My VOIP Journey

My introduction with VOIP started back in 2000 when I wanted to get in touch with my family overseas without paying too much money. The only options I had at that time were the older version of MSN Messenger version 4.x which was amazing in itself because it was based on SIP. Yes, it was after that, Microsoft followed everyone else and moved to something non standardized. Anyways, then came Vonage in 2001 and I joined the bandwagon. I signed up for it sometime in July 01 and received a ATA 186 for the connection. Not that calling overseas was cheap but it was cool But soon realised that the service was NOT ready for prime time. Kept the Vonage connection for close to yr and a half and then cancelled it. It was around that time that local long distance on cellphones was becoming free so I did not miss my Vonage connection for local long distance. Well after some more time in Jan 2003 I got Vonage again. This time I was determined to get rid of PacBell landline and use Vonage for pretty much everything. This time they shipped me a Motorola Box. The service was still better than what it was but soon realised that it was not going to pass the wife test plus the package was much more than what we needed. Also at this time a LOT of new smaller players had emerged and amongst them I like Broadvoice the best. It was the cheapest with $9.99 In-State plans and all the most commonly used features. I switched to Broadvoice at that time. I stayed with them for a long time but soon remembered my real reason why I started looking into VoIP. At that time I switched my home phone to its bare minimum (had to keep it to get DSL….damn! SBC) and swicthed myself and my wife to ATTWS( now Cingular). Anyways, I tired a couple of cheaper options like packet8, Callpacket/Telepacket, Lingo, FWD, IPKall, Gizmo project, Skype, but was not impressed by anything. The closest I came was Telepacket with their $0.95/month plan with 1c/min incoming and 2.9c/min outgoing. This was pretty close to what I was looking for. I used them for like 6 months but their reliablity sucked. And I mean it….half the time the phone would be down. I was very reluctant to get rid of Telepacket because it suited my pocket but was not serving me any real purpose because it was down a lot. I went to Dslreports.com Voip forum and someone(sorry i dont remember who?) adviced me of a hidden jewel…. Callcentric. They are a bare minimum provider but ROCK SOLID. If your Internet connection is good…you cannot go wrong with them. I have been with them for past 3 months…took a Incoming number ($5.95/month) and I am all set. They dont charge anything for incoming and outgoing is 2c/min. Granted they dont have voicemail or virtual numbers or any other fancy features but I dont need them. I have this number from Callcentric mapped overseas and talk as much as you want for $5.95/month + tax. I know, if you dont scrounge the forums and are not totally into VoIP you would have never heard of them, but I would say if your needs are similar to mine….you cannot go wrong with Callcentric.
And no, I am not affiliated with them in any way. I am just a happy customer and again I dont get any referral if anyone else signs up with them after reading this. Bottom line, I do not have any hidden agenda in this.

Runner’s Carnival

I am a regular reader of Blog Carnivals on various topics at Blog Carnival. In case you dont know what a carnival is read here. Today I was there and searched for running carnival and was surprised to see that there was nothing listed. So I am going to take a stab at it. Please go ahead and email me any articles you think would be interesting to runners.
I have added a link to the right under running section to my upcoming running carnival.

For you gmail fans!!

A comprehensive list of all tools and utilities for gmail and on a lighter side…all the different ways in which you can use gmail.
Robs Blog: Gmail Tools & Plugins

Cingular Extension Update!

For those of you wondering about what the hell happened to the FIrefox Cingular Extension….no its not dead. Its just that I have been busy and have not had some free time to work on it. My apologies to all of you who were looking for a quick extension development.