VOIP for Dummies. PLEASE HELP!

[Rhein]

I've experienced the issue of speaking to ten different people and getting ten different answers to try and solve my predicament.
A fibre installation was done to our home. It works like a charm. Because of logistics, the router, Huawei B525, has been located in the car port. The signal to the house is very good. Frogfoot did the installation and Mweb is the service provider.

Recently I received a sms from Telkom that they are phasing out fixed line copper services and upgrading to wireless technology at no cost to me. I went to their offices and they informed me that I would have to terminate my Mweb connection, which I'm loathe to do. They also told me that I would have to relinquish the @mweb.co.za email address.

I phoned Mweb and I was told that Mweb can provide a phone connection but that it is connected to the router. As the router is in the car port, I don't want to run out to the car port every time the phone rings!

The existing telephone setup is a three handset Panasonic digital cordless phone.

Is there any way that this can be linked to the router and that I can still retain the landline number?

 

[ponder]

You can port your telkom number to a voip provider of your choice. Your existing phone you can connect to an ATA FXS adapter.

 

[ThatGuy_ZA]

You're looking for something like a Grandstream ATA - this will allow you to connect your "analog" phones to your router via an ethernet cable.

Sign up for VOIP through Mweb or whoever (you'll be able to port your Telkom number to your provider fo choice) and then enter the VOIP credentials into the Grandstream ATA and you should be good to go.

 

[Rhein]

What a circus!
Last week I received when I recieved a SMS from Telkom about the termination of landlines there was an option to to reply and that they would get in touch with me. I did so.
Since I didn't hear from them, I decided to call on their loca!l office and get told what I have reported above.

Lo, and behold, I get a call from them this afternoon. The caller sounds very competent and clued up. I tell him of my visit to Telkom's local office. He asks me to listen to him very carefully and that I must please not hesitate to ask any questions.
Telkom will supply me with a LTE router free of charge. To this router I can connect the base station of my three cordless phones and I'll be "A for Away". The cost is R199 pm and includes all sorts of add ons like free calls etc.
I get to keep my old landline number.

 

[Wasabee!]

Why don't you get a fax line?

 

[argh]

There is a lot on these forums about phone, data and email options to use when Telkom ends copper services in an area. Search the forums for "Telkom copper", and "VOIP".

With Mweb, Telkom, Axxess and possibly others, you can keep the email address you have with them, even if you stop other services with them ( a monthly/annual cost may be charged to keep the email address). I have kept my Telkom email address, but no other Telkom fixed=line services. Because VOIP can be quite technical to sort out, I use Cell C prepaid anynet calling plans for calls. Costs me R200/month, no problems with the service at all.

 

[websquadza]

What a circus!
Last week I received when I recieved a SMS from Telkom about the termination of landlines there was an option to to reply and that they would get in touch with me. I did so.
Since I didn't hear from them, I decided to call on their loca!l office and get told what I have reported above.

Lo, and behold, I get a call from them this afternoon. The caller sounds very competent and clued up. I tell him of my visit to Telkom's local office. He asks me to listen to him very carefully and that I must please not hesitate to ask any questions.
Telkom will supply me with a LTE router free of charge. To this router I can connect the base station of my three cordless phones and I'll be "A for Away". The cost is R199 pm and includes all sorts of add ons like free calls etc.
I get to keep my old landline number.

So you’re going to pay R199 per month for a service you can get for a quarter of the price? Let alone your monthly savings on voice minutes.

Port your number to a voip provider. You can get an ATA device for about R500-600 once off. This device will plug into a lan port on your router. Your existing Panasonic base will plug into one of the two RJ11 (telephone ports) on the ATA. Basically the ATA converts Digital VoIP into analogue that your old phone system can plug into. As long as you have cordless phone coverage from your garage, you’ll be able to use your cordless phones as per normal at a fraction of the cost.

 

[cavedog]

So you’re going to pay R199 per month for a service you can get for a quarter of the price? Let alone your monthly savings on voice minutes.

Port your number to a voip provider. You can get an ATA device for about R500-600 once off. This device will plug into a lan port on your router. Your existing Panasonic base will plug into one of the two RJ11 (telephone ports) on the ATA. Basically the ATA converts Digital VoIP into analogue that your old phone system can plug into. As long as you have cordless phone coverage from your garage, you’ll be able to use your cordless phones as per normal at a fraction of the cost.

Don't see any call rates or options on your website at all apart from the R59. No setup fee mentioned no calling plans no call rates.

Company I work for is also looking at switching from analogue to a voip solution but does not look like anyone can beat what they currently have with Telkom at R3200 for 3 lines switchboard unlimited calls including 4Mbps adsl.

 

[websquadza]

Don't see any call rates or options on your website at all apart from the R59. No setup fee mentioned no calling plans no call rates.

Company I work for is also looking at switching from analogue to a voip solution but does not look like anyone can beat what they currently have with Telkom at R3200 for 3 lines switchboard unlimited calls including 4Mbps adsl.

Drop me a PM with your details for the company solution.

Regarding VoIP, I just checked and you're right, no rates published. Will get onto that. R59 is a single VOIP line with a DID and 100 minutes included (SA any network). No setup fee. Rates are 60c to Mobile Networks, 35c to landlines. Can share international rates via email.

 

[cavedog]

Drop me a PM with your details for the company solution.

Regarding VoIP, I just checked and you're right, no rates published. Will get onto that. R59 is a single VOIP line with a DID and 100 minutes included (SA any network). No setup fee. Rates are 60c to Mobile Networks, 35c to landlines. Can share international rates via email.

I see you are charging a R550 setup fee though. Pity keen to get myself a VOIP solution for home too.

 

[websquadza]

I see you are charging a R550 setup fee though. Pity keen to get myself a VOIP solution for home too.

View attachment 798531

Sorting that out now.

 

[cavedog]

Sorting that out now.

Thanks

 

[websquadza]

Thanks

Sorted, check again.

 

[cavedog]

Sorted, check again.

Sorted thanks

 

[bobcpt]

What a circus!
Last week I received when I recieved a SMS from Telkom about the termination of landlines there was an option to to reply and that they would get in touch with me. I did so.
Since I didn't hear from them, I decided to call on their loca!l office and get told what I have reported above.

Lo, and behold, I get a call from them this afternoon. The caller sounds very competent and clued up. I tell him of my visit to Telkom's local office. He asks me to listen to him very carefully and that I must please not hesitate to ask any questions.
Telkom will supply me with a LTE router free of charge. To this router I can connect the base station of my three cordless phones and I'll be "A for Away". The cost is R199 pm and includes all sorts of add ons like free calls etc.
I get to keep my old landline number.

Note that the 'free' router is tied to a 24 month contract.

If you are willing to give up the telkom land line number, you can get the same benefits (3000 Telkom minutes) on a Freeme 1GB package from Telkom mobile for R100. The sim goes into the B525 router and you connect the cordless phone base station to the router.

As someone else mentioned porting your number to a prepaid voip provider like Freshphone is also an option. Calls to Telkom numbers cost R0.46, i.e. R199 / 0.46 = 432 minutes. You would need to purchase an ATA adapter since the Telkom supplied B525 modems do not have voip enabled.

 

[georgegolding]

Freshphone.co.za is free with a free mobile app with free push notifications and the G729 codec, calls between users are free, international calling is low cost? All you do is pay for calls to outside numbers.

 

[cavedog]

Freshphone.co.za is free with a free mobile app with free push notifications and the G729 codec, calls between users are free, international calling is low cost? All you do is pay for calls to outside numbers.

Which is not that affordable comparing to other providers. 69c per minute to mobile network is not competitive at all. MTN and Cellc has better off network rates with various bundles.

Freshphone might be an option if you make less than 100min calls per month. The more you call especially to mobile numbers the more expensive it gets.

 

[system32]

Works well: www.freshphone.co.za
Haven't tried: www.greydot.me

 

[HunterGR]

Following this thread closely

 

[cavedog]

Works well: www.freshphone.co.za
Haven't tried: www.greydot.me

With Greydot you actually get money back for making and receiving calls.

A 13min call to MTN cost me R4.20. I was rewarded with 22c back.
A 8min call that I received I earned 14c back.

Greydot is not the best streamlined service but it works really well actually. You get a free 087510 number.

Call Rates are
29c per minute billed per second calls to Telkom mobile, MTN and Vodacom
35c per minute billed per second calls to Cellc
30c to Telkom landline
Free calls Greydot to Greydot

Greydot also allows you to set your cellphone number as the caller ID.

Greydot also allows you to make call backs. That means they call you on your chosen number and then call the other party no VOIP needed. You get charged for each call meaning ~60c per minute when calling like that as it counts as 2 calls.





The cons obviously is not so streamlined in general. App needs work. Loading money the price excludes vat meaning you will load R50 and you will get credited R50 - Vat. The reason they do that is because I believe the call rate is also excluding vat so you pay the vat up front when recharging.

Server is hosted on the Vox network in JHB meaning 25ms for people in CPT and 15ms for people in DUR but for me in Centurion I get 3-4ms to the server so very good quality.

No support for Opus or HD voice codecs it seems just the general G729, G711 a and u law.

R5 per day/ R150 per month for a DID number like 010,011,012 ect. It was free before but they started charging for it now.

Overall I think they compare favorably to other VOIP offers.


Works really really well on CS Wave (Grandstream wave) Free Android and ios app.