thinking about signing up for broadvoice

[aksmom]

I would like to go out and buy my own equipment for this service today but have a few questions. What equipment do they support? I am finding a ton at stores here but all say vonage not broadvoice. Will these work or do I need a specific adaptor? Also we do not have a credit card because we really do not want one. My husbands boss has given us the company card to use. Will this be a problem to use that card since it's not in our name?

[xero9]

hey,

I can't really comment on the credit card part because I'm not 100% sure.

As for the device though, becareful about getting Vonage ones. While they are compatible with each other (I believe Vonage uses SIP), it's probably locked to Vonage. If you get a SIP device from the Voxilla store then it'll work no problem. Good luck!

[bodosom]

Any branded ATA (Vonage, Packet8, Voicewing) will be locked to the specific provider and unusable with Broadvoice. Generic ATAs are not uncommon but unless you live in a larger city you won't find one at the local BestBuy. I'd say that unless you're confortable setting up a home network with mutiple machines and a mixture of wired and wireless routers you should get the hardware from Broadvoice.

The credit card shouldn't be an issue but since I use mine I can't speak with complete authority. Yes that means I'm a Broadvoice customer but only for in-coming calls.

I assume you're read the threads about BV and various customer support and call problems, that you understand the E911 issues and that you understand QOS needs so I'll not comment on those.

[aksmom]

Yeah I've read up quite a bit on here before posting this. I am wanting to go with broadvoice just because it is cheaper and seems to offer a lot more features then callvantage and vonage. Yet I can find equipment easier for those two which may be a big deciding factor since I would like service turned on today. It looks like all 3 services have had their share of problems but nothing real recently. Any other advice anyone may have would be greatly appreciated.

[bodosom]

Originally Posted by aksmom

Yet I can find equipment easier for those two which may be a big deciding factor since I would like service turned on today.

I'm not sure what your goal is so it's hard to answer. You can certainly get the service turned on today and forward BV calls to your existing number but you won't be able to make them from a phone until you get an ATA (I'm ignoring things like those boxes that interface your phone to your computers sound card). Outgoing would require using a softphone until the ATA arrives.

[aksmom]

I dont' currently have an existing phone. Thats why I want to buy the equipment and have it working today if possible.

[mberlant]

My opinion, which is certainly biased, echoes what you have read above.

If you are interested in BroadVoice you must avoid all of the over-the-counter ATA kits that are branded to other providers. Those kits are locked to those providers and you will never get them released to work with any other provider. Moreover, if you accept a rebate from the service provider during their registration process you will end up not even owning this ATA that you just purchased, having just "sold it back" to the provider.

My recommendation is that you order an appropriate device (Sipura SPA-2002 or SPA-1001 are probably at the top of the list of choices) from Voxilla. First of all, you will get an excellent price with free ground shipping. Second, you will receive a coupon that waives the signup fee and the first month's service charge. Depending upon where you live, this will cost you 2-7 days of waiting to save as much as 1/2 of the cost of an ATA that is yours to own forever.

Once you have the SPA in hand you can register with BroadVoice for service. You should have no problem using your corporate credit card, as long as you put the credit card's billing information as the BroadVoice account's billing address. This will not impact any 911 service that BV may implement in response to the FCC's recent edict.

In short, it's worth the wait.

[aksmom]

Thank you very much for your help. I am going to see if Best buy sells the sipuras but if not I think I may go ahead and just order that from voxilla and then do sign up ASAP when i get the ata.

[bodosom]

I'm still not completely sure about what you want but if a softphone is an acceptable short-term alternative you can sign up with BV today. They were quite willing to apply the Voxilla credit to my account when I finally got my Sipura and switched from a minimal plan (I was testing) to an unlimited plan. It all depends on on how important getting a phone working today (or tomorrow) is to you since you'll probably want to have the better quality of a USB headset or adapter (which is something you can get at BestBuy).

So that would be:
1) Get a headset and softphone.
2) Sign up for BV BYOD Lite with a minimal plan.
2a) Try it for a while (incoming calls are free).
3) Order an ATA
4) Convert to your desired BV long-term plan.

Naturally you'd want to contact BV customer service to make sure everything will work to your satisfaction.

[aksmom]

What exactly is a soft phone? I do have a very nice usb headset so that wouldn't be an issue in any way. I have contacted customer service both through broadvoice and vonage and can't seem to get a response from either of them as of yet.