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Review by jds17j See Profile

  • Location: Providence, Providence, RI, USA
  • Cost: $22 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
Always works, Great price, Tech Support, Quality
Fees a little steep, but worth it.... Website not great, but OK
Great value for the money, better than the others i've tried
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I've finally found a company that works. I had P8 before them, and for the same price i get so much more with Broadvoice. I always had to reset my DTA on P8... Now it's been months with Broadvoice, on the $20 plan, and no resets, no missed calls, no strange sounds, no quality issues, and great support when i call (which has only been to ask about feature implementation, etc... NOT service problems). I use the service with Comcast cable with no problems at all. I have a wireless Linksys router with the Sipura plugged into it. I have 6 computers currently hooked up to it, 2 via ethernet and 4 via wi-fi. I really like the 7-digit dialing too. Haven't really used most of the features, but the ones that i do use work great. I haven't experienced the DTMF tone, Voicemail, or website problems some other users have run into either. The only bad points are the startup fees (which i didn't care about because i was so sick of P8), LNP not ready yet, and the Portal isn't the greatest, but it is usable. When they get the portal finished and LNP working, I will have absolutely nothing bad to say about this company!

member for 20 years, 1160 visits, last login: 10.1 years ago
lodged 19.8 years ago


Review by dreedy1 See Profile

  • Location: Katy, Harris, TX, USA
  • Cost: $22 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 2 days
Voice quality,price, ease of installation
no fax, caller id problems
Very good
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I received my order in 2 days. Initial problem setting up but tech support got it right. I f we can work out fax issue I will totally get rid of local phone service. I am a little concerned with TIme Warner cable service. Our service goes down once a day and so far they have not helped.We always reboot and it works but it is a pain.

member for 19.9 years, 2 visits, last login: 19.8 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago







Review by stevenkuai See Profile

  • Location: Staten Island, Richmond, NY, USA
  • Cost: $11 per month
  • Install: about 4 days
LOW PRICE!, GREAT QUALITY, NO MORE HELL-RIZON POTS
911 not functional yet, no caller id name, call manager is limited and will not work with firefox, high activation fee.
For $9.95 a month vs $25 a month (even with no calls made) with verizon in nyc this is the smartest thing you can do!
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Well since i ordered on friday, they couldn't deliver the next day because they use fedex 2nd day service. Actually i tracked the package to be in the warehouse in my city but since it has not made a delivery atempt yet they would not let me pick it up on saturday so i had to wait till monday for it.

Install was easy, i first disconnected the pots from the outside to my in house wiring. Then i checked every phone in the house to make sure there was no tone. I then took everything out of the box, hooked the sipura to my netgear wirless router and plugged the line into my in house wiring. Within 5 seconds my line was setup and ready to call. When my mother came home at night she did not even know that i installed our voip system until i told her. She could not tell the difference in terms of quality of our voip vs pots. Actually i think the quality of broadvoice voip is better than pots because it uses a codec that consumes about 11KB a second each way. This is pretty close to cd quality.

I purchased a set of vtech 2.4 ghz digital cordless phones and combined with the voip the calls are crystal clear!

I have a Belkin 1000va (550 watt) UPS backup power supply supplying uninterrupted power to my cable modem, wireless router, and my sipura box. This should keep my phones working for a while in case of outages.

I tried sending and receiving a fax and it works fine.

I also tried establishing a dial up connection....didnt work =(

All in all i am extremely satisfied that I'am saving my mother a minimum of $15 a month. And with that $15 a month she was able to get her first cell phone with 1 year prepaid service for only $100 for 666 minutes. Great deal!

BYE BYE VERIZON !

member for 21.1 years, 485 visits, last login: 17.4 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago

chex383
join:2003-03-13
Victoria, BC

chex383

Member

UPS'ing Cable-modem service

Not to burst your bubble, but you will probably still have phone outages using Cable-internet. Cable equipment/local nodes are almost never power-backed up well, and if it doesn't go out instantly, it will in 5 to 10 minutes max.

just a FYI.. (this is where C.O. fed DSL has an edge on Cable-modem.. )

- Stefan

Review by vandamme See Profile

  • Location: Buford, Gwinnett, GA, USA
  • Cost: $19 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
It showed up fast! $19.95/mo for nationwide calls
No caller ID with name. No documentation in the box
Great Service, not for the technically weak.
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I just got Broadvoice and have generally been impressed. But not to rehash what others stated, I'll try to keep to short.

It showed up fast! I ordered Tuesday morning and it was delivered Thursday.

Lots of "Standard" features that are used the same as the local phone company.

Cheap! It's $9.95/mo for unlimited in-state service and $19.95/mo for nationwide. I took the $19.95 plan because my wife's family is out-of-state.

Ability to select alternate numbers. My wife can set up a number that her family can call that is local to them so that they can avoid LD charges.

Voice quality seems excellent. The only issue I've had with it was while uploading a large file to my job. I could hear just find the the person I was talking to had about a second delay in hearing me.

No caller ID with name, it only shows the number.

No documentation in the box. There wasn't a single piece of paper in the shipment from Broadvoice!

Neither my Directv nor my Tivo work with Broadvoice either. Seems like somehow there would be a solution to this.

All in all, Broadvoice is a worthy product. I have recommended it to others.

member for 23.1 years, 252 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago


Review by terrifh See Profile

  • Location: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Cost: $10 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Price, Follow-up, Call quality,Good features
Not fully functioning portal, high International rates, start up cost is a bit high
No brainer choice for price and quality!
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As with most everyone else, this was a snap to get started. The quick delivery by Fedex of the sipura was great. I did not have to check or wonder, it was there in a couple of days. The sipura worked right out of the box! It was so easy that even my most non-technical friends could set this up.

The website needs work, and the portal is not fully operational. Hwr, I really like the Call Manager. I love one click dialing from Outlook and the ability to keep track of calls using outlook journal. This is especially helpful when working on client projects or service issues.

The call quality is terrific most of the time. Sometimes there are delays but I think that is due more to my isp (Adelphia Powerlink) than BV. I also have Vonage and think the call quality is superior on BV.

I am hoping later to port over my second line once they have that service available. I know they are working on many upgrades as the CS is very well informed and share information.

Their cs is stand out. They ALWAYS call back or email. They are well informed, polite and friendly. You can tell they want their company to succeed and work hard to solve problems and keep you satisfied. I hope during their growth they keep this level of service.

I definitely would recommend them to friends and clients.

member for 20.7 years, 550 visits, last login: 14.9 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago


Review by boomertsfx See Profile

  • Location: Ashburn, Loudoun, VA, USA
  • Cost: $10 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 3 days
Great phone support, price. FAST delivery
Some advertised features not implemented yet. Higher initial costs.
Awesome service, works great.
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ISP: Adelphia Cable modem 3000/256
Router: m0n0wall
DTA: Sipura 2000

Sipura DTA was here in 2 days... worked right out of the box. Quality and latency was better than Packet8 in my experience. Calls connected much faster -- just like my old POTS line. I've already disconnected Verizon and haven't looked back!

QOS is key to call quality... espcially if you run P2P clients! I'm using m0n0wall as my router and it works nicely!

member for 21.6 years, 184 visits, last login: 10.4 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago


Review by PinkFloyd0 See Profile

  • Location: Meriden, New Haven, CT, USA
  • Cost: $20 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 2 days
Call Quality is Great!! The price is very reasonable!
Not all features work (Yet)
Excellent Value for your money!
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I signed up with Broadvoice about a month ago, I am using my own Sipura SPA-2000 , so I didnt have to wait for delivery, but it still took them about 3 days to get my service provisioned. After calling support to find out the status of my order they got me going in about a half an hour and waived all the setup fees. I am using this service side by side with vonage. I will probably end up cancelling my vonage line. But I dont want to lose the number and Broadvoice does not offer porting as of right now. The features that are active work great! Including Sim-Ring and caller-id , speed dial 100 is not working as of right now , but they say it should be in a few weeks. After trying it out at my house , I now have 4 additional lines at my fathers business, and no one can even tell the difference! I am on the unlimited calling plan for $19.99 a month , which is a very reasonable price for the service they offer! They also have an unlimited in-state plan for $9.99 and 3.9c/min to other states. I have family in 3 other states so I opted for the USA plan, and have several virtual numbers. I would definitely reccomend this service!!

member for 20.7 years, 1960 visits, last login: 14.6 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago


Review by nc22 See Profile

  • Location: Everett, Snohomish, WA, USA
  • Cost: $23 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
Fast Set-up/Delivery, Clear Sound Quality, Many Features, Cheap Price
Serious problem to Canada, no dial tone, suddenly cut, call/packet drops, need to fix the connection to Canadian Network ASAP.
It is a #1 VOIP if they fix the problem to Canada OR they cancel the Canada Unlimited as selling point
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They sent me the gateway by Fedex Piority Express extremely fast(1 day), setup had problems at the beginning, and was working fine about few reboots. However, there is no signals after I punched in any Vancouver numbers, then I tried Alberta, same results, so I called their 24hrs customer service, people claimed their CS was very good, but I think those good CSRs were off during night time or maybe the CSR I talked to was too tired at night. (I called them 11:00pm and someone still answered my call, very good), the CS was as not polite as previous reviews. BUT he was helpful to use another VOIP to call my Canadian number and test it, he got problems there too, so he submited trouble ticket for me, I am still waiting a fix. However, all my US numbers were as good as what other people's claims. I hope they will get in Canada like Vonage in the future and provide more area code. If you don't call Canada, this one has Vonage's quality but P8's price, what you waiting for?

member for 19.9 years, 13 visits, last login: 16.5 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago


Review by stickside See Profile

  • Location: Auburn, Worcester, MA, USA
  • Cost: $9 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Call Clarity, Low monthly rate, all the features that Telcos charge high prices for.
Other than a slightly higher activation fee than the others, there are no bad points!!
With services like BroadVoice, the Telcos are in huge trouble!!
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I placed my order for BroadVoice on Saturday April 17th, and received my equipment(SipuraSPA) on Tuesday the 20th. We ordered the in state package which is 9.99/month for unlimited in state calls. We could have got the unlimited in state and unlimited long distance for 19.99, but we've got a cell phone plan with cingular that we use for our long distance. The unit came via FedEx in a small white box with no instructions. I took the unit out of the box, connected it to the last open port on my router, plugged in the power, and it automatically configured itself and found an IP address(DHCP). Once it was online, my wife and I started to make calls to see how well the sound quality was. I was astonished at the clarity on this thing. It actually sounds better that POTS. Because it sounded better it seemed weird at first just because I was not used to such clarity in a phone. We're also using a hunk of junk Uniden 2.4Ghz cordless phone that sounded lousy on our POTS, but it now sounds very good. We're planning on buying a Motorola 2.4Ghz cordless phone that allows you to add extra handsets, this way we can keep the main base in the office where the router is, and add 2 handsets to put one down in the living room and one in the bedroom. After making a few calls, I logged into my account on the BroadVoice website, and was absolutely amazed at the endless features that comes with the service. These are features that Telcos such as Verizon charge an arm and a leg for......but I'm getting them all in my package for 9.99/month. I immediately set up my voicemail. You can do this either on the phone, or you can upload a wav file online on your account page on the BroadVoice website. After doing that, I phoned Verizon and told them I wanted to drop my phone service down to the bare minimum, which is 12.36/month before taxes and fees(19.36 after taxes and fees). The Verizon rep asked me why I wanted to do this, and I told him I was switching to VoIP. He told me that my DSL package would now be 5.00 more a month. I told him I am no longer a DSL customer, because I cancelled it on Saturday the 17th, and switched to Charter Pipeline(with who I'm extremely happy with as well.....read my review on them). I explained to the rep that since I was going with VoIP, I felt cable internet was my best deal, because in order to have VoIP I need a broadband connection, and if I were to stay with DSL, I'd still need POTS so I wouldn't be saving all that much. My intentions are to drop POTS completely. I'm only keeping the bare minimum right now until everyone we know starts calling us on our VoIP phone, plus I've got some job oppurtunities out there right now that are linked to my POTS number, so once I hear back and get a better idea of what's going on I will can my POTS line altogether. Another reason we have POTS still is because BroadVoice does not have 911 service yet, but that is coming very soon. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is BroadVoice rocks!!! They really are all that and a bag of chips!! If you're looking to go VoIP, make no hesitations on choosing BroadVoice. Also, from what I've read from others who've tried Vonage, Packet8, VoicePulse, and then switched to BroadVoice, they all said BroadVoice's call clarity and quality is the best. Also, some of those other companies require you to dial extra numbers to make your calls. That is not the case with BroadVoice....you pick up your phone and there's automatically a dialtone, and then you simply dial the number you want to call. This is one very happy VoIP customer with BroadVoice, and I can't wait to cancel my POTS for good!!!! I was not able to rate their Tech Support, because I did not need them at all. If I should ever need them for any reason, I will update the review to include them. But for now they're aces across the board.

member for 23.3 years, 541 visits, last login: 13.7 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago


Review by Mark0824 See Profile

  • Location: Marietta, Cobb, GA, USA
  • Cost: $19 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
Call Quality, Features, Price, Tech Support
Higher Startup fees, Mediocre Web Interface,no 911 Access
I have used P8, Vonage nad Broadvoice. Broadvoice is staying!!!
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Ordered it on Tuesday and received it on Thursday. Installation was a breeze. In fact, I was setting up my voicemail 1 minute after my order was accepted. The activation fee is $39.99 which is higher then most of the other but with the Features of Vonage andthe Price of P8 you will make back the difference shortly.

I have tried Voange, P8 and Broadvoice. P8 and Broadvoice (The best) have the best sound quality. Vonage was good but some light white noise every now andthen. Vonage has the best features all though Broadvoice is close (411 is up and 911 is soon). P8 has the least amount of features but call qulaity was clear even while playing games online.

The P8 portal is not very good. Can't do much with it. The Vonage portal is the Best. Youc an see all your calls and make a lot of adjustments very easily. The Broadvoice portal is ok. You can customize a lot but no call logs and it is not very user firendly.

The Vonage click to dial app is neat. It works well and is easy to use. Broadvoice has their Call Manager which has a few more features like send to voicemail when a call comes in, transfer, hold. It is not a stand alone app like the vonage click to dial. You need to log into your portal but you can keep minimized on your desktop all day if you like.

Setup of all three was very easy. Vonage has a lot of documentation about how to set up the device and how to use their service. It is very helpful to someone new to VOIP. P8 had some documentation on how to setup the device and some basic info on the service. Broadvoice has nothing in the box when you get except the equiptment. They have good documentation online though.

I want to keep my POTS line and reduce my 80 a month phone bill (for basic local calling and 911) as well as have my VOIP for business and for long distance calls. The price, features, and qulaity of Broadvoice meet all my criteria.

I am very happy with Broadvoice.

Mark



member for 22.2 years, 22 visits, last login: 13.1 years ago
lodged 19.9 years ago

nc22
join:2004-04-16
Everett, WA

1 edit

nc22

Member

Call Log

Thanks for sharing your experience, I applied today too, and I found out the call log is right in the call manager pop-up, if you installed java runtime, you should have this pop-up every time you login broadvoice

*The delivery was extremely fast, I am in Canada now, and they ship it via Fexdex priority express, which arrived next day promptly. $14 was a good shipping rate to Canada

benjamin
All propositions are of equal value
Premium Member
join:2000-12-20
New York, NY

benjamin

Premium Member

Re: Call Log

Yes, that's correct. I was just going to mention that. The call logs also allow one-click dialing, a handy feature.
markhph
join:2001-03-24

markhph

Member

Re: Call Log

Unfortunately, doesn't work on Safari browsers.