Best VoIP Services

Cable VoIP takes the lead

Although Vonage is the best known VoIP provider, sometimes called the grandfather of VoIP, it's been losing market share to cable companies. Now Internet services are dominated by cable providers, and digital voice service can be run over the same wires. Thus, cable companies can offer attractive bundles of TV, Internet and phone service.

Without these bundled rates and other special promotions, cable VoIP (*Est. $12 to $60 per month, depending on package) can be the most expensive option. A full-featured, Internet-based VoIP service such as Vonage (*Est. $10 to $35 per month) may save money. In addition to lower basic rates, Vonage includes features like voice mail that usually cost extra with cable VoIP.

However, cable phone services consistently get better reviews for call quality than Internet-based VoIP providers. Cable providers say this is because they can route phone calls over their own broadband networks rather than public connections. Another advantage is that professional technicians install cable VoIP. And cable VoIP often has battery backup built in -- important for 911 calls when the electricity is out.

Five cable VoIP providers earn recommendations in at least two different reviews: Bright House Networks, Cablevision/Optimum Voice, Comcast, Cox Communications and Wide Open West (Wow!). Time Warner Digital Phone also gets high scores for reliability in the latest Keynote Systems tests, but its customers usually rate Time Warner's phone service average or below in J.D. Power and Associates' survey. However, users say that a company that provides excellent service in one part of the country may rate much lower in another area. It's a good idea to check with neighbors and take a look at user-written reviews of your local cable company before signing on.

Comcast earns excellent scores in Keynote Systems' audio quality tests, far outperforming an AT&T landline phone system. A March 2009 review in PC World also recommends Comcast. However, Comcast ranks near the bottom in another comparison review, outranked by Wow!, Cox, Bright House and Cablevision. Nor does Comcast earn any of the top spots in the 2010 J.D. Power and Associates survey of 21,480 telephone customers.

No one company earns top ranking for all areas of the country in this latest J.D Power survey. In the West, for eight years users have given top marks to Cox Communications. Bright House Networks earns top ranking in the South, while in the North Central region, Wow! cable is the winner. In the East, the top choice is Cablevision (Optimum Voice). Wow! and Cablevision also boast grades of A+ and A, respectively, at the Better Business Bureau, showing a history of ethical responses to customer complaints. Cablevision also earns the Readers' Choice award in PCMag.com's 2010 service and reliability survey.

Obviously, your choice is limited by where you live and which cable companies are available to you. But in general, cable VoIP is best for call quality.

VoIP reviews recommend Vonage and Ooma

The most established VoIP provider, Vonage (*Est. $10 to $35 per month), is still one of experts' top VoIP recommendations. However, as noted earlier, its market share has been eroded by cable VoIP. Vonage doesn't lack Internet-based challengers, either. Of these, Ooma (*Est. $225 to $235) earns even more recommendations in reviews than Vonage.

Both Vonage and Ooma get good marks in reviews for decent call quality and reliability. The big difference is in how you pay. Vonage is a subscription service: you get a free adapter that plugs your phone into your Internet connection, and then you pay a monthly fee for access. With Ooma, you buy the adapter, and then U.S. calls are free (except for taxes and fees -- about $3.50 a month).

Dollar for dollar, Ooma is the better deal, reviewers say. The risk is, of course, that you could lose your investment in the Ooma system if the company suddenly shuts down, as several VoIP providers have done in the past. It takes only about seven months, however, for Ooma to pay for itself compared with a comparable Vonage plan. After that, every free month is a net gain. (The equation changes if you have lots of phone jacks in your house, since Vonage works with up to five, but Ooma can only work with one or two phones out of the box.) Note that both companies get poor grades from the Better Business Bureau -- D for Vonage and F for Ooma -- based on how they handle customer complaints. The Better Business Bureau specifically cites government regulatory actions that have been taken against Vonage after customers complained of questionable charges or difficulty canceling service. However, the BBB gives very little explanation of Ooma's grade, and it doesn't jibe with the hundreds of mostly positive reviews Ooma enjoys on Amazon.com.

Ooma offers two hardware options. The original Ooma Hub (*Est. $225) works with one phone, and you can buy Ooma Scout (*Est. $70) adapters for your own extra handsets. Amazon.com sells an Ooma Core set (*Est. $225) that includes one Hub and one Scout. Ooma's new Telo service earns a 4-star average rating (out of 5) at Amazon.com, but the original Ooma rates even better -- a 4.5-star average with more than 800 reviews posted.

The new Ooma Telo (*Est. $235) promises better call quality for people with poor Internet connections (such as WiMax or cellular broadband), extra-cost features with Premier memberships (*Est. $10 per month) such as voice mail transcription for another $10 a month, and the ability to forward your calls from your cell phone (with an extra $30 Bluetooth chip) and Google Voice to the Telo. The free Ooma plan includes basic features like voice mail, caller ID and call waiting. Even without the Premier plan, you get email notifications of new voice mail messages, but you'll need to buy a Premier subscription if you want some of the features that come standard with Vonage, such as three-way calling and voice mail forwarding. Transferring your existing phone number -- free with other VoIP providers -- is a $40 option with Ooma.

The new Telo doesn't work with Ooma Scouts; you have to buy special Ooma handsets (*Est. $50) if you want more than one phone. The Associated Press's Peter Svensson, who has used the original Ooma for a year, experiences buzzing in the background when he tests the new Telo handsets and recommends steering clear of them. Still, Rick Broida at CNET reports better call quality with Ooma Telo than with Vonage, and he and the San Francisco Chronicle's David Einstein both recommend Ooma over Vonage.

"The main advantage of Vonage is free international calling, but Ooma offers that for just pennies a minute," Einstein says. "So if you plan to make Internet phone service permanent, and you don't have a gabby relative in Belgium, Ooma has the edge." For international calls, Ooma charges $10 per month for 1,000 minutes to 70 countries (rates for other countries vary). With Vonage, the $25 monthly World plan includes unlimited calls to landline phones in more than 60 countries.

Another Vonage advantage is its unlimited virtual phone numbers. This means you can add a phone number with an area code that's local to the people who call you most. Vonage lets you add as many of these virtual phone numbers as you like. In addition, Vonage maintains a network of local access numbers someone can use to make calls to you without incurring a long-distance charge.

Overall, reviewers say Vonage is the most full-featured VoIP provider, with many free and add-on features. For example, you can adjust the bandwidth to use Vonage with a slower broadband connection. You can add a fax line for an additional $10 per month, plus a $10 activation fee.

Stepping up from the World plan to the Pro (*Est. $35 per month) adds software-based VoIP service to your computer, but, in exchange, it cuts the number of countries included in your unlimited international plan from 60 to five (Italy, France, Spain, the U.K. and Ireland). Vonage offers a more basic 500-minute plan (*Est. $18 per month) and 200-minute plan (*Est. $10 per month) that include calls within the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. Note that, as with all VoIP plans, monthly fees and taxes will be added; a calculator on the Vonage site shows a range of about $7 to $13 per month for these.

An alternative to Vonage, Phone Power! (*Est. $15 per month and up) earns a Gold award at DSLReports.com, based on accumulated user-written reviews and ratings. It's also a favorite at TopTenReviews.com and NextAdvisor.com, but none of our more prominent expert sources reviews this service. Phone Power! gets very mixed reviews from about 20 users at Amazon.com, with nearly as many 1-star as 5-star ratings. When it works, customers love it -- but 1-star reviewers say the service simply conks out. Like Vonage, Phone Power! doesn't require a yearly contract, but it offers discounts if you sign up for a year (*Est. $17 per month) or two (*Est. $15 per month). Plans include unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada, standard features like voice mail, call waiting and caller ID, plus unique features such as a free cloned second line (enabling two users to make calls at the same time). International long-distance rates vary. For example, calls to U.K. landlines cost less than 1 cent per minute; calls to Mexico, about 6 cents per minute. (Calls to cell phones overseas cost more.)

MagicJack (*Est. $40) has attracted a lot of attention for its unique phone jack that plugs into any computer with a USB port. A year of VoIP service is bundled with the MagicJack device; calls are free to the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. When that first year of service runs out, you pay only about $20 per year for unlimited calls to those same regions. (International rates, however, are much higher than Skype's.)

Initial reviews were very positive; MagicJack even earned the 2008 Editors' Choice award at PCMag.com. However, a follow-up review in the February 2009 issue effectively cancels this distinction -- noting that hundreds of users have complained about poor technical support, plus the inability to uninstall MagicJack without editing the registry. After the Florida Attorney General investigated allegations that MagicJack offered customers a "free trial" but actually charged them for it, MagicJack agreed to beef up its customer service. The company received a grade of F from the Better Business Bureau, but that has now improved to an A- after customer complaints were resolved.

Some reviews are concerned about privacy with MagicJack. MagicJack not only displays ads on the computer screen as you use it, but also targets these ads based on the numbers you call. This is similar to the way Google targets ads with its free Gmail service, but it's something to consider. Like other software VoIP services, MagicJack requires that your computer be turned on to make and receive calls -- so it's only a supplement to a landline or cell phone.