Customer Reviews

Phone Power Broadband Telephone Service Combo Pack

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I transferred my Vonage phone service to Phone Power. After about a month of service, I couldn't be happier. The call quality is great compared to Vonage and I no longer have audio problems which constantly plagued us where the audio would only work in one direction. We even tried switching the Vonage adapter and my cable modem and router without any success. Phone Power on the other hand worked immediately, my phone number was transferred on the day that they stated and is staffed and operated in the US, unlike Vonage which outsources tech support overseas.

Another great benefit is the free virtual 2nd line option which allows you to make and receive two calls at once with your primary phone number. The USB phone adapter for your computer is also very handy and you can plug a standard phone into it just like Magic Jack or use a headset and mic. Another little known fact is that you can get a soft phone which support will provide if you ask and you just install the software on your computer (does not require the USB adapter) that allows you to make and receive phone calls with your headset and mic.

Phone Power has a voice mail fax option as well which will send you a fax even if you don't have a physical fax machine and picks up during a voice mail if it hears a fax tone.

So far I highly recommend Phone Power, the service has been excellent and customer service great as well. I am on the two year plan for $199.00, not including taxes and haven't looked back at Vonage and don't miss it at all. Additional lines are reasonable also, unlike Vonage which charges the same price as your primary line.

It took a while to receive it since I chose free shipping. Once I got it, I read the simple pictorial diagrams and I knew what I had to do. I connected the PhonePower adapter AFTER the router in sequence. After waiting for 5 minutes, I was able to hear a dial tone.

The only thing was that I was not able to dial out and would only hear a busy tone when I dialed a number. I wondered and thought if I should contact the technical support, but decided to log into my online account first to see if it was active. Then I noticed that I have to wait over night until my account would get activated. I waited and I tried it the first thing in the morning. To my surprise, it was active!

I could dial out, but then couldn't receive phone calls. I guess that's because I chose to transfer my existing number which would take about a week to do. PhonePower doesn't provide a temporary number to use, but it's okay for me as I wouldn't give it out to anyone anyway. I am sure everything will be fine after a week, but so far so good!

By the way, I went with the 2 years promotional plan. That's the best deal I could find for the best reviews I searched online for hours over several days. I even checked BBB site and was surprised PhonePower had a better rating than Vonage. That rating made my decision less risky and easier to go with PhonePower.

I have had the Phone Power VOIP for about 2 months. I liked it so well that I brought a second unit in early September. I may actually buy a third. My review is based on my experience with two units at two different locations.

My previous carrier was AT&T, and I had traditional land-line service at both locations. I decided to switch because:

(a) The price was high. ($60/month at Location 1 and $250/month for two lines with DSL service at the Location 2) Phone Power is $200 for two years plus about $40/year in taxes. With Phone Power, I am saving about $4200 over two years, and I upgraded my Internet service from a very unreliable DSL service to high speed (22 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up) cable service

(b) Service was very poor. An AT&T installer told me 5 years ago that their wiring at Location 1 was shot and needed to be replaced. He said the area was scheduled for an upgrade, but they apparently never got to it. Voice quality was poor with lots of static especially every time it rained. The DSL service at Location 2 was very unreliable. I estimate that service was down 50% of the time. Service technicians came out many times, but the fix was temporary if it had any effect at all. We suffered through that service for nearly 6 years. We had to change Internet service providers no matter what.

I researched various options including AT&T U-verse, Comcast Internet Service with VOIP, Vonage, OOMA, MagicJack, and a few others based on a Google search for VOIP. I could not find anyone I knew that had used Phone Power, but I tried it anyway and am happy I did. They do very little advertising compared to Vonage and MagicJack.

My comments about Phone Power are given below.

(a) setup was very easy - order the combo package from Amazon for $79.99, register at [...] using the MAC address of the unit, sign up for a new number or transfer an existing number (takes about a week), plug the phone into the adapter(a little bit of wiring may be needed to convert a traditional wired system to VOIP; wireless phones are no problem at all)

(b) Voice quality is excellent.

(c) The system has many features (one I especially like is the ability to have voice-mail messages emailed to me as .wav files).

(d) The unit has ports for two phones on one phone number.

(e) The cost is among the lowest for a standalone unit that does not require a computer.

(f) Carefully read the information on the [...] web site about faxes and international calls if these are an issue.

(g) Make sure your Internet connection is fast enough to support VOIP.

(h) The combo package includes a second adapter that plugs into the USB port of a computer which allows one to take the number on the road using a laptop (This feature appears to be of little value to me because I have my mobile phone, but it may be of value under some circumstances or to some people).

(i) One can call technical support with specific questions about Skype or any other issue. (I found them knowledgeable and helpful)

Overall, I found Phone Power to be an excellent alternative to traditional land line service.

Based on my experience of roughly two with one unit and three weeks with a second unit, I recommend it.

*UPDATED* 1 June 2011 Helpful Suggestions for Phone Power

1. Use GRANDSTREAM Phone Power Modems especially manufactured for Phone Power systems!

(#2 depends on your DSL provider, modem, and router, try without bridging 1st!)

2. In many cases router MUST BE BRIDGED to DSL Modem! Before I got Phone Power, I had all kinds of problems, almost everything (PS3, WII, all home computers wired & wireless) had connection problems. My telephone technician finally came and bridged the router to the modem. After 4 or 5 years, my router died, but the Belkin Routers have very good detailed instructions on how to bridge the router to the modem! Since I bridged my router to the modem, connection problems have been almost none existent!

***Tell Phone Power technician (at initial setup) your router has been bridged! I am almost certain customers who report connection problems DO NOT have their routers bridged!

3. Use only DECT 6.0 Technology Cordless phones! I have never experienced interference! Use type phone you like, but don't blame Phone Power for interference issues.

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This phone modem works flawlessly. Hooks directly up to your Hi Speed Internets Router - Does not need to be hooked to a computer to make or receive phone calls!(Really does not need to be hooked up to a router either, see my Western Digital WD Livewire review)

Allows you to have 2 completely seperate independent phone lines! No extra fees or costs! Excellent tech support from Phone Power! 30 day Trial!

Phone Power credits your $79 cost to your Phone Power bill!

******** UPDATE AFTER OVER 11 MONTHS SERVICE!

I have changed routers 3 times and Hi Speed Internet Providers 2 times!

TECHNICAL SUPPORT STILL AMONG THE BEST I HAVE EVER USED! Most times they fix problems while you are on the line! The GRANDSTREAM modem performs almost flawlessly!

I can not bragg enough on how great their 2 LINE TECHNOLOGY IS!

We have 3 ATT Phones on one line of phone modem, 2 Uniden on other line.

When call is received = ALL PHONES RING! Answer which ever phone is most convenient. Anyone wishing to make a call may use other set of phones without bothering the person on the first set to ring, Or if another call comes through the other set of phones rings (instead of going to call waiting)and anyone answering the second set hears crystal clear sound quality independent of the first set. They work totally independent of each other. Amazing technology!

If a 3rd call comes in then you have call waiting activated! Actually you have call waiting after the first call, so if no one else is available to answer other phone line use your call waiting feature if you like!

All together their are 45 calling features. I have never been so happy with any home phone service. Less Than $10 a month including taxes and fees! Many companies charge more just for a distinctive ring! Local & Long Distance is FREE to all 50 states. Free 60 minutes of International Long Distance each month!

Since you get 30 days to try Phone Power and FREE Grandstream modem, why not try it first. It gives you much more for the money than OOMA, Vonage, and others!

I have been using Phone Power for about a couple months now and am highly satisfied. I have contacted tech support only a few times (not because of issues, but because I like to know how things function and was curious about features and how the service works) and my calls and chat sessions were met with enthusiasm and professionalism on the other end! I have had only one issue with echo initially, but that was quickly taken care of by tech support. Rock solid service so far, researched for 4 weeks prior to signing up. Pricing can't get any better! Prepaid for two years, bringing price to around $8-9 per month. I was paying close to $50 with AT&T and didn't have 1/4 of the features. The call blocking is great and useful, as is the voice mail, call log, and forwarding rules! I do wish that Phone Power had a "custom" caller id feature like some other VOIP services do that can change the incoming caller id to a specified display name based on your contact list at the website, but I understand this is coming along with a host of other useful and nifty features. I even suggested a couple features and was contacted by the general manager with a kind response and answers to my suggestions! How's that for valuing your customers? I have even refered a friend and received a credit to my account for the referrel! Love my Phone Power!

I have had the PhonePower VOIP modem for about a month now w/o any problems. Compared to paying > $30.00/month for basic land-line phone service (long distance & special features not included) it is so far a wonderful alternative. First, I do not work for PhonePower. I am an average Joe with some technical expertise in computers who was looking to save a buck. There are some who make reviews that want to hide behind faux names and degrade a product by making baseless claims w/o any documented evidence. You first must realize that there is no telephone service that is perfect. You will have problems at one time or another even with a basic land-line. I am just here to tell you the potential consumer that in my 1-month experience that the service has been exceptional. I have contacted customer service and technical support no less than a dozen times about certain features of the service and they have been nothing but professional in their presentation. I for one am glad that they have people monitoring forums and such to hear what people are saying about their product. It may give them ideas on how to improve their product if there are problems. If there is a problem with the device firmware, PhonePower should address this issue. I did not upgrade my firmware and so far have had no problems. Sometimes updating firmware on modems and routers causes problems to begin. I do agree though that it is probably a good idea to upgrade the firmware before subscribing to the service. I will talk to PhonePower about this and add their response to my review. My VOIP analysis by Visualware is as follows: Jitter 0.4ms; Packet loss 0.0%; Mos score 4.2. These scores may not mean much to some, but according to Visualware they are excellent for VOIP. I will provide updates for this product over the months so that my review remains accurate.

Arrived on time and works well. Had a few problems at first that could have been avoided with better documentation. Switching from Vonage to PhonePower was part of the problem. PhonePower's live and chat tech help are prompt and first class.

Have used for a year left phone modem in yuma had to get another works pretty good and the cost is cheap about 10.00 per mth w/24mth contract. Service from the company good not excellant. But a plus they speak english.

I was setting up a home based business and needed a phone line that was in-expensive and reliable. I took a chance with Phone Power in February of 2010 and have not looked back. The quality of the calls is stellar, the customer support is good and USA based.

I am now going to switch 3 of my retail locations to Phone Power.

I reviewed several VOIP service providers, throughout my research PhonePower continually stayed at the top of my list...I finally decided to go with PhonePower using my own Linksys PAP2T-NA adapter and set up my service. I selected the option to transfer existing number with my old landline service to PhonePower. The new PhonePower account was set up in about 24 hrs, it took me about 5 min to set up my Linksys PAP2T-NA adapter and get the service running, it was way easy.

I got a call from PhonePower that my number would be transferred in 7 calendar days - and the number was in fact transferred as scheduled. So far its been an easy transition from traditional phone service, no complaints at all.