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Review by neftv 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 8.1 years, 2748 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Broomall,Delaware,PA
 $13 per month (month by month)
 about 5 days
 "fairly good international rates for me, decent voice quality, Still have the service and works for me."
 "Service has nothing new to offer compared to like ViaTalk and others, dhcp request every 180 seconds noticed in my router logs"
 "Service been stable to me but I wished for more feature set to play with."
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I signed up when Broadvox had waived the set-up charges so my total upfront cost was the first month service and shipping. Not bad.
I really like the service so far but I think they still need to resolve some issues. It appears outgoing caller ID is not working, the web portal is not complete. 911 not available. I have a semi local number but I really wanted a number for my town since it was listed in the portal. It amazes me that Broadvox can't tell me when I will get the number. Portablily of number not yet available and I dont know what solution Broadvox will have for us that use DSL so we don't lose DSL when the number is transferred. From reading from others the Dish Network modem line won't work on the regular residential account, this should get addressed too. I have not used the voicemail feature yet because I went to set it up but I got side tracked and didn't set it up. So now when I press *123 to get to the voicemail it responds "Greeting one is not set up thank you good bye" and it hangs up. SO now I don't have voicemail till that gets corrected. When the voicemail does work I will like to see how the fax and voice messeges get sent to email. The above issues don't hinder me from placing calls or recieving calls. The voice quality is pretty decent and they got good international rates (for the countries I call) not like P8' rates but better than my regular landline for sure. My hope is that by the early summertime Broadvox will have everything in place and fully functioning. Sometimes patients has its rewards and I hope that will be the case with Broadvox.
**Update 4/12/04**
My voicemail issue was resolved after I followed up two weeks after the ticket was made so see what was going on. The ticket was sent to provisioning the first time instead of repair and thats why the ticket just sat there. Well they reset my voicemail and also gave me a full month's credit.I am greatful for the support I did get so far. As it stands though the ticket system is going to get an upgrade and its suppose to be the best in the world real soon I am told. I'm looking forward to the coming changes in the portal and the CPE.
**update 6/22/04
I was not one of the chosen ones to test the new CPE but I can't wait for that to come.
I have occasionally gotton people that call my Broadvox line to get a message "all lines busy, please try again later". I reported it once but it happened again. Broadvox reduced some of their international rates of which made me happy for the two countries my mom and I would call. Hope they can stay like that. The issue with Cell Phone caller to my broadvox line getting silence till the call is picked up is unresolved and dismissed that it's something to do with the Cell phone systems in my area because the problem is not duplicated from Broadvox tech. I'm hoping one day to port my land line number to Broadvox but thats not going to happen till 911 is working and I think Broadvox has to have a number from the CO that serves me to be able to port my home number to Broadvox. I really can't port nothing yet till either Covad DSL or Verizon allow naked dsl. Other than those things above things seem to be going ok with Broadvox at this time.
**6/22/04 addition
Sometimes the support people jump to quick in closing the ticket and not really resolving the issue Ticket 2515 2518 I think it was. The discovery of finding a local number as a zone instead of town name was left alone too.
**7/20/04 update.
Broadvox service seems very reliable up to now placing calls and getting calls have be trouble free. Still awaiting for the new CPE, offer on the 2000, some things still not functional on web portal, 9-1-1, CPE control, etc. It's been mentioned that a new voicemail system and online address book will be better with new system and looking forward to that. Hopefully it will include private numbers going to voice mail. That's about all for now.
**8/4/04 update
Well it's been a more than a week since receiving the new DTA and I feel this has improved the quality of the calls when comparing the Sipura on the g.711 mode which is what I use now. The new DTA has the MTU set for 1492 when the DTA is in DHCP mode something that I would expect if I was using PPPoE. Presently the MTU issue is in a pending ticket with Broadvox. I placed the DTA in between my modem and router. I checked to make sure the DTA was in DHCP mode by going to it's web page. I find that it adds 2-3ms in latency to my connection, no big deal as long as the quality is stable. Since last review here in the east I experienced people not being able to call me because of a fast busy and this was due to capacity issue by a vendor Broadvox uses. Broadvox swiftly addressed the issue with the vendor basically fighting them to get more capacity asap and it appears to have been done. Reliablity goes down one notch for the past events of fasy busy but expect it to still be very good as far as call quality now with new DTA. So far I find it very interesting how the new DTA works. I want a job in this network field this stuff is interesting, I want out of my present TV engineering job. That's about all for now. One more thing Kudus to Jeffery Williams for being very proactive with customers and for getting the new DTA sent to me.
9/13/04
Service with the new DTA is working well for me so far. I decided to put the DTA behind my router because of the the MTU being set as if I had PPPoE and I don't being on Cable Modem. I want to try the LNP, hopefully it will be available soon and I hope 911 service will become a part of the service even though I think 911 service is a joke based on how things where handled on 911. Broadvox web portal has been and is being changed. They seem to have made the site work quicker. Some features still need to be implemented. As for placing calls and getting calls and using basic voicemail the service been good. I like the call logs. That's all for now.
****update 11/16/04
I've made my broadvox line my primary line finally. I have it working over Cable HSI. For the time being the service is working great (I.E. getting and making calls, voicemail). I don't know about the MTU issue and 911 service. The web portal interface is getting better, I'm liking it. LNP service is available but didn't work for my number for some reason therefore I made Broadvox number my new number now. That's it for now.
****update 1/25/05
Service is working good for me. If they can get over a few humps Broadvox will be perfect. The humps being the DTA issues, Portal completion. That's all for now.
I enjoy Jeff's involvement in the forum as he tries to help out. Keep up the good work Broadvox, I know your real busy.
****update 4/6/05
Service still working good for me. DTA MTU is fixed for me. Tech portal support seems to be good response within 24 hrs. I hope that they can do combined international and national calling plans like others do.
****update 7/20/05
Overall I am happy with the service. No problems to speak of. Asking questions to tech support can take some time for response back though.
***Update 9/01/05
I tested 911 today. It works. The pleasant 911 guy new who I was. Then like 1hr and 20 min later someone from Broadvox calls to make sure everything is alright. It turns out when I placed the 911 call out I get listed in a red alert list at Broadvox. If I dont answer or I am off hook Broadvox would send the police out to check things out. Very nice. Thanks Broadvox.
***Update 1/16/07
I fugure I give this an updated review. Nothing much has changed in about two years as far as features. Service been stable with me. I have since been using Verizon simulated dry DSL service with the Westell 6100 modem/router. I have has to put the DTA in PPOE mode with the modem in Bridge mode since no one has an answer on incoming port setting when I put the 6100 in router mode with firewall. The set up now allows for pings to the internet but I really perfer the 6100 in router mode with less devices in the way to the internet. I am seeing demo account of another service and I see some features that are nice that Broadvox does not have for some reason even though there where alot of expections when they moved to the new system a while back. Thats it for now.
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Broadvox Direct
