What is a good VOIP system for making business calls to America?

[wallywest]

I work from home for an American company and my job description just changed, starting in a couple weeks I will have to start making calls to clients over the phone.

I'm wondering what the best Softphones/VOIP are so I can have clear, quality calls to our customers in America. Does anyone have any experience with this? My boss and I spoke about it and if we can't find one with a clear enough connection I'll have to move back to the states which I don't want to do yet.

Thank you for the help!

[flyDelight]

Viber saves me $80/month on international calling costs.

And it has cool business stickers.

Edited January 27, 2016 by flyDelight

[CharlieH]

MOVED to IT forum

[JoePai]

Skype for Business

[bubba]

You could use Google Hangouts. All calls to North American landlines or mobiles are free and unlimited.

[genobkk]

a couple of ideas, I know good quality calls are important for business and most of those freebies will disappoint you

First idea, Vonage great quality calls with full functions for 411, caller ID, etc. works great in Thailand and now they even have an app that you can use on your smartphone, negative thing about vonage is NO texting

another service I have been using for 5 years or so is called line2. you can text any phone, although it may not work with some banking message alerts, etc. the fee for line personal use is $9.99 and $14.99 for a business, this gives you some great features line2 will work on Android or IOS or on PC or Mac through web interface. Line2 in my experience is not as stable as Vonage but it has some nice features plus allowing you to be more mobile is a great advantage.

both will require a US credit card Vonage will require someone in the U.S to resend you the ATA box so that could be a deal breaker. check out the websites of both, see what one fits your needs

Edited January 28, 2016 by genobkk

[bubba]

OK, but if you need to call USA, why would you want to pay &9.99/month or use a credit card, when Google Hangouts is completely free and the audio quality is excellent?

[wallywest]

a couple of ideas, I know good quality calls are important for business and most of those freebies will disappoint you

First idea, Vonage great quality calls with full functions for 411, caller ID, etc. works great in Thailand and now they even have an app that you can use on your smartphone, negative thing about vonage is NO texting

another service I have been using for 5 years or so is called line2. you can text any phone, although it may not work with some banking message alerts, etc. the fee for line personal use is $9.99 and $14.99 for a business, this gives you some great features line2 will work on Android or IOS or on PC or Mac through web interface. Line2 in my experience is not as stable as Vonage but it has some nice features plus allowing you to be more mobile is a great advantage.

both will require a US credit card Vonage will require someone in the U.S to resend you the ATA box so that could be a deal breaker. check out the websites of both, see what one fits your needs

Thanks for your reply, I think you're the only one that understood I needed a VOIP system and not a free app/softphone.

I actually ended up asking another website and everyone said Vonage works great in Asia, along with other places around the world. Called them and got a quote, they'll be sending the hardware to my boss and he is mailing it to me here in Thailand.

Problem solved, thanks everyone.

[KhunHeineken]

a couple of ideas, I know good quality calls are important for business and most of those freebies will disappoint you

First idea, Vonage great quality calls with full functions for 411, caller ID, etc. works great in Thailand and now they even have an app that you can use on your smartphone, negative thing about vonage is NO texting

another service I have been using for 5 years or so is called line2. you can text any phone, although it may not work with some banking message alerts, etc. the fee for line personal use is $9.99 and $14.99 for a business, this gives you some great features line2 will work on Android or IOS or on PC or Mac through web interface. Line2 in my experience is not as stable as Vonage but it has some nice features plus allowing you to be more mobile is a great advantage.

both will require a US credit card Vonage will require someone in the U.S to resend you the ATA box so that could be a deal breaker. check out the websites of both, see what one fits your needs

Thanks for your reply, I think you're the only one that understood I needed a VOIP system and not a free app/softphone.

I actually ended up asking another website and everyone said Vonage works great in Asia, along with other places around the world. Called them and got a quote, they'll be sending the hardware to my boss and he is mailing it to me here in Thailand.

Problem solved, thanks everyone.

I understood what you required, I just thought you may have considered a Skype subscription.

Out of the VOIP companies mentioned in this thread, after having a quick look, I think a Skype subscription is still the cheapest.

I had a look at Vonage. You need "A U.S. billing and shipping address." I'm not sure why they would restrict their market in this way.

The fine print also says, "Valid for residents of the 48 contiguous United States, 18 years or older, who open new accounts."

Unless I read it wrong, that means I couldn't open a Vonage account even if I wanted to.

[bubba]

Same here, and sorry for the misunderstanding. I thought you just needed a service so that you could make calls to various clients with standard landlines or mobiles in the USA with good quality audio. I often do the same using Google Hangouts - completely free, no dropped calls and the audio quality could not be better.

I also use Vonage for calls that are not to North America. Rates are better than Skype and I think the audio is better as well. I cannot recall having to use an address in the USA to sign up with them. I am using the Vonage iOS app and pre-paid calling credit is just charged to my iTunes account. I never had to enter an address for Vonage.

Edited January 30, 2016 by bubba

[KhunHeineken]

Same here, and sorry for the misunderstanding. I thought you just needed a service so that you could make calls to various clients with standard landlines or mobiles in the USA with good quality audio. I often do the same using Google Hangouts - completely free, no dropped calls and the audio quality could not be better.

I also use Vonage for calls that are not to North America. Rates are better than Skype and I think the audio is better as well. I cannot recall having to use an address in the USA to sign up with them. I am using the Vonage iOS app and pre-paid calling credit is just charged to my iTunes account. I never had to enter an address for Vonage.

Ok. I might try to create an account, and go as far as I can through the process, without entering a US address and a US credit card, and see if it is possible,

Always good to know of VOIP alternatives.

How is it that Google Hangouts can be free calls to telephones?

Edited January 31, 2016 by KhunHeineken

[bubba]

Same here, and sorry for the misunderstanding. I thought you just needed a service so that you could make calls to various clients with standard landlines or mobiles in the USA with good quality audio. I often do the same using Google Hangouts - completely free, no dropped calls and the audio quality could not be better.

I also use Vonage for calls that are not to North America. Rates are better than Skype and I think the audio is better as well. I cannot recall having to use an address in the USA to sign up with them. I am using the Vonage iOS app and pre-paid calling credit is just charged to my iTunes account. I never had to enter an address for Vonage.

I had a spare Google account here and just out of curiosity, tried setting it up for Hangouts voice calls using my web browser. It asked me for a mobile number to verify, I entered my Thai mobile number, got a code back, entered it on my browser and was accepted, installed the Google voice plugin, and it works. I placed a free call to a telephone i the USA without a problem. No US address or credit card required.

Ok. I might try to create an account, and go as far as I can through the process, without entering a US address and a US credit card, and see if it is possible,

Always good to know of VOIP alternatives.

How is it that Google Hangouts can be free calls to telephones?

I guess Google offers free calls to US telephones to get you on the hook. They also sell credit for calls to telephones outside North America.

[bubba]

By the way, I had a spare gmail account that I just used to sign up for Google Hangouts, using a web browser. There was no US credit card or address required - only a mobile phone verification, for which I used a Thai number. It worked, and I was able to place a free call to a US landline telephone from my browser.