Thinking of switching from vonage to BV

[nortbot]

I require the use of a soft phone and vonage's pricing and requirement of a new phone number turned me off. I looked at that BYOD world plan at BV and decided I'd give it a try. During the registration it asks me to provide a device. At this point I only want to use a soft phone like X-Lite. If I like BV I'll switch and transfer my PAP2 from vonage to BV.

Is it possible to signup under BV as a soft phone only and then add an adapter later? If I signup tonight and use X-Lite will I be able to start using the service right away?

Thanks for the help.

[mberlant]

Here we go, point by point.

- You may use any hardware or software client with BroadVoice. If the client, such as X-Lite, is not listed as one that BV knows how to manage, simply choose "Generic SIP device" from the bottom of the pull-down menu. Once you have completed signup you will log in to your Account Manager and look up your SIP credentials on the Account page.

- Unless you purchased an unlocked PAP2-NA you will not legitimately be able to use that Vonage-locked device with any other provider. There are some postings floating around the internet that describe various people's varying levels of success in unlocking these devices that Vonage sold as subsidy-locked.

- BV will allow you to change devices as often as you wish, even several times in a day. Just make sure that you only have one device actually connected ("Registered") at any one time and any other device or softphone is shut down.

- When you sign up with BV your account becomes active immediately upon acceptance of your credit card. You may immediately log in to your Account Manager, learn your credentials and configure your client.

[Rich-M]

Another thing you might want to try (which I do) is to use an asterisk server to connect with BV, then you can have all the soft phones and ata's you want spread around the country. You can simultaneously ring 'em all and never have to worry about disconnecting them or what is online as you move about.

-Rich

[alexdds]

I do not recommend BV, you will be disappointed with the quality and service.
Go with VBUZZER or AXVOICE.

[cpharvey]

I don't recommend BV over Vonage either. You'll be dissapointed with the myriad of weird issues that crop up and the customer service group who don't seem able to fix anything and refer almost everything to tier 2 techs who you'll never hear from.

I see a lot of issues with Vonage users on here although I've never had any so I think if you have a good working service with Vonage stick to it, or if you really have to move then go somewhere else but avoid BV at all costs.

Sorry mberlant, I know you're a fan of BV, but after over a year of sticking with them while they sort themselves out I've given up.

[tulare]

I have been satisfied with BV and my SPA 3000 .Thanks to Mberlant and others on this forum I have been able to solve any problems.It just takes a little patience sometimes. You can't beat the price!

[alexdds]

You are wrong about beating the price. There are service providers much cheaper if not the same with much better quality.
Last night for example I was in the middle of a long conversation and I got disconnected. I redialed talked for another 3min and got disconnected again. Then called again talked for 5 min and the other person did not hear a word I said or vice versa then the call got dropped again. I called again and could not get through. waited another min and could not get through. (at this point I was not at my computer to switch proxies but so what I should be able to continue my conversation.) I got frustrated and had to use my cell phone and that ate up 40min of my minutes which BV does not reimburse you for. So if you like this type of service go ahead. I think I probably used up so many minutes that they try to disconnect you on purpose. Funny when you pay BV by the minute the calls always seem to work. When I first signed up with them for the first 2 months everything was great then they dropped global crossing and the service was terrible ever since. Just look at the other people posting here and you will wonder why so many people are complaining about BV and no one else. They have the worst rating with the better business bureau and have been nasty about accusing people about using their service for business and charging their credit card outrages charges for all months until activation of the service.
I too used to be patient with them just like other people here but now my patience is wearing very thin. They do not deliver what they promise whether its their network or on purpose I do not know.