flowroute's 5 cent per minute rate for Alaska, and my own limited personal testing seems to indicate that it is fairly reliable--at least it's much better than VoIP.ms's value route for Alaska.
But--Anveo Direct has rates as low as 0.2 cent per minute for many numbers in urban Alaska and peaking at 3.2 cents per minute--much lower than almost every other provider--for even rural Alaska calls, and even when looking at their intrastate rate table (that's another ball of wax). Anyone have any comments on the reliability of Anveo Direct's rates and routes, especially as it applies to Alaska? Any other things to look at for outbound termination as it relates to Alaska?
Thanks!