VoIP Service Provider Problems

I'm still trying to find the 'best' VoIP Server Provider.

I've tried voip.ms and Vitelity and both have had issues with outbound calling.

I'm using Vitelity for DID inbound and it seems to work well.

The problem that I've had with outbound calling is that, at times, some calls to some numbers that would be 'long distance' to me, but within my area code (417), will take up to 1 minute before they start to go through (ringing). At other times, such calls may not go through at all (I get a 'tone' rather than ringing). With other numbers, also 'long distance', but within the 417 area code, the calls go through quickly, without any problems.

These outbound calling problems have occurred with both voip.ms and Vitelity, but I can't say for sure that they've been the same numbers with both services - I'm not sure.

I'm now trying Flowroute for outbound calling. So far, it's working very well. But, I'm a bit 'uneasy' about using Flowroute for inbound calling (and porting my primary business numbers to their service), since they seem to be pretty small (after doing a bit of 'investigation' of their company - it appears that they don't even have a 'real' office, but use a mailbox company in Las Vegas - I guess you could call them a 'virtual' company).

I'd like to find a good company, that I can use for outbound and inbound calling, and that I can feel 'comfortable' with (it's going to be around for a long time). I would also like to deal with one that understands the FCC rules for resellers of VoIP service (voip.ms is a Canadian company and I don't think they have a clue about FCC rules, or they just don't care) and that has a good reseller program available.

Any suggestions? I'd even appreciate input from some of the service providers (such as Vitelity, voip.ms, and Flowroute) that monitor this forum, to hear there side of the story as to why I continue to have problems with some of these providers.

John Rayfield, Jr.

Good point on the redundancy for outbound.

Yes, I have opened tickets. And I would agree that customer/technical support from voip.ms is excellent. But, I don't want to have to be opening tickets every little bit. This is an ongoing problem that never seems to get completely resolved.

John Rayfield, Jr.

Thanks for your feedback on viop.ms.

Your success with them led me to do some more checking on how I've had the dial strings set up in the PBX. I've only been dialing the area code with number, rather than 1+area code+number. I think that may have been causing a problem in their system. I did run into this with another provider that I tried - they had to have 1+ or the calls wouldn't go through at all. I've added the 1+ to the outbound route for all calls and voip.ms seems to be working better (calls even seem to 'ring through' quicker.

Maybe this was my problem with voip.ms all along. I hope so. They're customer service can't be beat. I have had a couple of problems that were apparently problems with AT&T's system locally. Voip.ms got on the problems quickly and had them fixed very fast (even though AT&T claimed that one ofthem wasn't their problem - yeah, right).

John Rayfield, Jr.

I frequently call rural areas of the 417 area code, and have tried many providers (voip.ms, VOIPo, Vitelity, Axvoice, Flowroute, F9) and they are all very hit or miss. Most have been a miss, with terrible quality, weird ringing, strange caller ID, etc. Termination to rural areas costs providers a lot of money, so they tend to find the cheapest possible way to terminate the call. Finally I started using Callcentric full time and have not had any issues at all. They are more expensive than others, but it is worth it.

I've used VOIP.ms for about a year and had two short periods of time (from a few hours to a day) where certain calls took quite a long time (up to 30 seconds) before they began ringing.

Also, in the last two weeks I've had an unusual number of VOIP.ms outgoing calls "drop" for no apparent reason.

Thanks for this information. That makes a lot of sense as to what's going on here. I had another problem a few days ago (Sept. 6, to be exact) with a call not going through properly on voip.ms to a 417 number. I tried two of their servers (Dallas and Houston) and both gave me very broken audio - totally unusable. I tried their Chicago, Atlanta, and New York servers, and those wouldn't go through at all. I finally switched back over the Flowroute and the call worked fine. I put in a trouble report to voip.ms and only received a couple of answers (not 'fixes') on that day (Sept. 6). Since then, I've had NO replies to the trouble ticket, and that's after repeatedly asking them "what's going on". It appears that they're 'wonderful' customer service has just dissappeared.

It looks like I'll be using Vitelity for the DID incoming (that seems to work pretty good....so far) and Flowroute for outgoing (which, so far, has worked extremely well - near perfection).

I am also trying Callcentric for outgoing. However, since they bill on a 'per minute' basis, rather than '6 second' basis, they can be considerably higher than Flowroute (or other such services that bill on a '6 second' basis). To prove my 'logic' on this, I just took a look at what I've spent in the last month, between incoming calls on Vitelity and outgoing calls on viop.ms and Flowroute. Not counting 'line' and 'number' charges, E911 charges, USF charges, and other such 'fixed' monthly costs (which appear to be all about the same between the different providers), I've spent about $44.00. Looking at the quanity of incoming calls and the quantity of outgoing calls, and figuring the 'roundup' to 1 minute for Callcentric's system, it would have cost me somewhere between half again and double the $44.00. For good quality service, $77.00, plus or minus, still beats fixed lines from AT&T "all to pieces".

John Rayfield, Jr. CETma