Internet Phone Service

[seadog]

At $199 prepaid for a full year of unlimited local and long distance www.sunrocket.com has me thinking about switching from my conventional residential service provider.

Anyone have any experience with this type of service or this company?

[jay]

I've had Vonage for almost a year. My home phone is automatically forwarded to my cell phone, so I never miss a call. I like being able to listen to voicemail over the internet from a pc, too. The only problem I had was one time when my phones would not send out the proper tones to navigate through a menu system. Press 1 to hang on forever, press 2 to go to an equipment busy signal, press 0 to hear us laugh at your stupid butt, that type of thing.

I called their 800 number and got a quick response. A short software download to the Vonage box, and I was back in business.

[mgorbsk]

I considered going VOIP since I already have RoadRunner cable Internet and a router, but I'm not ready yet until it gets perfected. There was a review recently in Consumer Reports. There are minor quality issues sometimes. Also, I think you are bound to the phone coming off the unit at the router and that's it. I could be wrong, but imagine a three story house with a few teenagers. Where's the phone.... I don't know you had it last......did not Jerk......MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheWorm]

I've been using VoicePulse (on their $15/month plan) for several months and am reasonably satisfied. The call quality is generally excellent and, like Jay, I enjoy having my home office phone and cell phones ring simultaneously (you can have 'em ring @ the same time or in succession). I receive vmail by email (WAV file) or can logon and get it via the web. There are a bunch of other features that I don't use.

The primary downside from my perspective is that it relies on the broadband connection, so if your 'net goes down, so does your phone; if your power goes, so does your phone (unless you have a UPS attached to your router and cable/DSL modem); no 911 service on that line; occassional poor or echoing voice quality (that will be cleared up on the subsequent call).

None of these really matter tremendously to me as we still have the "regular" home phone line and this is just the home orifice.

You *can* have it hooked up to every jack in the house, but you essentially need to disconnect the telco's wires from the box outside and attach the wires from your VoIP box instead.

I personally wouldn't be comfortable eliminating POTS in favor of a VoIP solution, but as a secondary line it is quite cost effective -- especially for long distance.

[jay]

Originally posted by mgorbsk
I considered going VOIP since I already have RoadRunner cable Internet and a router, but I'm not ready yet until it gets perfected. There was a review recently in Consumer Reports. There are minor quality issues sometimes. Also, I think you are bound to the phone coming off the unit at the router and that's it. I could be wrong, but imagine a three story house with a few teenagers. Where's the phone.... I don't know you had it last......did not Jerk......MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a Vtech base unit plugged into my Vonage box, and 3 cordless 5.8 GHZ Vtech phones, each with a charger base, one on each level of my 3-level townhouse. No one's ever complained of a call quality issue at the other end, and I've not heard it at this end. Why pay Verizon $67 a month for the Freedom package when you can get better service and more features for less that $30 a month?

[jay]

Originally posted by TheWorm
...snip

I personally wouldn't be comfortable eliminating POTS in favor of a VoIP solution, but as a secondary line it is quite cost effective -- especially for long distance.

My Mom worked for the phone company for 33 years, starting out as an operator for C&P in Charleston, WV, and finishing her career as Eastern Region Manager of Customer Service for Contel, and GTE after the merger. I even got a merit scholarship from Contel, which went a long way to putting me through college. Maybe I should regret giving up POTS service. NOT!

[ramirami]

Originally posted by TheWorm
no 911 service on that line; occassional poor or echoing voice quality .

native 911 is available from vonage now....( I did the s/w for it )

[DanL]

I signed up for the $19.95 AT&T CallVantage service a week ago. The activation fee was waived and got the CallVantage wireless Linksys router w/ phone jacks for $60 after rebate via Amazon. Right now I have a phone connected to the router for outgoing calls while I await the e-mail from AT&T telling me my home number has been transferred from Verizon. Once I get that I'll move all the house phones to VoIP and cancel my Verizon service. AT&T provides instructions for disconnecting your house wiring at the gray telco box (just unplug the incoming wires) and once you do that, all you need to do is connect the router or VoIP converter to the nearest wall phone jack and presto -- all your existing phones are back in service. I'm looking foward to the $25/month savings. There are some risks, but we have cell phones and neighbors to fall back on if necessary.

[mgorbsk]

Originally posted by jay
I have a Vtech base unit plugged into my Vonage box, and 3 cordless 5.8 GHZ Vtech phones, each with a charger base, one on each level of my 3-level townhouse. No one's ever complained of a call quality issue at the other end, and I've not heard it at this end. Why pay Verizon $67 a month for the Freedom package when you can get better service and more features for less that $30 a month?

Interesting. So you are the exception to the norm for VOIP now. Even though they have until 10/05 to implement E911, I read that right now it is still untrustworthy until there is a vendor standard adopted, alone not worth me switching now. Also read drop-outs, like a cell phone will occur occasionally.

[OnHonda11]

I've signed up with Sprint here in Canada for my home based business. It's been a week now and there have been many hickups along the way. My phone (Siemen's Gigaset 8825) two line phone system with answering machines built in is "giving me trouble". In looking into it further, it turns out that there are many incompatibilities with many other major phone brands. 1) The caller Id doesn't work with the VOIP. 2) My Siemen's phone system just beeps busy sounds until it cuts them off after someone has left a message. It turns out, most other answering machines do the same because Sprint has an issue with their service not sending out the disconnect signal to the answering machine before it disconnects. 3) I've been told on two occasions that basically if not enough people complain about these issues or even just put up with them, Sprint may not be willing to make the investment to change the software. Not too impressed. They suggested they could give me free voicemail for 3 months and I said, "how about until you guys fix YOUR problems" at which he willingly accepted.

The sound quality. The calls echo my voice on my end about 20% of the calls but then is fine the other 80% of the time. The beauty of this system is that I can move anywhere and take my existing phone number with Identicall for my fax number and the calls received and dialed out are just the same as if my phone line stayed at the same location as I orginially had it. For instance, we are moving 25 minutes away and calls would be long distance because are moving to another town. But with the VoIP, I can still receive my calls without long distance charges in my new area and make calls out from my new area just the same as before I moved without any extra long distance charges. $19.99 CDN/mth + $4 "network fee" + $4 for the first feature and then only $2 per feature after that. Very good pricing! No long term committment for any of the line or features

So overall, pretty impressed although I am waiting to see about the fixes

[TheWorm]

Originally posted by ramirami


native 911 is available from vonage now....( I did the s/w for it )

Tell us about the 911 capabilities...my understanding was that these are implemented similar to cellphones, in that they go to the nearest public answering point based on the location you've provided (as opposed to the local municipality/dispatch center).

If so, then in the case of CA, that would be a regional CHP center, which would not have ANI location info on-screen (you'd have to tell them) and they would have to transfer you to the local fire/police dispatch center.

In many areas, this might be OK, but in Northern California, the CHP dispatch center(s) are swamped with calls and there are often significant hold times for an answer. Not to mention the need to transfer to the appropriate agency.

Please correct me if I'm wrong and the "native 911" capability means it's identical to landline 911 service. I'm sure it's technically possible for the VoIP providers to generate and pass along ANI info to a local center and perhaps that is, in fact, what you just finished

[wuttja]

I currently use Vonage and have been extremely satisfied. This is how 911 works according to their website:
"Vonage routes your call to the Public Service Answering Point (PSAP), which provides emergency services in your area. The appropriate PSAP is determined by the physical address you supplied when you configured 911 on your web account. Therefore, if we do not have the correct address, your call cannot be routed to the corresponding PSAP for your area. Another difference between Vonage 911 Dialing service and traditional 911 service is that the Vonage call will be routed to the PSAP's general access line, which is different from the 911 Emergency Response Center. You will need to state the nature of your emergency promptly and clearly, including your location and telephone number, as PSAP personnel will not have this information at hand. PSAP personnel can help you effectively and will take necessary steps to provide you with the appropriate assistance, such as dispatching police, an ambulance and/or a fire truck.

Behind the scenes, the call will go to your local Public Service Answering Point immediately, if you have provided your address by configuring 911 on your web account. If you have not configured 911 on your web account, you won't be able to dial 911 at all.

*Note - Customers in Rhode Island who activate dialing 911 will receive an emergency calling service similar to E-911, which utilizes the E-911 call routing system and automatically displays your address and the number you're calling from on the dispatchers terminal. This E-911 solution is only available to customers in Rhode Island who have activated dialing 911. Vonage is working aggressively to provide this solution in additional states before the end of 2004."

[ramirami]

Originally posted by TheWorm
Tell us about the 911 capabilities...my understanding was that these are implemented similar to cellphones, in that they go to the nearest public answering point based on the location you've provided (as opposed to the local municipality/dispatch center).

If so, then in the case of CA, that would be a regional CHP center, which would not have ANI location info on-screen (you'd have to tell them) and they would have to transfer you to the local fire/police dispatch center.

In many areas, this might be OK, but in Northern California, the CHP dispatch center(s) are swamped with calls and there are often significant hold times for an answer. Not to mention the need to transfer to the appropriate agency.

Please correct me if I'm wrong and the "native 911" capability means it's identical to landline 911 service. I'm sure it's technically possible for the VoIP providers to generate and pass along ANI info to a local center and perhaps that is, in fact, what you just finished

well for CA (and CA is different from all otehr states) the VoIP calls will be directed to the PSAP not the CHP (like wireless). VoIP is treated as wireline.

your guess about "native 911" is correct. The user address information is stored in the ALI and when the number match is obtained it is passed along with the ANI to the PSAP.

[ramirami]

anyone plugged their VoIP router into the home phone line...does that activate all the exisitng pints on the home line??

[N_Jay]

Originally posted by ramirami
anyone plugged their VoIP router into the home phone line...does that activate all the exisitng pints on the home line??

If your VoIP box is connected to your home phone line, you need to make sure the line is disconnected from teh Telco network.

If you have good wiring and it is wired correctly for two lines you could do Telco on one line and VoIP on teh other.

Then just get two line phones, or one of those two line multi-station cordless systems.