[Asterisk-Users] Broadvoice

[Stewart Nelson]

> are they really /unlimited/ in the truest sense of the word ? 
> US$24.95, even if it's only for unlimited calls to Malaysia
> (where i am) seems very, very attractive. when something is this
> attractive, i start looking for the catch.

AFAIK, no one offers truly unlimited service.  Companies differ greatly in
openness of the contractual details.  I subscribe to "unlimited" (POTS
domestic US) long distance from SBC.  The contract clearly states that
monthly usage exceeding 5000 minutes is billed at $0.04 per minute.  Not
cheap, but it won't break you if go a little over.  At the other extreme,
there are many horror stories of Vonage customers whose service was
terminated, without warning, for excessive usage.  Broadvoice appears to be
somewhere in between.  I am considering their service, and called them to
ask about allowed usage.  They would not disclose their limits, but when I
mentioned that my calls typically run 2500-3000 minutes per month, mostly to
the US, they said that this was well below their "alarm" levels.

There may be a technical problem with Broadvoice for your application.  I
suspect that all calls proxy the media stream through their server (in the
US).  Perhaps a Broadvoice customer can confirm or deny this.  If that's the
case, the roundtrip delay on your calls to Malaysia will include *four* hops
across the Pacific (~400 milliseconds).  If there's any echo, it will be
very disconcerting.  Even if not, you'll have problems when both parties
start talking at about the same time.  You can use their free trial offer to
see if the delay is bothersome.

--Stewart