VOIP call quality: are some SIP providers better than others?

[SteveL]

Question: when choosing a SIP provider, are some providers better than others? Do you get what you pay for? Do some provide a higher quality of service than others?

(Confession: I'm a newbie with SIPs and OBi110.)

I've noticed that some SIPs offer premium routing for a fee. Some bundle services and features, while others give them away. Rather than use trial-and-error to figure out the "best" plan, maybe someone with experience can offer me some advice! Thanks.

[ProfTech]

Well... While I would expect it is no doubt true that some may provide better call quality than others, the real question is... Who is the most reliable? Which one can you expect the call to go through when you dial the phone? I've been using Callcentric for about 1 1/2 years and until recently would have given you their name but they seem to be having some issues with the Obi units lately and seems like maybe they aren't working closely enough with Obihai to figure out where the problem lies. Not sure if they are working better with other brands of adapters or not. That said, the other question you must consider is - do you need or care about having 911 service? This brings you back to the reliability question. If you can do without 911 at least for a trial CallWithUs seems to be a pretty good choice for a low cost test system. I've tried several others and didn't find them to be acceptable. There are lots more to choose from but the costs to set up and try them out may be too steep.

[ProfTech]

New information Nov 8. Callcentric made changes in their system last night and with a couple of simple changes in my setups I now have 3 Obi's working very well today. This is really good news as they have been having a very tough time of things since I believe Oct 3 when some hackers began causing huge issues for them. Then the hurricane hit NYC where their offices are.

[carl]

Steve, I use Localphone and Callcentric( with free NYC DID). It really depends on your needs.