Can the netTALK Slay the Mighty magicJack?
January 19th, 2010 by Jeffrey L. Wilson 
Could this innocuous device be the magicJack killer? netTALK is looking to muscle in on Dan Borislow’s territory with the TK6000, its very own low-cost telephony device that plugs into your notebook via USB.
Like the magicJack, the $99 device allows users to make and receive free calls to anywhere in the USA or Canada, but one-ups its rival by allowing customers to chat it up without a computer. How does this miracle occur? You simply plug your high-speed connection cable, the included AC power adapter, and your existing home phone (corded or cordless) into the TK6000. Once that’s done, the phone should ring, signaling that that set-up is complete. Groovy. You also get the usual features you’d expect from a phone service such as caller ID, call waiting, directory assistance, and more.
Even better, there aren’t any monthly fees, so if you’re looking to dramatically slash your phone bill, the netTALK may make for a compelling alternative to your traditional landline. We’re eagerly awaiting putting this bugger through its paces, but until then a poll: Do you think the netTALK can topple the magicJack?
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January 19th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
BRAVO NETTALK, Its about time
January 20th, 2010 at 8:49 am
It sounds better. Will it would for calling from the US to Iraq?
January 20th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Yes, my son tried from Iraq to US and it worked, and guess what it was a Free call>
January 21st, 2010 at 12:52 am
I have the MJ and it’s OK. Interested in the tk6000 but balking a little at price in comparison to MJ (vs. something like GV + Gizmo5 !).
Maybe NT can offer the tk6k for a similar plan to MJ (say $45 + $20 / yr.) IN ADDITION to the offers they are (or were) running.
eg. $45 + (3 x $20) ~= $40 + (3 x $20)
As long as NT gets the exposure that MJ is getting, I would think any ‘thinking’ person would jump at this (i.e. the Ethernet capability of the tk6k is so much better then requiring the use of a Windoze PC {I don’t know if the MJ linux driver is out & tested yet}).
Also: Since the “New MJ” has been leaked that includes a cellular femto cell .. Maybe NT can start the planning of a future product to include femto cell capability and announce release in ‘early 2011′ or something? I don’t know if the MJ uses their own custom ASIC or not, however. This future product could grow in size – I don’t care about the small size of these devices .. other then it obviously saves a little on PCB and case costs.
March 26th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
I wish that this will become the standard. MJ (which I use) has the worst service I have come across for a long time. Would like to see a reduction in price, though… Or is the $99 a “one-off”?
June 19th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
After using net talk for 4 months, I had nothing but trouble. I have comcast and I constantly had to reset it. And it frequently dropped calls-it was a real problem. A week ago I switched to magic jack and have had no problems. They just don’t have all the bugs worked out of net talk yet. When they do I’ll try them again (since I already bought the unit).
July 10th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
I would definitley do this after the bugs are worked out IF the $99 is a one time fee with no yearly charge and the caller actually shows up on my phones and not just on my computer screen like MJ.
July 10th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
CORRECTION: I meant Caller ID.
September 16th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
I’ve had MJ for 2 years now and i can say that it does work with caller ID. We have phones that talk to you for caller ID and even that works.
January 22nd, 2011 at 2:55 pm
I have a NetTalk unit which I use for my business phone. It works perfectly. I am currently in Germany and had some problems trying to get it to work with my (old) laptop. I called NetTalk’s technical support (yes, there are human beings on their end, who speak perfect English) and in less than 10 minutes the guy had the issue resolved. I would not even consider going to MagicJack. Even the two persons that came with me on this business trip to Germany were amazed at the prompt response of the representative and, just to try and make sure that the phone worked, they called their own homes. The quality of the calls was so good, that one of them is dropping MagicJack and purchasing a NetTalk unit, and the other one will also purchase a NetTalk unit too.
Just my two cents.
February 14th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
I agree with dell trujillo, and here is my personal opinion about NetTalk: this company and the service SUCKS, a big percentage of the time does not work, people call you and calls don’t get through, drop or there is a lot of complains that your voice is trembling or static or when I call out, it rings, stop ringing (because receiver answer) but can not hear the other party neither they can hear us.
The worse part is having a representative promising to call you back to solve the problem and never do. I think my husband was on drugs or he wanted me to have another heart attack when he decided to switch from ATT home phone service to save couple of $$ to this Mickey Mouse phone service.
I WOULD NOT RECOMMNED THIS COMPANY NOT EVEN TO MY WORSE ENEMY
Mary Santos
Dissatisfy wife & customer
February 15th, 2011 at 10:39 pm
My assessment of the netTalk service is kind of like a Ben Franklin checklist as it contains both positive and negative comments. On the positive side when my netTalk unit works, which admittedly is most of the time, the audio quality on my end is extremely good, ever bit as good as wireline toll service. I will say it works 90% of the time when I attempt to make an outgoing call, and when it does not furnish dial tone, a power cycle often times will fix the problem. However, it works only about on 1% of the time on incoming calls, hardly ever can I answer a incoming call. In fact I usually forward the netTalk number to my magicJack. Caller ID is only calling number as opposed to name and number and I do not use netTalk VoiceMail. While I would prefer two way calls, and hope that they will fix the service issues, my primary use is for outgoing and it usually works great for my needs.