It's been a while. Who now has VoIP? (1 Viewer)

[SarahG]

Seems like it's been a while since we've talked about VoIP. Just wondering if anybody else has taken the plunge and is now using the service. I've noticed so many more providers entering the market and wondering what's hot these days. I'm still with SunRocket and things have gone well. Just wondering what the word is these days.

 

[Colton]

Check out Skype.

- Colton

 

[Holadem]

Friend has it, I don't know with what company (tis in NYC).

It sucks.

--
H - He randomly loses dial tone.

 

[SarahG]

I wonder if he/she has tried to get this fixed. Sometimes it's a simple call to a tech rep and they can give a firmware upgrade or troubleshoot in some way. Is too bad, because when it works properly, it's a great resource.

 

[Ricky Hustle]

My partners and I are about to launch Invivni.

Mods, feel free to delete if this is not allowed.

 

[Tim Markley]

I decided to try Vonage and have had it for a little over a month. No problems at all so far and I'm very happy with it. I'm getting rid of my land based line in a few days since it's no longer needed.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

Qwest has begun offering in our area. I will be signing up next month.

Paul

 

[nolesrule]

I've had voicepulse for about 1.5 months now. works nicely.

 

[Philip_G]

with vonage. it's ok, the line has a little echo which is getting annoying though.

 

[Mark Paquette]

I've been using Voicepulse for about 6 months. No complaints so far. The sound quality is excellent. Setup was simple and well written instructions were included for non-technical folks. I can't comment on their customer support because I've never had to use it. I lost the dial tone once, but that was because my router flaked out. A quick reset of the router solved the problem. The best part is that I no longer send Verizon a check for $40 every month just to make local calls.

 

[Chris Bardon]

The only question I have about these residential VoIP services is with the configuration you need in the house. Usually, most phone jacks are either wired up in series, or in a few parallel chains, all of which originate from the outside line. What I'm not sure about is whether you can plug a VoIP modem into any one of these jacks, (and have all the phones live with it), or whether you have to re-wire all of the sets. Also, do any of these providers let you use standalone SIP phones in addition to the ones plugged into the IP gateway that they provide?

I've thought about the switch, but the price really isn't much better than a land line right now, and with the new bandwidth cap that my ISP has introduced, I'm even more hesitant.

 

[nolesrule]

Wish I could answer your question, but I use cordless phones that all use a main base station. I was using that before I switched to VoIP because of the inconvenient jack locations in the house.

 

[Philip_G]

I am able to plug it into a jack and use the house wiring as normal.

 

[DaveBB]

I switched over to AT&T CallVantage about a month ago and have been pretty happy with it.

Placed the order online and received the converter box three days later. Hooked it up as directed and got nothing. After calling customer service (who was very helpful) we determined the box was dead.

Got a replacement box the next day, hooked it up and got it working right away. Was able to place calls out on it while still leaving my other phone hooked up to my normal land line for the next three days. On that line I was still able to call in and out.

The switchover occured three days later and the land line went dead. I was then able to receive and call out on VoiP. This all occured seamlessly with my number being transfered.

Since then I have enjoyed the service and really liked reducing my phone bill from $50/month to $21/month. Call quality is just as good as my old land line.

I really love the CallVantage web interface where I able to remotely see my call log, listen to messages and make any other changes. CallVantage has a lot of neat features.

The only downsides:

• power outages cause the converter box to not work until you reboot it. All I have to do to reboot is to unplug for 5 minutes and plug it back in. I will soon be getting a uninteruptable power source to solve this problem. I didn't miss any calls because I have CallVantage set up to forward to my cell phone.
• The caller ID is off by two hours. This is a known issue that AT&T is working on.
• Caller ID pops up on the 2nd or 3rd ring instead of the 1st like my old land line used to do.
• I have to now dial the area code for all calls: even local. But this is coming to a lot of areas for land-line users so it's not a big deal.

 

[SarahG]

Yep. I hear you. Same with me. I had to put a stop to that. I felt like I was just throwing money away. Now I pay about $17/month for unlimited local and nationwide calling. Actually, I don't pay anything per month because I paid for my full year up front. One less bill I have to pay every month.

 

[Bill Leber]

I've had Comcast internet voice for about 3 months now. No complaints and better sound quality than I had with SBC land line.

 

[SarahG]

I've heard that whole house wiring is available with certain providers, including SunRocket, but I wouldn't know the first thing about getting it set up. I'm sure someone in any customer service department could help you. We just use the expandable phone system that came with our service and that works great.

 

[John_Bonner]

I've been using Cablevision's Optimum Voice for about 3 months now. So far so good. My monthly phone bill went from about $125 (for local & long distance) down to $15.

The tech came and installed it in about 10 mintues. They provided a new cable modem and ran 1 wire from the phone wiring block to the cable modem. After that, every phone in the house was connected.

It comes with a bunch of calling features like call waiting, caller ID, 3 way calling, etc. and I can logon to the Optimum Voice website and see a list of every call made or received, time of day, number called and length of call.

The only downside was we had to change our phone number (not a big deal to us) but I understand in certain area they can "port" your current number to VOIP.

 

[Michael Caicedo]

I have a question about the service. My wireless router is in a separate room from my phones. Would I have to move one of the phones to that room so that it can connect to the telephone adapter they provide? What about the other phones?

 

[McPaul]

been using Broadvoxdirect.com for about 5 months. it's $19.95 USD, but after conversion, it's about $25CDN which is not bad for unlimited north american calling. I understand the price has gone up quite a bit, but I'm still paying the same.

It's got it's problems but most of the time, we can put up with them, and I'm saving quite a bit of $$$. I'm waiting until Sprint.ca gets rebranded to Rogers home phone, to see what sort of bundling discounts I'll be eligible for...