VoIP provider preferences?

TidBITS Talk
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(Replies in the deleting Voicemail topic led me to almost post off topic. Instead, here is the new Topic.)

For a tad over 13 years, I’ve been successfully using MagicJack in several countries, with my old real-over-copper-landline in the US ported to it.

Since MacOS 26, it’s been failing a lot during calls. Tahoe also has trouble connecting to my wifi router although it’s been in use for over 6 years. We also had a recent run where our DSL was more off than on for ten days. So maybe it’s the wifi or DSL connection, hard to say. We plan to change to a cellular data router in the coming weeks.

But the trouble made me wonder what other international travelers/TidBITS telephonists are using for VoIP? It is frequently useful to have our US number so if I change from MagicJack, I’d have to be able to port from them to another VoIP provider.

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We’ve been using Ooma for quite a few years. It’s a bit less than $10/mo and hooks to all of our legacy “landline” phones.

HTH.

Kevin

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Back in the old days I used Ooma and it worked well in two USA locations. Never used it internationally. Gave up the landline 7 years ago.

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Thanks @kolepard . Sounds familiar, I’lll look at it again to see if fits our needs, but cost is about twice MagicJack, maybe they have a lower tier.

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Thanks @glenthompson , since I’ve always had a ‘landline’ (‘local’ number) I’m hesitant to go without in our local situation abroad, but also as we’re frequently abroad it’s helpful to have a US area code number.

Had a Google Voice number for a while but let it lapse, was not using it and am close to shutting off the little bit of Google product I still have. That might have sufficed. Had a Skype number for a long time til it was merged this past Spring so gave that up too.

Suppose I should have put ‘international’ in the Topic title for clarity :man_facepalming:

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I’ve used MagicJack (for an old landline number) for many years now.

It really saved me when my cellphone didn’t work in Japan. (My own fault for not turning on “International Roaming”.) I was able to use the MagicJack app on the cellphone via WiFi Internet in the hotel to resolve the issue.

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