Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I have signed up for voip.ms and am now routing outbound calls through them. I'll decide what to do about inbound DID once I burn down my pre-pay at Vitelity, that will take a few months as it just did an auto top-up. So far I have been impressed with voip.ms, the call quality has been excellent. Interestingly they support (beta) G.722 and so I turned that on and it is using it... which means no transcoding on my Astlinux box from my Yealink phones through to voip.ms. I have no idea if their connection to e.g. US mobile carriers is also HD voice or not, but call quality to my cell phone is very good (I am T-Mobile).
To unlock all international destinations you have to provide identity info. I have not done that yet as most everywhere I am likely to call is available without that. But oddly, calls to Australia are blocked by default and while rare for me to need to call there, I feel I need to unlock it "just in case". The only downside so far is that some of their rates to international mobiles and "toll free" can be very high, and highly variable as their rates are very granular, for example first four digits of a UK mobile phone number will determine the rate and can vary from 2 cents (my mothers mobile phone) to 58 cents (my sister's mobile phone). That is using their "premium" routes, but even the value route is still 18 cents. There is no logic to it, it's not like one mobile carrier is in one price bracket and another in a different one, it's whatever your first four digits are (number portability means that there is no longer any correlation between carriers and number prefixes). So care is required if calling a non-land line international (which for many countries has always been the case). And don't even think about calling a UK toll free ($1.50 a minute) or 900 number ($13.40 a minute). AnveoDirect would solve the rate problem for UK mobiles/toll free. Their prices are under 2 cents for all UK mobile, which is absolutely amazing (that is their prime rate). Their consumer retail rates for UK mobile however are worse than voip.ms which is really odd given how low their bulk/direct rates are. But I would have to deposit $35 with them to get started and I'm not sure that I make enough calls to UK mobiles to make it worthwhile. David On Mon, Aug 23, 2021 at 11:36 AM Lonnie Abelbeck <li...@lonnie.abelbeck.com> wrote: > Thanks Dan for your SIP provider experiences. Good info. > > I would like to see some SIP provider partner with Vultr or Linode to > offer a direct connection to their SIP/RTP endpoints, then AstLinux could > be spun-up offering WireGuard access to the SIP/RTP. Exposing SIP/RTP to > the public would only be an option and could be firewalled by AstLinux. > > But as usual, the devil is in the detail. > > Lonnie > > > > On Aug 23, 2021, at 7:31 AM, Dan Ryson <d...@ryson.org> wrote: > > > > I'm sure you've looked into this but when I hear of problems precisely > at 15 minutes, failed SIP re-invites come to mind. If so, it might be > worth exploring whether a SIP re-invite was sent but not acknowledged for > some reason. > > > > I was glad to hear this question regarding providers. Since it has > never come up, I presumed it was a taboo topic. As a small-time hobbyist > user, my experience is limited in scope but many years have been spent on a > quest for an ideal AstLinux fit. I've had varying degrees of success and > many disappointments. > > > > As AstLinux is so feature-rich, it can largely stand on its own with > minimal help from providers. As a result, I've gravitated to wholesale > providers that offer direct RTP from carriers, which typically reduces > latency, improves voice quality, and lowers cost. Although reduced cost > wasn't my primary motivator, it does pay for a $5/month Linode AstLinux > droplet that's used as a static-IP, SIP-only, proxy server and failover > backup. [Note: With many wholesale providers, you're on your own to handle > calls during a PBX outage.] > > > > Here are a few candidates that you may wish to explore and test. Use at > your own risk! > > • Voxbeam: Used seven years for US domestic termination. I have > limited experience with their DIDs. International termination available. > UK owned and operated so may be particularly useful for calls to western > Europe. E911 is provided only by their retail product "Localphone," which > has a bit more polish and may be more akin to Vitelity. Offers both > "direct" RTP and via points of presence in US and Amsterdam. Listed first > because of your specific requirements regarding UK calls. > > • AnveoDirect: Used nine years for US domestic DIDs but only > recently for US domestic termination. Some international termination > available. It is possible to select among multiple termination carriers or > use their unique least-cost-routing. Does not support registration for > DIDs but I use a static IP. Registration and E911 is provided only by > their retail product "Anveo," which I don't know much about. > > • BulkVS: Six months experience but my early experience with DIDs > and US domestic termination has been good. At the very least, it's an > intriguing product worthy of review for US domestic-only use. Offers E911, > US domestic termination only. Direct RTP only. Supports registration as > well as IP authentication. Listed last only because it doesn't provide UK > support. > > One factor to consider when selecting termination carriers within the US > is the FCC's recent push for STIR/SHAKEN compliance (more) that adds SIP > header signatures to facilitate CallerID authentication. From a practical > standpoint in the short term, STIR/SHAKEN compliance for "little guys" like > me requires use of the same termination provider as the DID provider. > > > > Dan > > > > On Sun, Aug 22, 2021 at 05:52 PM, David Kerr <da...@kerr.net> wrote: > > Can anyone recommend a good SIP trunk/pstn provider? I've been using > Vitelity for years and had been happy with them, but recently long distance > calls (well specifically calls from US to UK) have lost audio about 10-15 > minutes into the call. Immediately calling back sometimes works, or > sometimes it requires the other person to call me. > > > > I'm wondering if I should try a different provider. Any suggestions? > > > > Thanks > > David > > _______________________________________________ > > Astlinux-users mailing list > > Astlinux-users@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/astlinux-users > > > > Donations to support AstLinux are graciously accepted via PayPal to > pay...@krisk.org. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Astlinux-users mailing list > Astlinux-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/astlinux-users > > Donations to support AstLinux are graciously accepted via PayPal to > pay...@krisk.org.
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