AstraQom, based out of Ottawa, Canada, provides hosted VoIP to small and large businesses. Their web site is easy on the eyes, perhaps a little too easy, but business is about 25% of what AstraQom VoIP offers. AstraQom also offers hosted PBX solutions aimed at hospitals, not-for-profits, and the hospitality industry.
AstraQom’s pricing tiers are 2 lines from $29.99, 4 lines from $49.99, 8 lines from $89.99, 16 lines from 169.99, and 32 lines from $335.99. They offer class five softswitch features, including auto-attendant, caller ID, and a dial-by-name directory. Their international rates are, as they put it “cheaper than Skype.” AstraQom offers 24/7 phone support, and a 30 day money back guarantee. Anyone who tries out AstraQom will feel secure knowing that.
AstraQom’s approach to mobile VoIP is a little unusual. Subscribers are allowed to purchase blocks of 100 minutes at a time for $10 each, called “bolt-on” minutes. The price remains the same whether the subscriber is on the top tiered plan or the bottom. Rather than simply list iOS and Android compatibility, they list every phone that is compatible with their service.
That said, it’s a very smart thing to do. Not sure if your iPhone will work? It tells you, 4, 4S and 3GS. Anything earlier, or an iPod touch, isn’t compatible. It lists the Android phones as well, which is a considerably long list. AstraQom is the first provider to list Windows phone compatibilities and Nokia OS (also called ISA). The list of Nokia phones is actually quite long and detailed. Note, though, that the web site listed the phone and showed a picture of the phone, but didn’t link to any other information about the phone.
This marks the second time that a VoIP provider not based out of the US has offered some sort of feature that I haven’t seen yet in the US. The other one was UK-based VoIPdito, which allows subscribers to send SMS messages to cell phones. AstraQom’s “Mobile App” page, rather than give information about the AstraQom VoIP app, instead extended an invitation to developers to join their team in developing mobile apps and games. This is in keeping with AstraQom’s wide portfolio of services, including web hosting email hosting, and even an answering service.
This deep portfolio, unfortunately, makes the web site confusing, which is my one gripe about AstraQom. The pages say all the aforementioned plans start from a certain price, but don’t say which premium options are offered. By clicking “learn more,” I get bounced back to AstraQom’s main page. It’s easy to keep going in circles going from “learn more” to “business solutions” and back. In fact, even the “buy now” goes right to the main page. It’s a little frustrating that it’s difficult to get a more accurate quote.
AstraQom has a very low-pressure approach to their VoIP sales. I think it might be a little too low pressure. For any web company that advertises web hosting to not have a Katana-edge sharpness to its own website is a little disappointing. I have no doubt that AstraQom offers a fair price and a customized solution for businesses, hotels & cruise ships, hospitals and not-for-profits. It would just be nice if they made their web site less of a maze.
