how-to block ads
|
»next review in page
Review by btrautman 
UPDATED: 8 days ago
member for 6.6 years, 4 visits, last login: 8 days ago
 Kyle,Hays,TX
 $24 per month
 "Can byob device and they can configure it"
 "Signup fee I dont' really care for."
 "Good product, excellent reliability"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I have had many other voip accounts over the past two years, viatalk, lingo, callcentric, sunrocket and a few others I can't recall. BroadVoice has been the best thus far. Callcentric comes in a close second but I was having call reliability problems that got old.
I had my own grandstream device and once I pointed it to their server it configured automatically - same day I signed up.
I recommend you all try them. You stand an excellent chance of being satisfied......
Bob
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by cahiatt
UPDATED: 87 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 992 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Smyrna,Cobb,GA
$31 per month
 about 5 days
"Features"
"Price no longer a leading factor for them."
"Not a bad choice for VOIP and nice features."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Update 4/30/08 - Well Broadvoice is going the way of the telco now and hiding price increases as "fees".... Their international plans are going up $5 each by way of a international regulatory recovery fee or whatever the hell they want to call it. Not worth it as only 1 out of 3 calls I try to make to the UK actually connect and stay connected. Dropping them like a hot stone soon.
Update 4/8/08 - They apparently had an issue with their site in which they are load balancing two different sites from two different IP addresses. The two sites do not have the same info. One of them did not have the disclaimers about international calling on any of the pages. They are fixing the site and credited me for the calls. David in Tier2 support handled the issue in two minutes. Thanks!.... Tier1 and the billing script readers aren't as pleasing... They've redeemed themselves.
Update 4/4/08 - Well the call quality is still good and still pleased with the price and features. Have been using them for four years now. But I may have experienced their first hidden gotcha. Place a few calls to the UK under my "unlimited world plan" in which all calls to the UK are included. Well apparently all calls are NOT included. I was billed for some of the calls and an e-mail from Broadvoice indicated that calls to cell phones are not included. If this is the case, why do the not list this information on their website under the plan description and plan details? Billing and tech support won't answer the phone and is responding using blanket statements.... Are they even reading my message?
Update 7/21/07 - Service has still been great. I've had to call support once since my last update and they answered the phone in under a minute. Had resolution in about another minute.
Update 12/17/06 - Service has been real good for the past year. I still like their features best of the others I have used. Call quality has been good. Tech support is a LOT better. Overall I would recommend them.
9/12/05 update - Well I did order service with someone else but never cancelled my Broadvoice line. After their big outage a few months back they have been pretty solid. I've also been able to reach someone in tech support the last few times I've called which is a pleasant suprise. Overall not a bad service. They seemed to have improved and are worth taking another shot at. Pay attention to their LNP policy though. It can come back to bite you.
It's a shame really. I like the features broadvoice offers a LOT. Best price for multiple numbers and I love the simultaneous ring feature. It has generally been solid for the past five months up until three weeks ago. Since then call quality has hit bottom and I can't really expect to pick up the phone and place a call anymore without having to play with proxy settings, reboot the ATA or any other number of "fixes". You need to call for support? Good luck. They may answer in five minutes or it may be five hours (if at all). I can't ever seem to get an e-mail response either. I've gotten no e-mail response in three days and can't get them on the phone. I've ordered service with someone else and they will be getting cancelled.
I would have generally recommended BV but as of now I'd say look elsewhere.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by Traal
UPDATED: 98 days ago
member for 7.7 years, 909 visits, last login: 98 days ago
San Diego,San Diego,CA
$25 per month
"Cheap, perfect call quality"
"No official fax support"
"Good service at a great price"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I chose BroadVoice for the price (their $10 unlimited in-state plan) and because they got good reviews. Now I'm on the Unlimited World plan, with unlimited calls to the entire U.S. and Canada and a number of other countries.
So far, I haven't been disappointed. The call quality is great, it sounds just like a normal phone line. It works just like a regular phone service, only much cheaper, especially if you use the extra features.
I just added a second number with distinctive ring to my service for my fax machine. BroadVoice doesn't officially support faxing yet, but if you setup your fax machine just right, it will often work. Sometimes I'll have to resend a page or two, but my fax tells me when this happens.
I've had my BroadVoice service for about a year. I don't use my BroadVoice line all that much, but I've never had any trouble with it--no dropped calls, no missed calls, and no trouble hearing the other party. It has been 100% reliable.
Update 2008-04-19: I recently added a second number to my line. The account portal says the ring pattern is short-short-long, when in fact it rings as long-long. I sent BroadVoice support an e-mail 10 days ago notifying them of the issue, but they haven't responded, so I'm lowering my rating for Tech Support a couple of notches.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by Yakup
UPDATED: 110 days ago
member for 7.7 years, 1365 visits, last login: 33 days ago
Folsom,Sacramento,CA
$6 per month (month by month)
about 1 days
"Nice Functions, Cheap (BYOD + International rates)"
"Tech Support is a bit slow"
"It works"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
install is snap I have trixbox configured with this line up and running in 10 minutes to order
oh By the way I am giving them another chance After 2 years
Last try was a disaster
So far minor issues. (All solved within days)
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by ExecPro
Posted: 132 days ago
member for 6.1 years, 1304 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Long Beach,Nassau,NY
 Business customer
$47 per month
"Price, BYOD"
"None"
"Great value, great for Asterisk Systems"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I use a Trixbox CE system in my office with 3 Broadvoice lines that each can handle multiple calls. For the price it can't be beat for unlimited BYOD service. An A+!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by snatale1
Posted: 146 days ago
member for 4.3 years, 19 visits, last login: 144 days ago
West Roxbury,Suffolk,MA
$14 per month
"Reliable & Cheap!"
"none yet!"
"I would recommend to anybody"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
I love this company, I originally had Vonage and couldn't stand it bad call quality, all tech support in india. I took a try with BV mostly because there based in my state, I figured if the were as bad as Vonage and gave me the run around there were close enough to go "talk to". Anyways I bought my own SIP device to get the lower rate (Linksys RT31P2) signed up thru there website and had dial-tone in under 10 minutes. Seemed to easy and was waiting daily for it to screw up...never did. I've had it for about a year now and had no problems and all and give me MANY more calling options and features than Vonage did. BTW when you call tech support they answer the phone and speak in english!!!!! OMG!!!!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by Angkor
UPDATED: 147 days ago
member for 7.7 years, 3145 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Stayton,Marion,OR
$11 per month
"BYOD for $5.95 per month is great"
"none"
"Good service at a great price"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I purchased a Sipura 2002 through Voxilla. WHile they were out of stock and it took me a while to get it, I was up and running with Broadvoice within about 10 minutes. When you purchase through Voxilla you can get your first month free with no installation and they have a 100 minute a month plan for $5.95 which is what I signed up for. Using the provided configuration settings it took me no time at all to get up and running. I set QoS on my Linksys WRT54G for the port that the Sipura was attached to and since then have had no issues.
I must say that increases in price have ot improved my satisfaction, but it has now been several years and I am still pretty happy about the service.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by benjamin
UPDATED: 167 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 2479 visits, last login: a few hours ago
New York,New York,NY
$19 per month
about 2 days
"Outstanding call quality, good tech support, many calling features, great web site"
"No option to set automatic forwarding to another number if network is down"
"BroadVoice is the best value around, offering cristal-clear calling and a slew of advanced features"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
02/10/2008 UPDATE
Can't believe I've been with BroadVoice for over 4 years now. Following the 2005 outage, service has continued to be ideal for my needs. There have been no outages since my last update. Reliability and call quality have been excellent.
My only peeve is that BroadVoice still doesn't offer the option to have all calls automatically directed to an alternate number if their network fails. Luckily there haven't been any outages, so this hasn't really mattered.
After BroadVoice started offering unlimited free calls to 20 countries, other providers started following suit but, for my needs, BV remains the best value around. I don't really have anything negative to say at this point.
12/19/2005 UPDATE
Things have been running smoothly for the last 6 months. Excellent quality/reliability. Some new features have been added to the online portal and BroadVoice seems to have hired more support staff to deal with the growth of its customer base. No downtime in a long, long time so I am very happy. Quality of international calls definitely improved after the outage in May.
05/11/2005 UPDATE
BroadVoice's first big outage is over. Unfortunately the outage began right before a week-end, which must have made it harder to contain. Still, the company worked around the clock and service was restored by Monday. During the outage, I was still able to make and receive calls, though with less reliability than usual. Now things are back to normal.
What impressed me most during the outage was that Support answered phone calls within 10-12 minutes, very reasonable considering there must have been a very high volume of calls. Info was also posted in the portal. Considering service was rock solid for many, many months prior to this outage, BroadVoice deserves a little slack. If anything, such an experience will make sure they are better prepared in the future.
02/12/2005 UPDATE
Given some of the negative reviews and updates posted recently, I wanted to update mine to report that service has remained rock-solid for me. The calling features still work, call quality is superb and BroadVoice keeps rolling out new services at great prices. Two recent examples: alternate numbers in the UK, and toll-free alternate numbers. So, here is a quick update on the new features and the quality of customer support as of February, 2005. (Original review below as well.)
TOLL FREE Alternate Numbers: I just added one to my account and it is working well. The amazing thing is that it costs the same as a regular alternate number: $1.95/month, which is lower than any other VoIP company AFAIK. This includes 60 free incoming minutes (and extra minutes are 2.0¢/min, VERY reasonable for a toll-free number). There were some issues with the toll free DIDs, where not all callers were able to get through but this has been fixed. I tested my DID from numerous lines (from different providers) and can now receive calls without a hitch. Really great for friends in other states, especially those on limited local service...
For those who may be interested, the alternate UK numbers are the same price but include unlimited incoming calls, just like US-based alternate numbers.
CUSTOMER SERVICE. Many of the recent negative remarks concerned ridiculously long hold times. I concur that this was a problem for a couple of weeks but things seem much better now. I called several times in the last few days and got through to someone within a reasonable delay. More importantly, the people answering the phones are still knowledgeable. BroadVoice is not outsourcing its support (as of yet) and clearly takes the time to train its representatives. Email support has remained excellent throughout.
11/09/2004, COMPLETE UPDATE
In October, BroadVoice added unlimited calling to 20 international countries without raising rates, making it the best value around. Now the company has launched its brand new online portal, resolving the only other area that was lacking.
The new portal: in addition to excellent online billing options (statements, payment options, etc.), the portal offers complete control over accounts, allowing users to add alternate lines, change their calling plan and much more. Of course, all the calling features (basic, advanced and premium) can also be managed through the portal, and there are extensive call logs as well as a Call Manager feature that allows for online control of incoming and outgoing calls. The whole experience is very user friendly, making this portal the one to beat.
As of the date of this update, I have been using BroadVoice for close to 1 year and service is as good today as it was on day one. Prior to choosing BroadVoice, I looked at every VoIP provider on the marked. After these many months of usage, I am pleased to report that BroadVoice has gotten even better with age. There are more features, the call quality remains excellent, and the new portal makes managing any aspect of the service a snap.
-- VALUE:
There are many reasons to choose BroadVoice but the top one would have to be value. For the price of its competitors' offerings (or for less in many cases), BroadVoice offers a wide array of free calling features that make competing services look sparse. In fact, it seems to me BroadVoice offers more features than any other provider, most of them included with the price of service. Additionally, adding "premium" features costs much less than with the competition (for example, additional phone numbers are only $1.95/month vs. around $5-10 with other providers).
BroadVoice also recently added unlimited International calling to 20 countries (as well as a new plan with 34 free countries for only $5/month more), once again placing the company miles above the rest in terms of value. For any countries not included, BroadVoice has lowered rates to match or beat its toughest competitors. There is also a new referral program that makes earning free calls easy.
-- FEATURES:
As stated above, calling features are numerous. Some really nice ones include the ability to check Voicemails from any phone and any computer, via the account portal. One can also receive messages by email. The online portal offers complete control over all features, including the ability to set call forwarding, toggle features on/off, maintain a list of speed dial numbers and much more. All the features I need are included in my plan, although it is worth mentioning that "premium" features (such as music-on-hold) come with an activation fee. However, the monthly fee for these services is much lower than the competition, making them worthwhile, and many features are not offered by anyone else.
-- CALL QUALITY:
Call quality? One word: impressive. In fact, the quality is as good as a traditional phone line both on the calling and receiving end. This is the one thing that always surprises those I refer. A special note on International calls: the quality is as good as US calls, which is nothing short of amazing, since quality can be iffy over traditional phone lines or using a calling card.
-- TECH ISSUES, SETUP AND SUPPORT:
Support has been impressive from the get go, always answering phone calls and emails promptly, and fixing issues quickly (usually in minutes). Setup is a breeze. My Linksys router didn't require any modifications and I was up and running literally 30 seconds after receiving my adaptor. A router is of course needed to share your broadband connection with the BroadVoice adaptor and your computer but this is to be expected. This and many other topics are covered on BroadVoice's support web site, where you can find step-by-step guides and a great deal of useful information.
For the truly tech-savvy, BroadVoice is the only provider to offer BYOD (bring your own device) plans. The device in question can be hardware or software and all the necessary configuration information is provided, something unique in this industry. BroadVoice also automatically provisions your device immediately upon sign-up, so that the service can be used in a minutes.
Other technical issues (codecs, etc.) have been widely addressed in the BBR VoIP forum so I won't go into any details here. One additional hardware note: BroadVoice recently started shipping a new adaptor. Small and sleek, it is about the size of a deck of cards but doesn't skimp on features.
-- CONCLUSIONS:
Some prospective customers may be worried by BroadVoice's low rates, thinking this might translate into poor quality or bad support. This is not the case. Quite the contrary! I think this is what truly makes BroadVoice the best value: not only is the service easy to use and feature-rich but the call quality is top-notch and support is available 24x7. Having had BroadVoice from the very beginning (for close to one year now), I continue to recommend it highly.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
| »next review in page (previous review)
Review by TheInformer
UPDATED: 199 days ago
member for 199 days, 0 visits, last login: 199 days ago
undisclosed location
Contract price not specified.
"Superb customer support, value, web site controls."
"none worth mentioning."
"I switched from Vonage 6 mo ago. Couldn't be happier."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I was with Vonage for 2 years, but I left a while ago for several reasons, including poor customer service, their likely downfall due to massive debt, and the fact that they locked their router and wouldn't let me use my own softphone unless I paid extra.
Broadvoice has none of these issues (although they're a privately held entity, so I really can't tell what their financials look like). I can tell you that their customer support is absolutely fantastic. It's nice that I don't need to learn Hindi. If you don't mind the New England accent, then your home free! I called their support today, just to ask a question, and got through to a real person on the second ring. No hold message, no "press 1 for this, 2 for that". In fairness, it's not always that way. There are times when I've had to wait for 20 minutes, but on the infrequent occasions I've called, the service has always been stellar. Based on my conversations with them, they have a small but knowledgeable staff that has been there for a long time. I've never had to have a call escalated, and they've gone above and beyond my expectations each time.
They let you use whatever device or software you like, and they give you the passwords and configuration - at no additional charge. They provide a URL for a free softphone application. They don't lock their devices, either, so your investment is safe. If you ever leave, you can take your router/phone with you and use it on another provider's network. This was not the case at the V. They didn't care if you bought it, they wouldn't unlock it for you when you left. What a joke.
As far as the setup, the router worked right out of the box. I did have to do some tweaking to get the softphone to work, and there was some minor fine-tuning done on both the router and the softphone configuration in the beginning to optimize things. Since then, it's been fine.
Broadvoice's website has some really nice features that were not available at the V. One thing I really like is the ability to selectively forward incoming calls based on the inbound number. I am now forwarding numbers from telemarketers to a bogus number that will always play "call cannot be completed"... It works and it's great. Between that and the do-not-call list, I rarely get telemarketing calls.
The call quality is very good, but on rare occasions there can be degradation due to network issues. You have to expect this in the world of VoIP, though. Overall, using their router, I would rate their call quality to be about the same as the V. The audio quality on the softphone is perfect - like being there. NOTE: If you are going to use a soft phone, then invest in a GOOD headset. The cheap ones really suck.
Two things...first, you can't use the router and the softphone at the same time. It will mess up their system. When I use the softphone, I unplug the router. Second, if you don't configure the e911 service, and you make a 911 call on their network, you may be charged $100. Except in rare instances where you have another line, you're probably going to want e911 anyway, and you're paying for it regardless.
As far as reliability, no complaints. I think it was down for a short time once. At least as good as with the V.
Regarding the value for the money, they are about the least expensive out there in terms of the established VoIP providers. I am paying less than I was and getting a lot more. Love it.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
| »next page (previous review)
 Review by Dude
UPDATED: 213 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 2044 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$16 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"Cheap Price of $9.95 for unlimited instate calls and unlimited incoming"
"It's VoIP, It's never going to be 100% reliable"
"Awesome for my work at home line."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
You can shut all of your features or turn them on as you choose. Plus I didn't have to pay ATT $138 to come out and install a second phone line. I notice no difference in call quality whatsoever and I like to tinker, so I am talking while doing speed tests to stress test it. I have to say I am happy with the service so far and will update accordingly.
12/14/2007 Update
Its working I am having no problems with it. I would highly recommend it.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of BroadVoice |
|
|
BroadVoice
(19)
(66)
·
·
You sound like the PR for Broadvoice... :)