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Review by thatguy5245 
UPDATED: 62 days ago
member for 4.5 years, 288 visits, last login: 5 days ago
 Dunbar,Kanawha,WV
 $14 per month (18 month contract)
 about 9 days
 "Works quite well with excellent quality."
 "Have to use their adapter. Call log is limited to last 10 of missed, dialed and answered."
 "Might not be as feature rich as others but i def trade that for their reliability"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Let me just state that I have been around the block when it comes to VOIP offerings. Having never wanting to go mainstream I have sampled the following providers in order.
1. Packet 8
2. SunRocket (How I miss thee)
3. ViaTalk (Hard to believe they have talk in their name, unless it is when you are talking to yourself about the service being down again)
4. PhonePower
So far PhonePower is right behind SunRocket in being the choice in VOIP.
PhonePower like others in the VOIP industry have mimicked SunRocket's pricing structure of $200 for a year's worth of service. Of course it is not really $200 as everybody pays Uncle Sam some green but I appreciate not being charged every month fees and taxes after I made the commitment and paid the $200 with another company. I don't mind paying if I know what it is and more importantly all at one time so I don't have to worry about anything until my contract is up.
I signed up for the "VoIP Residential Unlimited" and received 6 months free with my 1 year prepayment.
Here is the breakdown of my invoice:
Summary of your Initial Fees
Service Price:* $199.95
Hardware Price: $0.00
Hardware Shipping: $14.95
Regulatory Recovery Fee:* $11.88
911 Cost Recovery:* $11.88
Federal, State and Local Services
(FSLS) Recovery:* $14.60
Total Initial Fees:* $253.26
* If you ordered a Non-Prepay package this charge will not be final, it is an estimation. Your initial charges will vary based up your activation date and are generally less than 1 full month of service. Your first month charge will be based upon when your line is active and you have received our hardware.
So the normal cost per month is $21.11 but because of the 6 months free it drops the cost to $14.07
Now as I previously mentioned I had signed up for the "VoIP Residential Unlimited" but as it turns out this is not entirely true. The plan includes 3,000 outgoing minutes and does provide unlimited incoming minutes a month. So while it may seem misleading they are very generous and it is spelled out in their TOS when you sign up unlike other companies who add to it later and never notify you of any changes.
I signed up 5/10 and selected the earliest available date available for my number port which was 5/19 and the equipment was received before the port date. Porting our number was so easy. I didn't have to fax or email any signatures as they just took my info from their site. Imagine that things can be simplistic and still work too!
On 5/19 I hooked up my adapter and ....
Dialtone....Check
No fast busy...Check
Place a call...Check
Both parties could hear....Check
Our number showed up on their Caller ID....Check
Hanging up and on to Check # 2
Phone Rings.....Check
Their Caller ID shows up...Check
Everybody can hear....Check
It works!! The call quality is great no echoes are complaints from the people on the line.
Now PhonePower's website and feature set is pretty basic. It does have a pretty good layout for navigation though.
There is no custom caller id (assign a contact's number to say something else so "Wireless Caller" doesn't show up but instead "Sues Cell" shows)
****"10/4/08 Edit You can do this by adding the person as a contact"******
The call log is very limited at a total of 30 calls that is divided to missed answered and dialed.
****"10/4/08 Edit They now allow you to view your log for 30 days, now it is not as long as some providers but much better than their initial 10 calls per category plan and if you want the logs you have the ability to save them in CSV format as well"******
Of course like every other VOIP provider you can check voicemail online or set it to go to your email. You can block and forward calls but unfortunately you cannot setup a "network outage" emergency forward. You can set change the quality settings to conserve bandwidth and now they recently added a feature called "Cloned Line" (think ViaTalks extra line feature same phone number but you and your spouse can have two different conversations with two different parties at the same time). They also say "Virtual Number" is coming.
Overall PhonePower is what I wanted and that was a reliable working VOIP solution. Now it doesn't every feature in the book but it does look like they are improving it that area and honestly I don't care at this point. I had all of those features before but I didn't have the most import feature of VOIP, which is being able to talk!
Followup comments:  
discjoker
join:2002-02-18
Billerica, MA | Custom Caller ID There is Custom Caller ID, however they don't call it that. When you add someone to your contacts, the calling name will show up as what ever you enter. | |
| | thatguy5245
join:2004-05-25
Dunbar, WV | Re: Custom Caller ID Thanks for pointing this out. I didn't bother adding but two contacts and they were showing up the same as always. Not quite custom but it does work. Unfor it includes a "," even if you don't type one. | |
| | joeyroberts
join:2008-11-27
Columbus, OH
| On my phone, I get the name that I added in contacts, but the name seems to come instead of the number. (My phone display shows the name from my contacts on the first line and "unavailable" below that.) Is this just how PhonePower currently works or is there some configuration thing I might be missing? | |
| rdwarrior
join:2007-07-20
Conway, AR
| PhonePower I tried them and their support isn't that great. Also, the quality is pretty bad. I just went back to TeleBlend and the quality is pretty good and their support is nice. With taxes and everything, I only pay around $17 per month. They definitely don't have limits on their unlimited service so it is really unlimited. Thumbs up to TeleBlend! | |
| | thatguy5245
join:2004-05-25
Dunbar, WV
 ·PHONE POWER
 ·Suddenlink
 ·Cingular Wireless
| Re: PhonePower Teleblend??? Are you serious? They opened their doors just to make a buck on SunRockets demise. From what the majority state here in the forums support with them is terrible. What ISP to you have? I have to assume that this a problem because of your ISP just like the other guy who blamed AT&T yet wrote a negative review for PhonePower for being lousy.
Just remember this is Voice Over Internet Protocol meaning you should have a reliable connection on both ends. Make sure your end is not oversold like SuddenStink Cable does. | |
| 
PhonePower
Premium
join:2007-07-20
Winnetka, CA
edit:
October 4th, @05:34PM
| The call log fully updated The call log now shows the last 30 days, but click on the "detail call log report" button and you can see, print and/or download call logs for any lenght of time you select.  | |
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