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Review by REMoon 
UPDATED: 34 days ago
member for 39 days, 14 visits, last login: 25 days ago
 Roswell,Fulton,GA
 $20 per month (12 month contract)
 about 10 days
 "System and Features work well"
 "Currently;Not all calls ring some go direct to VM (HSI issues)"
 "Acceptable service at a fair price Better internet service=better phone"
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I have the freedom annual plan, been using for about 4 years (3 year on COX in LA 70817, 1 year on charter in GA 30076.
Phone worked much better with COX in LA. Has been spotty with the Charter HSI problems but is improving as I resolve the HSI problems one at a time.
Only contact with their Tech. service was at install and when I complained about the not ringing here on CHARTER they sent the BPA 410 to replace the orig. 310. Both incidents were responded to well.
I have looked at other providers but am overall satisfied and don't want to muddy the water until I get satisfactory internet performance
BPA 410 Adapter,Netgear WNR 3500 Router, Charter 10Mb HSI
UPDATE: Still working with charter on HSI issues for ring in and dial out intermittants
»/testhistory/1681265/3b9f2
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Review by scholztec
UPDATED: 242 days ago
member for 2.7 years, 138 visits, last login: a few hours 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 andegold
UPDATED: 253 days ago
member for 7.3 years, 1943 visits, last login: 2 days 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 ke4pym
UPDATED: 314 days ago
member for 5.3 years, 2709 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: 323 days ago
member for 8 years, 636 visits, last login: 3 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: 334 days ago
member for 4 years, 96 visits, last login: 285 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: 345 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 13 visits, last login: 345 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 jdhampton
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 2.3 years, 152 visits, last login: 13 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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Review by Pyg
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 7.9 years, 148 visits, last login: 95 days ago
Decatur,Morgan,AL
$20 per month
about 3 days
"My phone bill went from $100.00 per month to $20.00 per month"
"I have to dial 1+ the area code for local calls."
"I love it and will not go back to Bellsouth."
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** Since I've only had my Pack8 service a few hours, I am giving them neutrual marks on call reliability and Tech Support. I will adjust the scale as I use the service.
I researched several VOIP providers and settled on Vonage and Packet8. Packet8 was available in my area code so that was the main reason why I went with them instead of Vonage.
I think that Packet8 could improve the content of their web site. The Vonage web site seemed to have more information about VOIP in general.
Ordering was simple, my wife had the service ordered in 15 min.
The shipping was great. Even over the July 4th holiday weekend I had my device in 5 days or less.
The install was very easy. I hooked up the box to my switch and it went live in about five minutes. The first call was to activate the service and that took 30 seconds from the Packet8 line. I did not have to open ports on my router.
One feature that I would like to see added to Packet8 is Caller ID plus (displays name and number). The current caller ID only displays the phone number (a small price to pay for big savings) and while it's not a deal breaker, it's a feature that I would like to see added to Packet8.
The call quality is great. Nobody can even tell that we are using a VOIP instead of Bellsouth.
Order Time... 15 minutes
Install Time... 10 minutes
Being able to poke my finger in Bellsouth's eye... PRICELESS
I've shut off my POTS line and only use Packet8 and cell phones.
*********************************
07-31-04
**Packet8 update**
I've had the service for about a month now and I have been very impressed with Packet8. The firmware update went very well and they keep improving the quality of service. It's nice to see additional services being added in a short amount of time.
I haven't expereinced any outages. My wife did experience a slight echo (firmware 12.33) when she called Canada but they seem to have corrected the issue with later firmware updates.
I have not had to call tech support at all so I'm going to leave that category neutral.
**************
03/05/05
I'm still with P8 and I am still a big fan. There has only been a couple of outages in my area over the last few months and very few problems with call quality. The firmware upgrades have been coming out regularly and P8 is supporting more features now.
I have reccomended P8 to several of my friends in my area and they have all been pleased with the service. Most of them have canceled their Bellsouth land lines and are strictly on VOIP.
I moved the Tech Support rating up from neutral to 5 and the reason is that I have NEVER had to call tech support for anything. It's not a true rating of their tech support but I figure that if I have had the product this long and never even needed tech support then it deserves more than a netural rating.
While they have made some improvements to their website, I'd love to see them improve their FAQ.
*************
11-06-08
I happened by DSL Reports looking to see if any new services were in my area and stumbled across my P8 review and thought it needed an update.
I'm still using the same DTA that I started with and I've still never needed to contact P8 support. I'm still with them after all these years so that says something about their service.
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Review by slimmy
Posted: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.6 years, 411 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Idaho Falls,Bonneville,ID
$22 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Good customer service and great price."
"internet goes down so does phone"
"Much cheaper than pots."
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Signed up for Packet8 October of 2005. Was being charged 43'ish dollars for local landline from Qwest. So I decided to do some research and I was looking for something cheap, but reliable. So I sign up. I had some problems at first, but that was my cheap dlink routers fault. So I purchased a di-724u that had Qos in and only have had a few problems since.
I just signed up a friend from work. We will see how that goes.
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Packet8
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Packet 8 lies