VOIP

[Kal]

Does anyone have any experience with VOIP services over high-speed cable? Right now I'm looking at $25/month with free modem and no LD charges. Modem is 120vac so if the power is lost, so are the phones.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Does anyone have any experience with VOIP services over high-speed cable? Right now I'm looking at $25/month with free modem and no LD charges. Modem is 120vac so if the power is lost, so are the phones.

Ken - as you know, I made the switch several months ago. I've never looked back. If electric service goes down, the UPS will give us enough time to end a conversation.

 

[mrfred]

I've been using VoIP on my DSL line for almost a year now. works just fine.

the only caveat is that there are now more dependancies for your phone to be working: you need power AND internet working. with POTS, it stay working even with the power off. so just make sure you have back-up, like a cell phone.

 

[CMF]

VONAGE - Fantastic!

I get an e-mail when I get a voice message at home. I can check messages from either any phone of my computer. I can go on line and forward my call anywhere. Call are outomatically forwarded to my cell if power goes out or my internet is down for any reason.

One of the best purchases I ever made!

Charles

 

[Bucky]

Another feature of Vonage that I think is great is that if you call my home number and I'm not there it will simultaneously ring my cell phone. I can set it up to ring up to five numbers simultaneously. No missed calls!!!!

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I get an e-mail when I get a voice message at home. I can check messages from either any phone of my computer. I can go on line and forward my call anywhere. Call are outomatically forwarded to my cell if power goes out or my internet is down for any reason.

One of the best purchases I ever made!

Charles

You can also have the voice mail attached to the e-mail as a WAV file. So you don't even need to dial in to get the message.

 

[Kal]

Although almost all of the providers supply the same service, my search on ratings seems to show ViaTalk as the top dawg and Vonage in 4th place. Other new players are coming into the market but again the service is about the same. Price differs among all of them with Comcast being the highest (by far).

 

[Lee B]

I use Packet 8 and the benefits described above apply here too. Ring other phones sumultaneously or after a period of time, voicemail in emailbox etc.

A glitch now and then, but no biggy.

Lee

 

[marsha77]

I used to have Comcast-when they first came here, they started out at 28.00 for 2 separate lines, the price kept going up. Now I am using Sunrocket. I renewed for my second year - $199 - less than 16.00 per month with free months thown in! I wish I had gotten rid of Comcast sooner. We do have cells phones just in case the power goes.

Marsha

 

[Blondie]

Love Vonage. I use it with Verizon Fios- had Comcast but kept losing signal and Internet was always down so I had to reboot several times a day. Verizon fios is great- never a problem. I can hear my voice mail at work just by logging in to vonage. I pay around $18 a month.

 

[Kal]

I worry about some of the low-cost providers as they've got to cut corners somewhere to make the numbers work. The question is where are the gaps?

 

[gravityrules]

I'm using SunRocket's VOIP service over Verizon FIOS. $199 for 15 months. I gave it a 2 month trial before switching my home number over. Since we also have cell phones, I was getting tired of that $43/month 'Plain Old Telephone Service' bill!

Service has been fine, although I do hear occasional voice 'artifacts', somewhat like you hear with cellular service.

 

[CMF]

I have Vonage with Comcast

Blondie said she had problems with Comcast. I never had a problem.

Charles

 

[2hokies]

My next door neighbor has Vonage and I have a terrible time hearing her on the phone. It's crackly and it breaks up more often than not. Her folks, who call long distance, call her cell phone because they can't hear her on the regular line. I had another friend who had a similar service in another state say that his local calls were terrible but long distance calls were fine. He dropped the service. Just some info.

 

[CMF]

Good and Bad

My guess is that, with any service provider, some customers have good and bad experiences.

Charles

 

[Kal]

One of the most important parameters to judge VOIP voice quality is the connection speed. This sets apart the various providers. As an example, the minimum connect speed for Vonage is 90 kbps while others are 1500 kbps. The higher the connect speed, the better the quality.

To place these numbers into perspective a telephone dial-up connection is 56 kbps while DSL Internet is 1500 kbps and cable modem Internet (in my case) is 7500 kbps.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

One of the most important parameters to judge VOIP voice quality is the connection speed. This sets apart the various providers. As an example, the minimum connect speed for Vonage is 90 kbps while others are 1500 kbps. The higher the connect speed, the better the quality.

To place these numbers into perspective a telephone dial-up connection is 56 kbps while DSL Internet is 1500 kbps and cable modem Internet (in my case) is 7500 kbps.

Ken -

I have not examined voice quality among various services. I can say that my clients say they have not noticed any difference in voice quality between my old QWEST land line and my Vonage. Similarly, I can't tell any difference in the incoming voice quality.

At the same time, wouldn't a lower connect speed mean fewer possible interferences due to other activity on the connection? For example, when all of my kids are home, we might have as many as seven computers running through our connection. I wouldn't want to start losing calls just because a few people are downloading while I'm on the phone.