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Review by jdrtech See Profile

  • Location: Brooklyn, Kings, NY, USA
  • Cost: $19 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Great sound quality!, Fast setup, and cost!
Long hold times with customer service
keep up the good work and hire more people ATT !
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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Hi i recently order ATT Callvantage service about five days ago, my TA adapter is a d-link dvg-1120m voip gateway, shipped fedex 2 day service, it took me about 10 minutes to set this up and i got a dial tone, seem to me att have worked out the problems when connecting the TA behind a router. Im using a linksys WRT54G router with the latest firmware Version 3.01.3 from linksys which was released about a month ago. I orded the 19.99 plan which includes unlimited local calls and a whole bunch of calling features plus 4 cents a minute on domestic long distance, im not a heavy long distance caller so this plan is right for me, i have roadrunner premium and just a little bandwidth is taken away during a call, nothing to go crazy about.....well so far so good and i will post a follow up report soon. FOLLOW UP....after a week i got my number ported finally, i was not getting any inbound calls and it took a few calls to att which i was on hold for at least 15 minutes each time, they may need to add more man power to the call center to meet demand, because this service is great to have. I tested my internet speed while on a call, with out a call its 5714/490....on a call its about 5654/440 average, like i said its best to install the TA behind the router, not in front of it, well so far so good on the sound quality after two week with the service. NOW DEAD!!!!!!!!2019

member for 19.6 years, 2643 visits, last login: 12 days ago
updated 4.2 years ago

ejakab
join:2002-08-25
Norwalk, CT

ejakab

Member

International Calls

Can you call internationally, e.g. to Europe, on the $19.99 plan, for the same fees as those listed for the $29.99 plan? Or do you need the $29.99 plan to be able to call abroad?

jdrtech
join:2004-08-01
Richmond Hill, NY

jdrtech

Member

Re: International Calls

hi, yes you can place calls to international locations on 19.99 plan, here is the link to ATT calling rates via att callvantage.
»www.callvantage.att.com/rates
ejakab
join:2002-08-25
Norwalk, CT

ejakab

Member

Re: International Calls

Thank you very much for your help, jdrtech.

jdrtech
join:2004-08-01
Richmond Hill, NY

jdrtech

Member

Re: International Calls

Your Welcome....Good Luck!

Hnn
@comcast.net

Hnn

Anon

Callvantage

Hi, I received the Linksys RT41P2-AT Router for my ATT callvantage service. Some confusions with my old number porting from comcast digital phone service but after activation with this Linksys device, this system has worked flawlessly so far. Voice quality is excellent. Have not encountered a call drop yet after 4 days of service.

Talking to a friend (using my land line before switching to ATT callvantage) that has vonage service, I agreed with other users in this forum that ATT callvantage has the best sound quality!

Checking my comcast cable modem speed using the speed test at this site. Got 2.3Mb download and 234kb upload when phone was not in use. Tried again with phone in use and got 1.2Mb download and about 64Kb upload results.

Anyone try speed test with and without phone in use yet?

Thanks. Hnn

Review by Mr_A1 See Profile

  • Location: Dickson, Dickson, TN, USA
  • Cost: $20 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
30
Great value for good service and features
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Easy to order once I moved the DSL from my POTS line I wanted to transfer to CV. After getting the D-Link VOIP Gateway, it was easy to setup even though my DSL Modem is also a 4-port wired and wireless router. I like the extra features and the ease of using them through the CV website. I hope AT&T keeps the quality of this service if they do decide to move it to the new AT&T packages.

Update: Callvantage was shuttered by new AT&T some years ago and some of the features were moved to UVoice, but new AT&T just is not that good to do business with and has more redtape than the government when you need to get something done or fixed.

member for 19.9 years, 4516 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
updated 10.9 years ago


Review by NY Tel See Profile

  • Location: Smithtown, Suffolk, NY, USA
  • Cost: $34 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Outstanding sound quality and very little down time.
They have eliminated them. Used to be a TA registration mis-match but now even that works.
The good outweighs the bad 9:1
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I switched from AT&T Callvantage after having a less-than-pleasing experience with Vonage. I have had a Verizon POTS line for a long time and got fed up paying 80 dollars a month for their Freedom Package to get a bunch of features that were nice to have but not necessarily worth the total amount they charge.
I use my line for a combination of personal and business calls and everyone who speaks to me is shocked when I confess to them that I am talking on a connection using the Internet.
The feature set is very rich and actually makes my life easier. Locate me can call up to 5 separate numbers either sequentially or simultaneously. It can be activated via the CallVantage home phone, Internet Portal or even from your cell phone. Do Not disturb is a plus also as is the 10 port conferencing feature.
I'd highly recommend this to anyone who is on the fence and wants to save a lot of money over POTS.
Yes you can get cheaper service but then doesn't the word CHEAP speak for itself in this regard?

U P D A T E as of October 1, 2005:
It has now been 18 months since I got the service and it has really been no problem at all. There were a few glitches and growth pains for a while but now the product is extremely reliable and all of the features work and work the way they are supposed to.
This is an excellent POTS replacement if your connection to the Intenet is reliable.

No longer have this service as AT&T discontinued it.

member for 19.9 years, 6387 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 12.2 years ago


Review by djw3798 See Profile

  • Location: Cincinnati, Hamilton, OH, USA
  • Cost: $26 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
GREAT sound quality, established & stable company
A little more expensive than Sunrocket (RIP), some standard features lacking
Stable and Rock Solid, from a company that won't disappear in 3 years!!!
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Needed to replace Sunrocket, and traditional POTS is NOT an option... Cincinnati Bell is outrageously expensive!

Opted not to even try to port my old SR number. So few people actually had the number, it's not too hard to convey my new phone # to them.

Ordered on Tues 7/17, after SR went down in flames. New TA, a Dlink DVG-5102S, was delivered by Fedex within a week.

Took all of 2 minutes to install the TA and make a call. The sound quality is SUPERB, just as clear as POTS.

No problems so far...

...to be continued!

UPDATE - 8/22/07

Still working great! Tried putting the TA in front of my home router to take advantage of the QOS properties built in to this particular TA, but was less than satisfied. The TA wanted to throttle down my network connection ALL OF THE TIME, not just when on a call. So, I moved it back behind the router, everything OK!

Their 911 Confirmation routine, whenever the TA loses power, is somewhat annoying, but I can live with it!

Overall, a great experience so far!

--- UPDATE 10/2010

RIP Callvantage!

member for 23.6 years, 378 visits, last login: 3.8 years ago
updated 13.4 years ago

Fisamo
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Apex, NC

Fisamo

Premium Member

CallVantage

Yes, the 911 verification is irritating. Your best solution there is to put your ATA on a UPS. Of course, a UPS doesn't help when you have to reboot it to have it update its config for a public vs private IP.

The bandwidth throttling is typical of ATT's setup. Throttling is horrific the first few days while ATT measures your internet speeds. After that, it should adjust to have less impact on your rated speeds. Should is the key word, though. I've found best performance with the ATA behind the home router, as you have indicated in your review.

NY Tel
Premium Member
join:2004-04-09
Smithtown, NY

NY Tel

Premium Member

Re: CallVantage

And just a mere 2 years ago we were all branded as "sunshine pumpers" and fanboys of CallVantage.

I must say that AT&T's secret Headhunter/recruiter group did a superb job of placing Captain Hook at Sunrocket. Sunrocket has been the best thing to happen to AT&T IMHO....
djw3798
join:2000-08-04
Cincinnati, OH

djw3798 to Fisamo

Member

to Fisamo
I've read about the UPS solution... too cheap to go and buy one! Cell phone works ok for a power outage. I can live with the 911 routine!

As far as the throttling... horrific is a good way to put it (I was thinking more like hideous!) Cut my speed by 2/3!!!! NOT acceptable, if even for a few days!

Just have to make sure I'm not downloading anything while I'm on a call!

Thanks for the comment!

L8R
Fisamo
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Apex, NC

Fisamo

Premium Member

Re: CallVantage

said by djw3798:

I've read about the UPS solution... too cheap to go and buy one!
Don't blame you. Just wait for a good sale/rebate. Usually, there's at least one good find on Black Friday.

Review by lhvetinari See Profile

  • Location: Winnetka, Cook, IL, USA
  • Cost: $39 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Nice-looking router
Too many to list...
Sucks. Totally. At least you can no longer get it...
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I have had CallVantage for a year, and left for cell-only (VZW) in 2008. My router was a nice D-Link that had dual-line support. However, there was a issue with the WAN/LAN Pass-Thru that passes traffic on to the computer (Netgear WGR614v7). Never worked quite right before or after.

EDIT SUN 26 JULY 2009 : No longer available! Yay!

member for 15.5 years, 2167 visits, last login: 1 day ago
updated 13.9 years ago







Review by SolarPup See Profile

  • Location: Evans, Weld, CO, USA
  • Cost: $25 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 8 days
Very friendly support and customer service, Fast shipment of TA
-None-
Excellent VoIP provider with crystal-clear quality and VERY reliable
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I was getting sick of Qwest's $20 pound-me-in-the-a$$ fees and taxes, so I gave AT&T a try.. $25 a month, which I couldn't pass up, a few friends had it and said they loved it, and so do I, now! Very clear and easy to understand directions, great technical support, and very friendly sales/customer service. No way am I going back to Qworst for phone service. Came with a DLink TA that plugged right into my router, had to configure the ports for passthrough, but otherwise it was very very simple.

member for 22 years, 3061 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
updated 13.9 years ago


Review by Catmando See Profile

  • Location: Montgomery, Kendall, IL, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Dependable
None that I've experience
Runs great on at&t network
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Very very very good quality product that's depenable with a great value. My hope is that at&t continues with the service in none uverse areas.

member for 21.4 years, 1162 visits, last login: 1 year ago
updated 14.3 years ago







Review by nunya See Profile

  • Location: O Fallon, Saint Charles, MO, USA
  • Cost: $20 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Good quality, Good Features, Good Price, Faxing
Setup, VM menu, 10 digit local dialing
One of the better VoIP services I've used
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My Other Reviews

·Charter
I've had Callvantage for a while now. It's worked so well, that I dropped my home POTS line (My DSL comes in on my business POTS). I have two Callvantage lines with unlimited long distance.

The biggest drawback has been 10 digit dialing. Even when dialing a local number your have to dial 10 digits. The other quirk is that if your TA losses power, they make you "re-confirm" your 911 information before it will let you make outgoing calls again. Kind of a PITA.

I like that faxing actually works every time. No other VoIP provider that I've used (and I've used a lot of them) could do it.

AFAIC, AT&T CV beats the pants off of Vonage. Century-Tel (Local ILEC) is very expensive, so this is a welcome change.

UPDATE:. I've had Callvantage for about a year now. Still works well. I would say CV is the best VOIP service I have used.

Still working well. dropped the 2nd line due to lack of use. Also got a discount for having AT&T wireless. Wanted to note - when I called in to customer service, my call was answered quickly by an English speaking rep. All issues were handled in one call. I'm not used to this with AT&T. Hopefully this is a trend.

CallVantage was scrapped by AT&T. Too bad.It was a good service.

member for 23.2 years, 7207 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
updated 14.4 years ago

Lenagainster
join:2005-01-07
Silver Spring, MD

Lenagainster

Member

workarounds

IIRC, you don't have to dial a '1' for long distance, much like cell phones. In any case, here in the DC area, we have to dial ten digits on a land line, because of overlapping area codes. But if you have a phone with enough memory, much like a cell phone, you can let the phone do the ten digit dialing for you.

Agreed that verifying that you have not moved your TA is a pain, especially when it happens so often as a result of sub-second glitch in the power line. An easy fix is an inexpensive UPS for the TA.

Review by ricep5 See Profile

  • Location: Jacksonville, Duval, FL, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
Geat call quality
Too many E911 notifications, call waiting squawk is too disruptive
Call quality the best so far, they need to reduce the price more
Web-site:
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Value for money:

Purchased the package though Best Buy. Self-Install was seamless using Comcast as the bulk bandwidth provider. Believe them when the instructions demand you reset all of the devices in a particular order. One issue seen is that it reports my new greeting is active, but when I dial in the system greeting is used. Will wait a day to see if change goes through. The other issue is that the TA/Gateway resets itself when performing a security scan. (D-Link DVG-1120M) TA cannot contact AT&T gateway until unit is power cycled after the scan completes. AT&T automatically updated the firmware when the TA was provisioned.
Voice mail is instant and is reflected in my web mailbox immediately after completion. Call quality was excellent. No clipping or distortion heard. Depending on number dialed, did detect a small delay though there was no echo.

Will test behind a firewall to see if security issue can be addressed over short term. Since users cannot update the firmware, I am left to use my own devices.

(4/22/05)

I am still happy with the service. I did have an outage, but it was caused by a DHCP issue at the ISP. I FINALLY recv'd my rebate check. They didn't send it to the address I entered, but to the billing address of my credit card before I moved. So it had to be forwarded.

(7/2/07)

I am still using and am generally happy with the service. The E911 "your service address has changed" seems to pop up more now than usual, but no drop offs, no clipping, no issues.

(1/28/08)

Still on the service. They recently had a non-announced price drop from $29 to $24 per month. If I hadn't have gone to the promo page I would have missed it. No change in service quality after I requested the price change. Except for the occasional "E911" must answer after the TA loses contact, it still works as advertised. Same TA. Used permanently on a Comcast HSI link. The call waiting notification, which I haven't noted before and has been unchanged since the beginning is starting to annoy me. The "beep" is a squawk where I miss several words of the other person talking. If I ignore the other call that squawking can lead to missing some important conversation.

(4/20/09)

Received letter informing me that CallVantage is being shut down by AT&T with no deadline. Basically saying to start looking now and get your number ported as quickly as possible. No incentive to switch to another AT&T product, just a small mention on U-Verse. After 4 years of pretty good service it looks like adios is coming pretty soon.

(9/24/09)

Service terminated and ported to VoicePulse. I never heard of any company that stopped a product/service that received such great reviews and offered NO incentives to stay with them. Very odd. Final monthly invoice was growing every year. It used to be just $24. By the time I ported, with taxes and regulatory charges it had gotten up to $31 a month. Yeah, $7 a month in fees and taxes on a $24 dollar service.

Adios AT&T CV.

member for 23.6 years, 1600 visits, last login: 9.3 years ago
updated 14.5 years ago


lalilu426
@indpnd01.mo.comcast.

lalilu426

Anon

voice Mail Greeting Issue

I had the same trouble with the voicemail I was setting it to a recorded greeting threw my phone feature manager calling from the cv phone. But, if you go online and change that setting to use recorded greeting it will start working. Atleast mine did.
ricep5
Premium Member
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL

ricep5

Premium Member

Re: voice Mail Greeting Issue

I caught that and changed it and it worked immediately. I moved the DLink behind my firewall and it worked sporadically.

Some people calling in would go right through, some people (mostly on a nearby local exchange) would go to voice mail immediately. I moved it back outside the firewall and it appears to be working OK now. When relocating it logically on my network requires a restart on ALL of my equipment, irritating to say the least.

Having it behind the firewall stopped the security scan resets, so I will have to come up with a better arrangement.
ricep5

ricep5

Premium Member

Re: voice Mail Greeting Issue

Another Update:

When on a call and another call comes in, the call waiting beep on the line causes a brief sound of static.

I moved the TA back in front of the firewall because like clockwork at 5:30PM ET, it would refuse to take calls and go directly into voice mail. If this is a AT&T problem or a latency problem with Comcast, I can't be sure. Since I moved it back out the 5:30PM issue has stopped. No, I do not have the "Do Not Disturb" option active.

When behind my firewall using QoS, the DLink TA used about 100Kbps of bandwidth, when in front of my firewall w/o QoS, it looks like it is using about 1Mbps. (ouch) Latency when on a call or checking VM goes up astronomically.

I picked up a secondary ISP today and I am going to look for a better configuration. If the Dlink keeps up the bandwidth issue, I will investigate the Linksys option.
ricep5

ricep5

Premium Member

New Update

Recv'd my first bill from AT&T CallVantage.

Issues:

1)Was billed for timed calls for the first 2 days I had the service
Answer: The billing system didn't "roll in" my account with its terms for 48 hours after my number was provisioned online. Customer Service removed the timed call charges.
2)Was billed the full rate for the introductory period
Answer: Customer Service reversed the charges
Observations:
Only 3 taxing bodies showed up on the bill
1) Federal Telecom Tax
2) 911 Tax
3) Florida State Telecom Tax

Less than what I see on a SBC bill ( 6 taxing bodies) but too much none the less.

Review by trmyers See Profile

  • Location: Winston, Douglas, GA, USA
  • Cost: $30 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 4 days
Superior call quality and reliability
It wasn't plug and play like I had with Vonage and Voicepulse
I'm paying a little extra for alot more quality and reliability but it is worth it.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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Value for money:

Got it Sept 28th. Four business days from order to receiving it. It took about an hour to get it working at first in front of my router. My problem was I had PPoe working on my router and PPoe on the TA. With the TA in front of the router, you only need the PPoe working on the TA. This was not covered in their manual. I have since moved the TA behind the router so the PPoe is now only on the router.

I use this for business and wanted superior call quality and reliability. Both Vonage and Voicepulse were OK for 2nd lines but neither were reliable and call quality was OK. With Vonage and Voicepulse, I'd get busy signals or have to reboot the TA once a week and miss calls. CallVantage call quality is great. I can surf the net with 90% of my bandwidth and have no problems with a call. I never get busy signals when dialing out. I got 2 virtual numbers for $4.99 each and didn't get charged a setup fee.

I suggest CV as a first line service if you need quality and reliability. If you only are in it to save money or a 2nd line, then Vonage or Voicepulse will suffice.

02/23/2005 - I use CV constantly Monday through Friday for business and it never fails. Sound quality is exceptional.

08/13.2009 - Received my letter informing me that they were turning off the service in October. It has been rock solid since day 1. I am trying out VoicePulse right now and will port my number to them if they prove themselves.

member for 19.7 years, 324 visits, last login: 12.5 years ago
updated 14.6 years ago