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Review by scholztec 
UPDATED: 244 days ago
member for 2.7 years, 138 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 Scottsdale,Maricopa,AZ
 $32 per month (month by month)
 about 10 days
 "Excellent call quality, easy setup"
 "Not as cheap as others, no online voicemails, lousy CP"
 "As good as the local telcos, but you'll pay for it"
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I switched to Packet8 after SunRocket imploded. I was looking between them and ViaTalk. Since 8x8 had been around for quite some time as a business VoIP provider, I went with them. Not wanting to commit to a contract, I opted to do monthly service at $24.99/mo. Fees bring this to $32.59. Packet8 does offer 1yr contracts for $199 (presumably not including the aforementioned fees).
Service setup and number porting were stupidly easy. The equipment showed up on time, pre-programmed, and worked out of the box. This is the type of setup your mom could do.
Call quality is excellent. Only twice in 2 years of service have I had call quality issues, and they were solved by calling back. Packet8's business heritage shows. Their service costs more than their competitors, but it "just works".
The only issue I have with Packet8 is their control panel. It is very clearly oriented to business customers with multiple lines. Support for customer-owned VoIP devices or softphones appears to be non-existent. Also, they offer an option to have voicemails sent to an email, but VMs are not available online thru the control panel.
Cost is somewhat of an issue. I pay $32.59/mo, but I could do a 1yr for $199. I recently decided to audition ViaTalk (their svc is $199, but for 2 years). Not until VT was setup did I begin to appreciate how great Packet8 is. Call quality, device support, & tech support are practically non-existent with VT. My VT review is coming soon.
I suppose you could say that you do indeed get what you pay for. Packet8's service is 2x the cost of VT, but it is worlds better.
I have a feeling I'll be sticking with Packet8
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Review by GatorDevil
UPDATED: 252 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 1404 visits, last login: 78 days ago
Oviedo,Seminole,FL
$20 per month
about 5 days
"Unlimited calling, extremely easy to setup, good tech support."
"Occasionally some echo on calls for short periods"
"Excellent service and value."
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I've been a P8 subscriber since 08/03 and have been very pleased. I ordered the service when I was moving to a new area instead of ordering local phone service through Bellsouth(ugh!). I received my DTA about 4-5 days after my order and was up and running through my Linksys router in about 5-10 minutes. I've only had one real problem since I've been using the service and that was cleared up with their support personnel with a quick phone call on my cell phone. I don't call overseas often, but when I do call my relatives in Germany, it only costs me about .05/minute. Overall I've been quite happy and recommend their service to anyone.
01/03/05 Update -
Still going strong with P8. Have had no significant problems with the service since an initial setup problem. Would still like to see timestamping on voicemail as well as Caller ID with name, but those are small issues. Otherwise the service has been great. Was more reliable than my cell phone or my relatives POTS line during the 3 hurricanes this fall. Once I got power back, P8 came back with it. My cell phone was hampered by downed towers for weeks, and my relatives POTS line took 2 weeks to resolve. Good job overall P8!
10/05/08 Update -
Still have my P8 service. No problems in all the time that I've had the service. Highly recommend their service to anyone as long as your ISP is reliable.
03/15/09 Update -
Have gotten very sick of continuing problems with Packet 8 over the past 6 months. Almost every time I try to call my home from my cell phone or have people from the same or other cell carriers call me, the call never goes through. It seems like it rings forever from the caller's end, but the phone in my house never rings. I've contacted Packet 8 about it several times to complain and they always blame my cell carrier. Funny how it seems to happen with multiple carriers. Anyway I'm moving my number to another VOIP carrier and if I have the same problem, then I'm scrapping a home phone altogether.
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Review by andegold
UPDATED: 256 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 1944 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Plainsboro,Middlesex,NJ
$20 per month
about 5 days
"It just plain works! - Update at the End"
"None that matter"
"It's great for the home and I'm taking the plunge for my office too."
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I had originally ordered Vonage but after three weeks they couldn't even manage to find my request for LNP that been faxed (and confirmed received) to them three times. The Packet8 set up was extremely easy and quick. My house is new construction and in anticipation of VoIP the inside was never connected to the Verizon NID. After four or five months running over Comcast Verizon finally brought DSL to the neighborhood and I've been running over that connection for about two months now.
So, I have a Verizon land line for 911, the alarm, and scattered local calls when someone else is on the main line, and use the Packet8 line exclusively for everything else. I can listen to streaming audio, use a GoToMyPC connection and use the Packet8 phone with no noticeable degradation to any of them.
There is an occasional echo which is really annoying but it's never gotten in the way of a call.
There have been a few small outages but nothing serious.
Lack of 411 and even direct dialed 555-1212 service is annoying but I generally prefer SuperPages.com anyway.
Recently added time and date stamp to Voice Mail is long past overdue and it still doesn't work yet.
Interestingly, time and date stamping has always been available on their business class service as is seven digit dialing which is not currently available to residential customers.
I have just ordered a three station Virtual Office sysem for my business running over a Comcast Pro account. This could save several hundreds of dollars a year but would be better if it did not require a minimum of three stations. Two would be enough for me.
02/15/2005 Update - Still moving along well at home. Have been using Virtual Office at work for about a moth now. Have old Verizon line forwarded to P8 for incoming calls while LNP is pending. Occasionally get some quality issues but have only had one or two dropped calls. Nothing I can't live with. My biggest problem is getting used to being tied to my desk again after three years with a multi-line cordless system. Their plain business package probably would have worked with the old phones but I wanted some of the advanced features of the PBX.
So, after one month I'm still favorable and think it's a great solution fo any business that needs the features and more than three sets. For smaller operations that don't need to transfer calls or set up extensions and seperate voice mail boxes it's probably overkill.
08/10/2005 Update - Over one year later and still chugging along nicely at home. There are occasional very short outages and other glitches but they piss off the wife much more than they do me. 411 has been added and this is a very good thing as I do not like the changes that have been made to SuperPages.com over the past several months. The time and date stamp on voice mail now works. Actually, it works better than on Virtual Office in as much as the residential time and date stamp are announced before playing the message and the Virtual Office stamp is announced after the message. I usually delete the message before I realize I might have wanted to know when the message came in.
Also still very happy with VIrtual Office. Features are fantastic. Can't really comment on bandwidth as I rarely if ever have more than one extension in use at a time and other internet traffic in the office is generally low as well.
I received my 911 stickers for both accounts but no word yet on implementing 911 on my home phone which is a Verizon number that I ported in from a different CO.
Just about 18 months of service now. No outages in longer than I can remember. Sometimes there is delay and static but nothing worse than a cell phone. Call quality could be better but reliability is excellent. Still don't have 911 working but I do get updated E-mails from the tech working on it about once a month. They've credited me the 911 fees. 7-digit dialing is fantastic. Virtual office still working great at work.
UPDATE 01/23/2007 Over 24 months of service and still happy. Have cancelled residential account and had that number ported to Virtual Office. Currently running three VO lines over Verizon DSL. Downloads will affect quality of call but normal browsing does not. FiOS is on the way and will probably switch as soon as possible. Packet8 still can't resolve my address properly for E-911 but I have a landline for the DSL anyway. Added a T38 fax not too long ago but don't use it enough yet to really review it. I can't port my old fax line to it because they are limited as to which COs this equipment is in.
FINAL UPDATE 2/19/2009: I've been using the residential service now for four years and really still have no reliability problems or anything to complain about other than the price creeping up slowly over time. As a result of the price creep I am in the process of making the final changes and porting my number over to T-Mobile At Home. T-Mobile does not offer the same full feature set as Packet8 including, in particular, CallerID with Name. This was one of the biggest complaints about Packet8 in prior years until they finally added it about a year or two ago. Now I'm back to number only but am only paying $10/month for service instead of $30 and I only have to know one set of voice mail commands across my cell phone and home phone.
3/12/09 - T-Mobile does have CallerID with Name. They provide different CallerID services to their @home subscribers than to their mobile subscribers and my account wasn't coded properly. As of today my last Packet8 number (originally a Verizon Landline from the CO two towns over) was ported in to T-Mobile and all Packet8 accounts are closed.
I had a great experience with Packet8 and would absolutely still recommend Virtual Office but for my residential landline needs it just didn't make economic sense anymore.
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Review by iwnt14me
Posted: 263 days ago
member for 9.1 years, 1418 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Newport News,Newport News City,VA
$16 per month
about 10 days
"So Far So Good"
"None To This Point"
"Its Okay Will keep You Updated"
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I was a Verizon Voicewing customer who was dumped because the plan to start marketing the same service for more money to all customers C2C later this year. The Voicewing was horrible so we will see how Packet8 does will keep you updated.
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Review by ke4pym
UPDATED: 317 days ago
member for 5.3 years, 2712 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Charlotte,Mecklenburg,NC
$18 per month (12 month contract)
about 8 days
"Inexpensive if you order the yearly plan."
"None"
"Price and call quality seem to be right"
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1/09 - Service remains solid. Phones work great, call quality is fine 98.9% of the time. It just works.
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Ordered Packet8 on a referral from my father. He scored a $30 Amazon gift card. 8x8 was running a deal on a free (after rebate) Uniden VoIP base and cordless handset. You can add a total of 10 handsets to the base.
The set is ok. It has some features I'm going to miss in my departing Siemens Gigaset. The base has no headphone/mic jack. If you're on speaker phone it won't hang up when the call ends and the handsets use proprietary battery packs. My Gigasets used AA form factor NiMH batteries that I could get for $5. Find a battery pack that cheap.
You plug the base into your switch. It has a port that you can plug your analog phones into as well. Other ports include a LAN (if you use the device as a firewall) and power ports. I chose to use my existing m0n0wall firewall's DMZ port (on a Soekris 4801 integrated PC) for my setup.
I got the phone the following Monday and it took tech support 3 days to reconfigure their back end so I could have a registration number to activate my account with. After that was done I made a few calls. I am happy with the call quality in general. The speaker phone on the base has very good call quality and the handsets are clear and free of interference.
The website is a little clunky. Typical PeopleSoft based interface. I've not found a way to listen to my voicemails online, but that's not a big deal. I do hate having to remember to dial a 800 number to remote-check my voicemails. With Vonage I was able to just dial my number and press * and I'd be taken into the VM system. I also don't like the fact that I can't use 7 digital dialing because my market has a area code overlay.
Caller ID name and number delivery work very well. I especially like the option to tell call waiting callers I'm busy or hang on or whatever by pressing a button. I chose the $199 yearly unlimited plan. It looks like they billed the plan and all fees/taxes for the year. After doing some fast math, it works out to $18 a month. Works for me.
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 Review by cableguy965
Posted: 325 days ago
member for 8 years, 636 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Lynchburg,Lynchburg City,VA
$29 per month
about 3 days
"works good always on"
"some time can not call altell coustomers twice in 4 yrs echo sometimes"
"FOR THE PRICE CANT BE BEAT"
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i recently upgraded to the uniden uip165p awsome phone system
doubled my range for hand helds
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Review by Redbluffian
Posted: 336 days ago
member for 4 years, 96 visits, last login: 287 days ago
Red Bluff,Tehama,CA
$23 per month
"Rock Solid Reliability"
"None I know of"
"Solid service at a reasonable price"
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Going on our third year of service. No problems, no issues no complaints. We have 2 lines of service plus a fax line.
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Review by evansg
Posted: 347 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 13 visits, last login: 347 days ago
Hague,Westmoreland,VA
$22 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"good suite of features"
"no service if internet is out"
"overall a good value"
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I switched to Packet8 when Sunrocket shut down a two years ago. I have the annual plan for $199 (about $17/month) plus about $5/month in taxes.
As long as you have good internet bandwidth, the voice quality is very good. Service has been very reliable, but if your internet connction is lost your phone service is also gone, but this is true for any VOIP. I like the suite of features, particularly simultaneous ring where you can enter a phone number that will ring at the same time as the VOIP phone. I set it to my cell phone so I can answer either one. Install was fairly simple. I have the Packet8 modem plugged into my router and a cordless phone with multiple handsets. You call support when you are plugged in and they intialize the modem with your account. Probably took an hour total. I recently moved and had to give up my Comcast cable for internet access. I am now using Verizon Wireless Broadband for internet access. I have the Verizon USB modem plugged into my laptop and share the internet access using Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). The Packet8 modem is able to connect through the Verizon USB modem via my router with no problem. You do get a message before the VZaccess Manager is started if the Packet8 modem tries to connect. As soon as VZaccess Manager is started and has established a connection the Packet8 modem will also connect then you can click on OK to clear the warning message. I have not tried it, but you might be able to plug the Packet8 modem into your laptop ehternet port and use your VOIP on the road with Verizon Wireless Broadband.
Overall, I have been satisfied with service and consider it a good value.
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 Review by Authority
UPDATED: 355 days ago
member for 9.6 years, 1400 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Beverly Hills,Los Angeles,CA
$19 per month
"None I can think of?"
"Frequent outages / billing errors / non-existant tech support"
"I can't think of any reason to risk using this provider"
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Are they even still in business?
Even if everything worked as promised (a big "if") they're priced at DOUBLE or more than market alternatives. T-Mobile is half as much at $9.95 a month... Magic Jack is even less of that at under $20 for a whole YEAR.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do the math here... I can't imagine why anyone with a clue would still be using Packet8.
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Review by jdhampton
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 2.3 years, 152 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Sachse,Dallas,TX
$17 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Ease of ordering and Great Call Quality"
"Website leaves a lot to be desired, Billing Issues, Imcompetent Help"
"Good Call Quailty, Tech Support. No free fax support"
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I considered ViaTalk and Voip.com before deciding to go with P8. I found ViaTalk to have the best value, however, they are overwhelmed with subscribers. I also thought about what happened at SR and decided they were too much like SR. Voip did not have enough information available and were pretty new to the game. I started researching P8. I found that they have been around a long time and are publicly traded. (I am a stock trader) They posted their first profit last quarter, have no debt and own patents on their technology.
With that being said I jumped on them, knowing they will be around. I signed up online Friday evening. I received a confirmation email right away. I received another email on Monday saying my order was shipped with a FEDEX confirmation number. On Wednesday, I received my order, plugged in my adapter and was immediately working after I plugged it in. The surprise factor for me was my number was already ported within this time frame. The service quality has been great, no echoes or static in the line when calling. The website leaves a lot to be desired as it is not graphic intensive and does not lay things out in a friendly manner. I signed up for the $212 incl taxes and fees annual plan. Although I no longer have my signature number I had w/ SR, I am a happy camper as I have had no outages, my wife says it sounds great, and I have access to all of the features I use. Overall I am very pleased with my service and would recommend it to friends and family.
Update: When Packet 8 began charging the taxes seperately, it became a major issue as my bill greatly varied month to month. They could not explain the differences in the amounts. I also had one credit card I used when I originally signed up for P8, and updated that card with one for billing purposes. They would alternate my charges between the cards, charging the tax to one card and the service to another. VERY AGGRAVATING! I called month after month and they could not get it fixed. I decided to go back to Sunrocket (Teleblend) and everything has been OK thus far.
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Packet8
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Packet 8 lies