Review of VoicePulse for Business & WholesaleAll reviews of |
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Now they are my backup provider because they have increased their price by 40%. Followup comments:
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------ 8/25/09 Still use Voicepulse for our incoming calls. We now use Voip.ms for outgoing since VP's rates went up. Their quality is still very good and their service seems to have improved. Followup comments:
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I've been with VoicePulse Connect (»connect.voicepulse.com) for 3 years now. Overall, I've been very happy with this service. In three years, I've only noted a few instances of downtime. And, overall, I've experienced good quality service. The caveat is that I'm a light user, so I'm not stress-testing them. The one element of the service that I don't like is having to fax back a new agreement every time for account changes, such as credit card updates. It's obnoxious, but I guess necessary for their business security. I'd like to see a history develop between the customer and the company to get this step removed from established accounts. Getting straight to the ratings-- The web site is very good about providing setup instructions, rates, and FAQs. A top rating. Understanding up front that there is setup involved, detailed instructions on the website, direct support in popular packages (read Trixbox/Asterisk@Home), and both SIP and IAX2 support, VoicePulse Connect is easy to setup. A top rating. I took a notch off for call quality, as there is the occasional echo or packet loss dropout. I can't squarely put it on VoicePulse, but it's part of telephony over the Internet. Nonetheless, since it doesn't matter where the problem lies, the quality falls below a T1 circuit. Similarly, I took a notch off for reliability as well. I don't think any real-time application dependant on the Internet could get a true "5." (Update 10/22/07: I'd give a 4.5 (if offered). For quite some time, I've not experienced any outages. If it keeps up like this, I will likely round up to 5 for the official rating.) (Update 12/29/2007: I'm sticking with a 4. I've been noticing some periods where registration fails every once in a while, sometimes causing incoming calls to not arrive. Dangerously close to swinging the pendulum the other way!) Tech support goes above and beyond. They follow up tickets with a phone call. If there was a "6" on the scale, I'd give it to them. As for value, I give 4 of 5 for a couple of reasons. First, the incoming number price at $11/mo. is more than some other other providers. Also, the minimum payment is more than some competitors. The USA outbound price is very competitive although it varies by destination. Update 12/29/2007: International rates went from crap to beautiful. I'm not international-heavy so it doesn't affect me, but this is a very positive development. Update 8/4/2008: Still very satisfied. I was able to move to their updated SIP platform without any real problems. I did have an issue setting my outgoing caller ID, and tech support knew the workaround (with my old-but-stable version of Asterisk) within seconds. Update 7/31/2009: Just works. I haven't had a VoicePulse problem in a while, and they still allow setting the caller-ID value. Everything "5" except value due to the uncompetitive DID rate and absurd rates for failover call routing. Fortunately, the failover service is optional. Followup comments:
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They stopped providing IAX2 in early 2009. I don't use their DID service. I continue to use Broadvoice. If you stop using their service it's not clear that you get your unused balance back. Followup comments:
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I've noted that Voicepulse Connect is experimenting with inbound calling name ID and I hope they roll it out in a fully baked form soon. They really need to work on an E911 solution as well. I've had very few outages and only occasional routing issues. Their customer support is still the best in the business. You get a person on the phone when you call (but limited hours of operation) and you get a reasonably fast response to tickets you submit electronically. I recommend them as a top tier provider for IP PBX systems. Followup comments:
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VoicePulse Connect used to be very expensive across the board; they now offer tiered outbound domestic rates that are some of the lowest around. International rates aren't the greatest, but that's made up for by the fact they often can complete calls when others can't. Their inbound service, OTOH, hasn't changed very much, and is by far the weakest part of their service -- it's still unreasonably expensive and limited (they don't offer a pay-by-the-number/minute option, only "unlimited" local numbers, and concurrent calls on those "unlimited" numbers are limited), toll-free service rates are some of the highest around, and local number availability is uneven at best (good in the East Coast states, most of the South, Michigan, and California but very weak elsewhere.) For reliable outbound they're a very good choice, but I'd recommend going elsewhere for inbound, if only because of their high prices and service limitations. Followup comments:
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They support both CODECS I am using for my PBX G.711 uLaw and GSM. They also support many others iLBC, G.729, G.77 aLaw. They also support trunking with IAX protocol to lower the overhead of packet headers with multiple call in the same data stream. I did find that some of the rate centers I call comes in above some of the fixed rate VIOP termination vendors including the Chicago area. For example if I call across the street the rate center cost per minute came in at 1.9 center a minute where my other VOIP termination comes in at 1.1. But my least cost configuration will always route local calls out the Telco channel. The FlexRate program they have allows me to select the termination based on cost so this doesn't become an issue. Some of my calls go out for as little as .5 cents a minute. Toll Free outbound is also free. On the negative side I did find that they don’t directly publish rate center info on their site. You have to use the FlexRate API to retrieve the cost center info. But it’s better for the software to make the decision vs. hard coding rates into a rate table I guess. Keeping the account active is as simple as setting up auto-refilling of your account. You start with $50 dollars in your account and when it drops they will auto-refill to bring it back to $50. Not bad for a pre-paid service. If you use Asterisk and need multiple inbound/outbound calls they can't be beat. I did find adding another channel above 4 costs $20 dollars per additional channel. If I needed more I would look for another vendor to offset this cost. Also if you want a phone number assigned to your account for inbound calls that would add $11 dollars per month per call. Below is my "Business Case" for the PBX and choosing VoicePulse: With a family of seven and two of my kids being teenagers my phone bill was going though the roof. With two lines from a local Telco and a VOIP provider my average monthly phone bill was approaching 250 dollars. When I did the math the taxes alone on these services were over 15% of bill. Since I knew a bit about telephony, I do call center work for a living; I decided to build an Asterisk PBX with these goals in mind: · Inbound calls on local Telco with hunting to a local number when busy using existing main number · Least cost routing of local calls, locals call out Telco the rest out though VOIP based on cost of connection without having to select a line or telset for call type · Carrier diversity for VOIP · Support up to 4 concurrent calls at one time VoicePulse connect was the key to making my cost saving work for this project. In the end I was able to build a PBX that: · Reduced my local Telco connection to one line using their budget plan · Added call forward busy to a local number provided by VoicePulse · VoicePulse provides up to 4 concurrent inbound/outbound calls · VoicePulse rate lookup API makes it easy to determine if I am to use the flat rate vendor vs. VoicePulse With the above met my monthly costs for Telco services have dropped to about 60 dollars a month. That is over 70% savings or about 2,000 dollars a year! VoicePulse was the only vendor out there that had the native IAX service and the API for variable cost based routing. They are the best in my book for both service and cost savings. Followup comments:
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I have all the features of many large businesses by using the pbx yet i dont need diferent phones for my home line. The install is super easy using the new API.. Followup comments:
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Recently, I had a problem where all calls would fail with "all circuits busy" messages. I made a few calls to VP support, and within an hour, everything was working again. What surprised me more than anything was how personable and knowledgable their staff was, as well as their dedication to following up. They e-mailed me and called me to tell me that they had fixed the issue and to ask me if I had any further problems. It took me an hour or so to research them when I first signed up, but the actual process of signing up was painless. I had to fill out a form and fax it and either call them to confirm or wait for them to call me within the next few days. I called them just a few minutes after I faxed the form, and they already had it confirmed and on file. Easy as could be. If you're looking for IAX2/SIP termination/origination for use with PBX systems such as Asterisk, VP Connect should be the first provider you look at. Followup comments:
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The box arrived almost three weeks after the order was placed. They did hit my credit card the day that the order was placed rather than wait till the order shipped. The delay was due to them running out of interface boxes (after 3 calls received the truth). Set up was very simple. I have it running through my house via old telecom wiring. Have a small issue with one o my current Nortel phones. But it seems to be with the phone not the interface box. I will update my review after I have used the service for a few months. Followup comments:
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VoicePulse for Business & Wholesale
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$25 per month
about 1 days
"great service, actual and phone support"
"min $25 recharge Lasts me for long time but service is cheap too"
"Great service, try them out"
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Business customer