[ale] VoIP, CATV if fiber-served

[DJPfulio at jdpfu.com]

I've been using VoIP since 2002.

Tried a number of different services over the decades, including Comcast VoIP which had outages every Thursday afternoon at the time and refused to connect with my Mother's POTS line. I'm sure that stuff is all fixed, but they wanted so much $$$ every month for simple phone service.

My referral code https://voip.ms/en/invite/MTI0OTUw . $10 off for you and $10 for me for the referral. That's enough for 2 months free under the plan I use.  There are different plans. Can't hurt to try them out.

For home use, Ooma is probably good enough. When you want higher quality audio, maybe not. That's where quality voip services come in like VoIP.ms.

For home, I've been paying $5/month for an account with unlimited inbound calling around 15 yrs.  I seldom need outbound calling, since callback methods are convenient and available for free. For direct outbound when very high quality audio is needed, there's a $0.009 per-minute charge. It is tiny, but for a business that might matter if you call and sit on the phone all day.

Yes, the regular phones can be connected to an ATA device. I use a HT502 or is it a HT702?   Voip.ms has example configurations for popular ATA devices, which removes much of the guesswork. Free SIP applications for all your devices exist when you have a data connection (tablet, phone, computers). I've used them all.

Voip.ms has all the expected free features like IVR to challenge spam callers, NPXX controls to block "neighbor calls", voicemail+transcripts, BYON, disable/enable SMS and lots of others I don't use. No contract.  I pre-pay ~12 months at a time ($60) to keep life easy.  That includes E911 federal charges, but you can decline that to have cheaper monthly costs.  There is a $95 charge when 911 is called from the line, if E911 isn't included, but you have the choice.  Something I really like is having control over my CallerID number while still having controls that provide the correct information for E911 services.  I have a 1-number for inbound calls and just give that out, never my cell phone or VoIP numbers.  Having the callerID from the VoIP account set to the 1-number prevents confusion. Also, if any of the direct numbers get spammy, switching to a different number is trivial.  I only remember the 1-number, simplifying all sorts of things.

Faxing in/out works, which isn't the case with every VoIP provider.




On 3/14/26 00:33, Ken Cochran via Ale wrote:
> Hey again ALE people :)
> Hopefully not too-OT, y'all have any favorite or non-favorite VoIP
> providers?  I need to find something for the office (1st) & later for
> home.  Ooma looks pretty good but I should look at others too.
> 
> Right now I have nothing but POTS via Spectrum & I just got a sudden
> big price jump & I need to do something else.
> Q: What's the box called that is coax in & RJ-11/14 & Ethernet out?
> Is that an ATA? SIP?
> 
> AT&T is pulling fiber all over town, now available at my house & it's
> been available at the office building for a few years now.
> 
> Hasn't ATT left the cable TV biz? If I were to do ATT fiber, what to
> do about TV?  In my locality, Spectrum is the only cable (TV) co.
> Thanks, -kc