I'm looking at AT&T CallAvantage, any pro or con's with them?

When I tested them their voice quality and voice quickness (delay time) were superior to everyone else I tried (Vonage, Lingo, and Packet8.)

However, they mis-designed a couple of the software features that I needed.

The mis-design I can remember now is their "locate me" feature (simultaneous call-forward). When it's in effect, a call will ring through, you answer, but then their software insists on slowly playing a recording asking you to push a button to actually speak to the party who's trying to get through to you.

The extra button is a hassle (especially while driving), the tape cannot be pre-empted, and by the time you can persuade the software that it's OK to let you speak to the caller, the person has often hung up. Also, the recording prevents you from putting your own answering machine on the line (answering machine can't "push the button.") When I called them, they explained that that was the whole purpose of the exercise: to prevent your answering machine from "accidentally" picking up.

(I needed to put my own answering machine on the line because their voicemail service is lame in some way that I don't remember now. Maybe Callvantage was the odd duck where you could pick up your voicemail either by phone or by email, like usual -- but you had to choose in advance; you couldn't have it both ways.)

Hope this helps a little.

Garry

CallVantage service is terrific. They did have trouble porting my home phone number, but it is now working perfectly.

Their message recordings are great because you can retrieve messages from any of your home phones, via web, and/or via email and messages are not lost if there is a power failure in your house.

Their speed dial is great: you can speed dial from any of your phones and if you lose power you don't loose the speed dial programing!

The installation is easy for DIY and the AT cost is reimbursed.

Rick Merrill

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I agree: voice quality is excellent. The QoS (quality of service) over broadband is unimpeachable. ( You just have to be sure to RTM and put ModemTA(telephoneadapter)routercomputer )

Thanks for al that replied. I really appreciate your input. jt

Did'ja compile a summary?-)

Nope. Just read you all's review.