Review by elefante72 
member for 2.4 years, 285 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 2.3 years ago
 East Amherst,Erie,NY
 $23 per month about 12 days "I love the 2 lines for one, 60 min international" "Lots of nibbling issues, fax forgetaboutit" "OK if you don't pay full price like me, I dislike new web site"
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Call Quality:
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Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I have have PP for almost 2 years since the demise of callvantage which I considered the best VOIP ever, since I have had:
vonage - the worst CS and industrial screw-you contracts, however the as voice it worked. Practically no features, but this was 5 years ago... They mess up their routing tables on term too, other vonage people were calling the wrong #...
voip.ms - could never get it to work reliably w/ my handytone.
ATT CV - Everything worked and faxes (they used some side band channel). I was really sad to see it go. CS rocked too.
ViaTalk - What a nightmare. My mother still has them, so they are better now, but when I had them it was problem after problem.
Callcentric - Seemed great, however they charged $$$ for Canada at the time (which is crazy--but whatever), which all of my wifes fam is there 
So w/ ATT CV my phone never had an issue, sounded great, had lots of nice features, and faxes worked 100%. PP has been none of these, however they have some innovative features that I really like (60min international, 2 for 1 outgoing).
The issue is that I can't have a conference call without it dropping audio every few minutes for a few seconds, DTMF tones work randomly (they don't like 0 on my phones), and I want to put my adapter in it's own VLAN to prioritize my VOIP traffic. Don't ask my network is complex, however my Cisco router will classify on MAC it's just not as clean. I have never been able to fax, and people talk about how hard it is to fax over VOIP, but I never didn't have a fax go through w/ ATT CV. I now use an internet fax service and pay extra $$$, and it takes me a few more steps, but its just another annoyance that nibbles at the service.
I'm getting FIOS in 2 days, so my line will be ported to VZ, so we will see how it goes, and I think that there service will be more reliable than PP, but if it isn't I will keep looking around.
I haven't ported my family over to PP because it just isn't rock solid, and since most are canadian they are really happy about voip.ms which saves them mucho $$$ up there. I'm not sure if voip.ms, bell, rogers, or shaw are to blame (internet really sucks in Canada compared to the US--its tragically slow, congested, and ultra expensive with ridiculous caps), but voip.ms voice quality is spotty at best but it is dirt cheap for Canadians who get taken by their big telcos there.
So in my 2 years I would give them a solid 8, however I never entered into a contract (being burned by so many VOIP companies), so the $23/month is way more than the average user pays. So $200/2years I would say this is a steal, however be prepared for some stuff to happen--not major but nibbles.
I never really tried to stomp out the intermittent issues, since I'm busy and the investment to potentially solve was more than the service issues, but if there is a prob I just hit the cell phone which is unlimited too and VZW is always reliable in my area.
Comments:
 | | Thanks! I want to thank you for your review it was full of useful information on this hard to find subject. We have Packet8 and are considering moving our business lines over to Phone Power!. | |
|  | | | nycitynyPremium
join:2005-08-09
New York, NY | And this whole forum is dedicated to PhonePower:
»PHONE POWER | |
| | |  Kinzoo
join:2004-01-22
Buffalo, NY | Re: Thanks! At the top right of this page.
132 reviews (109 good) (14 bad)  | |
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Reviews:
 ·Time Warner Cable
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·voip.ms
| Update on cancel Just so you know, if you go the way of PP and choose the leased handytone, and cancel if you do not return within 30 days they charge you $99. I had it for almost 2 years. Considering I purchased one for $40 new (the exact same model for voip.ms), it may make sense to do BYOD to avoid such a potential tax, if they allow BYOD.
Granted if you return on time (u still have to pay shipping), you are only out shipping...
Now under a leasing model, there is usually some sort of depreciation schedule, or at least TVM.
I pulled out my old HT ($40), and got it up in running w/ voip.ms in 20 minutes. So now I use it for my office backup line. It is not entirely user friendly, but for those who know what they are doing (and voip.ms tech support is great). Last month: $2.00, since most of my calls are occasional concalls to 800 numbers (no charge). Calls to canada are 0.5 cent minute. Great for my relatives. 30cents and hour 
If we use 500 min a month on landline, that is a lot. On PAYG (0.5 to canada), that would cost me on voip.ms less than $4, so if you are a low user like me PAYG may be a better option. I also don't get whacked on all the taxes for PAYG, so there's another $3-4/mo in my pocket to rent 30 day old movies from redbox .
If you are a heavier user, consider the 2 year promotional plans ($200), a lot of people offer this.
Verizon charges me $20 for FIOS phone (3-play), (my emp pays), so this is on par w/ PP charges. The voice quality is better and very stable (the only thing my wife cares about)--landline quality, however features are behind PP. So you also need to do the analysis of what makes sense for your home, because the choice to go indy versus telco boils down to features and price. To get value from the indys you need to do a contract 2+ years, and really need the features. IF you go MTM, telcos are now competitive if u do a 3-play. Otherwise w/ telco, you call them up if you have a problem and they NEED to take care of it. I consider indy as definitely best effort at best. So you have to factor in the "aggravation" factor also.
Verizon FIOS service and support thus far has been stellar, the best I have seen ever from a near-monopoly. it's almost like they were behaving as a regular competitive company I haven't dealt w/ billing yet (I hear that can be a problem), but service wise 10.
So in full disclosure, the termination process (which many people don't probably take the time to document) for me is less than reasonable. Just a data point for those considering PP as an option.t | |
| | |  Good call quality!
I was checking other reviews and deals and found the phone power had good deal buy one year and second is free! I bought the adapter from local store for their service for $79 and they did give me a credit .
I was kind of worry that they might be not as good but I had not much to lose since via talk service was so bad that I had to forward all my calls to land line since their service was not clear or drops and sometimes I could not hear callers.
Anyway, I was with phone power since 01/04/2011 and they are great! clear quality and no drop calls ! it works just as good as land line but they offer easy navigate website and also soft phone ! I am really happy for making my choice!
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