PhoneBoy
I Am
join:2002-01-02
Gig Harbor, WA
| Looks like broadvoxdirect.com is up
Sort of, the website is not complete yet and sign-up is broken, but it definitely looks like they're offering more than Vonage for less (but perhaps not quite as much as Voicepulse). Unlimited US/Canada calls for $29.99 sounds like a good deal. $20 gets you a regional + 500 LD minutes package. Maybe their extra phone number option will work better than Vonage.
No listing of served area codes yet.
-- PhoneBoy
--
The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of anyone else, including the poster. |
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bellhater
Premium
join:2003-10-08
canada | Its up, looks pretty, but you can't sign up or find anything about the service...
Thanks for teasing me |
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bellhater
Premium
join:2003-10-08
canada | Also to add, it almost looks like a repeat of Vonage. Same features ect.
I am going to wait to see what this website does before I try anything. The big thing, if they offer did from Canada... THEN I will be happy to try it. |
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Richards3
join:2003-11-24
60237
2 edits | Looking |
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lame_turkey
@168.143.x.x | These guys have a lot of catching up to do before they can compete with voicepulse, vonage or packet 8.
Looks like VoicePulse just added caller ID Name for incoming calls. |
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jgwilliams
Premium,VIP
join:2003-09-16
Chesterland, OH
clubs:
|  Wow, you guys are fast!
Well the site is not really 'up' yet, however you are welcome to visit. You can expect a couple things over the next week:
1. The site will be up and down, it has not really been announced and right now it is just being tested, some things that are being tested you can not even see  .
2. Expect many changes to the site, we have two newer versions that have not even been posted yet.
With regards to the feature sets I can address it like this:
I would suspect that the base line features are not only like Vonage but everyone else as these are pretty standard features across all switching platforms. We do have some additional features like 'Find me Follow me' that are included free that the others do not have today, and the first friends and family number is free!
Numbers in Canada? Not today but I believe that they will be available in short order. I can not promise a date only that it is something that is being worked on.
While I can not yet let all the secrets out of the bag 'The competition I am sure reads these posts as well' I feel that all of you will be happy with our offering, and we certainly hope that a good number of you give us a try. Why, do you ask? Well getting our fair share of customers will not be an issue, it is about marketing and providing a value, as with any other product. I would like to a see a number of folks here with an account because unlike most subscribers you communicate in a community, and we can participate in that! I want the consumers point of view, what do you like about our service, and others; and almost more important, what don't you like? Broadvox truly wants to be the leader in this space, just as we are in enterprise VoIP and Carrier services!
Just as some background, Broadvox Direct is a division of a much larger Broadvox, Llc. Broadvox is a facilities based VoIP carrier and sells wholesale transport to other carriers, iLecs, rBocs, calling card companies, etc. In fact if any of you have used a calling card there is a better than 50% chance you have used our network!
Aside from features and functionality the things that will set Broadvox Direct aside from some of the others is consistent voice quality, complete back office automation; which will allow for a very consistent experience with Broadvox, and your order process. In this I mean that everything is automated including your DID requests, the back end order and fulfillment of that process between us and you, and us and the LEC. Additionally 911 service, which is traditional E911 is provisioned directly to our carrier.
Some other important things that are being addressed, and will be ready sometime post launch is the ability to monitor your CPE performance, if you drop a call, have echo, or delay, we just may know about it before you do! Not really but darn close. Our systems will be able to remotely fine tune your CPE, change your provisioning, dial plans, routing plans, etc, on the fly based upon debug information received, real time!
You can expect to see other services from us second quarter of 04' that perhaps do not DIRECTLY relate to your phone service; and I am not saying anything else about that .
In the meantime if you go to the home page of the site, and click a purchase option from the roll over (upper left section of page) you can fill out a form. We will notify you by way of email the moment you are able to place an order for service, and our site is officially launched!
We look forward to serving you, and to your comments about our service. Without your active feedback we can not be the best, only lip service; and I think there is enough of that out there already (crowded market on lip service).
Should any of you have questions that you think everyone will benefit from the answer please post them here and I will do my best to address them.
Best Regards,
Jeffery Williams
President
Broadvox Direct, Llc.
EVP; Broadvox, Llc.
www.broadvoxdirect.com
www.broadvox.net |
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bellhater
Premium
join:2003-10-08
canada
| Thanks for the update. I have two questions for you, 1, if a person has their own ATA186, can that unit be programed without having to purchase or obtain additional equipment? (I don't want my ATA186 devices to start stacking up like my own cell phones)...
2: What area codes or areas within Canada will you have DID numbers? I am in St. John's Newfoundland? any chance of a number here?
Jim |
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jgwilliams
Premium,VIP
join:2003-09-16
Chesterland, OH
clubs:
| Thank you for your interest in Broadvox.
While we will not be shipping the Cisco ATA it will certainly work with our service (our first thought was to ship that unit, so it has gone through interop testing.)
With regards to Canada I really do not know the geography however my guess is that we will cover major metropolitan areas first like Ontario, and perhaps a couple others. If you are local to any major cities then there is a good chance that you will be covered.
--
Jeffery Williams
President
Broadvox Direct, Llc
evp; Broadvox, Llc
www.broadvoxdirect.com
www.broadvox.net
jwilliams@broadvox.net |
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dentonb2000
join:2003-07-06
Sand Springs, OK | What device will your be shipping? That is if you are at liberty to say. |
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jgwilliams
Premium,VIP
join:2003-09-16
Chesterland, OH
clubs: | Actually, the device will be pictured on our site by Monday.
Our device will end up being a custom version of the Sipura. |
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BOBSK
@optonline.net |  reply to jgwilliams
1. At launch will you be offering service in the 631 area code?
-Bob |
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SevenDegrees
Premium
join:2003-07-11
Miami Beach, FL
| reply to jgwilliams
Your 911 comment, looked at your website, and your 911 service offering is no different than other VoIP, which they use PSAP - your post here seems to allude to direct 911 - dialing 911, would actually get the 911 center like any PSTN/cellular type caller would. I realize your website is not complete - but perhaps you might want to really clarify what you are implying about being directly provisioned for 911 with your carrier etc. Thanks.
--
Thanks so much for your help!»www.spiritmediaworks.com |
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callusa
join:2003-01-13
Vancouver, BC | reply to jgwilliams
Are you going to be offering a softphone? Will Xten's X-Lite work on your network? |
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jgwilliams
Premium,VIP
join:2003-09-16
Chesterland, OH
clubs:
| reply to SevenDegrees
Bob, Broadvox Direct covers about 20 localities within that area code of NY. There should be a tool online by Monday that will let you look up all of the areas that we cover. Being that we are looking to rapidly expand upon this coverage there will be tools that you can use to lookup upcoming areas as well as request areas.
Broadvox Direct will launch with a national presence and have numbers available in most major markets across the United States. Please keep in mind Broadvox Direct, through its parent company Broadvox, Llc, is a facilities based VoIP carrier therefore market expansion in some cases may be slower than others however quality of service will be much more controlled.
SevenDegrees,
In order to understand what I mean when I made that statement you must first understand how 911 works. I have made some statements here in other threads relative to 911 and its functionality.
In short some carriers provide 911 service by calling a common PSTN number to access the service. In doing so the information passed on to the PSAP (Public Safety Access Point) is very very limited, and with other providers this is why they state that you MUST inform the operator of your location (They will not know it). In the case of Broadvox Direct our connectivity is the same as any other communications carrier (ie: SBC, Verizon, cellular carriers, etc).
When I state that we offer true 911 service I am referring to this from a capabilities stand point. I guess you can say it is all in how you connect to a source, not who you connect to; we are all connecting to the same place I suppose, just not in the same way perhaps?
I hope this addresses both questions, please let me know if this is not the case and I will do my best to clarify.
--
Jeffery Williams
President
Broadvox Direct, Llc
evp; Broadvox, Llc
www.broadvoxdirect.com
www.broadvox.net
jwilliams@broadvox.net |
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jgwilliams
Premium,VIP
join:2003-09-16
Chesterland, OH
clubs:
| usa2k just messaged me, and thought it would be a good idea if I added http in front of the web addresses on my sig.
Thank you usa2k. I am an operations guy, don't always catch those kinds of things. 
--
Jeffery Williams
President
Broadvox Direct, Llc
evp; Broadvox, Llc
»www.broadvoxdirect.com
»www.broadvox.net
jwilliams@broadvox.net |
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jgwilliams
Premium,VIP
join:2003-09-16
Chesterland, OH
clubs:
| reply to callusa
callusa,
Yes, we plan to offer a softphone, and I would imagine that this will be introduced around the first of the year.
With regards to Xten's product, I don't really know if that has been tested on our service as of yet.
At Broadvox we have the benefit of a couple seperate divisions so there very well could be something in the works that will benefit residential at this very moment . Additionally we have private label partners that also drive some of this development.
Let me look into the Xten product for you and get back to you here on that one.
--
Jeffery Williams
President
Broadvox Direct, Llc
evp; Broadvox, Llc
»www.broadvoxdirect.com
»www.broadvox.net
jwilliams@broadvox.net |
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stufried
Premium
join:2003-10-13
 ·Verizon BroadbandA..
| reply to jgwilliams
Jeff,
Three questions:
(a) will you support number portability?;
(b) why has Canada proven that much more difficult to get banks of numbers for than the US? Every VOIP provider seems to have been in this position;
(c) I'm not sure if this issue is premature, but will you permit split US/Canadian plans? (e.g. Canadian "virtual numbers" and US numbers on the same account); |
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jgwilliams
Premium,VIP
join:2003-09-16
Chesterland, OH
clubs:
| Stufried,
You ask very good questions!
Number portability; yes this will be supported, probably 3-5 weeks post launch of the service. We recognize that this is important and we can do it today. It is a matter of having the process automated so that we do not mess things up, have numbers shift and not have them provisioned in our system for example.
Why is Canada a problem? Well I don't know that they are. I would suspect that Canada was not on the hit list from day one for many providers and now there is demand for it, that is one thing. The other is that you are dealing with another country. Because they are our neighbor, and much like us I think we tend to forget that they are in fact another country. As with each state, each city, every country has its own rules and as a company you need to be sure that you are not breaking the law, and that you are paying the taxes and fees that must be paid.
It looks like Canada is not an issue, and our plans for Canada is pretty immediate. The plan today, and providing regulation and such does not provide a challenge, we plan to have the numbers in Canada interchangeable, meaning you could have a Chicago WTN (Working telephone number) and a friends and family number from somewhere in Canada.
Of course all of this is subject to actually doing it, and I can not speak to what may come up in that process however today this seems to be the way it will work.
--
Jeffery Williams
President
Broadvox Direct, Llc
evp; Broadvox, Llc
»www.broadvoxdirect.com
»www.broadvox.net
jwilliams@broadvox.net |
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Cable Dude1
join:2003-11-20
Stouffville, ON | Will your service be available to Canadians living in Canada who may want a U.S. Number, seeing you wont have Canadian numbers available at Launch. I currently use Pakcet8 here in Canada with very good results. |
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jgwilliams
Premium,VIP
join:2003-09-16
Chesterland, OH
clubs: | Cable Dude,
Yes, you will be able to purchase Broadvox services in Canada however the rates are quoted in U.S. dollars. |
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