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 Review by Sly 
UPDATED: 53 days ago
member for 5.7 years, 2883 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Johnson City,Washington,TN
 $32 per month
 about 3 days
 "Cheaper than POTS, widely avaliable, excellent call quality, plug and play"
 "Taxes, contracts, consistant pricing increases"
 "After their latest price increase, I am leaving them. Joined in Nov 2003...farewell P8"
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I've been with Packet8 since November of 2003. I'm still with them because of the simple fact that the service works, they have moderately good customer service and they are constantly improving by rolling out new features. One thing to realize, though, is that any VoIP connection is only as reliable as your Internet connection. If you have packet loss with your connection then you will have poor call quality with VoIP.
I have the Freedom 500 plan. I switched to it because it costs less than their unlimited plan. They have raised their prices over the years to where I no longer consider them an "amazing' deal. Now they are just a "good" deal. I still recommend them though. While I have seen others go through bankruptcies and scandals (Sunrocket anyone?) Packet8 has kept going.
[update] Packet8 has discontinued their Freedom 500 plan and has bumped me up to their unlimited plan. My phone bill started out at $19.95/ month in 2003 and now $26.98/month after taxes and fees. I have been a loyal customer but as soon as I find another provider, I'm leaving them.
[update] I have left Packet8 for good. They were good for a time but I no longer consider them worth it. They have a very poor and sluggish web interface, slow customer support (if any) and high prices with low call quality. Why give them any business??
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Review by hariwanna
UPDATED: 111 days ago
member for 125 days, 17 visits, last login: 6 days ago
Sequim,Clallam,WA
$33 per month (12 month contract)
"ease of installation"
"spendy due to junk fees"
"I switched to Callcentric"
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Packet8 has been in the VOIP market for over 20 years. They started as a silicon company and they hold numerous patents for chip designs in VOIP, FOIP and video over IP. I was a Packet8 customer for over 5 years. Packet8 has been transitioning their business into hosted virtual PBX service for small to medium size businesses. Their margins are much better in the hosted PBX products than in residential VOIP. In June, 2009 P8 notified their residential VOIP customers that their limited call plans were cancelled and all residential VOIP plans would be the unlimited calling plan priced at $24,99/month. P8 charges junk fees for "regulatory compliance" and other such nonsense to disguise the real price. I live in WA state where the state has invented new taxes for online services that bring my final monthly cost to over $33/month. My phone usage varies between about 300 minutes/month to 1500 minutes/month so I decided to switch to Callcentric's pay per minute plan. Callcentric is based in NY and is exempt from taxation by WA as it doesn't meet the "nexus" definition for tax liability in WA (where P8 has nexus in WA and is subject to state taxes on services).
P8 uses a proprietary locked ATA compared to Callcentric's bring your own device open standard SIP format. P8 is easier to install and if you do lots of calling their unlimited plan is comparable to Vonage. Check with P8 for taxes applicable to your state.
I rate the P8 customer service as pathetic. It has the advantage of answering your call after a short time in call processing and then you'll be able to talk to a live tech support person based in Santa Clara/Sunnyvale, CA. Tech support did a good job as far as getting the service set up. Tech support did not respond well to problems with call quality and service outages. They would usually blame persistent problem with echo on my ISP or on my home network.
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 Review by chaud
UPDATED: 141 days ago
member for 5.3 years, 1824 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Anderson,Anderson,SC
$33 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"Great quality and features."
"Expensive"
"Great quality but expensive."
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My Experience:
I placed my order for the DTA from Amazon.com on a Friday, and it arrived Tuesday. Ordering from them gave two months free, and a $60 rebate, which will reduce the cost of my DTA to -$4.00. The DTA arrived in a well decorated box, that protected the DTA well.
Once the main box is opened, there is smaller box inside, with all of the components wrapped in bubble wrap.
The items in the box included the DTA, a phone cord, power cord, power adapter, ethernet cable, startup note, tips sheet, and an invoice.
After I took the DTA out of the box, and plugged in the power, the Power light immediately turned on. I next plugged the ethernet cable into a free port of my router, and the Link light tuned on .I then connected a phone, and picked up, to find a dial tone. When a number was dialed, a packet8 recording telling you the URL to activate your service was heard. I went to the web address supplied, which matched the instructions on the sheet, and was told to enter my MAC address that was found on the bottom of the DTA. When I entered my MAC address, it returned an error
I tried three times, and each time the same error came up. I then placed a call to packet8 support, who answered after a few rings. I had no hold time at all. They confirmed my MAC address, and changed something in their system. I then tried again, and was put through. The problem, so far as I can tell, was caused by me buying it through Amazon, and the DTA must not have been registered properly in their system. After I had filled out the required billing information, I paid an activation fee, and printed my account details. I then picked up the phone, and placed a long distance call with perfect quality. I felt that the quality was almost as good as my land line, if not better. I did not have to configure anything special on my router, the DTA was truly "plug and play". The Phone light turns on steady when the phone is in use, and flashes while it is ringing.
After making several calls over a few days, I am almost satisfied with the Packet8 service. There are however some issues. One day, I placed a long distance call, and suffered horrible quality, and lost the call. When I checked the call log, I had 12% packet loss. However this was not Packet8's fault, as it was my internet connection. After a quick reboot of modem and router, everything was working perfectly again. In normal calls, I lose about .2% packets, but this may or may not have something to do with Packet8. This does not cause any quality problems though. The voicemail works reasonably well, except for the timestamp is sometimes off. I do wish we had the name on the Caller-ID, as we currently only have the number. After I was satisfied with the service, I went outside and unplugged my land line from the box, and marked it clearly. Then I connected my DTA to the wall outlet, and all phones were powered. I am able to hear people clearly with four phones up, which is all I have use for at this time. As for the quality, long distance calls sound much better, and local calls are loud and clear, people say they notice an increase in quality.
My only real problems with the service, so far, is the fact that 911 will not work right, and if I lose power, or my internet breaks, I will not have phone service to call and have it fixed.
For $20.00 a month, with unlimited long distance, it makes a great replacement for a land line. I recommend it!
Just updating this review, Packet8 now working fine in SC with Charter. Thanks P8!
12-24-05 - Still has great uptime and reliability. No problems
11-29-06
Still going strong with little downtime, have a few price increases, but still the most bang for the buck.
8-1-07
Still working well, loaded unlocked firmware and switched to g711. Sounds even better. No real problems with downtime.
6-1-09
P8 has raised the price several times, and now the cost is over $32, so I switched to my ISPs phone service. The features, uptime, and quality were great, but the price is no longer!
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Review by choadchimmie
UPDATED: 144 days ago
member for 8.5 years, 113 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Sharpsburg,Coweta,GA
$26 per month
about 10 days
"Reliability"
"Changes in billing, poor support"
"Avoid"
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I was a packet8 customer for 6 years and have now left the company. I was happy with the service at first and convinced many of my family and friends to sign up. After the first year or two they started charging startup fees, fees to make changes your account, and of course all the federally mandated fees. What started out as straightforward 19.99 a month now equaled about 26.00 a month. I was never really dissatisfied with the actual service which was remained solid during the time that I had it. The few calls I made to tech support were handled slowly when i could manage to wait through the hold times. I believe packet8 is a good company that lost focus on its customers needs. There is plenty of competition in the voip market and packet8 gave me no reason to remain their customer.
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Review by rjbasye
UPDATED: 156 days ago
member for 9.5 years, 4373 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Dry Ridge,Grant,KY
$31 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Reliable, Easy Install"
"Expensive, Raise Rates at short notice to customers"
"Avoid them since there are better providers at cheaper rates"
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June 2 2009 Update
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With only a 3 day notice notice given 8x8 formally Packet 8 raised its month rate from $21.99 to $24.99 with taxes and fees, it was over 30.00 a month. 8x8 also dropped its 500 minutes a month plan in favor of the more expensive $24.99 monthly plan. It seems 8x8 has no regard to its long time residential customers and is moving away from that market entirely. I am now porting my phone number away from them. Look elsewhere for a more honest VOIP company.
Update June 24/07
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I'm still with Packet 8 and after 2yrs I've experienced little down time and service, sound quality has been as reliable as POTS. They are now my primary phone service.
Update 4/18/05
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I decided to give Packet 8 another try after I had some problems with the local Telephone Co. I have to say that Packet 8 has improved since my first try with them over a year ago. I also upgraded my old router this time which seems to have improved call quality. Also, my cable provider has raised its upload and download speeds so this will improve reliability as well.
Packet 8 now ships the BPA 410 adapter which you can now run two phones simultaneously.
Packet 8 now offers true E911 service for an additional fee.
The bad thing is that there now is a $59 cancellation fee for 12 months so I hope I do not have problems after the 30 day trial.
Packet 8s website needs improvement as call features are a little hard to find.
Update July 22nd
After having used Packet 8 since April, I have only experienced a couple of outages. Service has been stable for the last month and a half and I'm very happy. Now if the can go to 7 digit dialing it would be just like POTS service. It's not a big issue for me as I programmed my phone to handle the 1+ Area Code. I still can recommend Packet 8 for VIOP.
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 Review by jmkraft
UPDATED: 169 days ago
member for 7.6 years, 3883 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Paris,Edgar,IL
$21 per month (12 month contract)
about 6 days
"Ease of installation, chordless device, website easy to navigate"
"Raised price by 60% with only one day notice."
"I cancelled my service."
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Review by Skywise
UPDATED: 170 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 219 visits, last login: 73 days ago
Portland,Washington,OR
$30 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Reliable"
"Unexpected subscription cost hike from 13.99 to 24.99!"
"Unprofessional business practices"
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I do advice against using 8x8, as they almost doubled my monthly service cost with just 1 week of warning. I had them for 4 1/2 years and they were reliable, those random changes are unacceptable from any company I deal with.
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 Review by txrocks
UPDATED: 170 days ago
member for 4.8 years, 1289 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Irving,Dallas,TX
$32 per month (month by month)
"revising soon!"
"Price increase to over 30 bucks..."
"Been good for over 4 years... not sure anymore...."
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Voicemail as email attachments "cool" - Internet connection limits service...
Update: still working good after 4 years
Update: provided free upgraded DTA when 4 yr old model died!
Update: New price increase without notice NOT GOOD!!!!!
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Review by GatorDevil
UPDATED: 250 days ago
member for 7.2 years, 1404 visits, last login: 75 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 Authority
UPDATED: 352 days ago
member for 9.6 years, 1399 visits, last login: a few hours 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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