At 28 Sep 2007 00:54:37 +0000 Larry wrote:

> > Skype-In is still more than Voicestick, and lacks some of the
Voicestick
> > features.
>
>
> Er, ah, I'll bite....WHICH "features"?
>
> Larry
> --
> Your turn...(c;


Besides E911? ;-)

Their most interesting feature is "Cellular Bridge"- you enter your
cell phone number (or any phone number you want to use) on the VS site,
then when you call your VS number from that phone, you get a dialtone
and can dial an international call through your VS account- kind of
like a pinless calling card (or Mobivox, I suppose.)

They ruined the feature last month by charging $4.95/month extra for
it, though!

The ATA box they used to use could do it automatically via hardware,
without their help. "Coincidentally," they changed some settings last
month, stopping those boxes from working with Voicestick, and sent us
free replacements without that particular feature, forcing us to
subscribe to the feature to get it.

On the bright side, both old and new boxes are unlocked, so I can use
them with any of my other VoIP accounts (except Skype, of course,
which isn't SIP-compliant.)


I didn't mind the end of the free incoming calls last month- that
seemed fair- they cut the price of outgoing from 2.1 to 1.1 to offset
the new 1.1-cent incoming charge. I suspect too many people were
abusing the free incoming and using cheaper VoIPs for outgoing. But
going from "unlimited" free incoming to $4/month (with no incoming or
outgoing included) in the span of 60 days is going to cause quite a
few casual users (like me) to disappear when my existing credits run
out, which I'm sure is their goal.

VoIP is just a backup for my backup (I have both a landline and
multiple cells) so VoIP is kind of a "when my free-WiFi-equipped
hotel is in a Cellular dead spot" kind of thing. For as little as I
use VoIP, $0.01/month and $4/min would be cheaper than $4/month a
$0.01/minute! I guess it's back to the rural Iowa USF-skimmers at
FreeDigits.com aka SIPNumber.com for me!


--

"I don't need my cell phone to play video games or take pictures
or double as a Walkie-Talkie; I just need it to work. Thanks for
all the bells and whistles, but I could communicate better with
ACTUAL bells and whistles." -Bill Maher 9/25/2003