PC Magazine has a very exhaustive story on VoIP and compares AT&T’s CallVantage, VoicePulse and Vonage, giving the edge to VoicePulse.
I’ve been trying out VoicePulse and am actually rather impressed with the service. First like Packet8 and now Skype, VoicePulse is using Level3’s network. That’s one of the reasons for their call quality which has been clear as a bell. I also have been attempting to get the Zyxel Prestige 2000 WiFi phone to work with VoicePulse, but even after 30 minutes yesterday with one of their techs it failed to register, yet it works flawlessly with Vonage. The feature set from VoicePulse is possibly one of the most complete offerings, as I could not think of a feature I want that they don’t provide as part of either their basic or advanced services.
A few rubs about VoicePulse however do arise. Where CallVantage provides (for now) gratis call conferencing for up to ten people, VoicePulse charges and limits you to up to six participants. Also, to talk with their Customer Service staff you have to send an email first, then they call you, from a blocked caller ID number. They also have limited support hours compared to Vonage or CallVantage–which has the best support, if you ever need it.
Lastly, the pricing of their Open Access is by the minute after the first 200 for $4.99, much like Vonage is $9.95 for 500 for their softphone. When you compare Skype prices, these are high and now Skype is offering all the same features. Plus, with Open Access the customer is bringing their own ATA, Softphone or in theory, WiFi Handset. Prices on BYOE (Bring Your Own Endpoint) Voice service have to drop.
I’ve also been trying Packet 8. I am getting a rather favorable experience with them also. Call quality is well beyond Vonage and on a par with CallVantage, but it’s their VideoPhone which is really the killer application from 8 x 8 Networks. My first call was flawless. Set up, following the very straightforward instructions was no issue at all. This is clearly a first generation device, yet the real time, 20 or so frames per second was good enough but not as good as SightSpeed on my lap or desktop which offers a more robust near 30 FPS.
Bottom line both VoicePulse and Packet8 offer superior service to Vonage, the market leader, due to the ATA’s they use and having Level3 as their network. But the winner in my book has to be AT&T’s CallVantage for the following reasons:
1) Voice Quality
2) QoS at the installation end
3) The AT&T Managed Network’s peering relationships which assures better nationwide consistency
4) 24 hour customer service
5) Call Conferencing–perhaps their best feature
6) Easy to use, intuitive web site
If AT&T wasn’t on the VoIP scene VoicePulse would likely be my pick as a carrier. If VoicePulse can get the WiFi phone issue resolved then I’d drop my Vonage service and use them as my travel VoIP service, that is until AT&T releases a softphone, deploys a SIP based strategy and has something smaller to take around than the current D-Link provided telephone adapter.