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Review by Momonishiki 
Posted: 35 days ago
member for 132 days, 47 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
 $38 per month (month by month)
 about 1 days
 "Logically arranged website; BYOD; unlimited international calling"
 "Instructions for configuring devices not comprehensive"
 "Astonished with improvement over POTS voice quality and features"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I'm new to VOIP in general and Callcentric specifically. However, I can say that in researching which VOIP service to try, Callcentric was the winner not only because of positive reviews I read from others but because they were one of the few VOIP providers who didn't have a website that is totally cheesy. What is it with VOIP providers who make their websites look like they should be selling fake jewelry on late night TV? More substantively, Callcentric has an unlimited international calling plan and they don't try to saddle you with their idea of the correct equipment to use. You get to buy whatever SIP phone you want.
When testing out the service I first used a cheap Grandstream adapter and my old analog phone. It worked perfectly, but the sound quality was noticeably lower than POTS. After getting my new Polycom IP phone working with Callcentric however, I was completely floored by how perfect the quality is. Much better than POTS and much better than the enterprise grade solution I have at work.
For the only real negative, I would say that the website instructions for configuring a Polycom phone were not comprehensive and required me to engage in several hours of trial and error and finally come to an intuitive solution to make it work. I succeeded in the end, but the missing steps from their tutorial could (and should) be easily remedied.
Perhaps I'll try to update this review once I have more user experience.
Followup comments:  | | Momonishiki
Premium
join:2009-07-11
San Francisco, CA
 ·Callcentric
| Re: Polycom would give Einstein a headache. Perhaps that pdf might be helpful to someone, but it wouldn't have helped me. I simply have one phone plugged into my home switch sitting behind a router. The problem with the Callcentric tutorial is that it didn't say that one must first follow the guidelines for setting up a standalone phone and that those guidelines are not part of the administrative guide. It was necessary to hunt down something called "Quick Tip 44011" on the Polycom website and follow those instructions before doing any of the steps as directed by Callcentric.
And a question: without a boot server, any ideas on how to implement firmware upgrades? | |
| | | PX Eliezer
Premium
join:2008-08-09
New Jersey
·Callcentric
·Optimum Voice
·callwithus
·voip.ms
| Re: Polycom would give Einstein a headache. said by Momonishiki :It was necessary to hunt down something called "Quick Tip 44011" on the Polycom website and follow those instructions before doing any of the steps as directed by Callcentric.... Thanks for posting that. It will help others.
Y'know, this bolsters my point about Polycom. A quick tip should be numbered something like #3 or #17. If they are up to #44011, they are nuts. "44011" isn't a quick tip, it's a postal zip code!
Fortunately, CallCentric does have pretty good instructions for the devices most commonly used, such as Linksys/Sipura, GS Handytone, SNOM, Asterisk, Trixbox.
Regarding firmware upgrades, one would hope that the guys who sold you the Polycom device should provide assistance in such matters.
This will be helpful perhaps:
»blog.voipsupply.com/how-to-uploa···com-unit | |
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