As some of you know, I recently switched to ViaTalk, following Sunrocket’s collapse. Here is my review of ViaTalk from a Sunrocket perspective:
Voice Quality:
The voice quality on ViaTalk is very good, much like it was on Sunrocket. The service seems very stable, and I have been able to call without any problems.
Website Usability:
1) ViaTalk’s website is very poorly made, and I rank the usability aspect very low, specially when compared to Sunrocket’s website. The biggest annoyances on the website is the navigation – going back and forth between menu’s is very tough.
2) Everything on the website is tied to your phone number. The “Custom Caller ID” feature, for example. Once the Sunrocket number ports to ViaTalk, I will have to re-do all my settings with the new number!
3) There is no way to add international numbers to my contact list, Custom Caller ID, and Speed Dialing pages – it seems to truncate my number to 12-digits.
4) There is no cross-page support. For example, If I add someone to my custom caller ID list, I cannot select that name on the “Whitelist” page – I have to type all the information again! This is really painful, since I have to add every contact twice – once one the “Custom caller ID” page, and then some on the “Whitelist” page, and some on the “Speed Dial” page.
Device:
I used the Bring-your-own-device option, and configured my Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re to work with ViaTalk. This seems to be working very well for me.
FAX:
I have been unable to send FAX with ViaTalk. According to their website, they charge additional dollar for sending & receiving FAX, unless you use the business plan. Sunrocket had no such restrictions.
Contract:
ViaTalk provides a 15-day money-back guarantee. However, after that, you are bound by the contract. If you cancel the service, you will not be refunded any pro-rated amount. This, to me, is a huge negative when compared to Sunrocket. However, we all know what happened to Sunrocket…
Speed Dialing:
ViaTalk only offers up to nine speed dialing numbers to be configured. This is very limiting for me, and I see no reason why their software can not be expanded to accomodate extra numbers.
Voice Mail:
The Voice Mail features are comparable to Sunrocket’s. There are some nice extras, like SMS notifications to cell phones. However, ViaTalk does not send voicemails as email attachments.
Softphone:
This is one area where ViaTalk offers a LOT of freedom. You may use any SIP-based softphones, such as GizmoProject. The service works seemlessly with softphones.
“Unlimited” Calling:
ViaTalk has a 5100-minute per month cap on the “unlimited” plan. That is not quite unlimited, is it? In comparision, Sunrocket had no such limits. According to users on DSLReports.com, other companies also have some form of limits, however I have not verified this.
Customer Service:
1) Over the past few days, ViaTalk has been very busy with the huge influx of customers like me, switching from Sunrocket. With this in mind, ViaTalk did a great job with activating my account in less than one day. There are several outstanding customer support tickets open for more than two days, but bearing in mind that they are swamped with Sunrocket refugees, it will be unfair to judge their support right now. I will give an update after a few weeks once the sea is calm.
2) That aside, it is very heartening to see their CEO, Brenden, regularly post messages on DSLForums. Great personal touch 
3) I do find it somewhat amusing, that users can pay an additional fee to avail “Priority Support”.
Promotional Offers – Now you see it, now you don’t!
Promotional offers on ViaTalk’s website seem to change very rapidly, sometimes in less than 24 hours! This causes a lot of confusion, and very little time to research our options to decide on our VoIP provider.
Call forwarding:
This feature seems to work fine for me. There are additional/advanced features such as “SIP Forwarding” which are cool, but I have not used them yet.
E911:
I have not used this feature yet, and likely, will never use it, since I have a pre-paid cellphone for emergency purposes. I highly recommend everyone using VoIP to have some alternate means of 911 through POTS or Cellular phone service.
Overall, for $199 annually, this is not a bad service – the voice quality is great, and there are some very good features that are not available with other VoIP providers. Website usability is not that important to me, and I recommend this service to anyone who needs a decent broadband phone service for cheap. If, however, you require FAX, do check their extra charges and compatibility before signing up.
Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Did you get the 2lines in one when you BYOD?
http://www.viatalk.com/two_phone_lines.htm
I was told that this was “special” was only available when you did NOT BYOD?
thanks,
Adam N.
Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Adam,
I have configured 2-lines, but not tried it. I will try it tonight and post back about it.
Thanks for reminding me about it!
Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 11:42 pm
[...] Posted by Mihir Gandhi under ViaTalk , Sunrocket , VoIP , Technology Adam Nollmeyer commented on my previous post about the 2-line feature offered by Viatalk. I tried it out, and I am glad to [...]
Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Interesting….
So you BYOD from sr? Could anyone config their ATA to do this, or is this feature something that VT has to add to your account?
I was lead to believe that.
1) the 2lines on 1 was a special promotion that only new people could get (unless you signed up for a beta a while ago)
2)you had to use their device.
You never know how much if it is marketing / or not properly informed sales people, vs the the turth.
Hmmmmm, BTW I still have my SR dialtone, but re-directed it to my GC # for now.
Adam
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Friday, July 20, 2007 at 12:01 am
Adam,
Yes – I used my Sunrocket Innomedia gizmo on VT. You can unlock the device easily using instructions from my blog.
The 2 lines on 1 promo was offered on Monday for a few hours when I signed up for the service. While people on dslreports.com have advised that you need their device, I was successful configuring the gizmo with this service
Friday, July 20, 2007 at 8:47 am
Thanks, this is helpful. There are quite a few negative reviews of ViaTalk, but that the CEO is on the review sites is very helpful. And their custom outgoing voicemail messages is a really attractive feature I haven’t seen anywhere else.
Friday, July 20, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Ellen,
Tell me more about the “custom outgoing vm”. Is it a differant greeting for special callers? (like family?)
What other features does VT have that SR does not? Can you add a distinctive ring. (signature 2nd virtual line)?
Also the 2 lines in one has the same caller ID right.
Adam
Friday, July 20, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Adam,
Yes they have the ability to setup two voicemail greetings. You can configure who hears the standard greeting, and who hears the other greeting. Its quite slick, if you ask me.
They also have a “Do not disturb” feature, and you can whitelist callers whose call you want to receive even during the DND… its really cool
Sunday, July 22, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Folks,
The configuration works but apparently is pseudo 2 lines and not working as prescribed by VT user comments. I have it configured as outlined in the guide and only line 2 rings. Both lines have dial tone and both lines will make outbound calls but incoming calls only ring on line 2. Apparently, the way VT provision this for users of their equipment is that they provision a second account with the 1nnnnnnnnnnT nomenclature and that there is a separate password for this account. Has anyone gotten both lines to ring with this config? is there something I may be missing?
Sunday, July 22, 2007 at 3:53 pm
BTW, per the description on the VT web site both lines should ring when a call comes in. Also, if a call is engaged on L1 and a call comes in, L1 should get call waiting beep and L2 should ring. With the way things are at this point, only L2 rings.
Friday, July 27, 2007 at 10:39 am
WRONG. i receive all my voice mail through email attachments in VIATALK.
WRONG. i get snail mail, email, tv, and radio, all of which provide me a contiually changing option of “sale” incentives.
WRONG. 5100 minutes may be cap, but let me ask you this? when do you last spend 80 plus hours on the phone in a given month.
had the service for almost a year, i have to set my box every now and then, but i consider the reliability factor at 98%. amortizing at $12.87 per month, i find it impossible to beat.
Friday, July 27, 2007 at 11:13 am
Kai,
How did you configure VT to send attachments for voicemail?
Do your TV/radio/postal mail change offers every 3 hours? Like you get an AD on radio at 10am for one thing, and they change that at 1pm?
5100 minutes? That is less than 3 hours a day? I EASILY use more than that every day, since all my friends and family stay away from me, and I like to stay in touch with everyone! The problem is they advertise it as “unlimited” and have a small print somewhere to reveal the 5100 minute cap. Why not just call the plan “vt_5100″ instead of vt_unlimited? They have a 500 minute plan that the call “vt_500″.
Let me ask you this? You rent a car from a car rental, and they claim that they give you unlimited miles. You are asked to sign and initial a few places on the form, where the “unlimited mileage” is defined as “30 miles” – is that fair?
Friday, July 27, 2007 at 1:29 pm
For your other readers’ info, I subscribed to ViaTalk (paid extra for expiditing) over 10-days ago … Never could reach VT’s Cust Support by Chat or Phone … Sent certified letters to both Brandon (CEO) & John (CTO) a week ago which have been IGNORED to date … and still haven’t received any equipment or service! (erghhh!!!!)
As a fail-safe, I subscribed my 3-lines to TeleBlend on-line (myteleblend.net) the following day because they’d use my Sunrocket Adapter without reconfiguring. I was up and running seamlessly THE SAME DAY!! Although all features aren’t working yet & the volume of Sunrocket customers has slowed their CS response time, at least I can talk to someone…eventually.
Hope this helps any other former Sunrocket folks who may have the same predicament with ViaTalk!
[PS you really should post most current responses first ranther that oldest first]
Saturday, August 4, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Hi, I used same sr equipment to move to viatalk and its been working, but no caller id and call block feature is working for me. I have opened tickets with viatalk and I there will be no response for many days ….
Can any one help me….
thanks
Sunday, August 5, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Mihir Ji
Can you help me can innomedia mta6328-2re be configured one line for incoming say Viatalk (Voicestick my case) and another for different SIP provider (Gizmo project or internetcalls.com /voipcheap.com) for outgoing calls… if we can do this then we can make phone service free!!!
For experimenting I bought AC-211-SR, Pap2 (but unlocked
) do you know my requirement will work in these adaptor? two phone line two different SIP providers?
Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 10:30 pm
In terms of faxing with a VoIP service, are you using a standalone fax machine, or have you been able to do outbound fax using a PC’s internal modem, and PC based faxing software?
I have Lingo, and it works great. I receive all my inbound faxes via a fax-to-email service (like eFax). I have an occasional need to send a fax, and would like to be able to do it by scanning the document (if I don’t already have an electronic copy), and faxing it using a PC based faxing software, and my PC’s internal modem.
Can this be done? Do you have any knowledge of this?
Thank you.
Monday, November 26, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Sir,
I need help in using my Innomedia MTA6328-2Re adapter which i got from Sunrocket with ViaTalk. I could not understand the instructions available on internet.
Kindly let me know how switch to Via talk by unlocking my current adapter and how to configure this for ViaTalk or any other service provider. I would be greatfull to you.
Friday, May 30, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Though it’s a old topic,I unlocked my MTA 6328-2Re recently and moved th enumber.I am able to make outgoing calls but no ring on the phone incoming calls.Please advise,If i need to change any setting on the adapter.
Friday, May 30, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Please disregard my other posting..I was reading the phone manual.It was programming on the phone.
Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Hi Sridhar:
I am glad to note that you were lucky to unlock MTA 6328-Re .. I have also the same from Sunrocket, signed up with Via-talk BYOD, but I could not unlock it, I went thru almost all the User Name and Password, but did not work. I also have 2 SPA 2012 Linksys.. I tried couple days to unlock, but no luck! Pls help me to unlock any of these.. I tried most of the instructions. txs.
Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Hi Dear Friends
Anyone, please help me to unlock MTA 6328-2Re and Linksys SPA 2102 – from sunrocket now like to move to via-talk, but need to unlock. Pls help me. i tried mostly everything in the web, but no luck, PW giving the problem. Thanks.
Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Mehir,
You did a fantastic job by cracking all these.Great Job.
I have Sunrocket Gizmo equipment V3.0.77. I am successfully unlocked and using with Viatalk for almost 6 months. But I didnot configure Line 2 on this. Can I use your instructions on V3.0.77 ?
Secondly on my Sunrocket Gizmo Call Waiting is not working do you know what needs to be set ?
Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 10:38 am
Please I would like your assistance in setting up my sunrocket gizimo to work with viatalk.I have read your comment and have followed it yet I couldnt get a dialling tone Meanwhile I have the same gizimo you had
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 12:53 am
not getting any incoming calls