Looking for VOIP recommendations. Am willing to pay more for better call quality

[stevenjklein]

We've had the same landline number for 25 years:

1. Started with AT&T,
2. Ported number to VOIP provider, Sunrocket, which went bust.
3. Ported number back to AT&T
4. Ported number to Comcast Home Voice.

Now I'm moving, and Comcast won't let me keep my number, so I want to port it to a VOIP service.

High call quality is more important to me than a low price.

Are some VOIP providers notably better than others? Who's best? Or are they all essentially the same?

What about VOIP hardware? I have an Obi200 I got cheap about 5 years ago; I can use that, or buy something new.

[bobdevnul]

We've had the same landline number for 25 years:

1. Started with AT&T,
2. Ported number to VOIP provider, Sunrocket, which went bust.
3. Ported number back to AT&T
4. Ported number to Comcast Home Voice.

Now I'm moving, and Comcast won't let me keep my number, so I want to port it to a VOIP service.

High call quality is more important to me than a low price.

Are some VOIP providers notably better than others? Who's best? Or are they all essentially the same?

What about VOIP hardware? I have an Obi200 I got cheap about 5 years ago; I can use that, or buy something new.

I have an Obi 200 that I have been using for years with Google Voice over my cable Internet. It works very well most of the time. It is almost as reliable as 1980s copper landline and sounds better. It is also free, aside from the cost of cable Internet, that I would pay for anyway.

The Obi 200 will also work with other SIP service providers for cheap, Callcentric, etc. I do pay Callcentric $2.50 a month for 911 service that Google Voice does not provide. There are slightly cheaper 911 services that will work on the Obi, but I'm not bothering with changing from Callcentric for chump change. Callcentric is dead solid reliable.

Once on Google Voice service, you can also use the GV app on cellphones for calling, in and out, over your broadband Internet over Wifi, or the cellphone cellular service. It's great to have one number to rule them all.

Now for the bad news: Polycom, who now owns Obihai, announced a few days ago that they are ending support for the Obi devices in about two years with no new product line to replace them. I'm not worried about what will happen in two years, but it is a consideration.

There are several other consumer Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) models that will work with various service providers, like Callcentric, etc. There are all sorts of multi-line small to large systems if that is needed. There are also cellular ATAs. Straight Talk has one that is $15 a month for unlimited calling over the Verizon network. I have one. It works well and sounds good. It uses VoLTE HD voice.

My experience has been that all VOIP providers are about the same for very good call audio quality and reasonable audio delay latency - about 600 ms round-trip. They are all not as good for latency as a standard landline or cellular voice, but the difference is not noticeable to me.

If you still need Fax, that is a whole different story.

Good luck