It seems like everyone is jumping on this thing called VOIP (or VoIP), That's Voice Over Internet Protocol, a fancy phrase for making phone calls over the Internet. I say "everyone" because even the phone companies are getting into the business; Verizon, my local telephone provider, recently began their VoiceWing service to compete.

But the phone companies are greedy. VoiceWing is $29.95 a month (for unlimited calls) if I am Verizon DSL customer (which I am) or $34.95 if I'm not. Compare that to non-phone company VOIP providers whose plans are in the $20-25 range for unlimited calls. Heck, my phone bills for a simple residential line were $45-$50 because of all the incremental charges that Verizon tacked on.

That and their lousy service prompted me to look at switching to a VOIP solution a couple of years ago. Back then, about the only VOIP provider on the planet was Vonage, but I found the service just wasn't ready for prime time. About half the time the calls would just drop and most of the time the voice quality just wasn't up to par with the phone company.

Because of a move I made recently I wanted to look into getting the service again. I'd have gone with Vonage again, but unfortunately my telephone number -- which I wanted to keep -- couldn't be transfered to them; apparently they don't have a presence where I lived. Fortunately, Packet8 did and their website indicated that my number could be ported to them. So, I jumped in.

The online signup was easy. Once I selected the plan I wanted ($19.95 a month for unlimited calls), I provided my credit card information, etc., and filled out a form for Local Number Portability. (Part of the process also involved faxing to them a copy of the first page of a recent telephone bill, to prove the number I was transferring was mine.) Then I waited for my welcome package.

About five days later I received a box with a small piece of equipment that looks similar to an external modem. Following the instructions, I plugged it into my router, plugged a regular phone handset into the box, and applied the power. I lifted the handset and voila! I had a dial tone. A single call to activate the service and I could now call to my heart's content for less than half of what I was paying before.

The price is only half of the story, though. The quality of the service is what would make or break the deal for me. I found that 18 months down the technology road really made a big difference in the level of quality I experienced. After using Packet8 for a month I'm pleased to say that I have had no issues with dropped calls or lousy connections and I have no regrets in my choice.

A concern I had in the process was the transfer of my number. I knew it would take 6-8 weeks for the transfer to be completed (Packet 8 provided a temporary number in the meantime); in fact, it was completed in just over three weeks. There was a brief period, no more than a couple of hours, when dialing my number resulted in a disconnect message but, soon after, dialing my number rang my Packet8 phone.

I do have one disappointment, though. All of my calls have to be dialed using 11 digits (1 + area code + number). This shouldn't be necessary, since I don't live in area with an overlay area code, but this isn't apparently an issue with most of Packet8's customers and isn't really a big deal to me.

Great service, painless process. Now I can do the same for my business line.

Posted by Don Morris at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Upgraded service is neither "upgrade" nor "service"

Is it just me, or do you expect an upgraded product to be better than the one that preceded it? That's what I expected when Verizon rolled out their upgraded Business Voicemail service here in Southern California. Boy, was I wrong.

I've been using Verizon (formerly GTE) voicemail products in my mainly offline business for about 14 years. I've been mostly pleased with their service, the only annoyance being that Verizon charges me by the minute to access my voicemail when I call in from a line other than my business line. But now they've figured out how to annoy me a lot more.

First off, I received a series of voicemail messages in both my personal and business mailboxes, telling me to be ready for the change-over and to watch for materials in the mail describing the new service. The updated Users' Guide never showed up (a call to Customer Service resulted in a copy being delivered the next day), so I was almost completely unprepared for the switch.

My first clue that something was amiss was the complete lack of incoming calls to my cellphone. Since I'm out of the office much of the day, making deliveries and performing service calls, I subscribe to a voicemail upgrade called Remote Call Notification. When my business voicemail receives a message, Verizon calls me and plays it for me.

Well, I wasn't getting those calls, so I called my voicemail to make sure there wasn't something wrong. That's when I heard the new greeting and found my password didn't work. Remembering the earlier messages, I used the last four digits of my phone number to sign in, then proceeded to set up my personal profile.

There I was stuck. I couldn't figure out how to set up Remote Call Notifcation, since there was no option for it. My call to Customer Service initially resulted in frustration, since the representative herself didn't have a copy of the updated Users' Guide, but between the two of us we figured out that the feature is now called Special Delivery. She quickly set up the feature for me so I could receive messages.

(Why this feature was disabled, I don't know, since the Attendant feature—which transfers the caller to another number—was still enabled. Oh, the Attendant feature is now called Personal Receptionist.)

But, hey, that was just a one-time annoyance. Several other things annoy me on a daily basis, and are mainly related to Special Delivery.

When Special Delivery notifies me, it seems that I have half as much time to grab my cellphone and answer the call. Whereas I previously had four or five rings to answer the phone, now there are two rings before it gives up. And give up it does: no longer will Special Delivery leave a voicemail message on my cellphone informing me of the attempted delivery. So, if I'm in a no-service area (easy to happen in my locale) when Special Delivery makes its attempt, I won't know of the message until the next message is left.

Also frustrating is Special Delivery's habit of leaving a second copy of the undelivered message in my mailbox, along with the note, "This message could not be delievered to (my cellphone number)." Why would I want to hear the message twice?

There are actually a couple of new features that are helpful, though not competely. First is Reminder Messages, which allows you to record a message and have it placed in your mailbox at a future date and time, either on a one-time or recurring basis. While this sounds like a great idea, you only are aware of the message when you check your messages, as the system does not ring your phone nor does Special Delivery notify you of the message. So, this won't work as a wakeup call.

Caller ID is a new feature that is extremely helpful to me. Many times my customers will leave me a message without a phone number; since I like getting back to them right away, this feature will help me do that without pulling out my Palm while driving (at best) or waiting to get back to the office (worse).

However, I don't need to hear Caller ID for every message. Right now, Caller ID is an all-or-nothing proposition: if it's enabled, you hear it for every message and can press a key to hear it again (although not while the message is playing) or, if it's disabled, it isn't announced—even by a keypress. I'd like to be able to have the feature disabled when messages are played, yet access the Caller ID for an individual message.

New otions during playback include the ability to play a message slower or faster and softer or louder, as well as pause playback. Skip (the '#' key) will now advance to the end of the message; use this to get to the options for Reply, Forward, and Time and Date Stamp/Caller ID. To actually skip the message, press '#' twice.

Finally, Saved Messages now play in reverse chronological order. This, too, is helpful to me, as I usually save a large number of messages and often want to hear the most recent.

My Take?

I'm very disappointed with this upgrade. If I had to pay for the upgrade (and if I had a choice of upgrading), I'd probably sit this one out. Until Verizon fixes its shortcomings, though, I'll grouse about it every day.

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Posted by Don Morris at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)