Papirex
Feb 23, 2006, 11:16 PM
Post #2 of 3
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No experience with that company, we use Vonage. Most of the people that are using VoIP in Mexico seem to be happy with whatever service they are using. Your broadband provider is the key to good service, so that might make it a little area specific as to whether your service will be satisfactory. There have been several news reports, and some posts on these forums that Telmex is actively blocking the voice carrying packets in their Infinitum broadband service. We use cable broadband Internet access and one of the technicians confirmed to me that Telmex is indeed doing that. However, there have been posts on this site by people that still have good VoIP service using Infinitum, as well as some that have said it has become non-functional now.
We have cable Internet service rated at 512 kbps download speed, and 256 kbps upload. I just ran 7 tests, tonight I am getting an average of 450 kbps download, and 191 kbps upload speeds, that’s pretty typical for us, although sometimes it can be considerably higher or lower. The upload speed is the one that is important for VoIP. I can configure my settings online with Vonage. For best voice quality they recommend about 120 or 130 kbps, and to save bandwidth, with good voice quality 90 kbps. The voice quality is good at both of those settings, but sometimes a caller’s voice will fade to being inaudible for 8 or 10 words. Then we will need to ask them to repeat them. Sometimes it happens in reverse too. It is not a big problem, and I think that the local infrastructure of the cable system is probably the cause, not anything that Vonage is responsible for causing.
We chose a 253 area code, which is in Tacoma, Washington, with the standard US$15 Dollar a month plan with 500 pre-paid minutes. 500 minutes is 8 1/3 hours. I thought that would be more time than we would ever use. In the first month I saw that it wasn’t enough time for us. My poor brother-in-law is going through a very bitter divorce in Tacoma, (is there any other kind?) and he calls to talk to his sister and his mother 2 or 3 times a day sometimes, for moral support, (and bitching) and they call him very frequently too. The calls from Tacoma to us are a local call for my Cuñado, and the calls from us to Tacoma are cost free in our unlimited plan.
Fortunately for me, Vonage sent me an email the first month we had their service offering to waive the service fee if I wanted to upgrade the service to the US$25 per month for unlimited time. There is a US$20 fee anytime you change your service, I changed our plan to the unlimited plan and I dodged the fee. We also have a toll free 888 number for an additional US$4.99 per month which includes 100 pre-paid minutes, so friends and family may call us from anywhere in The US.
For us it is a wonderful service, and it more than pays for itself each month. We use Vonage for all our long distance calls in Mexico, we are charged extra for them, but they are less than half the cost per minute that Telmex charges. When my wife calls her family in Mexico City, we are charged about 6 US Cents per minute by Vonage. The last time I did all the conversions, about 2 years ago, Telmex was charging us a little over 12 US Cents per minute. The Vonage calls cost half of what Telmex charges. My Telmex bill used to average between $850 and $900 Pesos per month. Since we started using Vonage over 2 years ago, it has dropped to an average of between $350 and $450 Pesos per month.
To call our niece in Germany it costs 3 US Cents per minute. My son was stationed in London, England until a few months ago, and it cost us 3 cents per minute to call him there. You can set up a 3-way call with Vonage. A few times we have called our niece in Germany at 3 Cents per minute, and her mother in Mexico City at 6 Cents per minute, for a total of 9 Cents per minute, so they can talk to each other. It is a little gift my wife likes to give them both once in a while.
My Vonage bill averages about US$40 Dollars per month, with an average of $10 US Bucks worth of Mexican toll calls added to the US$30 Dollar basic charges for our plan and 888 number. So I am saving about US$50 bucks a month on my Telmex bill, more than the amount of my Vonage bill, for a lot more service. You use a regular phone with Vonage, I have changed the ring tone on it so when it rings, we know it is a long distance call from The United States. Vonage is in Canada now too.
A lot of folks on these forums use a lot of different VoIP services, they all seem happy with them. So there are a lot of services out there to choose from to find the one that is the best fit for you. Just remember that the broadband service you use must not be the plug, choose one that works.
Rex
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo
(This post was edited by RexC on Feb 23, 2006, 11:23 PM)
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