For reasons too long to go into, I chose to go with the
voip.ms pay per minute plan and forward Google Voice because my wife and I like sending and receiving SMS to our GV home number.
Here is my
voip.ms per per minute cost breakdown for New Haven, CT (YMMV)
$0.50 one time set up fee
$0.99 per month DID fee
$0.01 per minute (incoming and outgoing calls)
$25 minimum initial deposit / $5 minimum balance
$0.08 per caller ID CNAM lookup (optional)
$1.50 per month e911 (optional)
Here are my requirements
Caller ID contact list override since I receive mobile calls that are mostly generic names
To send/receive an occasional fax on my wife's existing machine
Telemarketing blocking
Reliable service
Vestalink does not support manual faxing and I have some doubts regarding their reliability. Phone Power does not allow CNAM over ride for anyone on their Aquarius network (BYOD Obi plan) and I was not impressed with their lack of set up support which gave me numerous problems.
My Obi202 set up
SP1 Google Voice
SP2
voip.msManual web interface enabled, auto provisioning/obitalk service disabled
For now I receive calls on SP2 and call out on SP1. SP1 will be disabled after 5/14 with all outgoing calls going through
voip.ms with my spoofed GV caller ID. Caller ID name override works like a charm. I chose to activate $0.08 cent look up on caller ID name which only applies if the caller is not my phone book. I mostly get calls from people in my phone book anyway. Phone call quality is very good and their chat support was excellent. Have not tried faxing yet but supposedly works well with ulaw codec.
I set up IVR to play back a customized recording for anonymous caller IDs and discovered that Google Voice just rings until the built in GV voicemail system takes over. The reason why is because GV does not work with early media and therefore does not ring the destination phone. However, calls directly to the
voip.ms DID are intercepted by the IVR. This is not a big deal for me since telemarketers will be sent to GV voicemail and never bother me. If I port my GV number to
voip.ms one day, this problem disappears. I like the fact that I can switch to another plan/provider at any time if things do not work out.
TL;DR:
voip.ms has all the features and flexibility I need plus more. Hope this helps someone.
EDIT: CNAM lookup is $0.008 per call. There is an additional $1.50 one time setup fee for e911.