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Review by slicemaster 
UPDATED: 4.1 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 166 visits, last login: 159 days ago
 Newbury Park,Ventura,CA
 $24 per month (month by month)
 "GREAT CALL QUALITY, Helpful technical support (longest I have been on hold has been 10mins), Low cost (aka best value), BYOD!"
 "None so fare - Recent calls to support have had very low hold times (e-mail support is a joke though)"
 "Great service, Great value, Great account options---Basically worth a try!"
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Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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(ratings match consensus)
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Well, I have only been with BroadVoice for a short time but during this short time my experiences have been fabulous. I actually signed up for the Unlimited World Plus BYOD plan and activation was free because I bought my Sipura SPA-841 IP Phone from »voxilla.com/ . Voxilla includes a coupon when you buy any Sipura product that will get you signed up for nothing (zip, zero, nada) plus the first month FREE! Anyways, I am using my BroadVoice service with a Sipura SPA-841 IP Phone. I provision the device myself and it works great. I am running their service over my Adelphia cable modem and I have never had any problems (I have a dynamic IP if anyone wants to know but it doesn’t change all that often, probably once every couple of months). I have also used my phone in hotels, friend’s houses, school, etc. and I have never had a problem (my phone is configured to receive an IP address, DNS, gateway, etc. via DHCP so I can basically go any ware and plug into any network and get service). I have made calls all over the US and have had no problems. Ordering the service was super easy and setting up my Sipura IP phone wasn’t that hard either. My experiences with this company have been nothing but delightful so far and I look forward to using them for the years to come (I will post updates to this review every once in a wile). I would highly recommend giving BroadVoice a try, especially with the use of your own SIP device; it is really cheap that way. Anyways, every thing is running smoothly and I am quite satisfied with the service, the quality of the calls are actually better then with my regular pots line. Well, that’s about it, nothing but good to report. I’ll keep you forks here posted in regards to my continued service.
Later,
Slice
::UPDATE::
Well, I have had BroadVoice for a few weeks now and I am still extremely satisfied. I have not had any service outages and every thing has been running smoothly. Anyways, this update is to inform you of BroadVoice’s international calling services. I have to say that every international call I have made has been superb! The connections were fast and actually had better quality then my POTS line. I called Sweden and Estonia and all calls were crystal clear. I have the Unlimited World Plus plan so calling to Sweden is free, while calling to Estonia is very cheap. The connection was the best I have ever had to Europe and I am ecstatic at the high quality connections that I can’t even get with my pots service.
Slice
::UPDATE:: (5-3-05)
Well, I just had my first outage (the outage was only partial though, incoming calls work perfectly but outgoing calls are spotty). I however do not blame BroadVoice for the outage because it seems to have been a bad day for all VoIP providers. According to »Sipsource.com , BroadVoice was not the only VoIP provider afflicted as major outages were reported from Voice Pulse, Vonage, ATT CallVantage, and Packet 8. BroadVoice is aware of the problem and currently has engineers working on it. It probably is a switching problem IMHO. Anyways, just thought I’d let you forks know. But like I said I don’t blame BroadVoice for the hiccup as it is probably a switching sub station problem that has screwed up most of the providers, not just BroadVoice.
Slice
::UPDATE:: (5-9-05)
Well, the service outage is over and service has been restored (after 6days). It is actually better then ever. I am very satisfied and I am going to stay with BV. I attribute the outage to growing pains and that’s about it. But like I said, the service is back up and running better then ever.
Slice
::UPDATE:: (5-19-05)
Well, my service has been restored for quite awhile now and I am happy that the outage is over. I am currently experiencing some intermittent audio problems but I have concluded that this is because BV is still tuning their systems after the software upgrade and new currier changes. I am completely satisfied with the service and I am excited that they are back on track. I think BV could have handled the outage better however I am just happy that this type of outage probably wont happen again. I have been noticing that a few other providers have been reporting downtime recently so that just goes to show you that VoIP is still a new technology and is not to be relied on 100%. Some people here obviously made the mistake of VoIP as their only means of telephone communication and they seem to be the ones huffing and puffing the most. I think most people under stand this concept but some seem to have just missed the boat on that note. There have been plenty of useless rants but I think things are finally settling down so I expect it to be smooth sailing. Just to clarify, my service is working great and word is that BV actually supports some new codecs so that is also a welcome addition for some.
Note: BV obviously took a rating hit due to the recent outage and the way they handled it, and I think this was completely warranted. I do however expect those who reduced their rating to bring them back up when the criteria has been met.
Slice
P.S. At this point I can’t in good conscience recommend BV to anyone due to the recent outage and how they handled it. I however also understand that these things do happen to all providers so I am a little more forgiving then others. I also see BV making a quick recovery in service so in a few weeks I will reevaluate the service and reconsider my stands as fare as recommending them. The service right now is great and as long as it continues on its current path I would have no problem recommending them again in a few weeks.
::UPDATE:: (6-2-05)
Well,
Service has been improving and so I have to comeback here and update my ratings and review. Ever since service was restored after the outage, the service has been more and more reliable. Voice quality is also going back up. I have only experienced a few hiccups (issue with voice mail and calling to Canada, nothing major) since the outage and those have been resolved very quickly.
Signed,
Slice
P.S. at this point I still can’t recommend them because I feel it is too soon to do that. Even though their service is good I feel I need a little more time to solidify these updated opinions.
P.P.S. BV got the shaft on the ratings recently and this was called for because the service level we as customers received during the outage was just plain horrible. However I think some of the more angry users are purposefully giving BV the shaft because of their own anger rather then actual recent service state. I would challenge all those who have yet to update their reviews to do so because many of the reviews posted now are just not accurate according the current service state.
::UPDATE:: (6-11-05)
Service is great; I have not had any major issues with BV since service was restored after the outage. Support has been extremely helpful and the service it self has been extremely reliable as of late not to mention the superb voice quality. BV is on the come back and I look forward to this type of quality of service for years to come. People have just been too hard on BV; it is also ironic that people have not been as hard on some of the other providers that have been experiencing issues recently. Anyways, I am almost confident enough to start recommending them again but I will wait to the end of the month before I will give that my stamp of approval so to speak.
Slice
::UPDATE:: (7-27-05)
Well, QoS has greatly improved since my last update, and so has call quality. I am currently overseas using my BV line via a laptop with Xten Lite (a popular softphone) and a USB handset over a wireless Internet connection. It works great; it is definitely saving me a ton of cash on what would have been a huge bill if I didn’t have BV. Anyways, I am using the DCA proxy and have had great success using my BV service from Sweden, Estonia, and Norway, as those are the countries I have been visiting (call gets a little digitized sometimes according the some call recipients but I know that is due to the wireless internet connection and increased latency of the long roundtrip to DC). Anyways, I am extremely happy with the service and look forward to further improvement.
Slice
P.S. Customer support via telephone is fabulous as the people at CS are always friendly and eager to help (recent calls to CS have resulted in 30sec-3min hold times); however, e-mail support could use improvement.
::UPDATE:: (7-28-05)
Well, I didn’t state it above but I am also traveling with my SPA-841 (Sipura hardphone) in addition to my laptop softphone combo. This has enabled me to have the greatest flexibility based on whether there is a data port (hardwired internet access via Ethernet) available or just WiFi. Anyways, the hotel I am staying at has a data port so I decided to give the SPA-841 a try to see if it made any difference in call quality over my laptop softphone combo, and man was the quality better. I am attributing this to the fact that the SPA-841 is hardwired and therefore has decreased latency and less packet loss when compared to even the best WiFi links. Anyways, the call quality is much better (for both the caller and callee) when using the SPA-841; it is simply amazing what hardwiring can do for quality. Call quality over WiFi and my laptop softphone combo is good (some digitization once in a wile on the call recipients end) but wile using my SPA-841 it was flawless (ZERO digitization for either parties). The people I called said that the quality when using the SPA-841 was just like talking face to face with fantastic voice dynamics and depth wile they said that when I was using the laptop softphone combo over WiFi they said call quality was that of a decent to good cellular phone call. Either way, I am happy, and I just though I would report the quality difference that I have observed wile using both WiFi and hardwired Internet access, as well as softphone to hardphone differences.
Slice
P.S. If anyone wants to know I have been using the G. 711 codec on the proxy.dca.broadvoice.com outgoing proxy.
::UPDATE:: 9-4-05
Well,
Overall service has been very good. No outages as of recent and better voice quality. Pretty much what my last update was saying. But for all those who say I have been to kind to BV here is a list of things I am either still affected by or am concerned about. First is the fact that BV has still not been able to bring all their proxies on line in a fully operational state. The only proxies that are fully operational are DCA and MIA (last I checked). I would like to use LAX but important features such as call transfer and caller id with name are still not working on LAX(thank goodness they got the DTMF issues fixed). This is just bad business, it does not affect me because I can use DCA just fine but why have more then one proxy if they aren’t maintained properly so that they all function properly? It is just stupid. I just wish they would fix them, and there is no reason why they cant, they just need to dedicate the resources and do it. Next would be the fact that their e-mail support and engineering ticketing system response times are terrible (I for one filed a trouble ticket about the LAX proxy and I have still not received a response months later). I want to be clear, BV is not perfect based on the above complaints but in my honest opinion they deserve a chance, and for me they have been great. I also stated in earlier updates that my international calls are crystal clear and are actually better connections then I can get on my Verizon pots line and this is still true to this day. Service is great now even with the proxy fiasco that I described above. I would have no problem recommending them; things can only get better if they get their other proxies online and fully operational.
Signed,
Slice
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