Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Special > Miscellaneous > Making the Jump to VoIP

Summary Table & Conclusion

01:05 - Friday 25 March 2005 by Russell Shaw

To aid in your selection, I've pulled the important points of each of the services I tried into a handy table. You'll note that one thing that's not included is a rating of voice quality. This is because I found very little noticeable difference in call quality among these services.

That's not to say that you won't experience an occasional garbled call or annoying metallic echo. But a recent TomsNetworking poll had almost 50% of respondents choose "hardly ever" as their answer when asked how often they had problems with their VoIP service.

As I said, Packet8 gets my vote as the best of this bunch tested. But remember this is only a taste of the variety of VoIP plans and providers out there. New plans, providers and pricing are appearing constantly. So if you've been waiting to try entrusting some (if not all) of your phone calls to the Internet, wait no more.

Table 1: VoIP Service Info

Monthly Rate	$34.95 $29.95 w/ Verizon DSL service	$19.99 - $49.99	$15.99 - $59.99	$14.99 - $49.99	$19.95 - $39.95
Activation Fee	$29.95 Currently waived	$29.99	$29.99	$29.99	$29.99
Term	1 year	1 year	1 year	1 year	1 year
Termination Fee	$19.95	None, unless equipment is not returned within 15 days of cancellation	$20.00-$39.99 depending on plan	$39.99, plus pro-rated unused portion of monthly bill	$59
Money Back Guarantee	30 days $39.95 if unreturned equipment	No charge within first 30 days if equipment returned within 15 days of request, varies afterward	Monthly and activation fees refunded within 30 days of activation and less than 50 minutes of usage	Activation and monthly fees refunded within 14 days if service ordered online and less than 250 minutes used	30 days No refund if equipment not returned
Encrypted connection	No	No	No	No	No
Softphone included	No	No	Yes. No extra charge	Yes, but $9.95/mo. extra	No
Fax	May be supported. Must contact Verizon	Yes, but disables voicemail & call waiting	Yes	Yes	Yes
Number portability	Yes	Yes	No, but being planned	Yes, in most cases	Yes
Local # Availability	Very Good	Very Good	Limited	Excellent	Excellent
Special Features	Scheduled callback, video voice mail	Phone Book allows import from Outlook, Outlook Express, Palm OS	Call Forking	Click To Call, Call Hunt	Distinctive Ringing, VideoPhone, Virtual PBX ($39.95 extra)
Note: Unless noted, all services include Caller ID, voicemail, call waiting, call forwarding & 3-way calling