23 replies to this topic

[Scooby]

Skype had been offering a more limited option for MX phone service until recently.

We now see that newer options are here (but mainly with subscription).
Still comparatively speaking, they're giving MagicJack a run for the money.

http://www.skype.com...iptions/mexico/

Roughly between $6/month to $60/year buys us "unlimited" calling (10,000 min/month) to the USA, Canada, & selected MX cities.
All other MX calls are per minute at .02 for landlines and .20 for cellular. Not bad for Mejico.
I currently still use Skype, but mainly the "Pay As You Go" type for making international calls.

MJ is also sweetening the pie with 5 year service for $60. Unfortunately, their international calling leaves much to be desired.
I've still 6 months left with my MJ account and am unsure about renewing it.

I've heard that Skype has a similar capability as MJ utilizing a type of universal adapter attachment
in which regular landline type of phones could be used. I'd love to know more about this.
Too bad these voip services don't allow us to just call them up and say "hey, what about this cool new thing-a-ma-chingadera I heard about . . .. ."

[Scooby]

After jonerich mentioned a SONY Mylo, I picked one up at Fry's in SD for like 180 usd new. Seems like a good deal.
Has wifi, Skype, web surfing, etc. and fits right into your pocket. One need to get accustomed to surfing on a pocket-sized screen.

May not keep it though since I believe it would be more useful to own a similar device that would include regular cellphone usage, a kind of dual capability.
I know that they've got to exist by now but I'm guessing that the big cellular carriers don't want to make it too easy for potential customers to know about them.
They likely would fear of losing business to the cheaper or free voip services.

http://www.htcwiki.com/

http://en.wikipedia....Fi_connectivity

[jonerich]

good job scooby!!! here is wut you a re looking for mind you its a monthly fee so one more bill!!!!
skype3g phone

i like the mylo2 because the simple fact that i can take that device anywhere in the world and mak a phone call for basically free i check ito a hotel in thailand i can make a call im at home in mexico i can make a call i go to a Starbucks Barnes and Nobles McDonalds or any internet cafe in the world i can make a phone call browse the internet watch movies listen to radio take pictures and video and upload to my website or facebook or myspace. iand i dont have to worry wut those calls cost me becuase their free like me!!! i guess im a cheap charlie im not a doctor so i can wait 20 min for my messages im just saying when i move to mex one less bill ya know!!! I work in a hospital anyway and their free wifi so i get my calls im at home i get my calls im out im out with the people that will call anyway it just works for me.when i come to mex im going to pay for my internet connection and thats it besides the obvious elec,water rent food but from that one connection tv,phone,satillite,etc also one less thing to be stolen beacause it in you pocket this thing is like a swiss army knife if i had to get up and leave in two things i would have are my mylo2 and my passport im good to go!!!
Cheers All
jonerich

[Scooby]

The problem I experience with being strictly wifi dependent is that free wifi (or hotspots) aren't everywhere.
Even the chain businesses that offer wifi hotspots, they often are not for free. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
That's why dual capability would be great for at least emergencies, if not for convenience.

I know what you mean about getting caught with those monthly fees as opposed to "pay as you go" or pay as you use it.
I think that Skype's 3G thing falls into that category. Also, I believe this product is for the Eurozone for now.

Having the SIM card slot available seems so logical to include, it's like WTF ?
That capability should be there by now. I guess I'm expecting too much.
Traveling in other less developed parts of the world, it's more likely to have cellular services than wifi.
I'm not one to juggle more than one device if I can help it.

[bajashrink]

Scooby,

Some friends in SD had an extra magicJack they never use and gave it to me 2 weeks ago. So far so good! However, I haven't purchased any credit yet to make calls outside the US/Canada on it. The website says 9¢ a minute to Mexico landlines and and 3¢ a minute to "mobile 521", whatever that means:

http://www.ymaxcorp....clec_rates.html

I know as a couple of years ago most MX cell phones haven't been able to receive calls from foreign numbers due to them being programmed not to be charged for incoming domestic calls.

So my question is, why does magicJack international calling "leave much to be desired"? What exactly has your experience (or anyone else with such experience) been with dialing Tijuana and other cities via your magicJack?

Skype had been offering a more limited option for MX phone service until recently.

We now see that newer options are here (but mainly with subscription).
Still comparatively speaking, they're giving MagicJack a run for the money.

http://www.skype.com...iptions/mexico/

Roughly between $6/month to $60/year buys us "unlimited" calling (10,000 min/month) to the USA, Canada, & selected MX cities.
All other MX calls are per minute at .02 for landlines and .20 for cellular. Not bad for Mejico.
I currently still use Skype, but mainly the "Pay As You Go" type for making international calls.

MJ is also sweetening the pie with 5 year service for $60. Unfortunately, their international calling leaves much to be desired.
I've still 6 months left with my MJ account and am unsure about renewing it.

I've heard that Skype has a similar capability as MJ utilizing a type of universal adapter attachment
in which regular landline type of phones could be used. I'd love to know more about this.
Too bad these voip services don't allow us to just call them up and say "hey, what about this cool new thing-a-ma-chingadera I heard about . . .. ."

[Scooby]

Scooby,

Some friends in SD had an extra magicJack they never use and gave it to me 2 weeks ago. So far so good! However, I haven't purchased any credit yet to make calls outside the US/Canada on it. The website says 9¢ a minute to Mexico landlines and and 3¢ a minute to "mobile 521", whatever that means:

http://www.ymaxcorp....clec_rates.html

I know as a couple of years ago most MX cell phones haven't been able to receive calls from foreign numbers due to them being programmed not to be charged for incoming domestic calls.

So my question is, why does magicJack international calling "leave much to be desired"? What exactly has your experience (or anyone else with such experience) been with dialing Tijuana and other cities via your magicJack?

It's good that you've obtained a MJ device for free, at least for checking it out and being able to make unlimited national calls. If you've read my posts regarding MJ, esp. for international calls to MX, I suggest go easy at first. Pay once at the lowest increment, use it, and then try to account for what they've charged you verses what you calculate your usage has been. As I stated before, MJ/YMAX haven't made it easy to see those figures. And if you haven't yet tried Skype, it's cheap enough to check into in order to compare the quality for any call and pricing the international ones. Skype keeps itemized details of all calls for the account holder to access, view, download, etc. Again in a nutshell, my gripe about MagicJack is:
1) the lack of call itemizing for accountability purposes with the likelihood of overcharging for calls to Mexico
AND
2) it's general poorer quality of calls


http://www.tijuanabl...?showtopic=1784

http://www.tijuanabl...t...icjack&st=0
http://www.tijuanabl...t...ost&p=14149
http://www.tijuanabl...t...ost&p=15923
http://www.tijuanabl...t...ost&p=16559

[jonerich]

you tell em scoobY!!!!! and the number one reason is IT SUCKS!!!!!!!!

[AcapulcoGringo]

I have used Skype for a few years, and would have nothing else.. IT is GREAT, CHEAP, and crystal clear! You can call US toll free numbers for FREE even in Mexico... and for I pay like 3 USD a month for Unlimited US and Canada calling and I have a Local SD number.. Yes they have both Adapters to plug in a regular phone to (but you must have your computer turned on) and they also have a few phones that plug directly into you internet modem or router and does not require a computer (thjese are regular cordless phones that are dual use, for skype and regualr calls)..

Hands down Skype Rules and is much beter than MJ!

[bajashrink]

Thanks, Scooby.

It's good that you've obtained a MJ device for free, at least for checking it out and being able to make unlimited national calls. If you've read my posts regarding MJ, esp. for international calls to MX, I suggest go easy at first. Pay once at the lowest increment, use it, and then try to account for what they've charged you verses what you calculate your usage has been. As I stated before, MJ/YMAX haven't made it easy to see those figures. And if you haven't yet tried Skype, it's cheap enough to check into in order to compare the quality for any call and pricing the international ones. Skype keeps itemized details of all calls for the account holder to access, view, download, etc. Again in a nutshell, my gripe about MagicJack is:
1) the lack of call itemizing for accountability purposes with the likelihood of overcharging for calls to Mexico
AND
2) it's general poorer quality of calls


http://www.tijuanabl...?showtopic=1784

http://www.tijuanabl...t...icjack&st=0
http://www.tijuanabl...t...ost&p=14149
http://www.tijuanabl...t...ost&p=15923
http://www.tijuanabl...t...ost&p=16559

[xolotl]

VoIP is a thorny issue.

First of all, you have the VoIP providers. In the past they were carpetbaggers, no technical expertise, bad customer service, beaucoup downtime, dishonest billing practices. Most of that seems to have shaken out, though. We're now down to providers who are competing on standard marketing terms.

Then you have the hardware. Lots of it, all over the alphabet soup (ATA, USB, softphone), and dozens of codecs to choose from depending on what hardware you've bought into.

And then there's the ISP. Most (on both sides of the border) supply upload speeds at a fraction of their download speeds -- they even have a smug marketing term for it that I've forgotten. Empirically, though, when my contract with Cablemás (hereinafter "Problemás") was for a quarter-meg, they gave me half a meg bps download and something like 20K bps upload. This is not enough to sustain VoIP (and they know that, they're in partnership with Axtel and give their Axtel customers much better upload speed), so I went to the local manager with printed data to complain. He looked at my speeds, my latency, my jitter, and my packet loss. Then he looked at me levelly and said "But when you average your upload speed and your download speed, you'll see that we're giving you far more than we promised." Now I've paid them two hundred pesos a month to upgrade the bandwidth to 1.5Mbps and they're giving me 300Mbps on the download but only 110K bps on the upload -- and so, if only we might average the two raw figures of their world-class service, we might find that they are exceeding our expectations. Jejeje. Even so, their latency and their jitter make for subnormal VoIP service.

And finally there's your own load on the bandwidth. Doing any websurfing? Any P2P? That has to go. Even with my enhanced bandwidth I shut everything down when a call comes in. But at least now they can hear me now.

So I am not too quick to fault MagicJack for bad service. Service is an issue within the entire supply chain. I have a friend in Colonia Libertad right at the border who swears by his MagicJack, but then he uses MagicJack for what it was designed to be used for -- mobility without much overhead. Me, I can't say because my life is not laptop; I use an ATA because I need a base station.

But I will be quick to fault Skype for their monopolistic practices -- they say "free -- free -- free" -- but only if you stay within their network. We've been there already, Mexico City, 1920s, Bell versus Ericsson ... and now with Carlos Slim against everyone else. No, if you go VoIP, you may as well go open-source. I use an open-source VoIP service and Skype doesn't like that because people around the world can call me for free. Skype doesn't support iNums (international phone numbers) and Skype doesn't support SIP brokering (peer-to-peer in the VoIP world). Worse still, whenever I've spoken to folks on Skype, it's always seemed like Skype deliberately mucked up the connection. Skype is a very jealous mistress. Skype is not free. Vonage is not cheap. Look to open-source VoIP if you want to save money in the long term but be prepared to by your own ATA at the outset.

Now, about Mexican phone numbers, those are controlled by COFETEL. And it is a truism that governmental agencies become coöpted by the industries they're meant to oversee within a generation of their inception. (Before anyone complains, that "law" was invented by a friend of mine who is currently practicing law in California and who is, to my horror, a member of the Opus Dei; to his credit, when I charged him for the Teapot Dome Scandal, he readily accepted fault even though he wasn't alive at the time of the scandal.) Anyway, Mexican phone numbers are currently very expensive for everyone outside of a handful of great metropolitan areas. Even now, on the threshold of the twenty-first century, our beloved Baja is still considered to be among the Mexican hinterlands. Your VoIP provider can give you an incredibly inexpensive phone number for Mexico City or Guadalajara or Monterrey or Puebla but your friends in Tijuana will spend a fortune when they call it.

And here's the rub. We've been using VoIP in Tijuana for about six years now in order to call Tijuana, Ensenada, and Hermosillo. That's where the rest of our family lives. It's been cheaper to call from our San Diego number via VoIP to those three cities than it has been to call from a proper Tijuana number (which we once had) to those same three cities. And now we've stopped using our San Diego VoIP number because we now have to pay for uncompleted calls to mobile phones in Mexico, thanks to a law that Telcel rammed through.

So, if or when you do VoIP, don't expect to get a Baja phone number. Look for an area code close to your gingo family. Or your western European family. Or your Australian family. Or even your central Mexican family.

And, if you really want to save money on your telephony, look to suppliers who offer "iNum" and "SIP broker". Open source is our future.

X

[bajashrink]

I have no complaint about my upload and download time with Cablemás, and it never disconnects like Prodigy did at least once a week when I had Telnor. My MagicJack reception and performance is still high quality as well. I haven't purchased any credit for it yet to call Mexico, but my pre-paid TelCel is adequate for the local and national calling I have to do. I have no need for basic but over-priced Telnor or Axtel land line service.

[jonerich]

Anybody using Telnor DSL and Vonage having trouble? I lost the dial tone and have spent hours with Vonage tech support (regular phone and email) to no avail.

Nobody can figure it out. It's been working fine for over two years.

I'm ready to switch to Skype.

prob would be your best bet mate!! i have heard some horror stories about vonage phone service why would you pay 25 a month when you can pay 50 for a year!!! We have got some majic jack supporters here also but IMO the quality is not the same plus you are stuck using a corded phone and at the computer where as skype has several wifi phones you can us anywhere and cordleess option for your home hope this help
peace

[AcapulcoGringo]

Hands down, Skype is Better than them all!! Read the Terms of Service on Magic Jack about the advertising, and keeping track of calls, and it might make the supporters think twice..

Plus with skype, and Internet cafe in the world that had headsets you can use, its like having your own phone anywhere in the world, that is if you dont have one of the WIFI phones..

[Rosarito Gary]

I have tried Skpe a few times and got disconnected several times and could not hear the other person. I have vonage now for 3 years and love it. never a problem with it. I think 24.99 for unlimited calls in usa and canada is very reasonable as long as it works. I never have tried the magic jack.

[Pieancho]

I like 8x8. I have had no issues with it connected to my Telnor DSL

[GaryN]

I used skype last year then just switched to Nextel. Skype you do not have a assigned number but a username. Skype is free but not sure how regular phones can call you. Maybe they updated their system but if you have other programs running the sound is muffled and calls can drop. At one time they had free calls to regular phones.

[AcapulcoGringo]

If you have just regular FREE skype, then you can call others for free with skype and vice versa.. BUT if you get an ONLINE number then you can select a SD number or any number you want, and you can get a "subscription" for unlimited calling to US and CA for like 3 bucks a month.. which is BY FAR cheaper than any other... I use over 70 hours a month calling US and only pay about 5 bucks, and I pay 5 because I signed up originally using a fake LONDON address, and the reason I did that is because they offer UK residents a free number (anywhere you wish) with a subscription.. SO I only pay around 5 bucks a month for a number and unlimited incoming calls from anywhere in the world via regular phones, and unlimited to US and CANADA.
Someone mentioned Skype doesn't work well if other programs are running, well, true if your computer's memory or processor isnt that advanced.. BUT if you have a pretty decent PC then it works like a dream.. SOMETIMES, if my laptop is sluggish, I just restart it and all is fine.. PLUS you can buy a Ethernet phone, or a WIFI phone for SKype, and 100% bypass your computer to use skype...

If you just have skype on your computer and don't pay anything, you CAN still call US and Canada Toll Free numbers for free.. even with no credit...

In the END.... Its MUCH MUCH cheaper that Vonage, and Magic Jack has some issues on their terms of Service that make me queezy!

I personally have no problems with Skype!

[AcapulcoGringo]

By the way , here is a link to Amazon listing the phones, and adapters that can be used with skype where you dont need to use your computer at all...


Skype phones, NO computer needed

[Daniel]

My MagicJack reception and performance is still high quality as well. I haven't purchased any credit for it yet to call Mexico, but my pre-paid TelCel is adequate for the local and national calling I have to do.

That fits my situation too.

I have no complaints about MagicJack’s quality. Nor do I see how at $20.00 a year you can beat the price.

[With] majic jack … you are stuck using a corded phone

Not true. It works fine for me while using cordless phones.

-----------

If you’re having trouble with MJ I suggest testing your Ethernet card. A friend was complaining about MJs quality but when I hooked it up to my laptop the problems disappeared. He replaced his Ethernet card and hasn’t had problems since then.

I think MJ needs about 190k of bandwidth. As others have stated, if you lack RAM and bandwidth resources you’ll have problems. Downloading a video isn’t the time to use MJ—but that’s true of other VoIP systems.

[Scooby]

I suggest the MJ users to make a few international calls (esp. to MX).
Then try to monitoring the costs through the logs which they "provide".