Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : VOIP etc : How Many Virtual PBX Providers Are There?

[Engelmacher]

I'm looking to move away from my current basic forwarding service with AccessLine and get into a more fully featured Virtual PBX somewhere in the neighborhood of $10/mo. It's not that I'm demanding the world for pennies on the dollar, it's just that if I'm going to pay $40+/mo for the thing I might as well just get another real phone line installed and run my own Asterisk server.

So far I've been through:

RingCentral

Does everything I want, but most of the site is implemented as a series of ActiveX controls which do not work in any browser other than IE. This is a problem since I don't own or have access to a copy of Windows. Their tech support people are also virtually brainless and the quality of the audio files they deliver is beyond horrible. I can't even understand the messages people leave half the time.

MyGotVMail

Looks great until you get to the signup form and realize that web/email based voicemail retrieval is an optional feature that costs an extra $10/mo. Neat trick.

VirtualPBX.com

Their site is very poorly put together and they just don't seem to have the hang of actually running a business yet. After about six emails I still have no clue in the world how I'm supposed to even sign up as every time I ask for their service agreement they just send me their marketing package which does nothing but reiterate all of the information I've already read on their site. Not real confident in their abilities to do anything but frustrate me further.

And a handful of others that are either way out of my budget or look like they're run by teenagers in other countries I'd really rather not give my credit card number to.

Are there any other options my search terms just aren't finding out there?

[Justin]

Are there any other options my search terms just aren't finding out there?

One easy option would be that of just running one yourself directly (if you've got a stable connection). With VOIP there are many options on having a nice PBX, plenty of web based gui systems exist as well also.

One many people use for small business and even home use being trixbox.org

[Engelmacher]

Originally Posted by jschurawlow

One easy option would be that of just running one yourself directly (if you've got a stable connection). With VOIP there are many options on having a nice PBX, plenty of web based gui systems exist as well also.

One many people use for small business and even home use being trixbox.org

Yeah I kinda covered that option in the first paragraph.

[Justin]

it's just that if I'm going to pay $40+/mo for the thing I might as well just get another real phone line installed and run my own Asterisk server.

Unless you're actually needing literally thousands of minutes of usage, you might look at www.callwithus.com and www.les.net of which I have both setup with our pbx currently.

Just a suggestion as long as you've got a line with a fair upload speed you should be fine.

[FrankStallone]

Telcan.net - does ok basic PBX functions.

[TQ Mark]

Engelmacher, did you find a decent virtual PBX provider? I would expect to pay a little more than $10/mo but still there should be a decent service close to that price.

[KevlerS]

You should consider Microsoft Response Point, which comes out later this year. It’s a phone system designed for small businesses.

[lauraedmond]

I would check out Easy Office Phone, Packet8 or Vocalocity

Good luck.

[David]

If you're utilizing *nix I'd recommend installing ie4linux:
It works exceptionally & allows you to run ie5 & ie6 very well within a *nix environment.

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

Then again, I'm looking for a decent virtual PBX provider as well so if anyone finds a great one PM me.

[mdrussell]

VirtualPBX are good, and their support isn't bad either but we're moving away from them because we get hammered on the pricing. We offer day phone support only and we're seeing phone bills of $500+ fromt he toll free number.

We decided to switch to an Asterisk system, and just take SIP termination/trunking from elsewhere.

[HD-Sam]

I used angel.com a long time ago. They were very good, but they charge more than the competitors.

[Corey Bryant]

Kall8 and FreedomVoice are two others. We chose Freedom Voice because they had been in business for awhile even though they were a bit more expensive. It's been about three years now and we have been very pleased with their services.

[MaB]

Just a note, I'm told that les.net is having problems with carriers and won't be able to do any number transfers until September.

[johnseeham]

Having done quite a bit of searching for a hosted pbx provider in Canada, I can tell you there are a lot in the USA, but only a few in Canada.

United States
-----------------
Vocalocity
Easy Office Phone
Packet8
VirtualPBX
RingCentral
GotVmail

Canada
----------
Les.NET
Unlimitel
Easy Office Phone
Primus Canada
Ch1

Hope that helps. There are likely others but those were the ones I spent time researching before making a choice.