Please use this thread to post your experience with VoIP services in Switzerland - this means basically anyone mentioned here .... and more importantly, not Skype.
I last month signed up with Switzernet and am just about to embark on testing their 9 franc per month service which offers calls to landlines CH, FR, DE, UK, landlines and mobiles USA, Singapore for free. Their full rates list is here
Initial thoughts: The website is sporadically English with some French. Je n' parle pas français (ok, I do).... They email me in English and/or French. And maybe German. This I don't notice as I understand those languages Their T&Cs are not available in English yet - not a biggie - just note that you commit to a one-year contract after which you can quit with 60 days' notice You get 10 days to evaluate - beginning from your first call The number I chose for 50 francs was already gone and caused a delay in the process. I would suggest that their website backend needs to reserve the number for a reasonable time so that this does not happen My trial period should start in the next few days; I will initially be using a Siemens hybrid phone (Gigaset C475 IP) but will more likely use a Linksys PAP2 and connect this into my home phone network.
I will be making calls to the UK, US and domestically and will report back on my findings; it is my intention to drop Cablecom Digitalphone and switch to this service.
If anyone else is using proper VoIP solutions, feel free to give your mini-summary here and we can hopefully build a nice list of who does what, how well they do it and if you would recommend it.
I will be editing this post with my recommendation in the next week or two
For more than one year now, I've been using Phonestar's service.
As I understand Phonestar itself uses a shared platform used by many of the swiss providers. Administration site supports multiple languages and English is one of them.
I have a pay as you go subscription, with a Zurich number included.
Through all this period I can't remember of a single problem.
As I also have DIDs from other counties (so that familly can call local), I use the services of Voxalot to have multiple registrations (not supported by my Sipura), and perform smart call routing.
As for internet I have the 3000/300 plan from Cablecom which is more than sufficient to have the calls with the highest bit/rates.
I am a regular user of SIP Broker as well which allows me to use any of the many local numbers around the globe to call home.
As someone that doesn't have a fixed line for more than 3 years now, I don't understand why people keep paying 20 CHF for nothing, and paying absurd rates on top of that to regular telcos.
A PAP2 or my Sipura are ATAs-Analaog Telephone Adapters which simply output a RJ11 which you can inject back into your house wiring. You don't notice any difference from there on...
In my case I connect it to the house wires, and in one of the plugs I have a DECT phone, with 2 extra handsets.
I have been using Switzernet for the last 8 weeks both using a softphone ( Voxpro - from World Dial Point - Australia ) and a VOIP ATA gateway ( Billion 6404VP Australian model ) with an analogue telephone handset. One port uses Switzernet ( excellent quality to Afghanistan, Iran, Denmark, Netherlands, Israel, Malaysia, Somalia, Sudan and The Gambia ) and the other my Aussie VOIP provider ( World Dial Point which gives me 8-9 cents untimed landline calls 24hrs a day to Australia ). I have also tested the Switzernet account on Wireless / Wifi and DSL both with and without a VOIP accelerator D-Link DI-102 and more often than not the connection is very good.
I too am contemplating signing up for their 9 CHF / month service and am keen to discover views from other Switzernet users as well as other VOIP providers in Switzerland.
OK, Switzernet is working on my Gigaset phone and I tried making a call. It sounded OK and quality seemed reasonable. Shame nobody was home!!
Still, my 10-day clock is ticking now but it seems reasonable. My call log on their website shows my 7 second call to the UK costing nothing.
Points to note: The configuration comes in French but password, userID and SIP address are clear The self-management interface is in French but you can change it. Go into one of the personal information tabs and you see it there
I'll get the missus to call her mother later......hang on, she has to call the mobile so might as well use my cellphone which has free domestic calls to all networks.... Maybe someone somewhere will be home.....
Switzernet gives you a 021 /Geneva. So incoming callers outside the 021 may think they are paying more? (There seems no longer a local and National rate.)
There does not appear to be a choice of ex-directory. A reverse search of 021 550 gives 43 results move in the Geneva area but some in the Zurich area too...
Alrighty, what do I think having used Switzernet for a couple of days and made about 100 minutes of calls?
Excellent. 75 minutes on the phone to England with perfect conversation, no drop-outs and all for free.....
I think most people know there is just a national tarrif now (two actually, peak and off-peak) and having a localised 021 number does not bother me. Plus, with the second VoIP account I have from Sipgate.co.uk, my folks can call me on a local number to them and not pay international charges. Smashing.
The ex-directory aspect I will dig into; I like being unlisted.....so I'll run it by them and see what they say.
replace in the link the example phone number 021-550-0309 with your Switzernet phone number.
Each time someone subscribes via your link, your account will automatically receive a credit of 21 CHF. If there are too much amount on the account for a telephone concumption the amount can be wired to the bank account upon the user's request.
do you suggest to remove our account from the forum?
(where 021-550-0309 is replaced by your phone number)
Such a URL is valid for any Switzernet phone number (and the owner of the phone number is considered as referrer) ...
But for this particular case (for offering discounts to the customer being subscribed), we need on our side, to associate your switzernet phone number with English Forum and define the discount. We have to setup our subscription system to automatically offer a discount of XX.xx CHF if the subscription is made via the specified referrer's phone number.
It will remain to publish this link on the forum, whenever is the appropriate place for such a link.
Regards
switzernet
p.s. BTW, Switzernet is looking for a trainees for replying support emails. 1 or 2 days per week in the office, the rest from home. Knowledge of English and French is obligatory.
The output power of FXS port of ATA (PAP2T) adapter may not suffice to support 5 parallel extentions. I would suggest to install a PBX. The hybrid Siemens Gigaset C450 IP supports more than one handsets (I do not know if you can connect up to 5 independent handsets). From the other side PAP2T supports two VOIP ports, so the customer can have two independent VOIP lines on the same adapter.
Linksys ADSL Modem (can't remember the model), this is NOT handling routing or NAT.
Smoothwall express firewall/router
3com gigabit switch
Linksys WRG used as WAP
Siemens c450 IP (wired connection)
Nokia e61 (wifi connection)
We don't use the Swisscom landline at all, only sipcall.ch (using the C450). Call quality is always perfect, i've never had any latency whatsoever. We have a subscription that gives us free calls to UK and France after 19:00 and at weekends that we use extensively.
I've got an incoming line via sipgate.co.uk on my Nokia that comes in via the wireless network. Call quality also perfect.
If anything I'd say that the call quality is better than the GSM call quality or the Swisscom fixed line on both the mobile and the Siemens handset. I know sipcall isn't the cheapest but for me the quality/reliability is ultra important, if anything does not work quite as it should we will use the mobile and that costs top dollar.
I'm going to give Switzernet a shot, partly out of geek respect for them selling asterisk servers I'll let ya'll know how i get on.
I think you're right, lots of people are starting to use SIP without even releasing it (Orange broadband and Tesco are just 2 examples).
I'm half way through setting up an Asterisk server, the plan is to have 4 incoming lines from:
Sipgate (for UK family and friends to call)
Sipcall (because I have used the number for a while and like the service)
Switzernet (will sign up this week)
A French SIP provider (TBC, if anybody can recommend anybody that will give a Paris number it would be much appreciated).
We'll have three handsets, the Siemens C450 wired then an N95 and E61 over wifi. Switzernet and Sipcall will ring all 3 handsets, the French provider will ring the missus handset and the C450, Sipgate will ring my handset and the C450.
I can then use least cost routing for outgoing calls from any of the three handsets.
So far I have Asterisk running, I have a web GUI called http://www.voiceone.it/ running and I have Asterisk reading it's config from a MySQL DB (the latter is not easy in Ubuntu server, i'll write a guide when it's all working and I get some time).
For anybody thinking of running Asterisk there are lots of live distros that are worth trying, the Switzernet offer for a Asterisk server for 450chf looks quite good value to me though, considering you can be sure all the hardware will work etc.
I use VoipCheap ( www.voipcheap.com ), which is free to most landlines, very cheap for mobile, and no subscriptions required.
Don't be put off by their complex pricing scheme, the aspect of the site or the disbelief of the site: I'm a customer for more than 2 years now, and the quality is very good, and prices hard to beat.
There seem to be stacks of companies that are actually one and the same (voipcheap, voipbuster etc etc) what's the deal here? Why so many different fronts?