 Review by mod_wastrel 
UPDATED: 125 days ago
member for 251 days, 280 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 undisclosed location
 $2 per month (12 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Cheap, good voice quality, easy to setup and use"
 "None"
 "Easily worth the price"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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I ordered through the magicJack site (which is ugly, but easy to navigate): one magicJack, standard shipping (supposedly with no package tracking, expected 5-10 business days for delivery), and no extras. I received the email confirmation almost immediately. The next day I received an email that it had shipped and a tracking number (so maybe all shipments now receive a tracking number despite what the website said?) with a link to the USPS tracking site (which worked fine). A couple days later I received the magicJack--way ahead of the 5-10 business days.
I plugged it in to my [WinXP] PC, went through the setup--all very straight-forward, made some calls & had some friends call me--call quality about as good as that for any POTS/PSTN lines I've ever used (so, very good--not as good as Skype-to-Skype, of course, but that's to be expected), works fine with GrandCentral. Calls use about 90-95kbps of my network bandwidth on average--fairly typical. (I have FiOS, but with that bandwidth usage it should sound good over DSL, too.) The exchange is a "local" exchange (local rate center anyway), however calls from other local calling exchanges don't seem to recognize it as local; but since I use GrandCentral this hardly matters--might check into the local vs. non-local later on, though, just out of curiosity. Also, since I won't even be using the voice-mail feature, I haven't even looked at it. (GrandCentral handles all of my voice-mail.) 911?... couldn't care less.
No problems at all--couldn't have been easier or less of a hassle. If you order through the magicJack site, you get a 30-day free trial, but all that means to me is that you have 30 days to verify that it works [well enough], and I did that within a couple days. (VoIP isn't POTS/PSTN, so I expect some hiccups down the road; but I've been using VoIP for years, so that's just par for the course. For the most part, I've had excellent results using VoIP products. Vonage over Verizon DSL was probably the best in overall service, quality, & features (and simplicity); using GrandCentral with Gizmo & other services over FiOS offers pretty much the same service, quality, & features but costs quite a bit less, as in nearly free. I had more of a problem getting Comcast Digital Voice setup properly than magicJack; it took Comcast several days to get the voice-mail and CallerID working correctly, and a significant number of calls early on got an "All circuits are busy" message.) I purchased magicJack with the intention of a year's trial. For $20 or not much more per year I'll keep it for as long as it works.
If there's one problem with magicJack at all, it's that it requires the use of a PC. The problem is that if you take 1,000 PC's of 1,000 randomly selected people, then you can expect to see 1,000 different software and hardware configurations, and a good number of them won't support VoIP well if at all. That being the case, magicJack won't work for everyone. Not all broadband connections are "created equal" either, but that's just the nature of VoIP as opposed to being a problem with magicJack. If you've never used VoIP before on your existing broadband connection, you should first try something like Skype or Gizmo (softphones) just to verify that your PC/broadband setup works well for VoIP; they're free so all it will take is a little time.
On the other hand, a nice feature of a USB-connected telephony device is the potential interface with a desktop or even web-based address book. Imagine some Google gadget providing a link between the magicJack and, say, GrandCentral or even your Gmail contacts; perhaps a Thunderbird extension that interfaces with magicJack. Yeah, magicJack seems to have a Contacts list, but that's not where I want to keep my contacts, so it's not of much use to me.
UPDATE 01Aug2008: I've been using magicJack for more than a month now, and so far, so good. Voice quality is still quite good. Sometimes there'll be a little echo or someone's voice will sound a little "tinny", but VoIP will do that on occasion. Also, a couple times an outbound call failed to connect on the first try, but I tried again and the call went through OK. All in all, nothing much to complain about--no "chronic" problems. I've noticed that some users complain about a sound level problem and callers being unable to hear them well (or at all). I noticed this a little, too, but I just went into the sound recording properties for the device and set it to the max, which I've often had to do with computer-attached microphones, and all was well. Obviously, magicJack isn't perfect--reliability could be improved as well as the hardware/software interface, but it works very well for me and is definitely worth the money.
When I placed the order, the email confirmation message gave me a date on or after which I would be charged for the purchase, that date being 30 days after my order. They didn't charge me until that date, so I saw no "early charge issue" as reported by someone else.
Followup comments:  
Noreen Murray
@bellsouth.net
| Ordered magicJack six days ago I ordered a magicJack gave my credit card out paid for fast delivery but up to now have not received a confirmation No. cannot get onto them at all they said in their add that I will receive a confirmation No. within 24 hours it now six days and nothing what is happening???????? | |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | Re: Ordered magicJack six days ago And you're posting here because...? | |
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avp0713
@csfb.com
| MagicJack used with dialup service? Without reading the entire MagicJack website I'm hoping for quick direction from MagicJack users; My elderly parents who cannot get broadband service would like to look into getting MagicJack. They only have access to a VERY slow dialup line (14 kps). Will MagicJack be good for them? | |
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ANONYMOUS_COWARD
@ameritech.net
| Re: MagicJack used with dialup service? said by avp0713 :
Without reading the entire MagicJack website I'm hoping for quick direction from MagicJack users; My elderly parents who cannot get broadband service would like to look into getting MagicJack. They only have access to a VERY slow dialup line (14 kps). Will MagicJack be good for them?
Absolutely not | |
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avp0713
@csfb.com | Re: MagicJack used with dialup service? . . . yeah, immediately after I posted the question I found out through various other forums that although it might "work" it would be sketchy at best. | |
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avp0713
@csfb.com
| Re: MagicJack used with dialup service? Yes, I remember early 90's internet phone, I too dabbled with it and found that it worked, albeit choppy. Upstate NY (mountain regions) don't get DSL or Cable, so my parents are able to use their internet for basically email and long bouts of meditation while watching the CNN page download. | |
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smalliejaw
@charter.com
| magicjack Get real people. I am going to order the device and try it. From what I read and understand about it is---$39.95 for the device, $19.95 for year of service, total $60.00. All you complainers out there, get real. You can't fill your car with gas for $60.00. | |
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n2song
@comcast.net
| Re: magicjack supposedly the first year is free, so it's only $47.00 with the shipping...I haven't ordered yet...tried to but it never showed up on my records or theirs...a little nervous about it now, but I sure agree with you on the money issue...it's about the same as half a tank of gas, so saving the money and using it on gas is a good thought for me | |
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