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 Review by DracoFelis 
UPDATED: 3.5 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 2822 visits, last login: 6 days ago
 undisclosed location
 $12 per month (month by month)
 about 1 days
 "Was nice, but now this provider is going away!"
 "The service is being shut down by Yahoo, who nows owns them."
 "Since they are closing up shop, avoid them like the plague..."
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I was reasonably happy with DialPad, when I used them on my own (hardware) VoIP adapter. And I was able to use them this way, because DialPad did allow/support "hardware VoIP adapters" before Yahoo bought them out.
But I recently got an email from Yahoo (who bought out DialPad) that they are discontinuing as of May 8th, 2006. And I verified this info with DialPad support, so the service is in fact going away.
Given the fact that DialPad is dying (and the Yahoo VoIP service that Yahoo want's you to switch to is considerably inferior IMHO), than don't even think about DialPad at this point!
NOTE: My low (current) review ratings, were updated to reflect both the fact that DialPad is closing down (and therefore NOT a good choice for service now) AND the poor way (from a "customer service" standpoint) they chose to do this shutdown.
NOTE: Yahoo is trying to sell former DialPad users their new "Yahoo Voice" service. However, IMHO the new "Yahoo Voice" is a significantly inferior (and more costly) product than the DialPad service that is going away. So if you want my advice, I would stay away from "Yahoo Voice", and go with some other provider for VoIP...
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Review by everest
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 4.5 years, 0 visits, last login: 4.5 years ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$11 per month (month by month)
about 5 days
"best price by far; keeps best of VoIP and PSTN"
"only one phone in the house; ATA not free"
"Hard to beat"
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I am surprised to see so few postings about Dialpad, so i thought i would spread the good word since this has to be the best deal in town!!!
See, what no other VoIP provider will tell you is that if, like me and I suspect all readers of this forum, you get broadband Internet through DSL, there is no way you can replace your existing phone service with VoIP: SBC will only sell me DSL if i have a basic phone service, so not only is it impossible to port my number to voip, but once i add the costs of a Packet8 or Vonage to the $18 or so i am paying for my phone service, i don't feel i'm saving any money!
Glad to see at least one provider understands this: instead of pretending you can switch to voip altogether and burry the truth in hidden small prints, Dialpad has done the opposite: they built a service that works with your basic phone line. Their ATA connects to your broadband connection AND to your wall jack. All local calls and 911 calls go through your local SBC and all LD + International calls go IP. They save because they don't provide my local calls and i save as i pay only $11.99/month. Pretty clever to me! Also, since i keep my local line anyway, i don't need a new number
I was bummed about having to pay for the ATA when everyone else gives it for free, but this one has a router, so $29.99 is actually not so bad and i like that there is no year commitment or cancellation fee. I signed up last week, and received the adapter within 3 days. The set up was a breeze, and it's been working great for me.
Call quality is great. It is hard to tell the difference with my previous long distance phone service. The online account is great: I can see all my calls real time and I just LOVE knowing that no matter how much I call it's only going to cost me $11.99 every month!!!!!
On the negative side, it'd be great if those guys could figure out a way to activate all the phones in the house and not just the phone connected to the ATA. We found a solution by connecting a cordless phone to the ATA but we have to remember to use the other phones only for local calls. Also, there is an annoying little tone after you dial a local number, but to be honnest it bothered me for the first 2 days, and not so much anymore.
I have not had to use their tech support, but certainly cannot complain about that!
Curious to know if anyone else is using them. At that price, it rocks!!
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 Review by illek
Posted: 4.6 years ago
member for 4.6 years, 535 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
Tulsa,Tulsa,OK
$11 per month (month by month)
"A bargain!! BYOD. No activation fee. No contract."
"no phone tech support"
"Best deal I have seen in BYOD VoIP. Unlimited for $11.99/mth"
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I was very hesitant to get involved with Dialpad again. I had used them back in the days when they were a web-phone service and they were terrible. But then, the service was free then so what could I expect.
Fast forward to today and the free service is gone but they are now offering an unlimited USA plan for $11.99/mth. I couldn't help but sign up. No activation fee, BYOD and no contract...what's not to like?!?!
The service was activated immediately after my credit card was approved and I could make and receive calls through their provided softphone but I wanted to use my Asterisk box. They don't "support" any device except their own and the Cisco ATA-186 so I was on my own for finding the correct SIP settings (however, the SIP ID and PW are the same as your web login). Fortunately, they have a pretty complete manual on using the Cisco ATA-186 digging through that, I was able to sort out the SIP settings to put in Asterisk.
By default, the service uses the g729 codec but will accept g711 also. I could tell no difference in voice quality between the two, so I kept the g729 codec.
Calls are clear and crisp and there is no fade out. Connection speed is slightly slower than POTS but not enough to irritate. There is no incoming DID service so I had to obtain that elsewhere (myphonecompany.com) but outgoing calls are great. I don't know how they can offer this service at this rate but I am taking advantage of it while I can. Again, the unlimited service is for USA calls only.
Tech support is by email and online chat only. Email response is timely and the chat support was surprisingly knowledgable. I posed some rather technical questions on the chat line and all were answered competently.
This is not your Father's Dialpad 
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 Review by Citronella
Posted: 4.7 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 21 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
$11 per month
"Best price by far, great quality, only one to tie in my PSTN line!"
"No phone support, but 24 hour live chate was fine"
"Totally happy...good to see them back and doing great"
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I signed up a month ago for the new DialpadUSA product...$11.99 for unlimited calls to US and Canada. Can't beat the price, plus they send the dpPhone (their custom ATA) that lets me plug in my PSTN line...(sorry to the hardcore voip users here but I'm not giving up my PSTN line...wife would kill me, Tivo and alarm won't work, etc.). Now I use one phone for PSTN and Voip. All calls ring in to same phone, all outbound go Dialpad except 911...which I like. Forget the Voip 911 services...keeping the PSTN one is a must for me.
Pulled it out of the box and plugged into the cable modem. Device comes with built in router so no need to get a router for even more $$. As soon as powered up and plugged in I had dialtone and have been using without a problem ever since. Call quality is excellent...wife didn't realize it was a VoIP call, which I guess is the best test for sure.
Not sure how they make money at this, but happy they're doing it! Its way better than the Packet8 service I used to have and most times don't even realize i'm making calls on Dialpad since using my same pstn phone. Very, very cool.
The website, sign-up, shipping, set-up...all was great. Had a question about the shipment and where it was and their support was great. No phone but 24 hour chat. Didn't have to wait long and the guy looked it up and told me when to expect it. I guess I could have done that myself but wanted to check out the support anyway...really good.
Under $12 for unlimited? Real 911 and ALL the phones and jacks in my house work for receiving calls? No need to transfer my phone number? PSTN back-up if the power goes out and for Tivo and alarm? Are you kidding me? I just hope they make enough money on this to keep it up!
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Dialpad Communications
