We've gone VoIP here finally, over a "dry DSL" line, using voip.ms as the connection/DID provider (hey, they even have a UK PoP!).

Cheap and a geek's dream. I'm using a PAP2T-NA to adapt all of our existing analog telephones to the VoIP connection, and this also works extremely well.

We've got a couple of DECT handsets here, and really like the feature set on them. But it would be cool if the analog conversion could be skipped somehow. This requires a DECT base unit that has ethernet/IP in/out.

Siemens seems to make them, but apparently not for North America yet. They're available in the UK and Europe, though, and possibly even further afield.

Anyone got one? Know anything more about them?

Thanks

I may need to look into this further. By that I mean, you may have to hand-hold me through a lot of questions I may ask in the future based on your experience with this service.

Right now I'm on a package plan from a voip provider for $20 US per month which gives me unlimited Canada and US. I have an ATA to which I have my home's internal phone network connected. Network being a fancy name for the phone wiring that's built into the house.

If based on my low phone usage I can save some money going this wholesale route it's something I'm going to seriously consider. The ability to set up multiple lines, PBX, etc.. sounds interesting as well. One of the things I'll have to look into more closely is the difficulty/ease of porting my existing 416 number and making sure all the basic calling features (voicemail, call waiting, display, etc..) are all working.

Mark,

I use a Siemens C475 IP for incoming VOIP calls for my business. I have 3 hands sets in total. I have to say they work really really well, the audio quality is excellent and so far I have had no issues at all. My VOIP provider even gave me step by step instructions to get them working, but it wasn't too difficult.

Basically my system can handle 3 calls at once, 2 VIOP and one POTS. In general operation they are a little clunky and slow sometimes, but you can sync you address book between hands sets and there are other pretty cool features.

I would recommend them. I would be happy to forward one onto you if you can't find a source elsewhere.

On a side to the handset question, generally I find VOIP brilliant. My provider supports useful features like if I don't answer my VOIP line then all calls are transferred to my mobile so I never miss any business. I got to control all this via a nice easy web interface which I find very powerful. There are also lots of cool options on the handsets themselves of course.

Cheers

Cris.

Do you know why that phone needs specifically a DSL internet connection? As opposed to any other high speed internet connection...

It'll work with any kind of ethernet connection to the internet. I think the "DSL required" is just a marketing thing, to ease the minds of those who don't know of other options.

EDIT: is CATV internet access even an option in the UK?

Cheers

Perfect. I'll read up on that model (just so I can figure out the right questions to ask). But just to clarify:

This is a DECT system, right?

And I may someday take you up on the purchase/remail offer. Really appreciated, that!

Thanks!

Absolutely. After all, that's what (geeky) friends are for!

Note that even "ordinary" analog DECT-6.0 cordless phones are fairly impressive to use with a full-featured VoIP solution. I'm just wondering if even better voice quality can be had with a pure digital end-to-end solution. Thus the interest in the Siemens IP-enabled DECT systems.

The tricky question is.. does the base unit have to transcode from one digital codec for DECT to another for VoIP? EDIT: no, it doesn't need to transcode!!

Which would kinda negate some of the edge it might otherwise have.

Anyone know off-hand what codec the Siemens DECT phones use? EDIT: Lots of them, including G711 u/a law for VoIP!

Cheers

VoIP.ms provides all of the basic/fancy calling features gratis, except caller-name display which costs USD$0.015/lookup. The included (free) services include caller-number display, voicemail, with handset, web, and email access to recorded messages.

Porting numbers to their service apparently now takes only a couple of weeks, down from 6-weeks last fall. We didn't bother porting, as we wanted to ditch the telemarketers in the move.

Cheers

Chris, can this handset system be tied to any arbitrary SIP provider, or is it somehow locked to only those listed in the technical data part of that link?

Oooh.. the user manual is there.. and it lists codecs.. including G.711 with a *choice* of a-law and u-law, which means it *will* work for us over here! And no transcoding required in most cases!

Thanks

Oh, another semi-important question for Chris:

On the units you have, could you describe the power supplies?

Cord/plug style, voltage + frequency ratings.

Thanks!

Do they charge for caller id for ever call, or just if you want the caller's name?

I use Vitelity which has similar pricing (I didn't actually compare, it's too cheap to be worth switching) and has provided adequate service. Every few months I reload the phone with $40 or whatever their minimum charge is, and don't worry about it until they start emailing me.

Yeah, same idea here with voip.ms. The caller-name lookup fee of $0.015 is charged per-call, if enabled on the account (ordinary calling-number display is *free*). Apparently that's close to what it costs them to do the lookup, so they just pass it on.

They do say they plan to implement caching and stuff at some point, which would reduce those charges. I'm not counting on that actually happening, but.. whatever.

I chose voip.ms because they're Montreal-based, with PoP in Montreal and Toronto, plus the UK and a bunch of USA locations. Two of those are relatively close to Ottawa (here) as far as pings go.

E911 setup was also a breeze. For us Canucks, that's an extra USD$1.50/month drawn from the prepaid funds.

Cheers

Yes this is a DECT system, it handles normal analogue calls too. You can select which service you want to call out on by the time you hold the dial button for, it's switchable so for example if I just press dial I dial out on the analogue but if I press and hold it uses the VOIP service, like I said you can swap that if you wish.

I am not at home right now to check the PSU, it's a wall wart type I know that, but will have to check on the unit for specs.

Setup is easy, and there is the option to select your VOIP SP from a list for auto setup, but you can also enter everything manually too.

I am wondering about DECT from Europe working in Canada, I think we use a different set of frequencies over here ??? Could be wrong.

Cheers

Cris.

Yes, we have a cable operator here, Virgin Media. They only cover about 50% of the population and are no longer investing in their network. If you don't already have coverage you have no chance of getting it at the moment.

Cheers

Cris.

Ahh.. good point.

And some tart went and put digital mobile telephone services on 1850-1910 and 1930-1990 MHz over here. So that scrubs the Siemens for now, until they produce a USA/Canada version.

Thanks!

Mmm.. looks like they've just done so (Jan/2009)!

Good news

They are nice handsets, I agree with most reviews that the sound quality is very good indeed.

Cheers

Cris.

You don't want to go stomping all over someone else's bandwidth? I'm sure the CRTC won't track you down.

Ha! Actually, my mobile phone here uses those exact frequencies, so I'd be stomping on myself!

Correction: that's USD$0.015 per incoming call, and only if one enables "caller-name" lookups (CNAM). Caller-number ID is *free*.

-ml

Sounds good. Anyone know if the Siemens phones will do number matching to its internal addresss/phone book? So that even without CNAM enabled, one can see the details of an incoming call if they match an entry in the phone book.

And if so, does anyone know if it will match on numbers both with or without a leading "1" ?

Mark, any details on the dialing format for your new provider? How many numbers are required to call out? For instance, with my provider, since I have a 416 number, I dial 7 digits for all 416 numbers (omit area code) and dial 11 digits (1 + area codes) for everything else, regardless of where it is. The biggest drawback to this with my provider is that caller ID always comes in as 10 digits for non-416 numbers.

The company that I'm using right now, voip.ms , uses 10-digit dialing, with or without the 1- in front of the 10-digits. They don't care if the 1- is there or not (a Good Thing).

But.. my Linksys PAP2T ATA has user-programmable dialing plans, so I've set up that device for 7-digit local dialing (or 10 or 11 digits: all of those work), and lots of other cool things. Using this "dialing plan" string:

S:10,( <:613>[2-9][2-9]xxxxxS0 | 1900! | 900! | 1.[2-9]xx[2-9]xxxxxxS0 | 18xxxxxxxxxS0 | [34689]11S0 | 011xxxxxx.S5 | 09730021S0 | *xxS0 )

Rather cool, that. Just replace 613 with your local area code (416) to customize for the GTA.

The PAP2T has tons of other cool telephony features too, like CID (Caller-ID) based forwarding, blocking, and/or ring-tones.

Cheers

Oh, I should mention that the dialing plan is almost *always* a function of the ATA, not the VoIP provider.

I use a fully "unlocked" PAP2T-NA ($52 from CanadaComputers), as opposed to the common vendor-locked units.

The Siemens DECT/IP phones also seem to have user-programmable dialing plans.

cheers

Interesting bit of info. I'm not sure if my Mediatrix device is locked, but it was indeed provided by the VoIP vendor.

What I'm thinking of doing in the next couple of days is try to find out what my usage has been for the past few months and then cost out the same usage with voip.ms rates. That will give me as clear a picture as I'm likely to get as to the monthly base-line financial benefits of switching. I already know I'll be able to do all sorts of extra cool things I can't do now, such as get additional "lines" that I can run concurrently.

Does voip.ms handle storage of voice messaging on their own servers or is that something you have to provision yourself? I noticed the Siemens phones had messaging support built-in, but I'm assuming it's the equivalent of an answering machine (being local only and therefore not necessarily accessible via another telephone or the net).

It's their server entirely. I've configured things so that voice messages are also emailed to me, just in case their server loses them later. I don't know much about their voicemail server -- it's not exactly boldly advertised -- other than that it appears to work.

Messages remain on their server (even if also emailed) until deleted from the handset (or presumably from the web interface which I have yet to explore).

There's gotta be a downside somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. Some people complain about the Customer Service reps being in Mexico when one dials in to them, but the online chat reps have french names..

There are also a few complaints about slow porting of existing DIDs, but I think that's probably a rampant industry-wide issue here in Canada.

Note that your incoming-calls (DID) provider doesn't have to be the same as your outgoing call server..

Cheers

Ahh.. Okay, I was wrong about the web-interface for voicemail: no such thing at voip.ms. But with email and (local/remote) handset access, that's not really an issue.

Cheers

about two months ago I also started with the voip conversion. I'm sick of my household spending over $400/month in monthly phone bills for 3 people. it's amazing what a couple bucks can purchase on the internet. I can actually purchase something for a millionth of a cent now through flowroute.com

I currently have an Snom M3 that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. The buttons are completely flat, tiny and have absolutely no spacing between them or any tactile feedback. You pretty much need to use a stylus to use the keypad without pressing the surrounding 3 keys at once. Also about every 1-50 calls the handset will completely lockup and reboot when I try to answer the call (causing it to drop the call). However, it is a DECT base but I'm pretty sure it won't talk to anything besides Snom headsets. unless you're planning a new port of hijack

I'd also think about setting up something like freeswitch.org to handle the routing of your calls, I wouldn't rely on just the PAP2 for all your telephony needs.

I have a "naked" ADSL service with Internode here in Aus, I picked up a Linksys SPA941 desk phone off ebay very cheaply, and it's pretty good, although it doesn't have an illuminated LCD which is annoying, the SPA942 does though.

Internode give you a "free" account with an incoming number and $10 credit, and the service is integrated within their own network, so they advertise it as being high quality.

I don't know about anyone else, but that's exactly what I'd like to do. I didn't really know about any other free platforms other than Asterisk, but then again I also don't know ****-all about setting either one up. I thought I'd worry about it until after I decide to take the plunge with a new wholesale provider.

Heh.. I had to read through quite a bit of stiff marketing content before "Australia" was mentioned. So Internode isn't really for us here in Canada.

Cool bit about freeswitch.org. But I can't see a use for it in my home though, as the combo of my current provider and the PAP2T already far exceeds our requirements.

Perhaps some day when I decide to build a "do not accept calls from" list of more than eight number patterns (limit of the PAP2T). Then it might come in handy!

Cheers