Thinking of VOIP but know nothing and time poor !

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martyyn

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#305902 12-Jun-2023 14:32

Our business is having to move offices so I'm thinking of moving to VOIP from our existing Spark business plans for landline, mobile and broadband.

The issue is we move this weekend, so time is short.

We're currently paying $220 a month for an unlimited mobile plan my wife barely uses, a landline which is only used for incoming calls and broadband which is usually under 40Gb a month but has gone higher twice in the last 12 months.

Is it as easy as going to someone like 2Talk or Hero and porting the landline and jumping on a 4G modem or something?

Broadband speeds aren't all that important it's mostly used for streaming music in the office !

Any recommendations for a 1-2 person office scenario ?

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#3089072 12-Jun-2023 14:42

We can help - procall.co.nz

Similar price to 2talk with on site help if needed.

networkn

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#3089088 12-Jun-2023 15:42

Hero and Voyager are who our clients use. Both have been good to deal with.

shk292

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#3089092 12-Jun-2023 15:45

I'm only a residential customer but have been very impressed with Hero VOIP. $2 plus GST per month for a basic VOIP line and helpful help if needed

I'm staggered by your mobile cost - if the device is hardly ever used, surely better to go for a basic $20 plan. I didn't realise you could actually buy plans that expensive these days

toejam316

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#3089093 12-Jun-2023 15:47

Making my biases known as I work for Spark, but if you're an existing customer you could pop down to your local Spark Business hub and see what they can do or give them a call.

Otherwise, I've not dealt with Procall but the fact @bj99 is here representing them probably doesn't hurt, I've heard a lot of good things about Hero, and you could probably get by quite comfortably with a Skinny (which is a subsidiary of Spark) 4G broadband plan, as they've got a 60GB plan for $45 a month, and a $10 discount with a $27 or higher mobile plan. The only caution I'd give you is that you get what you pay for, so if you do any business operations on that broadband connection that need it running constantly, you probably want a business grade support plan which will only come with a business grade connection. Tack on a couple of Skinny mobile phone plans for that $10 discount and you're away laughing.

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mentalinc

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#3089106 12-Jun-2023 16:45

2talk looks cheaper as Hero you have to pay for every minute outbound, and bundled is higher cost than 2talk?

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shk292

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#3089125 12-Jun-2023 17:15

mentalinc:
2talk looks cheaper as Hero you have to pay for every minute outbound, and bundled is higher cost than 2talk?

OP says landline is only used for inbound calls, so cost of making calls is irrelevant

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#3089157 12-Jun-2023 19:08

2Talk is good but their interface is getting a bit "lost" in their upgrades unfortunately....

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Dynamic

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#3089244 13-Jun-2023 07:21

You have a number of options as discussed above.

Is just attaching the landline number to one of your mobiles an option? Incoming calls would ring on the mobile of course. Outgoing calls would show the mobile caller ID and not the landline number. Spark can do this.

Porting the number to 2Talk and forwarding it to a mobile potentially resolves the problem temporarily and gives you breathing space to do something else later.

Asking Spark to set you up on a 4G router and attach the landline to this, then plugging a cheap cordless phone to it, also resolves the problem temporarily and if it works for you can be left as the permanent solution, or you can switch to UFB later.

If you want to change providers, @bj99 can set up a UFB connection at your new premises and port the landline to their system pretty quickly.

I recommend choosing a course of action and get on to it today. Number ports can happen quickly but occasional delays due to inaccurate paperwork can introduce delays.

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martyyn

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#3089370 13-Jun-2023 12:11

Thanks everyone, we've decided to go with Hero and have set in motion porting the landline, porting the mobile to Skinny and have ordered the Skinny 4G modem.

@shk292 The $220 a month is for the whole xbb, landline and mobile package, it was set up 5 years ago and never thought of again. By doing the above we'll be saving a fortune.

Wombat1

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#3089387 13-Jun-2023 12:38

+1 for Hero. I used them for many years

speed

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#3089444 13-Jun-2023 13:15

Beware - last time I used Skinny 4G (which, granted, was about 3 years ago), they blocked SIP traffic on both TCP and UDP port 5060 which meant the ITSP needed to listen on non-standard ports for it to work. YMMV of course.

FWIW, 2talk have listeners on port 50600 as a work-around. Not sure what Hero do.

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martyyn

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#3089490 13-Jun-2023 15:17

I don't want to jinx anything but I've been using the Hero app on my mobile whilst at home today and both my mobile and XBB (although fibre not 4G) are with Skinny.

I've even had two people say the call quality is far better than when they've just called my mobile.

Dynamic

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#3089566 13-Jun-2023 16:47

The guys at Hero do a fantastic job. We started working with them around 2 years ago and wish we had started earlier.

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martyyn

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#3092031 19-Jun-2023 15:15

Might have spoken too soon :)

The app on my phone works perfectly. I can make and receive calls without any issues to and from landlines and mobiles.

My wife however has no "voice" on her app. She can hear the other person but they can't hear her. We have the same phone (Oneplus 8T) and the settings all the same and it happens whether she is on the wifi or not.

[e] Oh my days, the app on her phone didn't have permission to use the microphone !

toejam316

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#3092036 19-Jun-2023 15:25

Just FYI running a VOIP app like that on your devices is sure to increase battery usage.
For longer term, I'd suggest picking up a Grandstream VOIP phone.

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Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

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