Betamax (VoIP company)

Infobox Company
company_slogan =
company_name = Betamax GmbH & Co. KG
company_
company_type = Private company
foundation = 2005
location_city = Cologne
location_country = Germany
key_people =
industry = Telecommunication
products = Voice over IP
revenue =
net_income =
num_employees=
parent =
homepage = http://www.betamax.com/
footnotes =

Betamax is a company, founded in 2005, which operates several Internet telephony services (also called VoIP-service) in Germany. Betamax uses a client software with proprietary protocol, but can also be accessed via SIP-protocol.

List of services

Betamax GmbH & Co KG also run other Internet telephony services like:

* 12Voip
* BudgetSIP
* Calleasy
* DarmowyTelefon
* Freecall
* Hungarytopup
* Internetcalls
* Intervoip
* JustVoip
* LeVoip

(It isn't a Betamax service but a US based one offered on Betamax's infrastructure)

* LowRateVoip
* NetAppel.fr
* Nonoh
* Poivy
* SIPDiscount
* SMSdiscount
* SmsListo
* SparVoip
* VoipBuster
* VoipBusterPro

* VoipCheap
* VoipDiscount
* Voiphit
* VoipRaider
* VoipStunt
* VoipWise
* Voicetrading
* WebCallDirect

These services are very similar, but each have their own rate plans. [cite web | url=http://voiptelephonyservice.blogspot.com/2006/10/voipstunt-review.html | title=VoipStunt Review | publisher=VoIP Service | accessdate=2006-11-20] Some of these services do not support SIP (see above), which may limit their usefulness.Fact|date=July 2008

Specialities

Betamax occasionly changes its prices and sometimes restricts the scope of its services in hidden ways.

The terms are changing without prior notice. At the beginnings in 2005, users were able to make a free 1 minute test call or, by paying €1, calls of unlimited duration could be placed for free without having this be limited to a period such as days, weeks or months.Fact|date=July 2008 Soon, however, restrictions to both the individual call duration and free calling period duration were introduced: the period of free calling that this €1 gets you went from being unlimited down to 180, then to 120 days, and then further down to 90 days (by a few clones are only 60 days free); also a limit of 300 minutes worth of free calls per week (correction: usually a rolling seven day period rather than standard calendar week) was introduced.Fact|date=July 2008 Additionally the initial charge of €1 became €10 - which you would start to spend after 90 days when free countries were no longer free. Lately, many of Betamax's services such as 12VoIP seem to have scrapped the 300 minute/week worth of free calls policy, and introduced what they're calling their Fair-Use Policy, which means that the company is now able to discontinue offering a free rate to its advertised free destinations if it adjudges the user to be using their service more than 300 (at two of the clones 200) minutes within a rolling 7 day period per unique IP address.Fact|date=July 2008 The company's definition for excessive use are described on the Terms of Use pages.

More than 80 destinations are free at this time but they are sometimes changing those. Several time a year they launch new web sites with more tempting tarifs from which some are changing in the first few weeks. These new sites are advertised in the voip software as they become live. Popular nations like the USA are removed after some time.Fact|date=July 2008

They've launched in 2007 a 1 EUR fee if you want a VOIP-in number (which is only possible in a couple of countries).Fact|date=July 2008

You should watch carefully for any changes to their terms, as it can easily become more expensive than alternative providers.POV-statement|date=July 2008

Costs

Betamax works with prepaid accounts, with no monthly subscription costs. An account is created using the Betamax software or through the website. Adding funds to an account ("topping up") is done by credit card, PayPal, Ukash, MoneyBookers, bank transfer, or through a reseller; the funds will be immediately (or after the receipt of the money especially by a bank transfer or a payment through a reseller) available as prepaid call credit and are valid indefinitely.

After payment the user is allocated a number of "Freedays", depending on the amount and the used payment method (€10 by credit card adds mostly 120 Freedays). During "Freedays", no costs are charged for calling to designated destinations (the "free" countries mentioned above) listed on the website. These free calls no more terminate after one hour as earlier. One can converse up to 300 minutes per week for free, measured over the last seven days. If this limit is reached, or no more "Freedays" are left, the ordinary costs for the destinations are charged.

Accounts with no credit, and no Freedays, are marked as "trial account". With a trial account, a user can only call other users, and place "test calls" of a few minutes to landlines in selected "free" countries.

Fraud

The company has been accused of fraudulent activity on several websites. Hundreds of clients have had their accounts blocked with the code ERROR 33 and their deposited funds confiscated for no apparent reason. [ [http://www.myvoipprovider.com/option,com_myblog/show,betamax-voip-credit---scam---fraud---cheating.html/Itemid,130/ My VoIP Provider - VoIP Services - - Betamax VoIP Credit - Scam - Fraud - Cheating ] ] Betamax has not made any attempt to respond to customer inquiries or explained what Error 33 is, why it has occurred or how to fix and prevent it from occurring again.Fact|date=July 2008 Attempts have been made by hundreds of customers Who|date=September 2008 who had their accounts blocked as to why such thing happened, but there is no response by e-mail or helpline.POV-statement|date=September 2008

In the meantime blocked accounts were revised and most of them are reactivated. One can reach the customer service of any brands after logging in to his/her own account on the respective webpage.

Restrictions

* Betamax is available in many countries except those where VoIP telephony is forbidden.Fact|date=July 2008

* Support: Betamax customer service is only available via the website. An online user "discussion forum" is also available at https://www.voipbuster.com/forum/index.php. Many users have complained about technical problems. [cite web | url=https://forum.voipbuster.com/viewforum.php?f=4 | title=VoipBuster.com General Technical Discussion (Board)| publisher=VoipBuster.com | accessdate=2007-06-17]

* Free destinations change frequently, with no guarantee that calls in the future will be still free.Fact|date=July 2008 Tariff changes are announced only on the website (the softphone shows costs during the call, and VoipBuster provides a spoken cost report prior to connection).Fact|date=July 2008 When numbers are not free, Betamax claims its prices are still lower than other providers.Fact|date=July 2008

* Peering is limited to a small number of other VoIP networks, like Gizmo Project and the network of DID provider Voxbone.Fact|date=July 2008

* No free voicemail service is offered.

* No overview is given of available geographical phone numbers before the user registers.

* The software is only available for Windows. It is possible to call using other software and the SIP server at Betamax. Fact|date=July 2008

* Some of the services automate customer's purchases. If the customer opts-in, when the balance is low, they will automatically use the stored credit card data to initiate a new purchase. If the customer did not in fact intend to purchase new credit, they will not easily undo the purchase and cancel the charge.POV-statement|date=July 2008

Unsupported Functionality

* Voice call encryption.
* Answering machine test call.
* Fax-Service

Functionality

The company provides voice-over-Internet services similar to (for example) Skype, but offers something they call a "phone-to-phone call bridging service", which, or so they claim, only they offer.POV-statement|date=July 2008

VoIP-Out

The user selects the name of a listed user, or enters a username or phone number, and the connection is made. User-to-user calls are free, but there is a charge for user-to-phone calls in most countries, with the exception of some countries mostly located in Europe, North America and East Asia.

The initial free calls are only for the first 60 minutes. After you used the 60 minutes, the service actually costs 2.5 euro per month, since you have to deposit 10 euros to continue using the system, and the deposit is only valid for 4 months.Fact|date=July 2008Acourding to the web site after the freedays are over you can still spend those 10 euros at normal rates. This is not really clear, because they try to make it look free.POV-statement|date=July 2008

VoIP-In

Users are provided a Voip-In phone number, which others can call at no cost to the Betamax user. VoIP-in numbers are not available in all countries. At one time Dutch users were able to obtain a Dutch phone number, which can be called from fixed and mobile lines. The caller pays the costs for calling to a fixed line in the Netherlands, for the recipient (the user) the conversation is free. VoIP-In provides for nomadic use of a Dutch phone number (a user can log in abroad and be reached there on the Dutch phone number); this is controversial and officially prohibited by the Dutch telecom regulator OPTA.Fact|date=July 2008 Unfortunately now a free phone number is no longer offered, but it is important to note that most VoIP providers at this price do not offer a VoIP-in number.

Web-based ring

A user enters his own phone number and the recipient's number through Betamax software or the service website. The user's phone rings, then the recipient's phone. No additional equipment is needed to use the service on a landline. For both calls (to the user and recipient) call costs are charged from the prepaid balance, plus a 0.05 eur connection tariff, with one exeption: nonoh.net don't charges any start tariff.

MS

A user can send SMS to any phone number in the world – users submit the message via the software or the subscriber page on the website.

[http://www.smsdiscount.com/ SMSdiscount] is another service run by VoipBuster. [cite web | url=http://ex.perimental.net/blog/index.php/communication/1-cent-per-sms-worldwide-pretty-cheap-voip-calls/ | title=1 cent per SMS worldwide & pretty cheap VOIP calls | publisher=ex.perimental.net | accessdate=2007-05-31] The price is variable.

Both services and non reliableFact|date=March 2008. The user may get charged for the messages but they may or may not be delivered in most of the countries.POV-statement|date=July 2008

Other

Other Betamax options include forwarding all incoming calls to another number or username and anonymous calling.

References

See also

* Comparison of VoIP software
* List of commercial voice over IP network providers

External links

* [http://www.betamax.com/ Betamax GmbH & Co.Kg]
* [http://www.voipbuster.com VoipBuster Official Site]
* [http://www.voipstunt.com VoipStunt Official Site]
* [http://www.voipwise.com VoipWise Official Site]
* [http://betamax.xf-s.com Betamax Voip providers rates list]