Cingular Go Phone: 8x8 VOEQU01210152R1 Packet8 VoIP Business Phone Service Review

I've been using 8x8's virtual office for over 2 years now and I've found it to be reliable with very good quality.

We had looked at Vonage, Sunrocket, and AT&T.AT&T's Callvantage doesn't support our local area code, and Vonage didn't have the feature set of the virtual PBX that 8x8 has.Sunrocket had some grumblings posted in several reviews and when we called with pre-sales questions it took several days to return our calls. (Note: Sunrocket has since gone under).

With 8x8 you can "virtually" (pun intended) connect anyone from anywhere provided that they have a decent (reliable, dependable and fast) internet connection.I've read a lot of bad VoIP reviews and it seems that for the ones that complain about quality may have several unanswered ISP issues.I think people think, like maybe the average Vonvage-single line-type of customer, that the Plug-n-play aspects of VoIP services mean that they don't need to do a little homework before they start connecting other services like Voice over their existing Internet connection.

One really nasty review I read on a VoIP forum slammed 8x8 saying that nearly all of their calls were dropped.Someone (not me) chimed in and asked a few obvious, yet eluding questions to the poster who finally admitted that they had several workstations that were plagued with a virus that eventually had their ISP shut them down until they got things fixed.

Folks, you can't expect to run a small business with Limewire, Bit-Torent and the like running along side your VoIP service without anticipating some disruptions.

We do have the expertise and took the time to configure our routers for QoS and packet tagging to insure that voice packets received priority and that local LAN traffic was isolated.This isn't necessary, but if you have several extensions in a single location, I would highly recommend it.

A single 8x8 line only takes up about 96kbps of bandwidth, so you should make sure that for the number of lines at a single location you have the internet connection to support both the expected voice and the usual day to day (web, mail, bittorrent???) traffic.

Now that AT&T sells "dry loop" DSL (that is, DSL that doesn't require the purchase of a phone line/dial-tone), you may be able to add a second, dedicated loop just for voice if you plan on having more extensions.

As far as support goes...well, it depends on how you go about it.Don't expect a huge user-based Forum to go and post your questions and get answers from your peers.As far as forum usage goes, there isn't much except the ones that complain and don't have anything constructive to help out with.

The online support is a joke too...this is why I rated it 4 instead of 5 stars.If you open up a case online, you probably won't hear from anyone for a long time.This is bad in my book, especially if you are having problems with your VOIP service and can't call them directly.

BUT! I stopped depending on online support because the phone/direct support is awesome.It seems that we have been trained to do everything online and wait for an answer, while 8x8 seems to prefer to deal with their customers directly.I have opened several cases to ask questions on how to configure the auto-attendant which routes calls based on the number dialed, or a touch-tone response to a customized menu that you created, and have had someone on the line within minutes.

Speaking of the Auto-attendant...you should look carefully at your costs when evaluating and comparing the other VoIP services.The Auto-attendant gives your business a nice professional "appearance" by providing you with a way to route calls based on what number is dialed, the time of day, holidays, and handles exceptions for extended or modified business hours.

Other than commercially installed solutions from Avaya and the like, I haven't seen anything like this available from the competition.

Oh, and another reason to take a star away from this review are for somesome features that I would like to see such as a Mac OS X client for dialing and seeing who's calling like Packet8's free Outlook client plug-in, voicemail accessible from anywhere using a web browser, and call blocking.

But, the features that are included are more than most (or any) small business would need.

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Product Description:
Packet8 Virtual Office is a Voice over IP (VoIP) hosted PBX service, small business phone system alternative that allows small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) anywhere in the world to employ an unlimited number of extension options and enjoy geographic independence and flexibility. Virtual Office extension options include an unlimited extension, a metered extension or a virtual extension.Packet8 Virtual Office cuts the typical private branch exchange (PBX) system start up costs up to 90% through the delivery of a virtual PBX while reducing monthly phone bills by 50%. Packet8 Virtual Office service is designed with simple self-service tools for complete system and extension control. For organizations that require a full-service configuration and change contract, these features are included in Packet8 Virtual Office service for the same price. In addition to enjoying benefits from the Virtual Office solution such as unlimited calls to the United States and Canada for a low, flat monthly fee, companies subscribing to Packet8 Virtual Office can eliminate the overhead cost associated with brick and mortar buildings with the use of this VoIP PBX system by operating out of different locations without losing any powerful PBX functionality or having to pay premium local and long distance charges for inter-office calling.