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Well, I've had P8 for about 4 months now and it seems just as good as cell phones were a while back. The calls are clear at certain times and not so clear at other times. Keep in mind these calls are travelling over the internet so they are subject to the same interference that your browsing or gaming are subject to. As long as you know this and accept it you will be fine. As far as features go they absolutely are great, and destroy anything you might be able to get from a landline carrier for the price. When you compare them to the other VoIP companies it's a different story. Most of the other carriers have some better features than P8 like Find Me and Voice Mail to email. Packet8 does have call forwarding but it is only to one number where as others have a Find Me type service that rings several different numbers in an order that you specify. Voice mail has been having it's problems lately supposedly due to a feature upgrade that has been taking some time to implement. For $19.95 plus taxes ($20.55 total), which are nothing like traditional phone companies you can not beat the value that you get. As stated above, if you keep in mind that this is still very new technology than you will generally be a happy customer. ** EDIT** 3/13/2006 I've been with Packet8 for about a year and a half now and it has done nothing except improve!! Almost every major feature is available and they all work flawlessly. Only feature lacking is caller ID w/ name, but that's not a biggie for me. Uptime has been outstanding, I don't think we have had an outage since at the very least summer of 2005. Barely even experienced a blip when the upgrades went through earlier in the year. Price has gone up since the mandated (boo) E911 went into effect. None the less it is still an exceptional value for the price ($24). **EDIT** May 15th, 2007 After visiting the site again I see they have changed their control panel. It's even Opera friendly! That had been pretty much my only con, so I am still one big happy camper. Call quality has been great, no dropped calls and sound is fine. Features are amazing and they all work! Overall I have been extremely happy with my P8 service. member for 23.5 years, 4050 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago updated 16.7 years ago
Signed up online on a Friday for the residential plan, total $20.55 with tax. Total cost to get started was $45. The adapter was mailed out and I received it on a Wednesday, which was earlier than I expected so I was very happy about that. I bought my router and installed everything without a problem. Only had the service for about 3 weeks but I am happy so far. The people I call tell me they cannot tell what kind of line I am calling on and say it sounds perfect. I placed one phone call in these 3 weeks when the person reported that it sounded choppy but that has been the only complaint heard from peopel I call. I have no complaints. I will update as time goes on. At this point, I still have my local phone service because I have not decided if I want to get rid of it yet. ******Update****** Today, 09/23/04, I started the process to "port" my number from my POTS line. We are dumping Verizon and going with Packet8 for all my phone needs. I have not encountered any technical issues and so have not needed any tech support. Very reliable service since we got it installed and we are very happy. The delay can be a hassle sometimes but it is most notable when calling someone on a cell phone. ******Update 11/8/04*********** So, I have sent two emails asking for an update on my LNP. The first email response was that it would take about 4-6 weeks. Ok, I knew that already but alright maybe i am being impatient. Now a week ago, I sent another email and the response I got from Andrew says that they have my LNP Authorization Form but they dont have a copy of my telephone bill (the front page showing my address, etc). He said I need to send another copy of the LNP Authorization form and a copy of my telephone bill. I replied back that I sent that when I faxed the LNP form and I will send another one but I do not want to start the process over. I have not heard a response yet. Therefore, I have marked them down on tech support (my first rating for them in this category since I have not had a cause to use tech support yet). *******Update 12/14/04************ I have not heard the results of my second LNP request. Packet8 defintely has issues with porting numbers. *******Update 01/25/05************ Still no word on my LNP status. This is what the Packet 8 website says about my LNP: We have received your LNP Authorization and your billing invoice. We have been processing your LNP request since Nov. We truly apologize for the delay. We will update you as soon as we hear back from our PSTN provider. 12/21/2004 4:30:53 PM Other than that I have heard nothing. **********Update 03/21/05*********** Heard back from them after sending email. Seems my request is at level 3 which according to them means that it is waiting for a porting date. After almost 4 weeks, I have not heard back so I called. They said they would expedite the problem and I should call back end of the week if I had not heard anything. I did not hear anything so I called. they were unable to answer my question again so they said they would expedite it and should call back in 7-10 days if I have not heard anything. ***********Update 03/28/05*************** So I did not hear anything and called back. I happened to speak to the same person I spoke to last week and he said that it was escalated last time I called so this time he spoke to his supervisor and his supervisor was looking at it right now. He would send it to the LNP supervisor and that person would be calling me. When I asked if he knew when that person would be calling me he said he did not know but if they had not called within 48-72 hrs, I should call back. I half jokingly asked if when I called back (I fully expect to have to call back) they will tell me the same thing. He said that they will not because it has already been escalated to a supervisor. I ended our phone conversation by telling him that it has been since November and I just would like to hear something officially out of someones mouth about this so I know if there is a problem or not. I will call back Thursday March 31st if I have not heard anything. ************UPDATE 03/29/05******************* Finally after 5 months of waiting, I have been given an announce date for the porting. This is what my LNP status shows on the website now. -----Your number is scheduled to port 04/04/05. Please be prepared for this change to take effect. If your number does not port right away or your other line has been disconnected, please contact us as soon as possible at 888 898 8733.----- Hopefully this happens without any problems now. ************Update 04/04/05******************* Number finally ported today. No problems with the actual porting. ****************************************07/13/2007*************************************************************** Still very happy with packet8. Best service around, in my opinion. member for 21.3 years, 277 visits, last login: 11.3 years ago updated 16.7 years ago
-- UPDATE: 04.27.2007 -- It has been awhile since I updated this review. Packet8 has gotten a lot better in the last few months. Faxing now works with their service, although to get support you have to pay for fax service. It has worked reliably, with few outages that I have noticed, and the sound quality has been excellent lately (probably because of the special firmware with the high quality codecs enabled I'm using). The only downside is that we're now paying the BS fees that typical telephone line subs have to pay and its pushed the cost of the service up (damn telcos). Oh well. Sticking with them. Great service and with the number of features they offer with virtually unlimited long distance minutes, I'd highly recommend them to everyone, even non-techies now. -- UPDATE: 07.29.2006 -- The support rating stays at average since I haven't had to use it... They rolled out Caller ID with Names awhile ago and so far its worked quite well. There haven't been any outages that were their fault (only mine... always remember to update billing information when your credit card number changes). The voice quality has been superb, both incoming and outgoing. -- UPDATE: 02.11.2006 -- Just an update... Packet8 finally released some long awaited features and they seem to be working quite well. I'm really liking the seven digit dialing and multiple ring option. Reliability and call quality have been excellent these last couple of months, especially after the upgrade to the newest, at that time, phone adapter (BPA-410). -- UPDATE: 11.14.2005 -- Just an update to my review... I've upped the tech support rating on them now that I've had a chance to use them again... While I was updating to the newest firmware version on my DTA310, apparently the firmware was corrupted in transit in such a way as to brick my DTA when it was loaded. The tech I spoke to while troubleshooting it was very helpful and patient. The second tech I spoke with when I had to move my service to the new device that I had to purchase was also very helpful. There were some reliability issues with the service after Hurricane Katrina - ie calls were not routed to the area, but that issue was only temporary and has since been resolved. -- UPDATE: 08.09.2004 -- Packet8's service has improve a great deal in the months since my last review. The outages that used to plague the service back then seem to have subsided for the most part (knock on wood). Even then, I still would not recommend replacing your land line with VoIP at this point, regardless of who provides it. Packet8 has yet to provide fax and modem service though, even though it isn't that hard to provide that service (just a different codec)... -- UPDATE: 04.08.2004 -- Packet8's service seems to be less reliable as of late. In the last two or three weeks, the service has had two MAJOR outages lasting longer than an hour. And what's worse is they have both happened AFTER HOURS, meaning that technical support was unavailable. I would beware if you are planning on using P8 to replace you hard line. -- ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW -- I've had Packet8 for several months now and so far the experience has been good. To start, I signed up in the middle of the month, so instead of charging for a full month, they prorated the first month, as should be expected. Setting up their DTA was so easy that anyone could do it. The only problem with the hardware the provide is that the DTA has a weak ringer driver, so if you have an older phone with an actual bell in it (I have an antique phone), it won't ring. As for call quality, its been good most of the time. The service is packet loss sensitive, so if one or two packets are dropped, you get words or sentences that get cut off. As for the rest of the service, the unlimited long distance feature rocks. We've been calling relatives all over the nation a lot more. And the calling features (voice mail, call waiting, caller ID, etc.), in addition to the unlimited local and long distance make it worth $20 per month. The only draw back with the call features is that the caller ID doesn't show the caller's name in addition to the phone number. Hopefully they can figure out how to get that working in the future. And finally, the only major down side to the service as a whole is the fact that it won't support faxes or modems. I knew about this when I signed up and had hoped that I could tweak my modem settings to get it to work, but don't waste your time as I haven't been able to get it to work yet. They claim that they will support modems and fax machines soon. Until then, I guess I'll just have to rack up the one minute phone calls to ACTS (»www.boulder.nist.gov/tim ··· acts.htm) in Colorado.  member for 23.1 years, 2721 visits, last login: 13.7 years ago updated 16.7 years ago
I ordered Packet8 in June 2006 after a friend of mine recommended it to me. I've had Packet8 for almost seven months now. The adapter, a BP510, arrived within a few days and was simple to install. In the first week there was some echo and garbled sound. After giving the adapter a static IP and placing it in the DMZ the sound quality has been great. I'd estimate that switching to Packet8 from my Verizon line saves me at least $20, maybe $25 a month. I've since recommended the service to one of my friends and my in-laws. Both of them have subscribed to the service and have had absolutely no problems. All three of us have Verizon's FiOS. The website is clumsy at best, but that's my only complaint. May 16 2006: It's been almost a year since I've switched from my Verizon POTS line to Packet8 VOIP and I'm still a happy customer. They did raise the price recently from $20 to $23 plus taxes, but that's still similarly priced to other VOIP providers. The website is still terrible. I've recently tried to set up my account to use their soft phone with no luck. I've reduce my Value rating because the price is now in line with Vonage and Verizon's VoiceWing, etc. I've recently subscribed to FiOS TV and would switch to VoiceWing if it was available in Fort Wayne. The price is similar but the features are better implemented. member for 18.3 years, 52 visits, last login: 13.6 years ago updated 16.9 years ago
I´ve been using Packet8 for about 3 years and it just gets better and better. I take the adapter with me Worldwide and just plug it into the hotel broadband or even into my notebook (feeding from wifi a connection). The latest thing is Softalk which runs on the notebook and doesnt even need an adapter. Same great sound and calls to/from any phone. Gotta love it! UPDATE: Still very happy - It now allows simultaneous ringing on my cell phone so if I'm out of the house, I still get the call. The quality seems to me to be even higher than regular phone lines. I can't imagine being without Packet8. member for 18.7 years, 52 visits, last login: 12.8 years ago updated 16.9 years ago
After the Vonage news- I decided to look for a new VOIP provider. I chose Packet8. Like others, I got the "How many lines...." scripted hello. After that the rep was very courteous and helpful. I asked quite a few questions in regards to the service- and what the deal was with the VOIP patents. She informed me that Packet8 has their own patents on what they do, and it's not the same as how Verizon's patents do it. With that I signed up for the service. The rep had entered my email incorrectly- I didn't get any notification on the account so I called CS. The CSR swiftly changed my email address and updated me on shipping. The device arrived 5 business days after placing my order. I hooked it up and made a call- worked OK... However I started to have network issues, and I suspected the device. Calling Packet8 tech support today I found that there is a port collision between Vonage and Packet8. My fix was to disable my vonage device and use the Not Available forwarding to forward to my Packet8 number. Hopefully now I can use the P8 service without my connection dropping out. My concern here is the rep tells me that they need all ports over 5060 (inclusive) this is a very greedy system and they should really cut back on the number of ports they need... I'll continue to test, however their greedy port policy really disturbs me and might end up in my cancellation of the service. 5/2/07: I just cancelled the service. After talking with tech support over and over again they suggested that I buy a new router. I found this disturbing since everything works fine with the Vonage device, but as soon as I attach the P8 device I start having network problems. Cancellation was straight forward and there was no problem reaching a rep. Everyone I dealt with was very professional- I just had a technical problem on my end. member for 23.3 years, 130 visits, last login: 226 days ago updated 16.9 years ago
I have had packet8 for the last 3 years and always been happy with them. There have been a few call quality issues with some people complaining of echoing on the line. Due to my rather flaky network setup (according to packet8 it really shouldnt be working at all!) I am more inclined to blame myself than the service. The price is excellent with I think only sunrocket competing at the same level. I use the service for international calls alot and have never had trouble. I have considered moving to just using skype but the convenience of having a proper landline and phone number has kept me with packet8. I am particularly happy with their customer and tech support. I havent had to call them very often though here were a couple of outages recently which were notified on their website. However I screwed up my firewall settings the other day and called them for assistance when the phone stopped working. The guy there was extremely professional and patient. He did everything he could to help and I was totally confident in his abilities. No call centre outsourced tech support here! Although he tried his best it seemed that the solution lay at my end and there was nothing left he could do. In the end resetting the router to the factory settings cured the problem. One interesting/important point with regards to the recent patent problems of vonage is that he seemed to think packet8 should be immune to this. He reckoned that they held a lot of patents themselves and were very confident of being well protected. So I feel confident that packet8 will survive where vonage may not! member for 19.7 years, 26 visits, last login: 16.9 years ago lodged 16.9 years ago
We have not had any problems with Packet 8. I currently have a BPA410 ATA. We get good call quality and rare downtime. We added another line and are using a BPG510, again no issues with it. For the money and what you get are not that bad. member for 21.9 years, 68 visits, last login: 12.9 years ago lodged 17 years ago
I read many reviews on this site when it came time for me to switch from Cox to another VOIP. Cox was great, customer service was very good but the price was too high compared to other reliable VOIP services. My Cox set up had all sorts of bells and whistles, voice mail, unlimited long distance and other services but my bill was edging up to 80.00 just for the phone services. I needed a new VOIP with the same features, great customer service but I needed it at a lower price. I decided on Packet8. I worked for 10 years in customer service call centers as a phone rep, trainer and a supervisor so when it came time to find a new service, while a lower price was favorable, good customer service was a priority. Doing my research, I found that the Packet8 call centers are located in Arizona and California. Vonage would have been a great choice for me for a similar price to Packet8 but Vonage customer service is outside the US and working in an IT based environment, I don't have time to wait for a customer service rep to understand my question. I prefer US based call centers. I got my Packet8 box and hooked up everything, verified my account and was up and making calls in minutes. To be fair, I am quite familiar with how all of this technology works, so I didn't bother to read the quick start manual until after I connected everything. When I did go back to read the guide, I felt that it was precise and thought that the chances of a new customer, unfamiliar with how VOIP works, would find it easy to set up their new service. Dealing with customer service. Day 1: Calling sales - I spoke to a sales rep that DID NOT try to force a sale on me. She answered the phone as "How many lines would you like to inquire about today" [Typically call center operators must use a scripted open to a call and a scripted close to a call so right away, I knew that this approach the agent used was one of the scripted "You must say this" type of thing. Once the call continued, the Packet8 agent handled the call flawlessly. I asked about location of her call center, features, billing... In fact I kept her on the phone for about 15 minutes and not once did she try to move me to a plan. She was open to discussion about the product and it was only when I wanted to sign on, that she then got into sale mode. There was no up-selling however. I got what I wanted - the basic plan for 24.99 a month, the Packet8 box and activation fees waived for a total of 46.00 for the first day's order. Day 4: Calling customer service. - I spoke to a CSR to ask about my caller ID feature because some friends of mine weren't seeing my caller ID name - some were however. I was told that since the account was new, it may take a week for everything in the database to update. I was also told though that even when the Packet8 database was updated, that some other VOIP providers don't always query the Packet8 network and it is possible that the caller ID info won't always show depending on who I am calling and depending on what type of service the person I am calling has. Made perfect sense to me and what I like is, the question was answered courteously and 2 options were given to me as to answers, preventing me from having to call back again. I can deal with problems with caller ID - I have always had problems with caller ID service across several different providers - so to me Packet8 was no different. Day 31: I get a bill for $12:37. Called customer service and the CSR emailed a billing rep and got me an answer within 5 minutes, and he was still on the phone the whole time (no dead air or soupy music). The $12:37 turned out to be my first bill less the days that I wasn't in the system. So in essence it wasn't any sort of random charge, but a reduced monthly bill for not having service on for a full 30 days. While I did cancel my Cox VOIP service, I did keep their HSI and Cable services, it was only the phone service that I cancelled. I did notice both with Cox and Packet8 services that there were occasional drop outs in my service. I purchased a new modem (DOCSYS 2.0 compatible) and since then everything has been fine. Calls are clear with Packet8 service, I am saving almost 50.00 a month over my last VOIP provider and I am a happy camper. member for 17 years, 1 visits, last login: 17 years ago lodged 17 years ago
We use packet 8 for a small office. The phones are great and professional. The sound is 'A" 95% of the time dropping to a "B" rating that other 5%. The fax line has had troubles in the start. When it works it works great. When it does not work, it's an "F". right now the fax line has been our biggest problem but we just added it 10 days ago so we have not worked out the kinks yet. -David (review was emailed from domain hartmanfunding.com) lodged 17.1 years ago
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