 Review by Sly 
UPDATED: 2.2 years ago
member for 4.5 years, 2271 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Johnson City,Washington,TN
 $20 per month
 about 3 days
 "Inexpensive, widely avaliable, leader of the pack, excellent call quality"
 "Need to drop the 12 month contract in their TOS"
 "The first phone company I have ever been happy with A+!"
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(ratings match consensus)
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I signed on with Packet8 November 2003. At first they were a little buggy. I would get occasional disconnects and quiet spots in a call. Also I would dial out sometimes and only get a busy signal or the phone wouldn't ring incoming calls. But...Since I've signed on, it's now April and I've seen more change in a company than I've ever seen in any other company ever. They're kind of like ATI, they are continuously releasing updates and improvements to keep their service optimum. I've seen them re-route calls away from problematic servers resulting in no dropped calls. I've seen them release new firmware to fix static or quiet glitches in a call. I've seen them fix problems with their DTMF tones. All of their features work as advertised. I couldn't be happier with a phone company's performance. Well almost...
Their tech support/customer service badly needs employees. It takes too long to get through. I really don't need to call tech support, though, because the phone service is great. But I do end up calling them to get help and give advice to improve their phone service. Their staff is knowledgeable and courteous. Usually with a company if you ask the person who answers the phone a question, they transfer the call several levels up the chain to get an answer, but not Packet8. Their staff is pretty intelligent. There just needs to be more of them.
They don't have as many features as some other VoIP companies. But in their price range, no one competes. They offer more rate centers (area codes) than any one else. They do not support fax or modem; but from what I've seen from other providers that do, neither do they. Fax and modem over VoIP is problematic at best right now. If you really need a fax, get a land line. Otherwise, stick to email. They also don't offer a soft-phone. But you can sign up for Free World Dial-up (FWD) and forward your calls to them then use their soft-phone if you like.
In conclusion, I can't find too many reasons not to try Packet8. They're affordable, reliable, and of good quality. They are a young company expanding quickly. They do not advertise as much as others. But, that is probably why their price is so competitive. If you want a phone service that comes with no strings attached, go with Packet8.
[edit] I made a few changes after having them for awhile. First, I had to drop them one point for value. With their new changes in the terms of service, new customers will have a commitment where as I didn't. Second, I raised their tech support 1 point. They now have support personnel on weekends and they have returned my emails quickly and they now have 24/7 support. Third, I dropped their web site down a point. They are very slow to reflect changes in their service on the web site. For example, I experienced an outage that lasted for 4 hours on a Saturday, but their web site claimed that all services were up and running. This outage was nationwide. I didn't drop them down for reliability. They are still generally very reliable. While they do still have occasional outages, they occur less often than in the past.
[update] I have to raise their rating for tech support. Actually it's because their latest firmware releases have been simply awesome. They have added so many new features and now all their updates are automatic. This means that we no longer have to manually update the DTA with new firmware. The call quality continues to be awesome. I have to say that I am overall very happy with their service, and that is rare for me to say about a phone company.
[update] They have listened to us here at BVR. They have sped up their website dramatically. The call logs have been moved to another place on their site so now the settings page loads instantly. They have also begun better maintenance of their database as well. The site is becoming more informative as well. They have added a change-log to inform customers of the changes from on firmware to the next.
[update] I have to raise them again for improving their website. They have made some changes that improve the speed of their site loading and now update their information quickly as far as system uptime is concerned. They have included more links to services such as 911 and LNP. Previously these were hard to find. I knew of 911 but knowing that they had it, I found it very hard to find the link by which to sign up with. They have fixed this problem and have made their site much clearer.
[update] I increased the website rating and reliability rating to 100%. They have made web navigation extremely easy and have grouped everything into easy to find categories. I've looked around to some other provider's sites and quite frankly, am confused at what they offer. Packet8's site is by far the easiest to navigate. They added a convenient share and score referral program and have provided an easy to find link so that I can monitor how many referrals I have made. I have referred many people.  Also the reliability has been perfect. I have not had any problems in a long time. What's strange is that my parents have had to start using their cell phones (not on Packet8 yet) because their POTS line has gotten extremely noisy. My Packet8 line still sounds perfect. Better than POTS.
[update] I increased value for money to 100%. I have looked around to other providers who have lower prices but it's only for limited minutes. $15 for 200 minutes is not a good deal, IMO. I like Packet8's unlimited minutes for $20 a lot better. I have still not found a provider that has as many rate center choices and as low a price as Packet8. They are definitely a value.
[update] P8 just added caller ID with name! The service works perfectly. I do not have any problems with it at all. 7 digit dialing works great, follow me/ find me is awesome, simul ring still works... Quite frankly, they have provided so many features it feels like I'm cheating them... I'm still paying $20/month yet they keep giving me more and more. With a flawless 911 system, they are now qualified to be a true replacement for POTS. In fact my P8 line is MORE reliable than my parents POTS line. They get more outages than I do with no features and triple the phone bill...
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