Great advice on many levels, followed a few already with Airvoice, and now I'm trying out Futurenine but there is trouble there. I'm 8 days into putting down $15 with service activation but I can't seem to get a assigned phone # out of them, and the last message wasn't reassuring -here's the text from their Futurenine support
" Typically new phone numbers only take a day or two to setup, but due to
the specific rate center you are in it is taking longer. Porting in this area will take 3-4 weeks. If you'd like you can submit the port documentation now and I will put it on hold until you decide to go ahead with it. (so it is faster when you give us the green light to proceed) I sent another request to the carrier to expedite.[/i]"
I'm hopeful these guys (guy?) will figure it out, but I'm wondering if it's just not-going-to-happen what the alternatives are. Being a obedient reader I purchased a Cisco SPA112 configured it with a hodgepodge of info from other hardware configuration and now i'm ready to head out into the great big world of VOIP. You said you weren't familiar with Voip.ms , they seem to be a pay as you go setup (although there is no real info on there site that gives you a clear example of their billing structure without "signing up first"), does this sound better than Voipo? Which actually charges $149 + $36 tax for 2years of service or $15 month. Or do I continue to wait for Futurenine? Or maybe you (who have Futurenine) can instill confidence in the company one more time.
Hamster, are you by chance trying to port a phone number over to F9? I ask because it sounds like you are with what you quoted. If so, what was said makes perfect sense. Technically, landline classified phone numbers can sometimes take upwards of 3-4 weeks to process for porting. Even if you aren't, it's possible they just hit a snag trying to procure a local number for you given the exchange you're desiring due to backorder issues with the rate center itself. It happens, unfortunately, and it's something well out of their control. Be patient, Nitzan and his crew are pretty solid and no nonsense. If there's a problem like this, as I said, it's actually a problem
outside of their control. If they can't make good one way, they'll strive to make it good another way.
I'm actually quite a bit more familiar with VOIP.ms these days, and they're a good outfit. Pricing is there and upfront without signing up, you just have to understand how it's listed. USA DID Numbers is your incoming rates and monthly costs for owning the number (they have per minute incoming rates and flat-rate up to 3500 minutes incoming options), and Termination Rates gives you the per minute outbound.
The Wiki covers the e911 fees, which is $1.50 a month. Since VOIP.ms (Swiftvox) is technically a Canadian company, they're not going to charge US customers sales tax. Pricing is as simple as that.
As to whether VOIP.ms or VOIPo would be the better deal between the two, a) it depends on whether you want to pay for two years of service up front, and b) how much you actually are looking at using that VoIP line on a monthly basis. Also, your math on VOIPo is off, it's $7.71 a month when you divide $185 by 24. Given you went with F9, however, I suspect that you're not actually planning on using the service so much that $8 a month is a good target cost, but having 5,000 minutes (or in your case 3,000 if you wanted to keep your ATA and go with VOIPo) and paying for two years up front seems like overkill.
Finally, I'm flattered that you respect my opinion so much that you were an "obedient reader", but please... I'm just as human as you are, and there's a reason why I encourage folks to research. Don't do any of this because I say to, do it because my advice checks out as being accurate and the approach makes sense to you. :)
