Voip review - what works in dr?

Jerry Albers

New member
Dec 12, 2010
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Just looking for feedback on VOIP phone service people are using in the DR. I have a magicjack and Im always having problems!!! Choppy conversations and connection issues. Anyones is using Vonage or other voip please give some feedback to what is working well in DR. Also state your Internet provider and speeds your getting.
 

bob saunders

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
32,502
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dr1.com
My wife's school has Codetel Internet and we use magic-jack without issues, most of the time. We have several friends that we talk to using Skype and I believe they are also on Codetel. No idea what the speed. All I know is my wife talks for upwards of an hour without interruption. We are in Canada but the school and people we talk to are in Jarabacoa.
 

Jerry Albers

New member
Dec 12, 2010
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Has anyone used Vonage from Canada in DR? I here some bad things about vonage which my be resolved by now. Doing business from the DR - I need a reliable service - more reliable than majicjack.
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
13,884
495
83
Skype works fine for me. I have a US number so family and friends can call me by calling the US number. I can call any number in the US for no charge other than the US$5 or so I pay monthly for the service.

he same service is available from Canada

I started off with Vonage. It worked fine at first, but then call quality deteriorated to point it was not usable. I have used Skype for a few years and am very satisfied.
 

Luperon

Who empowered China's crime against humanity?
Jun 28, 2004
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ooma works great, even with slow dsl. try to buy an older model that is pay one price - tax free for life
 

Spicedwine

New member
Apr 25, 2006
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We used Vonage Canada when we were in Canada, and so we brought both the integrated Linksys router/phone adapter, and also the Vonage wireless phone (UTStarcomm) when we moved here 4 years ago. Internet is now with Cable Atlantico (Delancer Cable), which is actually Comcast SA. Neither phone worked well, until we switched internet to Comcast highspeed. Now we just use the wireless phone - it works well, and is portable, so we can generally use it wherever we connect to WIFI - here, USA, Canada. Comcast speed is 1.5 MB/768 KBPS (at least that's what we pay for - but like most things here - seldom get - he he he.)
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
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i have inphonex with quite a fancy setting: i can call using our landline or from miesposo's smart phone when it is using wifi. so when we were in europe we used that to connect with my parents in poland and his family here in DR. we have a prepaid plan and one minute with europe costs 2 american cents. america/canada is free. also, my mother in law is connected to the same inphonex line so she can call from her house using our line (we live at two different ends of POP).
don't ask how it works, it just does :)
our provider is oscuro and speed is 1mb down and 392kb up.

i also have skype but only use it to talk to other skype.
 

AZB

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
12,290
519
113
hi speed internet + no downloading or uploading on the wifi network + magicjack = perfect service.
People just don't know how to use magficjack at all. they have a slow speed internet, then have 3 laptops connected to wifi. One person is watching youtube videos and another is donwloading heavy graphic webpages or a laptop has a music downloading program which is automatically uploading some file or music from the hard drive, hahaha you are done. Choppy voice and shattered sound will be the result.
I have 2 magicjack unit and I have no issues at all.
AZB
 

Daniel10

New member
Apr 19, 2010
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danny-in-dr.blogspot.com
Friends have magic jack, no problems. I use skype and no problems as well.
if you are on a shared wifi in your household, it might help a little to use a cable to your router. Wifi is 56mbit tops, cable can go to 100mbit or maybe 1gbit. But in the end it all comes down to what kind of connection you have from your router to the internet.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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I use voicebuy.com great wholesale rates
You can use form SIP adapter
pay by minute. When I am at office/home I use this service to call DR landlines because it is just 2.5 US cents, or less than 1 peso per minute. I save my mobile minutes that way. The rate for calls to cellphones is just 7.7 US cents and that's 2.9 pesos. You are billed by the second. For most people it would be cheaper than to use prepaid cellphone plan and even many regular postpaid cellphone plans.
Germany and France are all less than 1 US cents per minute and UK and US are about 0.7 US cents (less than 1 cent) per minute.
They have two plans, premium and premium + and both are great with crystal clear quality.

Anothe rprovider you can use for VOIp is group3.ca, voxbeam.com (but for voxbeam you have to have a static IP address).

I use my SIP service along with pbxes.com wher I setup a free VOIP PBX with no monthly cost and can have up to 5 inbound/outbound trunks form different VOIp providers (in the free version).
 
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AZB

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
12,290
519
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Friends have magic jack, no problems. I use skype and no problems as well.
if you are on a shared wifi in your household, it might help a little to use a cable to your router. Wifi is 56mbit tops, cable can go to 100mbit or maybe 1gbit. But in the end it all comes down to what kind of connection you have from your router to the internet.

Yup, that is the key statement. It doesn't matter if you connect at 100 mb, it all depends on what speed of connection you have. Most expats and dominicans in DR have slow speed.
AZB
 

beeza

Silver
Nov 2, 2006
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How many of these providers will give you a virtual Dominican phone number? Skype used to have a Skype-In number, but they had problems with their service provider and cancelled it.
 
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AlterEgo

Administrator
Staff member
Jan 9, 2009
23,097
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South Coast
We use MagicJack here, and it's okay. In Santo Domingo the internet is OneMax and we used it wired, the connection was fantastic, my son swore that I sound better on the MagicJack than I do when I'm in the US calling him. When we're not in SD we use Banda Ancha [Claro] and 'it depends'. In Puerto Plata we had a great connection, very clear, but we were disconnected frequently when on the MagicJack - we could use the internet for hours and not get disconnected. At our house [Playa Najayo in San Cristobal province] we use the Banda Ancha, and I have to have everything else closed - no Firefox open at all - to get a half-decent call in. It's delayed, kind of how you watch news anchors talking to people overseas, when they answer several seconds after the question. And for this wonderful service, we get to pay Banda Ancha about 2,500RD a month.

AE
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
13,884
495
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How many of these providers will give you a virtual Dominican phone number? Skype used to have a Skype-In number, but they had problems with their service provider and cancelled it.

I have a Skype-In number in the US and it serves my needs very nicely Out of curiosity, what would be the reason for having a Skype-In number in the DR. I assume it must be to call a lot of different numbers in the DR from outside the DR.
 
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Shiraz72

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Feb 10, 2010
523
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I live in Canada and I'm using rebtel for voip and it costs me 0.07 per minute to call mobile numbers with 829 area codes in DR. Unfortunately all the companies such as vonage offering unlimited calls for a flat rate to DR only applies to calls made to landlines with 809 area codes. I've been wanting to use magic jack but it's only free if we have one on both ends and the wireless internet they have right now is crappy at his house and they pay per time used and its really expensive. . I'm trying to find out about rates and providers? Anyone know the best rates in POP for wireless mobile internet sticks? I'm interested in knowing if there's a prepaid plan or can you bulk purchase time or do you have to subscribe to a monthly contract etc? I've read that claro has good service and it's about $60 a month? This is pretty expensive.
 
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Spicedwine

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Apr 25, 2006
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Yup, that is the key statement. It doesn't matter if you connect at 100 mb, it all depends on what speed of connection you have. Most expats and dominicans in DR have slow speed.
AZB

And remember - it is UPLOAD speed that is important with VOIP. 1.5 down and only 384 up, for example - will not give you consistent, good quality phone.
 
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SantiagoDR

The "REAL" SantiagoDR
Jan 12, 2006
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I have a Skype-In number in the US and it serves my needs very nicely Out of curiosity, what would be the reason for having a Skype-In number in the DR. I assume it must be to call a lot of different numbers in the DR from outside the DR.

So that when you are in the U.S., etc, your family and friends in the D.R. can call the local D.R. Skype number and talk to you for free.


SantiagoDR
 
Feb 7, 2007
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How many of these providers will give you a virtual Dominican phone number? Skype used to have a Skype-In number, but they had problems with their service provider and cancelled it.

You can have DR landline number (829 area code) from Wind Telecom.

Voz Local

VOZ100 is RD$125 + 28% taxes, which is US$4.27 per month.

You also get 100 outbound minutes anywhere in the DR (landlines) billed by the second.

They also have plans with more minutes.

WIND telecom: Tabla de Precios WIND Voz

This is prepaid, no-contract plan. You can call WIND and order over the phone with your credit card or visit their booth/local office.

You can also get DR IP number from Tricom, but the rates are more expensive and the service process is more complicated.
 
Ive used almost every VoIP service listed here since Voip telecom is my area of expertise. All of them work in the DR if properly setup and if you are connected to a fair decent internet connection. Some of these services uses hardware equipment that comes preconfigured from factory to make them plug and play, but have a parameter (codec) that varies the amount of kpbs (data transferr size) on the calls. Try and check when dealing with those to change that to a low kbps (GSM or G.729) codec since it improves call quality a lot.

These days just for convinience im using google voice (free calls to the states, ported my us number there and can use direct from my email and my mobile devices).

Just my .02