Gonna dump VOIP, back to BellSouth

[radhak]

After almost 2 years of VOIP (Velocity Tel), I am ready to throw in the towel and go back to Bellsouth. Not the VOIP's fault - its my cable guy.

Used to be Adelphia, now sold to Comcast, but the connection keeps dropping, at least once/twice every week, sometimes in a day. Now a HSI connection dropping and coming back is not a major issue, but the VOIP adaptor needs to be reset (pull the plug out and put it back in) each time this happens. And if you are unaware this happened, you could go the whole day without knowing that your phone line is not working, and if the caller(s) don't have your cell number, ...you see the problem. Added to that, the gate-buzzer has to be linked to the home-phone, its too much hassle.

I liked the VOIP for its low cost, but more importantly the all inclusive bottom-line price that never varied : $17.50 per month. But frankly, with two cell phones on a family plan, we never fully used it - outgoing calls are mostly from the cell.

With Bellsouth, i have a special offer on hand for old customers ($18 for everything - caller id, call waiting, $0.05 per minute long distance with no monthly) - great, but with their taxes and surcharges etc, it's bound to hit the $25 mark. But i guess that's what i pay for peace of mind.

[footprintsinconc]

Holly ****! just $25 with all the options! VOIP is a deal for those of us who have to just pay $23 for basic line + no options (including taxes).

I am using 'sun rocket'. you should try them, there is no cancellation charges and no equipment charge. try them, i have not had the problem of having to reset my gizmo when the cable comes and goes. try it for a month and see how you like it, if not, then go the bell route.

good luck!

[crokett]

I just got VOIP with Vonage. So far I like it. When the router died the other night I did not have to do anything except plug the VTA into the new router. I did confuse the Vonage rep when I told him I wanted VOIP over a DSL connection though.

[radhak]

Holly ****! just $25 with all the options! VOIP is a deal for those of us who have to just pay $23 for basic line + no options (including taxes).

I am using 'sun rocket'. you should try them, there is no cancellation charges and no equipment charge. try them, i have not had the problem of having to reset my gizmo when the cable comes and goes. try it for a month and see how you like it, if not, then go the bell route.

good luck!

I am withya re the costing.

unfortunately, sun rocket is not available in my area. they were my first choice, but

but for this, i would not even have noticed if the hsi is dropping any signal regularly, and i expect that holds for everybody else : how can anybody know if your cable-internet dies and comes back within seconds/minutes in your home? my opinion is it only happens in my area (and the cable company 'is working on it' for the past 10 months ), hence this switch back.

note - the cable-tv reception does not suffer at all.

[crokett]

Radhak, you might want to try calling the cable co and letting them know you are cancelling and why. Also might want to threaten moving the TV signal to satellite. At our last house we had a cable modem with connection problems for several months. After a few missed service appts and no fixes I called and told Time Warner I was moving to DSL. A tech came out 2 days later and it was fixed the day after that.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Sunrocket sucks. I paid $200 for 2 years service. I paid when I signed up. I get collection calls and emails from Sunrocket telling them I owe them money. I have spent HOURS on the phone with Sunrocket, often using my Vonage account since Sunrocket service would be down regionally. THey say everthing is ok, then boom another collection call. What a bunch of idiots. Seriously, worst service ever!
Vonage is a little better. Both have caused so many problems with my internet access. Both are very spotty when it comes to fax utilization with Vonage being a little better.
Like other I use cell 90% of the time so we are cancelling all VOiP and land based lines.

[BizCoach]

I'm happy with VoicePulse. They have a setting where it rings in multiple places so I have it ring to my cell phone as well as the voip phone (on my desk). If I'm at the desk I pick up there - and it costs no cell minutes. If I'm on the road I pick up my cell phone and never miss a call.

It's $26 a month unlimited calling. Also mine has a separate box that I can take when traveling. If the hotel or office has broadband I just plug it in and any calls to my regular number ring there.

My wife has her VOIP through the cable company. I think it's $29 a month but doesn't have as many features (like the multiple rings). And her "box" is part of the cable modem so we can't travel with it.

[maxparot]

I have Sunrocket and did have some problems with my cable connection. After having my cable provider send techs 3 times in one month, replacing all the splitters and coax inside my home leading up to my modem, They finnally replaced the downlead to my home. My computers throughput doubled and my phone system has been stable since.
SunRocket started the option of ringing multiple locations a few months ago. It's a nice feature at times but I prefer just using voicemail most of the time.

[footprintsinconc]

maxport: who is the provider? cox? if so, did they charge you to replace the downlead to your house, and how about the connector in your house leading to the modem?

i am currently having trouble with cox, they charged $50 last time they came, i am sure the **upid line is bad. thats what i think because my regular line has static some times.

[maxparot]

It is Cox and they did not charge me anything. I was a Cable America customer until Cox bought them out. The problem started during the transition and was a big headache for that month. (last May into June) But I did end up making out on the deal since my potts line was with Cox and my modem was supplied by Cable America I ended up with a new modem for free, no charges for the tech appointments, and credits on my bill for the down time and since Cox didn't disconnect my potts line as order I had use of it for free while they got my internet line straighten out.
Cox also took over as my TV provider and blew out 2 TV capture cards when they switched me over to their Scientific Atlanta converters. They ended up purchasing upgraded cards for my computer and I got 30% off my service for 90 days.
Now that the discount is over I'm thinking of going to satelite for my TV.

[onedash]

I have had vonage for a while now and have never had a problem with it. I have Cox Cable Normal speed internet. Here they have a bargain prices lower speed and a premium higher speed connection for different prices. Here are the download and upload speeds and price before discounts.

Value 768Kbps 256Kbps $26.95

Preferred 5Mbps 2Mbps $41.95

Premier 15Mbps 2Mbps $56.95

[footprintsinconc]

wow maxport, you did good. i guess, i have start calling cox and just keep complaining. i live in a new neighbourhood, so the line cant be bad, but there definately is a problem. but after all that, its halarious that you are switching to satelite! LOL!

onedash, i should look into what they have to offer interms of speed. they just bumped our prices up. i think i am paying like 55 for internet. i should check that aswell.

[maxparot]

The reason I'm looking at satelite is since they took over they raised the rates significantly and changed the bundles offered for the TV service so for me to get the same service I'd have tp pay about 30% more.
I'll keep them for my internet connection they are the faster service in town and beside my wifes job pays for it. Since Cox fixed the downlead Sunrocket has been outstanding for me.

[JR]

Sunrocket Both are very spotty when it comes to fax utilization with Vonage being a little better.

Fax will always be iffy on a packet network. Either the VOIP equipment has to interpret all the fax protocols on the planet, OR the VOIP equipment has to pass the fax signals transparently at 64Kbps (PCM).

In the former case the VOIP equipment must understand the myriad nuances of the individual mfrs implementations, a technical nightmare. In the latter case the variations in packet delivery of the Internet will frequently cause the fax protocols to fail.

Email should work better.

JR

[maxparot]

I use my desktop computer and scanner as a fax machine when need be. What I noticed when switching to SunRocket was my modem used to send and receive faxes at 14400bps since the switch it only connects at 9600 and about 1 in a dozen faxes fail and need to be resent.