On Wed, Jun 27, 2007 at 01:43:16PM +0100, Ben Francis wrote:
Hi all,
Does anyone have recommendations of UK based VoIP providers? I'm looking for a service with the following kinds of features:
- Standards based (SIP)
- A PSTN phone number pointing at my SIP account (preferably with a
choosable area code)
- Outward calls to PSTN at good rates (national, international and mobile)
- Dynamic call forwarding (e.g. forward to my mobile at certain times or
after a certain number of rings)
- Voicemail (preferably with email alerts)
I'm really very attracted to Vonage (http://vonage.com) but there's one thing that bothers me. If you want a "softphone" you have to pay for their proprietary service at extra cost and they don't support third party (i.e. open source) alternatives. This rules out using my own SIP client or installing an open source PBX (Asterisk) in the future. They say they're looking at opening up the service but they can't give a timescale.
Depending on your actual needs, and if you really must use SIP, then: http://www.sipgate.co.uk/
Aren't bad. I'd rather use IAX than SIP though, so I'd recommend: http://www.voiptalk.co.uk/
I've used both of those, we were using sipgate in the london office connected with a Asterix box and 5 sip phones + 2 ISDN Channels, worked well enough.
We used voiptalk to terminate PSTN -> VoIP software, works well, easy setup - and for 2 quid a month you can get a regional phone number.
Hope that helps,