Phone Power review: no service 62

We are located in SE Michigan and 12:30 am EDT, phonepower service is down - both softphone and via the adapter. When will service be fully restored?

Its 10:59 PM here in Houston TX no serivce since morning, no web site access there phones are comming busy, I hope they are still in bussiness

Cyber attack you say? That's more plausible. A cyber attack would take down a core router and then the backup core router. It looks like phone service is back up, but the web site is still down. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that they moved the SIP server to a different location/cloud server as a temporary measure to get call routing back up and running, . They must be on a temporary server because things like speed dials are not working.

Their recent tweet seems to not be a router issue: "Phone Power experienced a massive cyber attack on our website this morning resulting in loss of service."

8:pm eastern...no phone again

Okay, it's been about 3 or 4 minutes, since I wrote my comment, and now my Phone Power is working again. Ah... all is well again... ;D

I'm in Colorado and have not had Phone Power service all day. I don't blame them. They have done a great job over the years and this is just a glitch. I put redundancy into my system by giving out my cell number and email addresses, so I haven't missed any important communications. We will all learn from this glitch and grow from it. It's all good.

Strange that one of the major dsl report forum voip ect has an issue
http://www.dslreports.com/read-only
strange is that there is no more info or more complains in the net about it
I got my service back but not happy

Back up in Arizona now, since about 3:30 mountain time

OK. Well, just after my last comment, I checked my phones and they're working! I'm a little busy now taking my foot out of my mouth - please leave a message. :)

Does any one in Gerogia has the service back up? Please inform.

I think that the majority of us know that these things happen. I can fully accept the fact that, like any other utility, there are unforeseen occurrences that are beyond their control. So, while I'm inconvenienced and a little cranky with the fact that my phone lines aren't working, I know it's just something that happens - and, I have no doubt that they will be up and working shortly (hopefully!). What makes me a little angry is that it doesn't seem to me that they've made any attempt to put the word out there that there is a major issue going on. Nor have they given us any information regarding when they foresee the system being functional again. I, too, have dealt with their Customer Service and Tech department. Surprisingly, I was very impressed with how well I was taken care of. So, I'm hoping that they really step it up and use those CS skills to make things right. I really don't want to go back to the phone company...talk about cranky!

Back up here in Illinois - good luck to all

3:30PST First time all day have service

3:22PST " I am sorry your call cannot go through-fast busy. This is the first sign of progress all day. I have had to communicate by internet all day. Lost money like others too. Don't know what to do next. Don't like traditional phone company either?

Ours is back too. I'm following them on Twitter now, looks like they've updated the status a few times (thanks for mentioning their username FredL).

Phonepower is still down at my location 3:15PST and has been all day!

I agree with - Pidignbil -

Core router crashed? That's plausible. But every company I have seen that depends on their internet connection has at least dual core routers and a backup connection. PhonePower should have that, and a 2nd data center.

It sounds to me that all their services, including their web servers, are located in one location and are fully dependent on one core router. I hope they change this.

BTW: I too am a Phone Power customer and have had spotty service all day. Right now, it's up again.

Oh, I don't disagree with you. I don't know how "big" they are, but if they have the cash they can co-locate servers in another city (for example) for redundancy. Maybe they are big, but not that big. Still, growing up in a rural area, it was not uncommon to have phones (with 911!) down during storms or other problems. I'm not defending them, I've tangled with their tech support once and it left a bad taste in my mouth to this day. Just trying to note from an IT perspective that nothing has a 100% up-time. Nothing.

OK smajor but if you provided a consumer service and 911 - FT, DR and BC must be built in cost of business - not optional

I would not be so fast to run away from this company or say they are no good. What if this is some kind of natural disaster, a lightning strike that has dismantled a key tower, or some kind of server attack? These things happen, and pretty much any company is vulnerable. It appears Phone Power is working as fast as they can to get things back online. About the time anyone would bother to switch companies, that's about the time that new company would have problems too, because they all do from time to time. I'm just glad I was able to find out why my phone isn't working today, by going online and Googling it. I'm going to give Phone Power an opportunity to explain what happened, see what their attitude is, and go from there before I do anything radical like move to another provider. I've used their customer support in the past, and it was very good. Who knows what technical problems are causing them to have no internet presence nor be able to answer their phones?

I have no service all day. Try to call the service get no answer. The web site is down also. Do they still in business? Does any one knows? Why they do not have any one come out to talk any thing?

I've been with phonepower for more than 3 years. I like the services, pricing and until today, the reliability and their customer service.

Clearly they owe customers an explanation and they need to improve their services. Simple things include
- having a "status.phonepower.com" web site located on a completely different network cluster.
- email and twitter can supplement the web site/RSS feed on outage issues

It's really clear that dial tone isn't as easy as we've all come to expect. They need to do better, because the others in the industry delivery similar services with near 0 downtime for similar pricing. I want to hear their plan for improvement...not now though...get back online ASAP!

If it is a router issue, and it's a core router, it could very well be effecting their entire network which is why no website or email from them. I work at a major university in IT and we have a few items that are critical, but due to cost/location or other variables have no redundancy. I suspect it is the same with them. Same reason if you've ever lost power in a storm you don't (hopefully) ask why you don't have two power lines running to every house - just in case. Doable? Yes. Practical? No. I don't have phone like the rest of you.

Yes they are getting there ... anyway as to the aftermath - as a retired Net Engineer and VP of Operation's I'd hate to be the guy who bungled this one.

Same here as ketan136. My phone and fax can receive inbound calls, but still can complete an outgoing. Well, that's something, anyway!

Not me Guest13725 has ITP - so wonder why he's on this complaint thread?

I have just got a dial tone but still not able to dial out. Looks like they have made a progress.

I just looked up ITP, looks pretty good- some cool features that phone power doesn't have- so mmc22002-- you say you had phone power before and switched? Are you using VOIP for business or personal use?

Houston WE HAVE DAIL TONE

Yes - ITP Consumer Rankings.com 5 stars and voted #1 I just hate to change for the sake of hating to change

Monkeycam --- you have dialtone? Is anyone else's service up? When I pick up the phone it says "device not registered".

Well - Just goes to prove 5, 9's probably NOT REALLY possible when the net host's the party. That's our "Opportunity Cost"

Wim Libby I switched to ITP after the last time i had a problem with them, couldnt be happier, should have switched sooner

This is unacceptable. No contact number. No website. No updates via e-mail. Very disappointed. Who knows how much business I've lost today.

Failsafe is a feature of their service and subject to it's functionality

I am losing money by the hour cause this joke of company has no phone support that will even anwser the phone. My phone has been down for 4 hours now and there website is down. WTF. HELP THIS IS MY BUSINESS LINE...

I'm going to wait to make any decisions about switching service to see how phone power reacts to this- if they bend over backward with their customer service and triple their core routers and make their failsafe numbers really failsafe, then I'll stay- if they blame it on someone else and have a crappy attitude about it, I'm gone. Also depends on how soon things get back online- I still have nothing here.

Never heard of a core device not being Hot Standby and/or multi homed CO's - especially when mission critical. There must be NO CPoF. Sounds like a dodge to me