Review by Network Guy 
UPDATED: 37 days ago
member for 9.2 years, 3710 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
 New York
 $20 per month (month by month)
 about 3 days
 "CHEAP!! Call quality compares to POTS. Reliable. Portal features are a plus."
 "LNP process is mediocre at best. Helpful tech support is a coin toss."
 "They're worth a shot. Patience is a virtue when it comes to LNP and them, however."
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Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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*** UPDATE OCTOBER 14, 2009 ***
Well... I sadly report after four years with Broadvox, my service has been handed over to Phone Power as the company is exiting residential VoIP service market.
Dial tone always worked, calls always came in crystal clear.
The DTA2102 SIP adapter shall sit in my computer room unplugged now. It is technology collector's piece at this point. They probably don't want it back, nobody has asked for it at Broadvox.
Oh well.....
*** UPDATE MARCH 9, 2006 ***
Holy shiit, I have had Broadvox for a year already?!?!? Wow time flies.
Well what can I say... Broadvox continues to be rock solid. This thing just never goes down. Maybe one time or two I will notice chopped voice calls but it is so rare that I couldn't even recollect how often it has happened.
I've changed the credit card on file three times to date. Not due to them, just some financial reorganization on my end. Nothing to worry in this regard, as every time the info was updated successfully and the charges were processed as normal.
It is no wonder why they provide no tech support, IT IS NOT NEEDED! lol
Service is great, calls are clear, uptime is superb. You couldn't expect more from a VoIP telephone company.
*** UPDATE APRIL 4, 2005 ***
This is my post-experience 1-month review 
It's now been three months that I'm paying Broadvox for telephone service, and a little under one month since my old number ported over from Verizon. It hasn't been a pleasant experience getting them to follow through with technical issues, and by all means I still wouldn't recommend unless you have patience to wait on them to do something, but otherwise this has been a blessing in disguise for me.
I had a brief issue with fast busy signals on incoming calls, and even though it was aggravating getting to the bottom of it between Broadvox and the retards from Verizon, it was finally solved. I've been POTS-less for a little while now, and I couldn't be more pleased.
The line was tested with the home alarm system I have, and it works fine. The same goes for faxing capability. There's still no E-911 service nor do they offer non-emergency 311 dialing, so if that's a deal breaker for you, don't do it.
A line that is lightly used shouldn't cost $40 per month, and that's what I was paying Verizon for stripped down, basic service, so I'm alright paying $20 for unlimited local and long distance calling I'll probably hardly ever use despite its limitations.
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Just as with many disgruntled telecom users like myself disgusted with the increasing surcharges and fees padded onto the monthly phone bill, I decided to take a stab at Internet telephony for home. I feel some of you may benefit from a complete account of what entailed getting this service in order to make your own decisions about getting this, so feel free to read this through. I'll try to be as concise, yet as detailed as possible.
*** ORDERING ****
After weighing in all the options, pricing, and essential features (or lack thereof) of several companies, I chanced it with Broadvox Direct. I lucked out and got in on their unlimited local and long distance calling deal for $20 per month, no taxes or any other fees as of this review.
Ordering was a breeze. They took all the necessary information, clearly disclosed upfront setup and ATA shipping fees, and took my credit card info to complete the order.
The ATA arrived in two days. Installation was painless, though if you're a VoIP n00b like myself, you will want to skim through the installation guide and save yourself the extra couple of minutes figuring out why there's no dial tone.
*** IF YOU WANT TO TAKE YOUR OLD NUMBER WITH YOU, READ ON ***
The painful, disappointing yet expected part of this ordeal was taking my home phone number with me to Broadvox. As I was told, by the time I signed up for VoIP with them, Broadvox had just begun taking requests for local number ports. It was strongly emphasized that in order to successfully complete a LNP request that the billing information to the carrier currently owning the number had to match the information given to Broadvox. Taking heed to this, I made sure all the information was entered correctly, and the request was sent.
This is where the headache began....
Understanding that their policy allows up to 60 business days before the port goes through, I was patient and didn't pester them about it at first, and also continued to pay for two phone bills while the process was taking place. You must do this, or else the old carrier keeps your number, and the LNP will not go through.
Waiting and assuming they were handling it was the first mistake. Several calls to technical support yielded the same useless response: "The request has been submitted to the carrier, and we're waiting on a response. We rely on them for updates, so there's nothing we can do until then." I rolled with that for weeks, but once the request entered it's eighth week "in progress" patience was looming thin.
Fortunately a fellow member from this site presented to me what had proven to become the only way to push the request through. I was given a direct contact to the person in charge of LNP provisioning. Even though I was peeved by the unresponsiveness of Broadvox in getting this done, I had planned on talking to this individual about my situation politely.
I talked to the person, very nice guy, and explained what my situation was. He looked into it, and within hours he returned the call. The guy was very apologetic, and offered to personally resubmit the order and see to it that it follows through.
The LNP request was resubmitted on 3/1/05, and the land line at home associated to the number to be ported went dead on Friday evening on 3/4/05. Called the guy again the following Monday and explained what had happened, and within two hours, the port was successfully completed on their end. Even though I effectively waited two months for a process that took this one helpful individual six business days to push for completion, I was very grateful and thankful that it finally did happen.
For those of you waiting on a number port to take place, good luck. I was confided on for this direct contact so I can't give it out. If you're experiencing the same dilemma I did with them, you will eventually get the "hookup."
*** NOW FOR THE REST OF THE USEFUL REVIEW ***
Call quality does compare to POTS service. There is the occasional hissing on the phone, or what others have called "digital silence" when no one is talking, but it isn't overbearing and it normally happens when the call is first placed, and it then goes away. Weird, but I guess it happens.
Faxing isn't officially supported, and it showed when I tried. Placing a trouble ticket fixed the issue.
Yet another issue I was experiencing *perhaps I'm the only lucky one experiencing the kinks* is fast busy signals on incoming calls. It didn't matter from which telecom carrier I was calling, or at whichever time of day, it took several times redialing my number before the call went through. Tech support acknowledged there was an issue, and they're working on it with their carriers as of this review.
Broadvox was beta testing E911 service, and it is alleged it will be offered publicly soon. I'm not holding my breath on it. I'm personally thankful enough for getting a dial tone for this much cheaper. Others will disagree, this is my stance. Take it for what it's worth.
Bottom line... For me personally, you really can't beat $20 per month for unlimited local and long distance calling, and several popular features that the mammoths charge you a recurring fee for. So far I can consider them reliable, there hasn't been a time that I've lost dial tone since signing up. However, if you have absolutely no patience in working with them when something breaks, try AT&T or Vonage.
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