Review of BroadVoiceAll reviews of |
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I must say that increases in price have ot improved my satisfaction, but it has now been several years and I am still pretty happy about the service. Followup comments:
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Broadvoice has none of these issues (although they're a privately held entity, so I really can't tell what their financials look like). I can tell you that their customer support is absolutely fantastic. It's nice that I don't need to learn Hindi. If you don't mind the New England accent, then your home free! I called their support today, just to ask a question, and got through to a real person on the second ring. No hold message, no "press 1 for this, 2 for that". In fairness, it's not always that way. There are times when I've had to wait for 20 minutes, but on the infrequent occasions I've called, the service has always been stellar. Based on my conversations with them, they have a small but knowledgeable staff that has been there for a long time. I've never had to have a call escalated, and they've gone above and beyond my expectations each time. They let you use whatever device or software you like, and they give you the passwords and configuration - at no additional charge. They provide a URL for a free softphone application. They don't lock their devices, either, so your investment is safe. If you ever leave, you can take your router/phone with you and use it on another provider's network. This was not the case at the V. They didn't care if you bought it, they wouldn't unlock it for you when you left. What a joke. As far as the setup, the router worked right out of the box. I did have to do some tweaking to get the softphone to work, and there was some minor fine-tuning done on both the router and the softphone configuration in the beginning to optimize things. Since then, it's been fine. Broadvoice's website has some really nice features that were not available at the V. One thing I really like is the ability to selectively forward incoming calls based on the inbound number. I am now forwarding numbers from telemarketers to a bogus number that will always play "call cannot be completed"... It works and it's great. Between that and the do-not-call list, I rarely get telemarketing calls. The call quality is very good, but on rare occasions there can be degradation due to network issues. You have to expect this in the world of VoIP, though. Overall, using their router, I would rate their call quality to be about the same as the V. The audio quality on the softphone is perfect - like being there. NOTE: If you are going to use a soft phone, then invest in a GOOD headset. The cheap ones really suck. Two things...first, you can't use the router and the softphone at the same time. It will mess up their system. When I use the softphone, I unplug the router. Second, if you don't configure the e911 service, and you make a 911 call on their network, you may be charged $100. Except in rare instances where you have another line, you're probably going to want e911 anyway, and you're paying for it regardless. As far as reliability, no complaints. I think it was down for a short time once. At least as good as with the V. Regarding the value for the money, they are about the least expensive out there in terms of the established VoIP providers. I am paying less than I was and getting a lot more. Love it. Followup comments:
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12/14/2007 Update Its working I am having no problems with it. I would highly recommend it. Followup comments:
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Earlier in my BV usage, reliability and dropped calls were an issue (to be fair- they were an issue with Vonage as well), however, we have had very few problems in the last 1 1/2 yrs. It has become so reliable that we decided to drop our Verizon landline and just go with BV and our cell phones. So far, we have had one Sipura device die (was replaced with next day service- but we are within 2 hrs of BV headquarters- so that may have impacted the delivery time). We have also ported our phone number which went qucikly and smoothly. Additionally- while my parents were in the process of moving, they got BV and ported their number without incident as well. The few times I have had to call tech support, I have had quick response- either live answer, or quick call back when leaving a message. My one gripe is that the website is a bit boring- I'd like to see it jazzed up a bit- give me a reason to keep going back to the site. I also would like the ability to listen to voicemail online using my Linux desktop. There is some pretty good integration with Outlook, and I'm probably in the minority of their customers- but it would still be nice. Overall, I think Broadvoice is a great value, the quality has tremendously improved, and it provides a reliable service. (In the interest of full disclosure, I must say that I have worked with several of the tech and executive folks in previous companies prior to Broadvoice- however they also know that I would state anything negative here as well. I do not work for or with them now.) Followup comments:
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I first use IConnectHere, as they were the first to provide a local number in my area and a very low-priced calling plan at $5.95/mo, which only included incoming and toll-free calling. Their service was very poor and required lots of bandwidth since they used uncompressed audio. I dropped their service for FWD once ICH discontinued their $5.95 plan and obtained a free phone number from IPKall. FWD's service quality was excellent. Much of that time, FWD allowed toll-free calling, but I was unable to make FWD-to-PSTN calls. As my calling needs grew, and I began a business out of my home, I found BroadVoice. They allowed me to keep my existing device, pay only a small sign-up fee, and had a business plan with competitive rates. Nearly all other providers in 2005 listed their service for "residential only" I was immediately impressed how quickly my account was provisioned and I was able to begin making calls. Their web-portal provided every conceivable feature I could ever want from a telephone. I have been using their service for 2 years, I have added an additional phone number for receiving faxes (it works about 90% of the time, even though they don't claim to support it). I have had to call customer service 3 or 4 times, each time my experience has been very positive and the tech was knowledgeable and resolved my issue quickly and on the first try. Only once did I even have to wait on hold for a support representative and it was less than 1 minute. They introduced E911 service last year, and it was very easy to configure. Thankfully I have not had a need to call 911, I am glad the service is now available. Since this service is dependent upon a working internet connection in the event of a power loss, I'd recommend that all your network equipment (Modem, router, switches, hubs, ATA, and telephones) be powered by a UPS. Followup comments:
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But first, the negatives. the most trying time with Broadvoice, was the initial installation. I had tested their service for a month or so, using the phone number they provided. The call quality during that time seemed reasonable, even though, rarely, people on the other end did notice slight delays, or voice distortions. So after that trial period, we transferred our PacBell/SBC/AT&T phone number over to Broadvoice. Immediately, we were in trouble. Due to some misconfiguration at their end all our incoming calls got lost for a whole week. Anyone calling us heard a message that "this number has been disconnected, or is no longer in service". Obviously we were unhappy. The Broadvoice service reps claimed that this was a problem with local phone service provider, that a service ticket had been filed, and that I would need to be patient. But it's hard to be patient, if you know that you are losing important calls every day, and your friends and business associates get the impression that your phone must have been disconnected. Broadvoice did not seem bothered by any of this. After one week, I told them that I would keep calling them daily, raising all sorts of hell, until my problems were fixed, and that surely the $10-30 per month they were receiving from me did not cover the expense of fielding my calls. They relented, and escalated and fixed the problem. At that time, had I been confident that I could have kept my phone number, I would have left Broadvoice. But I wasn't, and so I didn't. After the initial set-up, I still suffered frequent loss of voice connectivity, setting off another round of calls to customer support. The solution was to change the set-up of my home connectivity, in essence placing the Broadvoice adapter (a Sipura SPA-2100) upstream from my router, and using Broadvoice supplied DNS servers. This was painful, because it significantly degrades my internet connection speed, compared to my initial set-up. But despite best efforts, I just could not get my router to stop interfering with the traffic between Broadvoice and the phone adapter. This was a year ago. Since then, it works. There are a few small niggles: A few months ago, the phone would ring, but upon picking up, we could not hear the caller. Or we would make a call, but the person we called couldn't hear us. At that time, it took only one call to customer support to get the issue permanently resolved (supposedly a firmware issue). A few weeks ago, I had to try several times to get an outbound connection to Germany; every time I tried, I would get a message in Spanish (why?) telling me that the lines are all busy. Occasionally, our cordless phone's built-in phone book won't work, or it doesn't pick up a ringtone, when it's turned on. We are not sure, if this is due to our aging phone, or some incompatibilities. In any case, the problem is always remedied by hanging up, and trying again. No big deal, there. As far as the call quality is concerned, I think it is very good, now.As good or better than landlines, even on overseas calls. Also, since my last call to customer service, the reliability has been excellent excellent. As far as features are concerned, I think they are at least on par with everyone else, and their web site provides full functionality, though it is not particularly flashy. After some really rough times with Broadvoice, their service has really improved for me. I don't know, if this was simply a matter of working out all the flaws in my initial configuration, or if they have improved materially. But now, unlike in the early days, I don't worry about missing calls, or not being able to make calls, when I need to. At the price I pay, I am not complaining Followup comments:
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BroadVoice
(11)
Long Beach,Nassau,NY
Business customer
$47 per month
"Price, BYOD"
"None"
"Great value, great for Asterisk Systems"
about 2 days
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