VoIP Reviews

For this update, we found some of the best reviews of VoIP services at PC Magazine. The publication recently looked at five top national providers, with in-depth and comprehensive reviews that clearly outline the positives and negatives of each. Though a little older, PC Magazine's most recent customer satisfaction survey of VoIP users helps identify which ones did the best job of keeping users happy, with ratings on a host of topics including reliability, call clarity and nontechnical customer support. BroadbandReports.com is a user-driven community site covering virtually every broadband topic you could think of, including VoIP. You'll find lots of user-written reports there on a variety of national and regional VoIP providers, and a useful chart that ranks those services based on feedback. Discussion forums on virtually every VoIP service shed even more light on positives and negatives.

J.D. Power and Associates conducts large surveys about voice quality and customer service. This study is interesting in that it doesn't separate traditional phone service from VoIP; readers are merely asked to rate their phone service. While we appreciated seeing these overall ratings, many VoIP companies like Vonage and Gizmo aren't included in the survey. We also found some good supporting articles and reviews at PC World and CNet.com. Consumer Reports' coverage is dated and not too informative, but you can read it for free on their website.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is Internet phone service that bypasses your normal local telephone company. Internet VoIP service rings and has a dial tone just like any other telephone, but calls are routed over your Internet connection. VoIP's popularity is lowering the cost of phone service for many homes, and for some, it's eliminating plain old telephone service (POTS) entirely. Unlike traditional analog telephone signals, which travel through a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), VoIP digitizes the speaker's voice and sends it through either cable or DSL broadband Internet connections. An adapter connects your regular telephone to your Internet connection.

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

Cox Communications Digital Telephone gets the best reviews for reliability and performance, but its unlimited service is expensive compared to others, and it is only available in areas served by Cox Communications. If you already subscribe to other Cox services, you can save some money by bundling them with VoIP. AT&T CallVantage is available on any cable, DSL or fiberoptic broadband connection. It is less expensive than Cox. Its reviews for voice quality and customer service are higher than most other VoIP players like Packet8 or Lingo. Vonage has a hazy future due to lawsuits waged by Verizon and Sprint Nextel. Skype is a good option for free VoIP calls over your computer, but it can't replace your phone service completely.