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Review by crazyk4952 See Profile

  • Location: united state
  • Cost: $2 per month
'warm' sound quality & great reliability. Useful free products offered.
Some providers have more features
great provider with outstanding voice quality
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Updated 10/07/15:

Callcentric recently introduced an outgoing plan for $1.95/month with 120 minutes, unlimited toll free calling and E911. This is perfect for my usage and I signed up for it the day it was released.

Callcentric continues to be a reliable provider with many features that are easily configured through an intuitive web interface.

Original Review:

I recently did a sound quality test between a handful of providers. The calls to my Callcentric DIDs sounded noticeably better than the other providers. I even pointed my IPKall DID to my Callcentric SIP address and it sounded better! The calls had kind of a 'warm' sound to them that was lacking with the other providers.

Sure, it would be nice if they had features like sub-accounts and such.
Fortunately, it is very easy and cheap to set up an asterisk box (thank you Raspberry Pi!) between your phone and Callcentric. Then you can add all of the features that you want!

Also, support is great. I was receiving responses with a recent support ticket within 30 minutes (or less) AND I believe it was close to midnight on the east cost!

member for 22.1 years, 3685 visits, last login: 9 days ago
updated 8.4 years ago


Review by punkinduster See Profile

  • Location: Denver, Lancaster, PA, USA
  • Cost: $5 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 1 days
Much cheaper with more features compared to POTS
Like all VOIP you are at the mercy of your ISP
Best provider for my money
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

4/16/10 I have been with CallCentric for a couple of years now and I am very pleased that I left Vonage. The call quality and reliability has been better and at worst just as good as my five years with Vonage. The monthly cost in my case has been substantially less since I have a (Cheaper than Dirt) DID unlimited incoming calls along with pay as you go out bound calls. We don't use the phone a lot but it sure sounds much better than cell phone technology. Also the price for their service hasn't changed a dime. No added extra fees!

4/16/11 Just an update to say I'm still happy with the service and enjoy spending the money saved on other things....

11/15/12 We are still enjoying CallCentric's easy to use web site and a Cheaper than Dirt DID. Unlimited incoming calls for less than $3. A recent attack caused some issues for a few weeks but they are back on track as good or better than before. Solid performance and great sound.

12/13/13 Still a happy camper after 5 years of their service. Thanks CC!

11/29/14 I am so spoiled now with the extra features using voip that I wonder why others don't try it. I don't get any more telemarketer calls or late night calls after we are asleep. CallCentric is easy to use to block those unwanted calls.

10/06/15 Things even got better at CallCentric. I have the same Cheaper than Dirt DID with unlimited incoming calls for $2.95 a month and the new North America Basic for $1.95 a month. The NA Basic includes 120 out going minutes and 911 service. The 911 service I had before was $1.50 a month so it basically comes down to an additional $0.45 for the first 2 hours of out bound calls. After that it is the same as it always has been at just $.0198 a minute. I use my cell phone mostly but my wife likes the better sound quality of CallCentric. Most of her calls are inbound so this works great for us.

member for 19.8 years, 6827 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 8.4 years ago


crazyk4952
Premium Member
join:2002-02-04
united state

crazyk4952

Premium Member

NA Basic Plan

The NA Basic plan also includes unlimited toll free calling, which is a pretty big deal if you don't like to tie up your cell phone during long conference calls!

Review by milton See Profile

  • Location: l5s
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
It is not secure, other things don't matter when there is no security, but the website is OK
security is horrible
Run away
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I was with Callcentric as pay as you go for a few months. The call quality was the same as other VOIP providers.

But i noticed my money is being drained from my account without me calling anywhere. Then I looked up the website to see I have been charged for calls to Congo, Austrailia and some other strange numbers in countries that I never call.

I told the tech support and they asked me to change my password for the web interface and the SIP. I did so. They said the calls where made from IP addresses other than my handset IP address. then they blamed my PC being infected and the long story short, the strange calls continued on my account and they refused to refund me. They said their security is 100% bullet proof and it is all my fault.

Obviously I don't have any security issues on my PC. So I lost money I trusted them to put in my account. I asked them to close my account and remove my Visa information.

I just wanted to let you know to beware and do not charge your account with a lot of money, you may end up losing it all.

I do not recommend Callcentric at all.



member for 8.5 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 8.5 years ago

PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

1 edit

7 recommendations

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Oh dearie me....

Another drive-by downscreed from a brand-new poster.

CallCentric has excellent security options including:

1) Country-by-country permission setting for outbound calls. You should have used it to allow calls only to countries that you intended to call. CallCentric was the first provider to offer this. Voip.MS offers it now as well.

2) IP Whitelisting, also offered for quite some time now.

3) Maximum Call Rate has just been instituted as another security option.

You seem awfully smug that your computer and other devices are not infected. I bet they are. What steps have you taken to check your system? And is your IP phone or ATA behind a router with NAT firewall?

(Also, in over 200 reviews of CallCentric on this website (almost all good or excellent) no one has mentioned such a problem before, as far as I know).

Summary: Between [your] security being deficient, and [their] security being deficient, I'm betting the problem is with you. Good luck with your future providers.

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

2 recommendations

cb14

Member

Re: Oh dearie me....

25% call quality with Callcentric? Wow.

suppafly
Premium Member
join:2009-11-27
97000

suppafly to PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

to PX Eliezer1
said by PX Eliezer1:

Another drive-by downscreed from a brand-new poster.

The poster may or not have valid reasons to complain, however what makes you so sure that its just a drive by review? Perhaps it is, however I find it hard to be as positive as you are....
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Re: Oh dearie me....

said by suppafly:

said by PX Eliezer1:

Another drive-by downscreed from a brand-new poster.

The poster may or not have valid reasons to complain, however what makes you so sure that its just a drive by review? Perhaps it is, however I find it hard to be as positive as you are....

He said "The call quality was the same as other VOIP providers" but gave just a 25 percent score for voice.

A sure sign of a revenge review, to try to knock down scores.

However your point is well taken.

But it turns out that he had his ATA or IP phone wide open to the internet, so no wonder he had a problem.

People need to pay more attention to routers than to ranters.
Iscream
Premium Member
join:2009-02-17
New York, NY

10 recommendations

Iscream

Premium Member

Security

Dear,

I've looked over your account and the related "security" ticket.

As we replied to you in the support ticket - the fraudulent calls on your account were placed from those IPs: 168.1.11.3, 64.60.13.114, 37.8.66.68, 200.168.13.27 while your own SIP device was registered from 173.xxx.xxx.yz0.

Moreover - your SIP device is DIRECTLY exposed to the Internet (no firewall, no NAT) and is reachable via Telnet on port 23.

There was NO task simpler than brute forcing a password on your device especially considering that your SIP password was so easily guessable that it literally took me 2 minutes to figure it out - you don't want me to publish it here.

That's right - after discovering the security issue and being advised by our support - you've modified your password on the WEB account (which has also been identical to your SIP password), BUT nobody had EVER accessed your own WEB account from anywhere.
Only you, yourself have only always accessed your account (my logs confirm it).
Therefore there WAS no breach of your WEB account.

But there was your SIP password KNOWN to anybody on the Net who wanted to use it for their fraudulent calling.
Which "they" did.

Moreover, after you modified your "available destinations" list - the calls to Congo stopped right away - here is the log (time - GMT):

Sep 19, 2015 16:46:12 | System
Customer changed Allow Calls setting to allow the following countries:
Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Iraq, Japan, Korea South, Singapore, Taiwan, United States.

Here is the call log from same time frame (time - GMT):
Sep 19, 2015 21:01:28 - Sep 19, 2015 21:01:32 No 200 Ok 1777xxxxxxx 0024280037yyyy err_m_callingarea 168.1.11.3
Sep 19, 2015 21:01:18 - Sep 19, 2015 21:01:24 No 200 Ok 1777xxxxxxx 0024280099zzzz err_m_callingarea 168.1.11.3

The error code "err_m_callingarea" - this is the code and error message played to calling party when a destination is not allowed.

After that there were also 2 other calls to Australia, which you explicitly allowed in your access list, therefore those calls would be allowed, but your account had not sufficient balance on it to process those calls:

Sep 21, 2015 22:02:02 - Sep 21, 2015 22:02:04 No 200 Ok 1777xxxxxxx 006128031mmmm err_m_lowbal 37.8.74.19
Sep 19, 2015 21:01:34 - Sep 19, 2015 21:01:42 No 200 Ok 1777xxxxxxx 006128031mmmm err_m_lowbal 168.1.11.3

Please note the cause code "err_m_lowbal" - low balance.
Somebody who has access to Palestinian 37.8.74.19 and European 168.1.11.3 networks (friends?) was dialing the same Australian number from two very different geographical locations 2 days apart.

As our support advised - Callcentric has very powerful security suite of features, yet - very simple interface to use and configure those features.

I may proudly say - NOBODY ELSE in the industry has even closely similar security set as:

- WEB account is secured by either additional security questions or by 2 point authentication protecting the account from ANY form of brute force scanning and password guessing by automated scripts;
- SIP account is protected by a "white" list of destinations allowed to be dialed;
- SIP account is also protected by a list of IP addresses the device is allowed to register from;
- SIP account is further protected by a MaxRate feature only allowing calls to destinations whose rate would be equal or less than the one specified as Maximum allowed;
- account balance and payment instrument are protected by an allowed maximum single transaction amount and by a number of transactions allowed per day and per month;
- account is protected by internal filters counting frequency and number of calls to expensive destinations;
- maximum duration of a single call (to protect from over-billing resulting from "hung" calls due to misbehaving/buggy SIP devices);

Again - to my knowledge - NO ONE provider in whole world has a similar set of security features.
Just use it. It's simple, reliable and powerful. It protects.

And the last - sure, Callcentric was NOT comfortable compensating you for calls fraudulently made from your account.
It's the same as keeping your entry door open and then asking your house-maintenance company to compensate your for your stolen property.
Callcentric provides your VoIP service.
It purchases minutes to different destinations from its carriers and then sells those minutes to you.
As anybody on this forum may confirm - the profits in this business are low to non-existing... this is utility business which works only with large numbers of subscribers.
During the 6 months that you've had paid service with Callcentric (since April 2x) you paid $85 for calls to your destinations. Callcentric had gained barely 8 bucks or less...
The money you lost due to those fraudulent calls were close to $15. That means that if we paid it back to you (to cover your own negligence) - we'd probably, within a year, recovered it back...

I wish to your next provider, with better security, serving your business - to make better money on you.
Hoping after this review you'll get the right one.
Good luck.

P.S. Just in case - I have all logs and transcripts of all your tickets for the period in question - 4 tickets in total including one very complex which required detailed help on our part to enable your operation at the beginning.
You're welcome.
nitzan
Premium Member
join:2008-02-27

3 recommendations

nitzan

Premium Member

Re: Security

said by Iscream:

especially considering that your SIP password was so easily guessable that it literally took me 2 minutes to figure it out

Just a suggestion- put in something in your system to prevent short passwords (easy to brute force) and common words (easy to guess). Or even don't let the user choose at all and give them a randomized password.
mist668
join:2011-02-15
Middleburg, PA

mist668 to Iscream

Member

to Iscream
This is the best ^
Stewart
join:2005-07-13

1 recommendation

Stewart

Member

What was compromised?

Edit: I started writing this before seeing Iscream's post. Most of it is no longer relevant to your case, but I'm leaving it here as it may be useful to others.

If Callcentric had a serious vulnerability, many users would be affected and this board would be alive with numerous complaints.

Was your web password stolen, or just the SIP password? If the former, the attacker would either have overwritten your SIP password (your phone would have stopped working), or have created a new extension (which would be seen in the call logs). In that case, likely causes include having used the same password at a compromised site, shoulder surfing, or a key logger on your machine.

Otherwise, did you choose a SIP password strong enough to resist off-line cracking, e.g. 12 or more random mixed-case alphanumerics? (There are many ways an attacker might have access to a SIP packet with the hashed password.) What kinds of handsets did you use with Callcentric? A smartphone SIP password could easily be stolen by malware, especially on a jailbroken/rooted phone.

When you first saw fraudulent calls, which security measures did you activate? How did the attacker respond?

Which provider are you using now? Why do you believe they are more secure?
engineerdan
join:2006-12-07
Washington, DC

3 recommendations

engineerdan

Member

Seriously ??

You've gotta be kidding!

I've been a Callcentric customer since October 6, 2007. Over the years, I have established six more accounts for friends, co-workers, relatives, and my kids. We have never had a hint of trouble with their security, which typically sets the reference for the industry.

Dan
sokhapkin
Premium Member
join:2003-05-08
North Fort Myers, FL

2 recommendations

sokhapkin

Premium Member

Different passwords.

To my experience, newcomers are sometimes shocked when realize that web login and SIP passwords could be different and often write me messages like "how come you did such awful design of the service?"
Iscream
Premium Member
join:2009-02-17
New York, NY

2 edits

7 recommendations

Iscream

Premium Member

Security

Oh... Nitzan - gimme a break.

Is 6 letter (one capital) and 2 digits (8 total) - a short one?

Is something like "M1ssing1" - a common word?

Yet we do HAVE many and many and many thousands idiots who use something like that.

There are many hundreds NOT base words used as passwords combined with some digits and/or capital letters.

Many hundreds customers use such "passwords" thinking that they're very big "originals" and no one else uses the same.

Do you know how many people use or attempted to use combinations like "Callcentric123" or "Password123" or "pass123word" or "321ewqdsacxz" - looks familiar? - you won't believe!

Disclaimer - all examples above are for educational purpose only; have nothing in common with reality; any matches are not intended and purely accidental.

Most people don't like auto-generated passwords although the option to do that is available.
Some devices do NOT accept special characters... Some - do accept, but don't like some "very special" ones and then they act not nicely. Oh, well...

Sure, in your own business, you may enforce any policies you like, but in Callcentric reality - people don't like to be "enforced" - they simply leave to another provider whom they "feel" is better for them; very often - leaving based on their emotions, without real analysis and just because some one else (on this forum or elsewhere) had "said" or expressed something that makes "logical" sense while still being groundless in theory of operation or not based on real data.

In this particular case - the password was not important at all, because the SIP device was/is used without any firewall/NAT and was an easy target to any scanner.

Moreover - the passwords appeared as they were leaking directly from customer's computer because fraudulent call attempts (from multiple, not directly related IPs) restarted shortly after the customer changed his SIP password. The calls were not completing (because the account in question had been restricted), but were attempted.

Unless you're not aware - Callcentric tracks and logs every event and every "movement" of a customer while one is logged in their WEB account (as well as all activity over trouble-tickets) - because some people like coming back to state that "something" has happened (or not) just "all of a sudden" while "I've not touched anything there"; "I've been following all your instructions exactly", etc...

Callcentric also always proxies media (and when troubleshooting - is able to listen to actual voice on both sides of a call as well as it measures MOS scores of all calls), records signaling and stores and archives its data and is 100% CALEA and PCI compliant carrier and merchant provider.

Not directly related to this thread, but because I've seen attempts to badmouth Callcentric while I was not participating in this forum:

Just in case - Callcentric is NY state, FCC, CRTC registered, controlled and reporting - CLEC, IXC and RespOrg (Toll Free) carrier as well as ARIN ISP directly interconnected with PSTN (SS7) and IP BGP4 networks - this info is for those who question Callcentric's "business" usability while attempting to trumpet some questionable operations by using wrongly applied statistical math to really small number of samples...

Callcentric is 14+ years in this business; since much earlier times than words "Vonage" and "Skype" were first pronounced aloud (known and operates as Telengy, Accatel and Callcentric - publicly registered and US PTO protected trademarks).
Credit due to Mr. Sokhapkin and CWU who also was all these years out there and whose retail (end user) operations have begun even earlier that those of Callcentric. Thank you for support!

Callcentric has always been independent - it rejected all attempts to enlarge its operations at the cost of losing its in-dependency.

Some major forces have entered and then left this business (I mean Verizon and AT&T) not counting numerous those who just appeared, busted out their customers and left forever...

Unlike many/most other VoIP providers Callcentric operates industrial telecom grade switches and servers, power supplies, etc.

Also, for those who may (and attempts to) play a "geo" & "redundancy" card - you have NO idea about Callcentric redundancy, network and underlying topology - this information is never shared, is not public and any guesswork/rumors have no grounds under it.

Many "users" have also NO idea about how latency calculated and applied; nor do they have any idea about MOS scores.
A "common" logic is flawed, but you need to read books to understand "why" - while you just attempt to apply your own "personal" logic to an area in industry which has over 150 years of evolution and history, standardization efforts and which generally takes at least 3-5 years of specialty courses in a technical school )

I'm also not talking about those providers whose "geo-redundant" services fail to provide said redundant services either entirely or in some areas due to one or another technical excuse.
An no - I'm not going to further discuss the above - I'm a ballless one disappearing in twilight.

Gmar Chatimah Tova to everybody!

Thanks.
nonymous (banned)
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ

1 recommendation

nonymous (banned)

Member

Re: Security

It is not latency or MOS scores anymore. The key word is now bufferbloat. Justin says so.

Even though my calls sound ok when doing the dslreports tests and the calls specs as far as latency and packet loss etc, look fine. My dslreports speed test screams f due to bufferbloat. So my call must be bad.
snic
join:2009-10-14
usa

2 recommendations

snic to Iscream

Member

to Iscream
I've been a happy CallCentric user for 9 or 10 months now, and I have nothing but good things to say about it. I also agree (to an extent) with the idea that customers should be responsible for using strong passwords.

However, you may want to refrain from calling your own customers "idiots". Especially if there are thousands of them who are using weak passwords. You (and I) might think that such behavior is idiotic, but there are a lot of people for whom a phone is just a phone, not some scary potential means by which a thief could steal from them.

I suggest that you try protecting people them from themselves. I don't know how you would do this (check all passwords against a database of known weak passwords? force web and SIP passwords to be different?), but if thousands of your customers are allowed to use weak passwords, the OP's experience will be repeated again and again, and you'll be forced to come here and rant about them more and more. Do you really need that?

crazyk4952
Premium Member
join:2002-02-04
united state
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-LR
Polycom VVX300

1 recommendation

crazyk4952

Premium Member

I like Callcentric even more now

Callcentric is making the user fully responsible for their own actions.

Want to use a weak password? Fine. You will be responsible for the charges when someone guesses your password.

Don't want that to happen? Use a strong password. The choice is yours.
PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

1 recommendation

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Re: I like Callcentric even more now

said by crazyk4952:

Callcentric is making the user fully responsible for their own actions.

Want to use a weak password? Fine. You will be responsible for the charges when someone guesses your password.

Don't want that to happen? Use a strong password. The choice is yours.

Exactly.

And users must also not expose their ATA or IP phone to the internet.

The device should be protected behind a router with a NAT firewall. This applies regardless of provider.

So this is not CallCentric's fault, and in fact CallCentric is a very secure VoIP provider.

Davesworld
join:2007-10-30
Thermal, CA

3 recommendations

Davesworld

Member

Re: I like Callcentric even more now

Since this is a BYOD provider, the end user is the administrator. There is nothing quite like announcing to the world that you have no business administrating anything by putting an ATA or IP Phone with a weak password on the outside of a firewall.

Milton, you did yourself a great disservice by this so called review. You may also want to embrace the concept of being responsible for your own actions or neglect and not expecting others to do so on your behalf. Nobody should have to be crucified for your sins.

Review by aguen See Profile

  • Location: Grants Pass, Josephine, OR, USA
  • Cost: $13 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Reliable and low cost
Nothing yet
Cheaper than Charter Phone
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Had Callcentric port in my Charter Phone number. Took about 7 days

Signed up for the DID - Personal Unlimited $5.95 (Incoming calls) Per Month

And the North America 500 $6.95 (Outbound calls) Per Month

Many more features than Charter phone service and about $7 month cheaper.

member for 20.7 years, 8073 visits, last login: 2.2 years ago
updated 8.6 years ago







Review by UnknownOne See Profile

  • Location: Oblong, Crawford, IL, USA
  • Cost: $13 per month
Very customizable! Works with any device, Fantastic support!
Fantastic Service!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

My package included the "Personal unlimited" along with "Northamerican 500". I was able to have my old number forwarded to a free number they provided, but they allow you to customize your outbound Caller ID number to your current service as I wait for the port to take place. So I was up and running with them, on a soft phone same day. And after getting a new ATA, I was able to get connected right away without any problems.

Port completed and no issues. My old provider PhonePower I had nothing but issues with them not excepting a call, the person calling me would get line has been disconnected. Phone power was unable to fix. ported number over to call centric problems went away.

Another big plus is that CallCentric allow allot of flexibility with how and what devices are allowed to connect! I have my cell phone, home phone (ATA), and desktop computer able to connect. If my internet goes down the phone get's re-directed to our cell phones.

member for 10.3 years, 16 visits, last login: 3.9 years ago
updated 8.8 years ago


Review by mikev See Profile

  • Location: Leesburg, Loudoun, VA, USA
  • Cost: $10 per month
  • Install: about 20 days
Great call quality and reliability! IVR a big plus!
Poor CNAM
A very reliable VoIP service with growing number of features!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Value for money:

My Other Reviews

·Verizon FiOS
I ported my number to CallCentric from another service primarily to save money. I was stuck in an unlimited plan and spending more than I wanted for what I was using. My number was ported in ~3 weeks (on the next billing date for my previous service), and all was working well. I also took advantage of an unlimited "dirt cheap" line in another area, as well as a free number to use as a fax line. Three incoming numbers on this service for less than the price of one on the other. And great call quality. No jitter or problems hearing the other person, or with them hearing me.

The recent addition of telemarketer block and the ability to create an IVR menu system make this great service even better!

On the downside,their Caller ID Name lookup is horrible. Most numbers appear with just city/state of the number, or the fact that it's a cell phone.

member for 21.9 years, 3664 visits, last login: 67 days ago
updated 8.9 years ago

PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Do Not Call list....

Both anonymous calls and calls with numbers (but just city/state for CNAM) significantly increased, even despite my number having been on the Do Not Call list for years.

You may want to check if you are still on the DNC list.

If your number port involved switching from one CLEC to another CLEC, as is quite likely, then you may have been removed from the DNC list.

The reason for that is that the first CLEC considers it a disconnection, and the FCC specifically encourages carriers (CLEC and ILEC) to cancel DNC listings when numbers are disconnected.

This has been discussed occasionally in this forum in the past.

Note that the FCC says:

Do-Not-Call Registry

You can register your phone numbers for free, and they will remain on the list until you remove them or discontinue service; there is no need to re-register numbers.

»www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia ··· all-list

Yup, when you ported away from your old CLEC, that's a discontinued service from THEIR point of view. Technically, they are right!

This can affect any VoIP port that involves a CLEC change, so it's not unique to CC.

The reason for the FCC policy is that they want to keep the DNC list fresh and current....

By the way, even if the new CLEC puts your number on the DNC again, telemarketers are allowed to call it for 30 days. Many of them specifically take advantage of their free gift from the FCC/FTC.

Now, I don't know if your number was removed or not, but it's a possibility so you may want to check....

*

As for CNAM, I have found their CNAM service to be good. But keep in mind that you can create CallCentric phonebook listings for all your contacts, that will supplant the CNAM and for me it's even better.

CC also is working now on new menu ("IVR") functionality, you are right to say that will be a nice enhancement.

In case you had not noticed it yet, you can click the dashboard link for [Last 40 calls received] and get one-click access to the Phonebook Add function and the Call Treatment function, prepopulated with the phone number in question. It's one of their nice features, I hope that you nay find it helpful.
mikev
Premium Member
join:2002-05-04
Leesburg, VA
·Verizon FiOS
(Software) pfSense
Panasonic KX-TGP600

1 edit

mikev

Premium Member

Verified Do Not Call registration

Yeah, I went back to the do not call site after the number port finished and verified my registration was still valid. Not sure if it took some time for the number port to be realized by their system. I just verified this morning and it does show that the registration has been in place since 2/15/13. I've removed the spam call comments as a result, as it may have been due to a lapse in Do Not Call registry coverage that the spam calls increased. Fortunately, the 31 days is near, so hopefully they'll go back down again.
RiverMerger
join:2007-12-19
Hinsdale, IL

RiverMerger

Member

Spam calls

said by mikev:

an IVR to help block/filter spam calls would be nice... having to block them AFTER they've called and verified my number is valid is a little annoying.

Have you tried the white listing of phone numbers in call treatments? Whitelist people in your phone book and area codes of people in your area and areas you know people reduces almost all Spam calling. The phone book can hold many many numbers and they don't even have to have a speed dial number assigned to them. All other calls send to voicemail. Placing a single SIT tone at the front of your voicemail message makes sure all those calls don't get verified as valid. Just keep up on the call logs and check on 1800notes that none of them where important to you.

MyTechLife
Tech Guru
join:2001-01-17
Reno, NV

MyTechLife

Member

Re: Spam calls

said by RiverMerger:

Have you tried the white listing of phone numbers in call treatments? Whitelist people in your phone book and area codes of people in your area and areas you know people reduces almost all Spam calling...

How do you whitelist an area code? I can't find that option.

Review by slyphoxj See Profile

  • Location: Brook Park, Cuyahoga, OH, USA
  • Cost: $7 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 1 days
Lots of call routing/blocking and calling features, easy website, responsive support, no tax & fees BS, good call quality
Unlimited calling is pricey (for VoIP anyways), setup fees to switch plans, porting process kind of a pain
Reliable so far. Better deal than a $28-$29/month featureless AT&T landline.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
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UPDATE (4/27/15): Still chugging along with no real issues I can think of to report. Simple, fast-loading, reliable and issue-free website. I'm still paying the same $7.45/month for unlimited incoming calls. And I have now replaced the default "Press 1 to connect..." telemarketer block message with my own custom message, thanks to the new IVR feature that Callcentric just recently added. Callcentric has about the best set of features for blocking junk calls of practically any phone service provider I can think of (save for maybe voip.ms and Anveo who may have the same features). Callcentric's junk call blocking method takes into account that spammers/scammers are constantly change the caller ID number they send. About the only downside is that I have to check my call logs often to "whitelist" any legit callers that didn't get through.

UPDATE (12/16/13): Still reliable. The new Telemarketer Block feature has 100% eliminated all the crap calls, although it blocks legit robocalls from doctors, etc. until I can whitelist the number to my Phone Book. I no longer have to use my Obi110's Auto Attendant to do this blocking. When my mom calls me at work on my office landline, the call sometimes (maybe 20-30% of the time) has audio dropouts, even though I flashed my router to Tomato Shibby and setup and enabled QoS on it (maybe I didn't setup the QoS right?). I feel that the Call Treatments interface on the website could use some rework to make call treatment setup and ordering simpler to do and understand for a novice/nontechie user. But once you figure out how to enter, setup and order the call treatments, they work great. I'm not sure if I should ding the website rating for this since this is the only area of the Callcentric website that could use improvement.

-- Original review ---

Back in May 2013, I got an Obihai Obi110 device with the thought of using Google Voice to replace our AT&T landline. We were getting fed up with the spam calls, sometimes 2 or 3 a day, and wanted some means to filter them out. A couple months later, I finally got around to setting it up and rearranging my phone wiring. I initially set it up to use Google Voice for outgoing calls and the landline for incoming calls, but there were complaints about the call quality on GV. So I setup a Callcentric account on my Obi110 (I'd need to anyway, even I used GV for all my calls, since GV doesn't provide E911 service) and started using Callcentric for outgoing calls.

I opted to port my decades-old home number to Callcentric and use Callcentric instead of Google Voice for all my calling because:

- Callcentric's Personal Unlimited plan is only $5.95/month (plus $1.50 E911 fee if you don't have one of the North America 500/1000/Residential plans).

- Almost total lack of customer support with Google Voice. If you run into any issues porting into GV or other issues, good luck! I had no issues porting in my cell phone, but I got lucky I guess.

- Google Voice seems like it's about to be orphaned by Google. They haven't added any new features or improved anything in a while and still haven't added direct porting to POTS or VoIP lines

- Privacy concerns with Google Voice. I believe that Google listens in on GV calls (or at least GV voicemails?). I think I can trust Callcentric more than Google.

Porting the AT&T landline at my house to Callcentric took 13 days and cost $25. The submission of the initial porting info was a pain, compared to starting the porting process with a cellular carrier/MVNO. I had to scan and upload a copy of the last AT&T bill and some other paperwork, then mess with converting the scanned files to PDF (1 MB limit on attachments to Callcentric tickets). But it went through without any issues to speak of on the promised date with good communication from Callcentric during that time. Even porting a landline to Google Voice is faster, but there would be a service disruption since porting a POTS or VoIP line to GV is a two-stage process requiring activation of a cell phone and having to mess with using a cell phone for a day.

I'm currently on the Personal Unlimited for incoming calls and North America 500 for outgoing calls for a total of $12.90/month.

Since I ported my number to Callcentric about a month ago, the spam calls have really dropped off, thanks to the caller ID (I can report them to donotcall.gov) and Call Treatments.

The only real downer with Callcentric is that unlimited calling (Personal Unlimited + North America Residential plan) is $25.90 (combined cost of these two plans), which is only a couple bucks less than what my landline cost. I still have my Obi110 setup to use Google Voice if we ever run out of the 500 outgoing minutes.

member for 21.7 years, 7229 visits, last login: 1 day ago
updated 8.9 years ago

PX Eliezer1
Premium Member
join:2013-03-10
Zubrowka USA

PX Eliezer1

Premium Member

Good review; a few comments.

Glad you like their service.

Comparing a wireless port to any other port is apples and oranges. CallCentric has an excellent porting process, with good communication as you noted.

You mentioned that they have "1 MB limit on attachments to Callcentric tickets". But that's a heck of a lot of data. Between 15 and 60 pages of text, depending. So I don't see the issue. You could also fax the documents instead. And if you ported to any other provider (other than wireless) you'd have to provide similar proof.

Lower-volume users may benefit by using PAYG options instead of unlimited inbound and/or unlimited outbound. But they do have a variety of choices available to try to meet various usage patterns. There are cheaper providers, but not necessarily with the same features and user experience that CC provides....

In many places, your landline company would charge $10-12 just for caller ID, after all.

slyphoxj
join:2002-06-23
united state

slyphoxj

Member

Re: Good review; a few comments.

said by PX Eliezer1:

Glad you like their service.

Comparing a wireless port to any other port is apples and oranges. CallCentric has an excellent porting process, with good communication as you noted.

You mentioned that they have "1 MB limit on attachments to Callcentric tickets". But that's a heck of a lot of data. Between 15 and 60 pages of text, depending. So I don't see the issue. You could also fax the documents instead. And if you ported to any other provider (other than wireless) you'd have to provide similar proof.

Lower-volume users may benefit by using PAYG options instead of unlimited inbound and/or unlimited outbound. But they do have a variety of choices available to try to meet various usage patterns. There are cheaper providers, but not necessarily with the same features and user experience that CC provides....

In many places, your landline company would charge $10-12 just for caller ID, after all.

It looks like our usage is going to be around 1000-1100 minutes a month, with about 65% or so of that outbound calls. Callcentric would run about $18.90/month with Personal Unlimited incoming + North America 1000. VOIPo might be a better deal for that usage, but I don't want to deal with porting again. Ooma Basic is definitely cheaper, but I'd have to give up the telemarketing/spam call blocking features (unless I get Premier).

I guess, costwise, it's kind of a wash compared to my $28.50/moth (approx.) AT&T landline. Yeah, I've gained a ton a features, but now deal with VoIP vagaries (not as simple to setup and troubleshoot as POTS, not as reliable as POTS, a bit less call quality).

At least it beats cellular as far as call quality and features go... I don't think faxing would work at all on a cellular line (e.g., Verizon Home Phone Connect or Straight Talk Home Phone, etc.).

VexorgTR
join:2012-08-27
Sheffield Lake, OH

VexorgTR

Member

Re: Good review; a few comments.

Getting Migrated to Voip can indeed be a challenge.... although CC isn't the cheapest, they've proven to be a very responsive and reliable service. It's certainly a better deal than "Ye Olde Phone Company".... or the cable company for that matter.

Review by Chuck66 See Profile

  • Location: Mount Royal, Gloucester, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $3 per month
Extremely Cheap
Sometimes call quality suffers
Pretty happy with new provider
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I switched from VoipO. I was happy with their service, I was just looking for something cheaper since we rarely use the phone.
Overall very happy with the switch. I saving a significance amount of money with the pay as you go plan.

3/26/15
Still using the service on a pay per minute plan. Very happy with what I get for about $3.45 a month.

member for 19.9 years, 2868 visits, last login: 4.8 years ago
updated 9 years ago







Review by Fiscal See Profile

  • Location: Longview, Gregg, TX, USA
  • Cost: $10 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Cheap. Works well. Many options to handle calls.
Absolutely nothing.
Love it.
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My review of Callcentric is summarized as: Cheap; works well; many options to handle calls; nothing bad.

The many options offered by Callcentric to route calls sometimes takes a bit of explanation, but their customer service (which is via e-mail) has worked well for me with quick and on-point responses. Their customer service personnel that answer e-mail questions READ your question and actually answer it; they do not leave rote answers that are unhelpful. I self-installed my own purchased equipment. The self-install was somewhat demanding, but if the directions are followed your system will work. The total monthly cost varies with the number of calls made.

Call quality is excellent.

member for 16.3 years, 54 visits, last login: 3.3 years ago
updated 9 years ago

snic
join:2009-10-14
usa

snic

Member

Yup

I agree. I've had CallCentric for about 3 months now, and the service has worked flawlessly. The initial set-up took some time, but with the clear instructions on their website, it wasn't difficult. The absolute best thing is that now all callers who are not in my whitelist are asked to press a number in order to be connected. This has almost eliminated telemarketer calls that get through. It is FAR better than simply having a blacklist.

The cost is slightly more than what I had before (voipo), but voipo wasn't working reliably for me (and they don't have the "press number to be connected" option). So far with CallCentric every single call has gone through and the quality is crystal clear. I'm VERY happy.

Review by travelguy See Profile

  • Location: Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM, USA
  • Cost: $25 per month
Everthing you would need from a VOIP service
Nothing
Run, don't walk.
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I switched from Google Voice to Callcentric about a year ago after tiring of Google glitches and constant rumors of service shutdowns. I can say I'll never go back. Callcentric runs an excellent VOIP service. The charges are reasonable and the configuration options are plenty.

member for 24.5 years, 6645 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 9 years ago