MagicJack in Belize?

[DaveHOz]

I am considering MagicJack as a solution for making long distance calls. I have a close friend in Belize (Central America) that I call fairly frequently, but, as some of you may know, the telecom monopoly in Belize, BTL, has blocked Skype and other mainstream VOIP services in that country, to prevent competition with their own long-distance phone services.

What I need to determine before I invest my $$$ in MagicJack is whether or not it would be likewise blocked in Belize. Does anyone here know if MagicJack uses standard VOIP? Has anyone had experience trying (successfully or not) to use MagicJack in Belize?

Dave

[solearth]

From what I heard, MJ uses the standard SIP protocall, just like the standard VOIP companies.

[kumar]

Yep it does run on SIP.... BTW i don't think this would be under fetaures comming soon but w.e lol
Peace
Kumar

[yama]

I am considering MagicJack as a solution for making long distance calls. I have a close friend in Belize (Central America) that I call fairly frequently, but, as some of you may know, the telecom monopoly in Belize, BTL, has blocked Skype and other mainstream VOIP services in that country, to prevent competition with their own long-distance phone services.

What I need to determine before I invest my $$$ in MagicJack is whether or not it would be likewise blocked in Belize. Does anyone here know if MagicJack uses standard VOIP? Has anyone had experience trying (successfully or not) to use MagicJack in Belize?

Dave

Dave - let me know if you have any success in Belize. I am trying to find Anyone in Central America to talk to to test the voice quality.

[kharr]

I just got my MJ today, and so far, it's working perfect. I also have ViaTalk, and have no complaints. The reason I got MJ is because of bandwidth. My understanding is that MJ only needs 80k and ViaTalk needs 200k of bandwidth. I will be moving to Dominican Republic next month and was concerned about bandwidth there. I have lived in the Antilles before, and bandwidth is a big issue there. Compared to the US that is. When I get down there, I be PM some of you and trying out the service from there. i'll let everyone know how it goes.

[Stewart]

MJ and VT both presently use G.711 codec, which takes ~80 kbps at IP level. For decent quality, you need at least 128 kbps upload speed, to allow for overhead and other incidental traffic. If your bandwidth concerns are because you are billed based on usage, or your upload speed will be less than 128 kbps, find a provider that offers G.729 (~30 kbps) or other compression codec. MJ has claimed that they will support this in the future.

[VaHam]

I am considering MagicJack as a solution for making long distance calls. I have a close friend in Belize (Central America) that I call fairly frequently, but, as some of you may know, the telecom monopoly in Belize, BTL, has blocked Skype and other mainstream VOIP services in that country, to prevent competition with their own long-distance phone services.

What I need to determine before I invest my $$$ in MagicJack is whether or not it would be likewise blocked in Belize. Does anyone here know if MagicJack uses standard VOIP? Has anyone had experience trying (successfully or not) to use MagicJack in Belize?

Dave

You may want to google for info on using VPN to tunnel your VOIP either thru a friend here in the states or one of the services. I linked a couple for you below but there is more out there.

http://www.e3call.com/documents/The%20PPTP%20VPN%20solution%20for%20avoiding%20VOIP%20block.doc
http://www.fonosip.com/english/openvpn.html