Verizon wireless - A little OT, maybe, but Voicestick's "cellular bridge" is back!

Author

A little OT, maybe, but Voicestick's "cellular bridge" is back!

Todd Allcock

2008-02-21, 12:33 pm

Maybe only Steven Scharf (and I) will give a rat's hindquarters about this,
because he and I used this service in the past, but anyone who calls
internationally or roams internationally might find it interesting.

First the background- Voicestick is a VoIP service provider that has been
trying to get a foothold for a long time trying a bunch a different ideas.
First was a goofy USB memory stick (the "Voicestick," hence the company's
name) with softphone software pre-loaded so you could plug it into any
Windows PC without installing it (good for public computers or friend's
computers, I guess) to make VoIP calls.

More recently, they offered a useful service they called a "cellular bridge"
that offers cheap international long distance calling from your cellphone or
landline. You set up an account, call your Voicestick VoIP number from your
cellphone (or any of three phone numbers you pre-register with the service),
and get prompted to enter an international number and you connect at the
VoIP rate without messing with calling cards or setting up VoIP hardware or
software (though you can do that too, if you like.)

They also allow you to set up international forwarding. Say you're going to
Europe or wherever and plan to use a local prepaid service in whatever
country you'll be visiting. You set all incoming calls to your Voicestick
number to forward to your European prepaid SIM, then forward your US
cellphone number to your Voicestick number. Anyone who wants to reach you
overseas calls your regular US cellphone number, and you pay the cheap(er)
VoIP rate for the US-to-European prepaid cell instead of your American
carrier's $1-2/minute roaming rate.

This was a great service until about a year ago, when a change in management
at Voicestick implemented a bunch of monthly fees taking their former
pay-only-for-the-minutes-you-use-plan, and added account maintenance fees,
E911 fees, $5/month "bridge" fees, etc. ruining the service for light or
casual users.

Now the good news- Bruce Nicklin, the old VP of marketing at Voicestick back
when they were good, is back on board after a house cleaning. He's
implementing a bunch of changes over there, including the elimination of all
"garbage fees" (E911, etc.)

The old free DID (incoming number) plan is back, albeit with a new $1
minimum monthly charge (to prevent abuse- he said a lot of overseas users
were taking the free DIDs reselling them and/or setting up call centers
plowing through tens of thousands of incoming minutes. The new "Next to
Nothing" plan currently offers free incoming DID, $0.01/min. incoming, $0.02
outgoing. If you use less than a $1 of time each month, the account is
charged a flat $1/month.

He claims to be negotiating with providers to get lower rates for outgoing,
and says they might be able to bring back a flat rate incoming bucket of a
few thousand minutes for $4 or 5/month or so for people who want to use it
for VoIP. A buck a month for access to the "cellular bridge" dial-through
service to make international calls from a cell or landline is reasonable,
and might just beat OneSuite's PINless cards for cheap LD/casual VoIP again.

If you're interested, keep an eye on the Voicestick website over the next
few weeks as they're completely revamping the whole operation- Bruce posts
regularly in the VoIP tech chat forum at
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip soliciting ideas for features to
implement. He's also hoping to open up SIP URL dialing so you can call to
and from other SIP-based VoIP services for free (like Gizmo project offers)
without hitting the POTS system and generating termination fees.

He's an entertaining fellow- his posts at dslreports are fun to read if
you've got any interest in VoIP in general.

Larry

2008-02-21, 10:33 pm

"Todd Allcock" < elecconnec@AmericaOn
Line.com> wrote in news:fpken5$k8q$1
@aioe.org:

> fun to read if
> you've got any interest in VoIP in general.
>

http://www.mobivox.com/

Take a look and try it free from any phone.

Todd Allcock

2008-02-21, 10:33 pm

"Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9A4BABAE3428
1noonehomecom@208.49.80.253...
> "Todd Allcock" < elecconnec@AmericaOn
Line.com> wrote in news:fpken5$k8q$1
> @aioe.org:
>
>
> http://www.mobivox.com/
>
> Take a look and try it free from any phone.

Mobivox is an interesting concept- but it's a bit awkward being both a Skype
gateway for POTS-to-Skype calls and a separate international LD service.
(It'd be nice if they let you dial int'l LD through your Skype account using
it's balance, but then, of course, there'd be nothing in it for them!)

The strength of Voicestick, IMO, is, like OneSuite, it's an all-in-one
solution. It's a SIP-compliant VoIP account, a forwarding service, and an
international calling card all in one account. Theoretically, with Mobivox,
you need to have x dollars in your Skype account for international LD at
home, and x dollars in your Mobivox account for international LD on the
road. Not a huge deal, but it's more to keep track of.

Elmo P. Shagnasty

2008-02-21, 10:33 pm

In article < Xns9A4BABAE34281noon
ehomecom@208.49.80.253>,
Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

> "Todd Allcock" < elecconnec@AmericaOn
Line.com> wrote in news:fpken5$k8q$1
> @aioe.org:
>
>
> http://www.mobivox.com/
>
> Take a look and try it free from any phone.

What's the big deal?

Larry

2008-02-22, 4:33 am

"Todd Allcock" < elecconnec@AmericaOn
Line.com> wrote in
news:fpksc8$gju$1@ai
oe.org:

> Mobivox is an interesting concept- but it's a bit awkward being both a
> Skype gateway for POTS-to-Skype calls and a separate international LD
> service. (It'd be nice if they let you dial int'l LD through your
> Skype account using it's balance, but then, of course, there'd be
> nothing in it for them!)
>
>

Skype has incorporated the Mobivox ideas, now. It's called Skype To Go.

http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/togo/
2.1c/min + 3.9c/connection direct from your Sellphone to the Skype access
number to most civilized countries.

It's not quite as cheap as Mobivox's 1.9c/min with no connect fees...

And, Mobivox works great for people who don't have computers or don't want
to use Skype. You don't need a Skype account to activate Mobivox so you
can call cheap from your Sellphone.

Sometimes, and you can compare both system rate charts, Mobivox is much
cheaper to some shared cost sellphones overseas.

As to using Skype's account....they are totally separate, but cooperating,
companies. I don't want any other company to have access to my Skype
balance. What an accounting nightmare THAT could turn into for everyone!

I don't let Sellphone companies have my credit card numbers, either,
because of their horrid history of $5000 sellphone bills....and other
atrocities.

SMS

2008-02-22, 10:33 am

Todd Allcock wrote:
> Maybe only Steven Scharf (and I) will give a rat's hindquarters about
> this, because he and I used this service in the past, but anyone who
> calls internationally or roams internationally might find it interesting.
>
> First the background- Voicestick is a VoIP service provider that has
> been trying to get a foothold for a long time trying a bunch a different
> ideas. First was a goofy USB memory stick (the "Voicestick," hence the
> company's name) with softphone software pre-loaded so you could plug it
> into any Windows PC without installing it (good for public computers or
> friend's computers, I guess) to make VoIP calls.

<snip>

I was happy to see the changes at Voicestick. I hope they can make a go
of it. They really need to do some sales and marketing to the
telecommunications managers in the corporate world to get their volume
up to a sustainable level. Most large corporations use VOIP for long
distance, especially internationally, but the pairing of mobile phones
with Voicestick is where huge savings are possible. Alas, if too many
heavy mobile users understood how to pair something like "Sprint to
Home" with Voicestick then Sprint would likely drop the "Sprint to Home"
feature.

I added alt.cellular.sprintpcs to this thread because Voicestick is
especially applicable to Sprint because of the "Sprint to Home" option.

Todd Allcock

2008-02-22, 10:33 am

At 22 Feb 2008 06:46:40 -0800 SMS wrote:

> I added alt.cellular.sprintpcs to this thread because Voicestick is
especially applicable to Sprint because of the "Sprint to Home" option.

It works with T-Mo/Alltel's Fave/Circle plans as well.

Heck, with GrandCentral you can have unlimited for $35 on SERO- unlimited
incoming from the GC number using "Sprint to Home", and use click-to-call
on the GC WAP site for outgoing.

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