Well, I have cancelled my Packet8 phone service, and switched back to Vonage. Yeah, Packet8 is about $5 cheaper, but unfortunately, their voice quality isn’t the best, and their financials (in a nutshell, years of straight losses and only 40,000 subscribers) have been worrying me for some time.
To add insult to injury, a sure sign of a company in trouble is one that changes the terms of service on its customers without telling them, and forcing them to adhere to committments they never made. Packet8 originally had a six-month service committment requirement, with a termination fee of sorts that was $59 if a customer cancelled before his or her six months were up. However! Even if you cancelled before your six months, you could get a refund on your $59 cancellation fee IF you returned their internet phone adapter (pictured above). I had just come up on the end of my six month period when I decided it was time to move on.
Wellllll… Packet8 at some point changed the TOS to extend the minimum term from six months to one year. Further, you can no longer get a refund on that fee if you return the box… in fact, it doesn’t seem that they want their now-useless (to me, anyway) box returned at all. So, much to my chagrin, I just bought a $60 paperweight. And considering how light the box is, it doesn’t even do that job very well.
So, seeing as I just bought myself a useless SIP END POINT ADAPTER (edited to satisfy various gutless anonymous l33t morons), and it IS mine now, I figured I would take it apart and show any curious folks what’s inside. 🙂
View of the inside, PCB, Front (hi res image)
View of the inside, PCB, Back (hi res image)
Not much to look at really. But it might satisfy the curiosity of anyone who’s wanted to see the internals, and perhaps infer how this device might be used with a different VOIP service.
The unit, by the way, is re-assembled and appears to continue functioning, althought service is disconnected. Packet8 MAY be willing to establish new service with this unit, but I’m not sure. If anyone wants it, please leave a comment. 🙂
In the meantime, I’m enjoying the quite tiny new router that Vonage is offering for free. 🙂
I don’t see any routers pictured. I only see endpoint SIP boxes.
I’m not going to argue semantics with someone who can’t even offer up their identity. But because we all know that those of us on the internet must treat certain social imps with a “speshul” amount of reverenace, the article has been edited, just for you. Happy?