BT VOiP for business, any good?

[singlecoil]

New premises, I need broadband and phone. If I get BT broadband I can get their VOiP phone service and don't then need a standard phone line. I can envisage needing another number at some point in the future and with their system I can add one easily (at extra cost of course).

I daresay there will be some who will say to avoid BT if so I would be keen to hear about better alternatives. I've always done ok with them in the past hence why I am considering them first. I did look in to Virgin but they don't have their full service available in this area.

TIA of useful replies.

[anonymous-user]

skype and pay for an external number?

[Slushbox]

There are a lot of VOIP providers now. Both Sipgate and Soho66 have been excellent for us for five years, Soho66 is more expensive but has 'better' local numbers. Both have call forwarding and voicemail to email. Numbers aren't tied to broadband provider so there's no lock-in, as long as you pay the bills.

Calls will ring multiple phones so you can add a second VOIP phone at home.

VOIP desktop ethernet phones from Grandstream are very good, as is 3CX for Win Desktop/Android. Cordless VOIP phones available if you need them.

We run our VOIP phones off a mobile broadband router, with no issues. Unlike dealing with BT which is/was impossible. Their VOIP rates look competitive, though and phones have remote provisioning.

Edited by Slushbox on Monday 15th May 09:44

[morrisk1]

Soho66 with 3xGrandstream desk phones here - very happy with it and the features offered with VOIP (separate business broadband up to 18MB does the job).

[RM]

Voipfone is another good provider for small business. If you are technically minded and wanted to home bake it, then you can go far with an old PC running 3CX, and £20 Cisco 794x phones from eBay.

[dartissimus]

Am I missing something here ? can you have broadband without a landline ?

[singlecoil]

I'm now looking at Virgin Media broadband with bundled phone line, because they seem to be a little more open about their pricing.

BTW, yes you can have broadband without a phone line.

[singlecoil]

singlecoil said:

I'm now looking at Virgin Media broadband with bundled phone line, because they seem to be a little more open about their pricing.

On second looking, perhaps not. They appear to want me to place an order without telling me exactly what level of service I am going to be provided with.

This whole thing is getting very tedious, I've spent quite a few hours on it now and all I've got so far is a list of who not to call. Speaking of calling, that's what they all want you to do and their websites are obviously designed to give you little bit of the more positive info to get you to ring so somebody can sign you up.

[anonymous-user]

Virgin business routers are not good with VoIP. We had to use another router and put the Virgin one in modem only mode. Except on Virgin, this means you can't then have a fixed IP....

Problem with the Virgin router is SIP ALG, which cannot be turned off.

Otherwise broadband had been fast and largely reliable. We use a fibre Zen line as a backup.