 Review by djrobx 
UPDATED: 110 days ago
member for 9.4 years, 4580 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Valencia,Los Angeles,CA
 $11 per month (24 month contract)
 about 36 days
 "Good pricing and features, great call quality"
 "Alphanumeric Caller ID not shown with voicemail"
 "So far so good! Will update review with reliability info later."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Three month update: 7/20/09
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Generally happy with my choice. It's not quite as good as CallVantage was, but good enough for the price. The call reliability is pretty good.
Problems:
1) Sometimes my voice echoes back to me. Loudly, for short periods.
2) Caller ID doesn't always work, sometimes shows OUT OF AREA. Logging into phone power's website shows the data, so the data's availble, it's just not making it to my phone.
3) The voicemail system sends you email attachment, but does not include caller ID NAME information. That information is availble on the website call log.
4) I've had a couple landline calls disconnect on me. Rare though.
Original review: 5/23/09
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CallVantage announced closure, so I needed new service. I found PhonePower who is run by people I trust; Jim and Ari were responsible for DSLExtreme who I've had good experiences with. I took PhonePower up on their 2nd Year Free promo. After the shipping/handling fees and taxes, that works out to $11.45/month for the first two years. Not bad! PhonePower does the right thing and begins billing on your port date, kudos to them for that.
Call quality seems to be excellent, perhaps a little better than CallVantage which was already pretty good. It might help that I'm in SoCal, not far from PhonePower's headquarters, while CallVantage terminated somewhere across the country in Georgia.
The majority of features I'd like to use are here. The only one I really miss is Caller ID names in the voicemail email and web interface. It shows the number that called but not the name, even if it's in your contact list. Seems like a strange omission to an otherwise very rich feature set. That info is available in the call history, so they do have the data. A Safe Forward number ought to be implemented too, although I can somewhat simulate that by setting up a locator plan. I'm told big updates are coming in Q3 so I'll just stay tuned until then.
Porting my number from AT&T CallVantage took a VERY long time, just about a month. AT&T refused to port saying the address was wrong when it was in fact correct. PhonePower stuck with it and kept me in the loop during the process. Despite the welcome email saying the inbound service would be in effect at "midnight" - the actual port took place around 10am PST of my activation date.
The setup process was pretty straightforward. I received my Grandstream HT502 in the mail the day after they shipped it. If you want to set it up behind your own router, it's not clear what ports actually need to be forwarded - Tech support just tells you to put it in a DMZ if it's behind a firewall. I can't do that with the way my network is set up due to a limitation of the AT&T U-verse RG. I forwarded typical VOIP ports and it seems to be working. It'd be nice if PhonePower could work out what's really necessary for people who need to use the DMZ for something else or want tighter control over their firewall.
Overall very happy!
Followup comments:  
44402812
Hack The Planet
Premium
join:2006-08-28
Plattsburgh, NY | Ports to Foward I guess you did not see my reply in the PhonePower to someone
who was having a similar issue? Here ya go:
»Ports to Forward | |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
 ·PHONE POWER
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
 ·RoadRunner Cable
2 edits | Re: Ports to Foward Thanks, but with AT&T U-verse, it's impossible to put anything "in front" of the AT&T's modem - it's a built in modem/router combo. I can't use DMZ, because I am running my own DHCP server for a few different reasons. AT&T's RG gives you no way to set a DMZ host if it's not serving DHCP.
I did read your link with the WRT54G instructions, but if you follow it to the end, PhonePower gives you some ports to forward, but then proceeds to instruct you to still put the PhonePower device into the DMZ!
I can treat the U-verse hardware as a "dumb" modem, but then I will have to ditch its built in wireless functionality. I have too many devices in my central closet at it is, I don't really want to add yet another router or wifi access point.
Its been fine all weekend without DMZ, so hopefully it'll be OK!
--
AT&T U-Hearse
Your funeral. Delivered.
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44402812
Hack The Planet
Premium
join:2006-08-28
Plattsburgh, NY
| Re: Ports to Foward said by djrobx :Thanks, but with AT&T U-verse, it's impossible to put anything "in front" of the AT&T's modem - it's a built in modem/router combo. I can't use DMZ, because I am running my own DHCP server for a few different reasons. AT&T's RG gives you no way to set a DMZ host if it's not serving DHCP. I did read your link with the WRT54G instructions, but if you follow it to the end, PhonePower gives you some ports to forward, but then proceeds to instruct you to still put the PhonePower device into the DMZ! I can treat the U-verse hardware as a "dumb" modem, but then I will have to ditch its built in wireless functionality. I have too many devices in my central closet at it is, I don't really want to add yet another router or wifi access point. Its been fine all weekend without DMZ, so hopefully it'll be OK! O' come on what's another few watts?  | |
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