Best Home Voip Solution

[zubs10]

Hi Guys,

The telkom copper lines in our area have been stolen and telkom will not be replacing it, so I'm looking for an alternative solution for my land line number. I currently have fibre installed with Cool Ideas via openserve. I am looking at switchtel and have also seen that telkom has a consumer voip option( https://secure.telkom.co.za/today/campaign/consumer-ip-voice/ ). Ideally i would like to port my current land line number as well. However we use our land line for faxes quite often and would still like to use it once I changeover to voip.

Would the Grandstream HT801 be the best device to use for my current analogue telephones and Fax machine or would I able to connect them directly to my ONT ?

Anyone use Telkom for their VoIP and can share their experience

Thanks

 

[powermzii]

Switchtel are awesome - have been using them for almost 2yrs with no issues Customer support is also great with them and they have a decent portal to checkout usage and log tickets - cant recommend them enough

You can port your current number and also sign up with a geographic or 08x number

 

[bobcpt]

I have tried phoning the Telkom call centre about their consumer ip voice service and depending on who you speak to, you get different answers. Their call centre agents said they don't offer the service, while others say that they do offer it for existing clients and that you should apply in store. To complete the comedy of errors, the staff at the store said that they don't offer voip services at all... If you have any success, please let us know.

If you migrate to Telkom's fixed line look alike service, you can put the sim card into a 3g capable router (E.g. Huawei B315) which has a telephone port. The voice quality is good, but I am not sure if you would be able to send faxes over that solution.

The Grandstream analogue telephone adapter (ATA) will work if you want to convert an existing analogue/cordless telephone into a voip capable device. The HT802 may be better suited given that it supports two telephone connections. I don't have a fax machine, but it might work if your ata device supports faxing and your voip provider supports the G711 codec. As far as I know, G711 provides similar quality as a landline.

The ONT device usually only converts fibre to ethernet, so you have to connect the voip/ata device to your router using a network cable.

With regards to voip operators, Freshphone is a popular one which allows telkom number porting. Personally I prefer Greydot mobile which offers better sound quality and cheaper rates compared to Freshphone. Both of them are pay as you go type services.

Create a comparison spreadsheet of all the above options to help you figure out which one will work best for your phone usage.