There have been some price changes to Obivoice. It would not have bothered me if the original prices were labeled as introductory and they upped them. The fact that the prices were not "introductory prices" and they upped them so soon into the game makes me question the stability of the company. Perhaps I read too much into this but given the failure rate of young companies and other inconsistencies it gives me pause.
All that having been said they still have competitive rates and service seems good. Customer service seems excellent. There is a "reasonable usage clause" for the residential unlimited so it's not truly unlimited. These things rarely are truly unlimited because of abuse. There is a new business plan that was added and Paypal is now officially a payment option. Both incoming and outgoing minutes are counted against your total usage. There are no setup fees and a DID comes with the package. The company has repeatedly said there are no hidden fees and so far there are no reports of "Hidden fees" that you would find with many other phone companies.
Current Pricing.
500 minutes talk time per month.
Monthly $4.99
6 Month $14.99
12 Month $24.99
24 Month $39.99
2,000 minutes talk time per month.
Monthly $7.99
6 Month $24.99
12 Month $39.99
24 Month $59.99
Unlimited (Residential only)
Monthly $9.99
6 Month $29.99
12 Month $49.99
24 Month $74.99
Business Plan 7,500 minutes talk time per month.
Monthly $39.95
6 Month $120
12 Month $200
24 Month $300
I paid $185 for the first two years at VOIPo and that includes unlimited minutes (literally). After the first two years the price goes to $185/year which is still only ~$15/month. Lots of features and customer service is great. Transferred my home phone number from Vonage to them at no charge. Also set up a business line (same price) so I now have two VOIPo lines in the house. In two years I'll check around again and see if there are more options. If I'm happy with them I'll stay with them. They're a spinoff from Hostgator so they have some money behind them I believe and have been around for a few years already.
Just checked their website and it's still showing the old pricing. Now I'm confused... ???
If you have an account there you will see the latest prices.
Seems strange that they still have the old prices on the website though...
New prices are on site. Clear the cache on your web browser. ;)
I've seen their new prices since yesterday, $39.99/yr includes 2,000 minutes/month and the unlimited talk time per month plan is $49.99/year.
I'm seeing it. Fast price change!
Having just signed up this week for only one month at 7.99 as a trial, an immediate price increase seems like pretty poor business practice just when they are starting to attract our attention. ??? I'm not a big talker on the phone, so 2000 minutes at the 39.99 rate I expected to pay for "unlimited" might not be a deal breaker when the end of my trial month rolls round. If the new 49.99 rate for unlimited is truly unlimited then that might still be a good deal. Obihai in their blog post only talked about a set number of minutes for 39.99, not unlimited, so the obivoice 49.99 might be better for some people.
Something is telling me that this will be not the last sudden turn down the road. Not that I care, since I would not consider this for a second anyway. :)
Honestly seems to me like someone started a business without a plan...
Quote from: carl on January 25, 2014, 06:54:09 PM
Something is telling me that this will be not the last sudden turn down the road. Not that I care, since I would not consider this for a second anyway. :)
+1. I was planning to use this OBiVoice service after 5-15-2014 but I don't think I like it anymore.
No surprises here. Maybe a bit sooner than I expected. But seeing what everyone is offering I expected this price jump to happen that I actually got 2 accounts for 2yrs at the old price. They are most likely getting plenty of sign ups and have gotten enough demand to justify the price rise. Plus how else are they going to pay for that affiliate program ;D
Having used a bunch of VOIP services for the last 10yrs, I can tell you right now that gripping about the price rise is a waste of time. I got a bunch of free DIDs from betamax before they stopped giving them away. I signed up for multiple Google Apps accounts before they started charging for it. Others got free SipSorcery accounts before it now started charging 60$ yearly. Early movers get the best deals. It was a lower price since the google announcement months ago. They have been featured in Nerdvittes PBX blog and other places. So clearly they are getting some traction.
When XMPP goes away, I expect them to raise their prices again because of supply/demand curve. When you look at what everyone is offering even their new $75 2yr plan looks better than anything else. Even the offering from Obi is 40$ per year and that doesn't offer as much as ObiVoice. GV XMPP going away has really killed the free VOIP market unless someone finds a workaround. Every VOIP company out there can now smell the blood in the water and will nickle and dime the shirt of your back. If you think this is the end you are mistaken, it is only the beginning.
Businesses adjust price according to demand. Its basic economics. If you see a good deal and sit on the fence for months, if the deal changes you can't say its a lack of business plan if anything its the opposite. For a long time all VOIP businesses have been competing with FREE from GV. Well GV has taken their FREE and gone home at least they told us months in advance, usually its instant. So for now the VOIP landscape is about to go through some serious changes.
I can report that I got a Saturday customer service response about the increase and I was assured that I will be grandfathered in at the rate prior to the increase. Like everybody else, I didn't appreciate the price increase, but I do find their support good and the ease of moving off GV to their service was simple to the point that I even I could do it. There are lots of ways to use an OBi, many a lot more techi than signing up for obivoice. I think obivoice is going to work for me and it didn't break my brain signing up.
Quote from: simpleAnswers on January 26, 2014, 03:37:25 AM
When XMPP goes away, I expect them to raise their prices again because of supply/demand curve. When you look at what everyone is offering even their new $75 2yr plan looks better than anything else. Even the offering from Obi is 40$ per year and that doesn't offer as much as ObiVoice. GV XMPP going away has really killed the free VOIP market unless someone finds a workaround. Every VOIP company out there can now smell the blood in the water and will nickle and dime the shirt of your back. If you think this is the end you are mistaken, it is only the beginning.
Businesses adjust price according to demand. Its basic economics. If you see a good deal and sit on the fence for months, if the deal changes you can't say its a lack of business plan if anything its the opposite. For a long time all VOIP businesses have been competing with FREE from GV. Well GV has taken their FREE and gone home at least they told us months in advance, usually its instant. So for now the VOIP landscape is about to go through some serious changes.
I do not think so. Just the opposite. The free GV has been killing a lot of great small VOIP providers. You cannot compete with free.At the same time, there is enough competition among smaller VOIP providers. Getting rid off freebees is one thing. raising prices another. The small provider VOIP market is one of the last markets with truly free competition and performance pressure. I think that a disappearance of a market distorter like Google voice is a good thing for all of us.
The only good thing about these companies that spring up like toadstools is that, if they fail or raise prices to a level you find unacceptable, you can leave without a contract issue.
I doubt this company's pricing model, even after the price increase, is sustainable long term. There is a level of fixed cost and reasonable profit margin involved that will eventually doom them, as it has others with a similar price.
There is a long discussion/debate on this over on DSLreports, and I tend to agree with the poster who took the effort to try to figure out a bare-bones cost model, and demonstrated that this is just too low to be sustainable, especially after they expand from the one guy answering the sales and support calls and emails, etc.
As always, everyone has their own tolerance for "you don't get what you don't pay for".
Quote from: carl on January 26, 2014, 05:29:21 PMI do not think so. Just the opposite. The free GV has been killing a lot of great small VOIP providers. You cannot compete with free.At the same time, there is enough competition among smaller VOIP providers. Getting rid off freebees is one thing. raising prices another. The small provider VOIP market is one of the last markets with truly free competition and performance pressure. I think that a disappearance of a market distorter like Google voice is a good thing for all of us.
I think you are getting a bit ahead of yourself here. The only thing that is happening on May 15 is that Google Voice is discontinuing XMPP connectivity. As far as we now know, Google Voice will still exist, and they will still be free (though that
could change because they did not make their usual late December announcement this year). The only difference is that your Obihai device won't directly connect with Google Voice any longer. As far as we know now, there will still be ways to make and receive calls using Google Voice, they simply won't be quite as transparent and will involve additional equipment.
The other thing I think that it's wrong to assume is that Google Voice discontinuing XMPP connectivity will be a big boon for other VoIP companies. That could happen, but it's also just as likely that people will simply forget about trying to use landline phones and shift all their traffic to their cell phones. I think the idea of paying an annual fee for a VoIP line isn't anywhere near as attractive as free service, and some percentage of Google Voice users just aren't going to bite, even if Google Voice DOES go away completely someday.
Personally I am waiting to see what sort of plan Obihai has in the works, since they have said that this "Obivoice" is not the service they are planning to offer. I do not really have a good vibe about Obivoice, and them raising prices so soon out of the gate certainly didn't help. Maybe they aren't any better or worse than most of the other VoIP providers, but offering a plan for less than a month before jacking up their prices just doesn't seem like the right thing to do, especially since they didn't set any kind of expiration date for their initial price offering. I'm not real big on the "we have to charge extra so we can offer an affiliate program" excuse either - as a consumer, why should I have to pay more just so someone else can take a bite?
Good points, Koby.
With regard to the future direction of GV and the consumer land-line telephony marketplace, I've frequently written about this on the Google Voice forum. I get a lot of flack from the soreheads and whiners valued community members who don't have the business or legal background to understand the larger issues, and just want free phone service. Here's a recap:
Google, of course, hasn't and won't announce future plans; they're infamous for their silence. But, all indications are that the inbound call management and other original features of GV from the Grandcentral days will remain pretty much intact (they'll give you one phone number that, in turn, forwards to up to six of your phone numbers, etc.) The "free through the end of 201x" limited offer language was eliminated in 2013 when Hangouts phone calling was introduced. Now, future pricing can be understood as any business product or service: "It's free as long as we continue to offer it for free, and we reserve the right to change our pricing, or the offer itself, at any time." I do not see Google having any interest in being in the telephone services-for-a-fee business, as they really want to stay away from FCC regulations and the mandatory fees, surcharges and taxes that come with regulation.
Your point about users turning to mobile vs. VoIP is right on. Google is moving in the same direction. The "pure play" or independent VoIP marketplace is already saturated, with race-to-the bottom pricing and extremely low profit margins. It is a relatively small niche market at this point for consumers (although more robust for business users), for several reasons. Most residential consumers are either getting phone service as part of a 2-way or 3-way bundle with TV and/or internet service now, or they are abandoning it in favor of mobile phone use. There is no sensible business reason for Google to be in the land line VoIP telephone service provider marketplace.
As to whether or not Google's exit from XMPP support will have any effect on the pure play consumer/residential/SOHO VoIP marketplace, one could argue either way. A year from now, everybody will have forgotten about it; there will continue to be the come-and-go small providers, but the more stable providers will probably still be priced around where they were before and during GV times.
This year, we expect to see increasing migration and integration of Google Voice functions over to Hangouts, where users will continue to be able to make telephone calls (free to the US and Canada, low-rates elsewhere) on their laptop or desktop computer, on their iOS device, and soon, on their Android devices.
If picked up a 6 month lite plan to see where it flows. Low risk indeed. As long as they honor pricing as it was for those on a trial then that's OK with me if the service is good.
Only other thing I noted was billing increment is 60/60 where Anveo (and I assume others) is 30/6. So short calls to leave a message on an answering machine for instance could add up fast so be aware.
Hey everyone,
Thanks for your feedback. As always the input we receive is what allows our service to grow and change to suit our customers needs. The price increase on the Unlimited Plus plan was implemented for a few reasons.
Foremost, it allowed us to offer more subscription plans to our customers who knew they didn't need unlimited minutes as they simply didn't need to use their residential landline that much. We opened the ability for them to start plans that had 2000 free minutes included.
Also the higher price has allowed us to introduce an affiliate program that has been suggested by many of our customers. The affiliate program provides participants with a set of image banners and links that, when used to create an account and sign up with service, will earn the affiliate program participant 10% of the subscription cost for as long as that customer is with Obivoice service.
Thank you again for your thoughts and the discussion you have all prompted about VoIP services.
-Andrew
$25 for a year of service is pretty sweet.
500 minutes is more than enough for me.
The real question, how is the QoS going to be come May when me and other GVoice users start signing up for alternate VoIP.
If the price is still $25 a year come may, I may use it.
Otherwise I plan to get a Bluetooth capable home phone and have it paired with my cell.
Are there hidden fees? I tried callcentric long ago before obihai existed and it was full of hidden fees. I would never give callcentric another try, ever!
Will obivoice even be around for a full year?
Companies nowadays always pushing pre-order and paying in advance, forcing the consumer to absorb all the risk if they fail.
I do know there are no hidden fees. The price you see is what you pay. No taxes or fees are added. I get a good feeling about the obivoice gang and as a former netTALK escapee and one time Magic Jack user I know first hand things can be pretty bad in the VOIP world. I once used Lingo and it worked flawlessly for 2 years, but they do add taxes and fees and I eventually became frustrated with their slow price creep. The fees and taxes eventually equaled my little 9.95 a month plan. I think it's unfortunate for obivoice their price increase coincided with OBi users' interest, because they are being somewhat harshly criticized for that. I was assured the unlimited is truly unlimited, but they do monitor usage for excessive commercial use of consumer unlimited.
Personally, I like the $75 unlimited for 2 years...
not that I would use all of the minutes on the
lower plans, I just like not having to be nickel'd
& dime'd, so the plan gives peace of mind to me.
But I don't know HOW a company can have such
a big difference in rates between residential and
commercial when everything is voip!
This is total stupidity... or greed... or perhaps
ignorance on my part! An internet packet is
an internet packet.
Without offering any added value, where is
the price difference justified. Simply because
businesses are used to paying it?
Perhaps ObiVoice (Intelafone) knows, but I sure don't.
Quote from: LeoKing on January 25, 2014, 10:12:52 PM
Quote from: carl on January 25, 2014, 06:54:09 PM
Something is telling me that this will be not the last sudden turn down the road. Not that I care, since I would not consider this for a second anyway. :)
+1. I was planning to use this OBiVoice service after 5-15-2014 but I don't think I like it anymore.
I am with you on that one. I was also waiting until it was official that Google Voice would no longer work on my Obi 100 before making any changes. I am still waiting to hear what Google might be planning.
Quote from: KAura on January 28, 2014, 10:12:07 AM
But I don't know HOW a company can have such
a big difference in rates between residential and
commercial when everything is voip!
Definitely the price difference in the business and residential is and should be a concern for anyone.
Having seen the ridiculous price differences and seen how they are now modifying their website.
I have to say, even I'm not sitting comfortably.
The residential plans now say limited time offer. Plus it says any cancellations will be treated as a month to month plan for refunds. Couple that with the fact that they have this huge price disparity on the residential to business plans, which makes no sense. It does bring its own questions.
I get the feeling that users could be asked to switch to business based on usage eventually. lol. Wouldn't that be interesting!
Quote from: KAura on January 28, 2014, 10:12:07 AM
But I don't know HOW a company can have such
a big difference in rates between residential and
commercial when everything is voip!
This is total stupidity... or greed... or perhaps
ignorance on my part! An internet packet is
an internet packet.
Without offering any added value, where is
the price difference justified. Simply because
businesses are used to paying it?
Perhaps ObiVoice (Intelafone) knows, but I sure don't.
VoIP telecommunications does not work the same way as simply transmitting internet packets from place to place.
Telephone service providers still pay to connect calls between your VoIP account and other VoIP providers/POTS providers.
The reason for the difference in price is because someone using an account for business will use their service a lot more than someone using it as a residential landline. To cover costs for that customer their service charge would need to be greater than that of the average customer to avoid us having to raise rates across the board. None of our customers should have to pay to support the commercial usage of others.
I hope that addresses some of your concerns.
@intelafone
I'm getting goose bumps reading your replies, not for the content but for the fact that you bothered. Unfortunately for OBi fanboys, obihai themselves have taken the opposite approach (at least publicly on this forum). It's great that you guys are fielding questions here and on DSL. Back in 2011 it was not difficult to talk to obihai on this public forum. In my opinion, that is one of the reasons why a cult of OBi was developed. Although we never met them it felt like we had direct access on some level to the devs.
Keep the lines of communication flowing. It sends waves of good vibes to the community. Since the time that we were introduced to your services, I'm getting the sense that OBi users are slowly waking up and taking positions with alternatives to GV. In fact I think that because of this exposure some of your competitors are rattling the cage for some attention as well. The perception to me at the moment is that your public display of dealing with current and potential client issues promptly and in a transparent manner seems to be earning you some respect. Stay humble and prosper.
That is much appreciated, Zappy.
We definitely want to keep the lines of communication open. The reason why our website, web portal, and offered features is expanding and changing so much recently has been the huge influx of good input from VoIP users in the New Year. Google Voice pulling it's XMPP support is definitely a double edged sword. On one hand a lot of advanced VoIP users lose the ability to make and receive calls for free. On the other it's really helped us to improve the way we do things at Obivoice as those experienced users seek alternatives.
If we can mold our service to what the community wants to see while still remaining sustainable, that is what we're going to go for.
Due to recent feedback, in fact, current projects involve expanding the functionality of outbound Caller ID Spoofing at the Call Detail Records available in your web portal.
I bought a two year plan for my mother. She loves it and she can keep using her Obi100.
I have signed up with Obivoice for 1 year unlimited talk Feb 17th 2014; I got an email informing me that my account will be suspended because I am making over 2 hrs. phone call per day. I think it is misleading to tell people to sign up for unlimited plan and comes around to say you can not stay on the phone for too long. Just be careful.
Quote from: gthai on February 25, 2014, 01:32:15 PM
I have signed up with Obivoice for 1 year unlimited talk Feb 17th 2014; I got an email informing me that my account will be suspended because I am making over 2 hrs. phone call per day. I think it is misleading to tell people to sign up for unlimited plan and comes around to say you can not stay on the phone for too long. Just be careful.
This sounds a little squirrelly. If you got such a message I am certain beyond doubt that if you contact Ryan or Andrew they will have an explanation. Unlimited consumer is indeed unlimited, but they do monitor accounts to see if anyone is abusing it (meaning obviously using the account for business purposes). I am certain you would have to go way beyond two hours a day to be in any way in violation.
I agree, something is amiss with this. Obivoice is very responsive to any questions or inquirys.
Quote from: gthai on February 25, 2014, 01:32:15 PM
I have signed up with Obivoice for 1 year unlimited talk Feb 17th 2014; I got an email informing me that my account will be suspended because I am making over 2 hrs. phone call per day. I think it is misleading to tell people to sign up for unlimited plan and comes around to say you can not stay on the phone for too long. Just be careful.
LOL...I don't see any surprise with that. They clearly state that unlimited is unlimited with limitations, and that this is a residential plan. I posted about this before.
You can see their fair use policy https://intelafone.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1421644-fair-use-policy
Your use is categorized as a business user trying to abuse a residential plan. If you are racking up hours of calls daily, it is no longer residential usage category. Every plan I've seen that tout unlimited have fair use policies so there is nothing misleading about it. Regular cellphone and landline plans have had this for years, so I don't see what the surprise is that a voip service has it too.
I don't see where it specifies how many minutes is too much.
Quote from: dircom on February 26, 2014, 07:28:15 AM
I don't see where it specifies how many minutes is too much.
I can see if it's a lot of calls making up that two hours. That's more of a sign of being a business than residential. However, the non unlimited plan includes 2000 minutes. I would expect "unlimited" to be a measure beyond that and probably more than 1600 minutes more over a month.
The FTC needs to step in and put an end to the abuse of the word "unlimited". I blame Ring Central for this as they were the first ones I saw do it years ago.
Hello,
The Fair Use Policy, as has been mentioned, is to protect against business usage of accounts that are optimized for residential usage. Unfortunately we have to flag some accounts that are exhibiting commercial usage of the service so that we do not have to raise the subscription rates of our entire customer base. We don't want once customers overpaying to cover the extreme usage of another.
The Fair Use Policy doesn't have any specific constraints because that would defeat the purpose of an Unlimited plan. What generally gets accounts flagged for business usage is a high daily average of about six hours a day and with relatively short average time on calls. If this remains consistent over a period of time(week days, usually) then it is apparent that the account is being used for commercial purposes.
It's never fun to impose restrictions on accounts and it won't be made a habit. The purpose of the Fair Use Polciy isn't to mislead our customers but instead to protect the majority of our customers from rising rates to cover someone else's costs.
Does it matter if the calls are incoming or out? I'm just curious if termination fees play a role (I have no idea) and that's how some vendors are able to have free incoming calls.
I just checked my stats for Feb and it looks like almost 500 minutes and 79 calls.
A minute is a minute. It doesn't matter which direction, incoming or outgoing.
I am not aware of any termination fees.
Vestalink's Good deal will end this month?
Then they gonna be overpriced?
If you use 10 minutes of calling on the first day of service, they terminate your account for excessive usage, NO REFUND!
A start-up company with a vague acceptable use policy that allows them to "demote" accounts that are paid a year in advance, what could go wrong?
Save your money, Don't buy their not-so-unlimited.
In fact, save yourselves the stress, Don't trust a deal that seems too good to be true from a company nobody has heard of.
Quote from: 7Priest7 on March 05, 2014, 04:35:27 PM
If you use 10 minutes of calling on the first day of service, they terminate your account for excessive usage, NO REFUND!
Where are you getting this from?
Quote from: gderf on March 05, 2014, 04:38:41 PM
Where are you getting this from?
I was just exaggerating/joking.
Quote from: 7Priest7 on March 05, 2014, 04:35:27 PM
A start-up company with a vague acceptable use policy that allows them to "demote" accounts that are paid a year in advance, what could go wrong?
Save your money, Don't buy their not-so-unlimited.
In fact, save yourselves the stress, Don't trust a deal that seems too good to be true from a company nobody has heard of.
Quote from: 7Priest7 on March 05, 2014, 04:35:27 PM
Vestalink's Good deal will end this month?
Then they gonna be overpriced?
If you use 10 minutes of calling on the first day of service, they terminate your account for excessive usage, NO REFUND!
A start-up company with a vague acceptable use policy that allows them to "demote" accounts that are paid a year in advance, what could go wrong?
Save your money, Don't buy their not-so-unlimited.
In fact, save yourselves the stress, Don't trust a deal that seems too good to be true from a company nobody has heard of.
Using the forum just to exaggerate and pontificate about a good service is a disservice. There are too many users with good experience with the service to take these comments seriously.
Quote from: intelafone on February 26, 2014, 11:41:49 AM
Hello,
The Fair Use Policy, as has been mentioned, is to protect against business usage of accounts that are optimized for residential usage. Unfortunately we have to flag some accounts that are exhibiting commercial usage of the service so that we do not have to raise the subscription rates of our entire customer base. We don't want once customers overpaying to cover the extreme usage of another.
The Fair Use Policy doesn't have any specific constraints because that would defeat the purpose of an Unlimited plan. What generally gets accounts flagged for business usage is a high daily average of about six hours a day and with relatively short average time on calls. If this remains consistent over a period of time(week days, usually) then it is apparent that the account is being used for commercial purposes.
It's never fun to impose restrictions on accounts and it won't be made a habit. The purpose of the Fair Use Polciy isn't to mislead our customers but instead to protect the majority of our customers from rising rates to cover someone else's costs.
According to my call log, my household has never came anywhere close to 6 hours a day, and I was flagged. At most, I only used about 80 minutes in a single day, including incoming and outgoing. Otherwise, on average, including incoming and outgoing, it looks like my household only uses about 20-30 minutes a day, if that. There's other days, like 2 days ago, where the phone was not even touched.
Only thing I can think of is I did have about 60 minute conversation on said 80 minute day, which might be considered abuse. I do not know. That, or I did initially sign up for 500 minute plan, only to cancel it, and sign up for the unlimited plan. Maybe there was confusion in the system, and you were looking at my first plan? I do not know.
Some help would be really nice.
I don't want to poke fun at or be insensitive in any way...
but it's just as easy for the elderly (usually women) to plow
through minutes, more so than a business talking about
followup, i.e. website changes that need to be made, etc.
SO, hypothetically, here is the situation -- all inbound calls
are forwarded to a landline #. Since I only have local out,
I would be using my local Obi # to connect to the AA so I
could then dial outbound without incurring long distance
charges.
Since most calls are inbound, and VERY little time is actually
spent on the phone... The phone would be used to discuss
business related topics, i.e. website design, article writing,
etc., but the overall time on the phone would probably be
less than 2 hours per day (6 day work week).
I know women (no offense) that all they do is talk hours on
end everyday. How is the residential rate justified as the so
classified "business usage" is way far less than the above
mentioned residential use.
I also understand that the Obi can used to bridge two calls
and then the Obi can drop from the call and the bridged calls
will remain connected...
Do the bridged call minutes [after the Obi drops] count against
usage? How does this work for someone who only has local
calling and no long distance?
Quote from: Rob_Over_IP on March 07, 2014, 06:31:11 PM
Quote from: intelafone on February 26, 2014, 11:41:49 AM
Hello,
The Fair Use Policy, as has been mentioned, is to protect against business usage of accounts that are optimized for residential usage. Unfortunately we have to flag some accounts that are exhibiting commercial usage of the service so that we do not have to raise the subscription rates of our entire customer base. We don't want once customers overpaying to cover the extreme usage of another.
The Fair Use Policy doesn't have any specific constraints because that would defeat the purpose of an Unlimited plan. What generally gets accounts flagged for business usage is a high daily average of about six hours a day and with relatively short average time on calls. If this remains consistent over a period of time(week days, usually) then it is apparent that the account is being used for commercial purposes.
It's never fun to impose restrictions on accounts and it won't be made a habit. The purpose of the Fair Use Polciy isn't to mislead our customers but instead to protect the majority of our customers from rising rates to cover someone else's costs.
According to my call log, my household has never came anywhere close to 6 hours a day, and I was flagged. At most, I only used about 80 minutes in a single day, including incoming and outgoing. Otherwise, on average, including incoming and outgoing, it looks like my household only uses about 20-30 minutes a day, if that. There's other days, like 2 days ago, where the phone was not even touched.
Only thing I can think of is I did have about 60 minute conversation on said 80 minute day, which might be considered abuse. I do not know. That, or I did initially sign up for 500 minute plan, only to cancel it, and sign up for the unlimited plan. Maybe there was confusion in the system, and you were looking at my first plan? I do not know.
Some help would be really nice.
I am in the same situation like you, so I cancelled my service and they are nice to refund the money ASAP; I believe they bought a block of minutes and reselling them, i.e. they don't own their own hardware, and it is understandable they in to make money. But this brought up other issue in the event the network server of intelafone has problem, they will not be able to repair it quickly. I finally signup with VOIPO and very happy with them, the SIP adapter is included and comes preconfigured and truly plug and play, so far I like it. The cost is around $6.21 per month.
I've had VOIPo since November of last year and love them. Support is fantastic! I can also send and receive SMS with them which is a big plus for me since I use the line for work and only have to give out one number. It's not native SMS but it works just fine.