Home > Consumer Reviews > Actiontec VoSKY Skype Call Center ( USB07051C-01 )

When my wife speaks during calls, the harmonics of her voice, for some reason, triggers the nearest touch tone to be auto-generated and injected into the call by some circuit in the Vosky box, causing the people we talk to to believe we are recording calls. This is very annoying and distracting! My voice does not match a touch tone and does not trigger this odd behavior. The device's software should allow the user to turn off this "feature".

Also, when I reboot my PC, I must reset Skype's audio settings each time, to use Vosky's USB device vs. the PC's audio ports. The other USB device I've used with Skype does not have this problem, and I must assume it is another bug in Vosky's implementation.

I have used VoSKY Skype Call Center (USB07051C-01) for about a year now as my only home Skype In phone (paying $3.16 a month) after getting rid of Verizon (for which I was paying $50.00 a month).

PROS
It works most of the time although sound quality is not as good as regular phone.
Easy to set up.

CONS
Once in a while the phone will keep on ringing even after you hang up and then you have to exit out of the Vosky software and start again.
You need a computer.

In summary good value for money and the best way to use Skype as your phone until phones that can be used without computer like Skype Wi-Fi phones Netgear and Belkin come down in cost and their bugs are worked out; or a phone adapter like this product comes out that plugs directly to the router.

Update (September 2008): After having tried this device, Belkin Belkin Wi-Fi Phone for Skype with Boingo Hot Spot Manager ( F1PP000GN-SK ), Netgear Netgear SPH101 Skype Wi-Fi Phone and Philips VOIP841 PC-Free DECT 6.0 Wireless IP Phone, I think the best way to use Skype as regular phone is Philips VOIP841 PC-Free DECT 6.0 Wireless IP Phone which plugs into router and you don't need a computer. Belkin & Netgear are buggy and have poor battery life. I don't know why Philips VOIP841 has been discontinued.

I purchased the VoSKY Call Center and am delighted with it. I had been using a LinkSys CIT200 portable phone with Skype and, while that worked very well, there were occasional issues with its connectivity.

I installed Call Center without removing the LinkSys drivers and encountered zero problems. I use Call Center as a way to connect four wireless Uniden phones PLUS my regular land line and it works fantastically. Call Center worked right out of the box, with no configuration issues or even minor head scratching.

Another reviewer here tells you to find another product, but listed several issues that I simply didn't have.

1. Annoying beeping noises - no strange beeps for me, though on VoSKYs forums, a couple of users have reported this.

2. NO RETURNS ACCEPTED - odd issue - many manufacturers ask that defective products be returned through the retailer. The VoSKY forum shows that they do seem to issue RMAs on some problems.

3. Cannot be used with Skype 3.0 - Wrong! I installed Call Center on an existing Skype 3.1.0.144 program and everything works fine.

4. Cannot be used in Canada - don't know - it works great in the US.

5. Cannot be used with any cordless telephone. Somebody must have 'issues'... this is Call Center's principal reason for being. (Did the reviewer think, somehow, that Call Center would magically connect to a wireless phone?) You CAN connect wireless phone systems to Call Center. Yes, if you want to use Call Center with a land line, you have to be able to plug a cord into it, so it has to be located near both your computer and a land line connection. Check out Unidens's DCT646 series phones - they work great with Call Center and don't cause any interference with a Wireless G network.

6. DIAL 001 on every call - not true - Call Center easily allows you to use Skype's one or two digit speed dial numbers for outgoing calls. Skype, in general, requires that you enter 001 to call a US number, so blaming Call Center for this is silly. VoSKYs forums suggest that you can skip the 001 code by changing your Skype configuration to US settings. I haven't tried this, as 95% of my outgoing calls are to speed dial numbers.

7. Software problems - The other reviewer complained that the Call Center configuration software wouldn't open unless a land line phone connection was established. The documentation that comes with Call Center plainly describes this. The call center configuration is simply there to allow Call Center to interface with a landline, so why you would want to open this configuration without a land line connection is also silly.

8. Poor sound quality - I haven't experienced any sound quality issues since installing Call Center that I didn't have before with Skype. Read ANY Voip forum - Vonage, Packet 8, Sunrocket, Skype - and you'll see that VOIP calling has quality issues. Blaming quality issues on Call Center is like blaming the postman for those darned credit card bills that show up in your mailbox.

Bottom line: Call Center allows me to use my wireless phones in any room in my home and make Skype or regular phone calls. The installation was easy, the product documentation complete and tech support on line friendly and efficient.

The idea of being able to tie skype into your basic telephone network was very appealing to me and so I bought the VoSKY call center. I worked fine at first but after about a week kept requiring me to restart the software every few days. Additionally, it didn't work very well with my existing answering machine if I wanted to allow external call in's, i.e. hooking into the phone network by calling externally, say from a mobile phone.

As for Actiontecs support, not the best. When the software gave me USB troubles, I was on the phone with them for about an hour, digging through the Windows registry - better idea is to write software that DOESN'T corrupt the USB setup in the first place. As for their online forums, most of the replies are "update to the lastest version". When the auto-update service told me there was a new version I upgraded, only to have it run into a USB problem. I had to uninstall and put the original software back on, then ignore the auto-update. Now, before you say "it was probably some freaky hardware you had" - no - I was running both basic Asus and then Intel motherboards with standard sound cards so nothing special which to me, if Actiontec can't play nice with basic integrated sounds cards and other hardware - what can they play with?

Additionally, my wife always complained about a "beeping" noise on the line whenever she would talk to people (in Canada, Hungary, Romania) - this beeping did not occur when using traditional long distance service. To try and troubleshoot I upgraded and then downgraded the version of Skype I was using - nothing changed. I've now purchased a Linksys CIT400 and presto! beeping has disappeard. Dropped calls have disappeared. Now the CIT400 is about five X the price - but it works and works well thus far.

Do yourself a favor, spend the extra money and save yourself the stress.

If I could give this zero stars, I would. This product worked for a very short time. There is absolutely NO tech or customer support. The firmware has not been updated since May of 2007. I put it back in the box months ago because I got so tired of their only suggestions: instead of using the current version of Skype, I was told by VoSKY's tech people to use Skype version 3.2 or earlier! Every bad review you saw above this one? I have one word: Ditto! The call quality wasn't bad, but I couldn't take all of the skype restarts, and the constant vosky request to update software for which vosky has no update! In short, this product does not do what it is advertised to do!