Review by Bogtrotter 
UPDATED: 1 days ago
member for 166 days, 70 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 East York,ON
 $3 per month (12 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "Amazingly Cheap; Sounds Good; Works Well"
 "Amazingly Cheap; Deserves more attention"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
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Update - 15/11/2009
Just a note to say that the service continues to work well. All calls I have made with it have sounded fine - no dropouts, noise, etc.
Magictalkbox is a new service which is built around a plug and play ATA designed, it appears, just for this service. It includes several tiers of service.
It also offers a byod option for 34.95, which is what I chose. That's for one year of unlimited calls to the US and Canada. Jose, the owner, said in an email that there is no hard limit on the number of minutes per month that are allowed, but that it is monitored, and anything that seems like business use would not be allowed. For me, that is no problem. $34.95 was the total price. If you like, you can add money to your account to be used for overseas calls.
Since getting the service about two weeks ago, I have made a bunch of test calls, as well as real calls of 20 minutes or more. I haven't encountered dropouts or other artifacts. To put it another way, it sounds about as good as a call using a top service such as Voip.MS.
Setting it up is standard: userid, domain, password - plug them into your ATA.
When I was doing the free test, I had a problem getting dtmf tones to be recognized, which I fixed by changing, in the ATA, the dtmf field from 'auto' to 'inband-info'.
After I signed up for the byod, I received an email from Jose, who asked me what codec I preferred and what dtmf setting I wanted. He also requested a phone number that I owned so that he could set that up as callerid (There is a management console, in which you can set the name part of callerid, but not the number). Callerid is working. As with all my voip connections to the US, the name part does not always come across, but the number part is working reliably.
Mine is an outbound-only service, but voicemails can be received if a caller dials an access number and inputs your userid. And a DID is available for an additional amount.
You can also receive calls made to your sip url, [userid]@psip.pchoneunlimited.com. Originally, I was not able to receive calls to my sip url, but Jose quickly fixed this and I can now receive the calls. And the voicemail works with this too.
Magictalkbox sip urls are reachable via sipbroker *9694. So if you connect to a sipbroker gateway and enter *9694xxxx, where xxxx is the userid, you will ring the user's phone.
Toll-free calls seem to be mentioned here a lot, so I should add that the ones I tested have worked nicely, both to Canada and to the US.
The management console is actually rather sophisticated to my eyes, but I am using, so far, only the call log.
At $3 / month, paid yearly, for unlimited calling to the US and Canada, and doing it via an ata rather than MJ-style through the computer, and getting good sound, it is unbeatable.
To sum up, the basic byod service includes:
Voicemail
Caller id
Sip url
'Unlimited' calling to Canada and the US
Toll-free calling to Canada and the US
If you don't need more, give it a try. You can get credentials to use it for free for some period of time. Hard to lose with a deal like that. Check the website for the details.
www.pcphoneunlimited.com is the website.
Followup comments:  PX Eliezer
Premium
join:2008-08-09
New Jersey | MTB review Thanks for very detailed and informative review! | |
| anti_windoze
join:2001-07-08
Fontana, CA
1 edit | pcphoneunlimited/magictalkbox I'm testing the services out as this week, using a rt31p2.
had a few problems at first setting it up, but it finally registered with the server. Jose was very helpful in, responded quickly to the emails i sent to him.
so far the sound quality is excellent, i hear a little static on the line until it starts ringing the other party, but after that it's crystal clear.
the audio is louder than my sipgate connections.
for the price of the service it's a excellent pick for service.
i called my cell phone and got the multi line number, if i call this number from my cellphone or house phone and enter my extension which is your user id the call connects. so any landline can call this number and enter the extension for you to receive incoming calls. | |
|  | Bogtrotter
join:2009-06-14
East York, ON | Re: pcphoneunlimited/magictalkbox Thanks for the reply. It's good to know it is working for you.
What I hear is not static but a hissing sound, like an amplifier turned up too high. As you said, it disappears as soon as the called number starts ringing. | |
| anti_windoze
join:2001-07-08
Fontana, CA | magictalkbox/pcphoneunlimited correction, what i hear is hissing type sound.
was without service today for awhile, could not call out.
but i'm still on a trial setup for a few more days | |
| | jst9943
join:2009-09-28
Glendale, CA
| Re: magictalkbox/pcphoneunlimited To all that have tested our service, I thank you for trying it. The hissing sound you hear can be reduced if you turn down the device speaker or receiver volume. I also just found out how to reduce this hissing sound. If your speaker or received volume is too high, you will amplify everthing including the noise. I guess the voip provider does not have the filtering required for voice. | |
| | | Bogtrotter
join:2009-06-14
East York, ON | Re: magictalkbox/pcphoneunlimited The hissing is not really a problem. I can hear it for only a few seconds, between the time I have dialed a number and when the number begins to ring.
The service continues to be reliable and good-sounding. | |
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