Broadband Phone Service

[rdpnet]

The main thing with the 911 issues is that enhanced 911 (contact info automatically popping up on the dispatchers screen) won't yet work with VOIP, and will never be reliable since the equipment can be moved to another location and still have the same number.

Local governments have invested a lot of money in developing enhanced 911 systems and many of them are upset at the thought of it all being for nought because everybody's going to switch to VOIP. I didn't know one them was actually trying to sue Vonage, though.

Bottom line is treat 911 over VOIP as if you were in your car on your cellphone... make sure you tell the dispatcher exactly where to send the emergency vehicles. Be sure to tell them the city, too. I've heard stories (though I can't swear they're true) about 911 calls being misrouted to a call center in another city. This was on a cellphone, but I wouldn't trust 911 over VOIP either.

[nelsonke]

Real 911 service can be done, based on the address claimed by the customer. Telco's have to agree to do it. Vonage has announced agreements with several local telcos, and more are coming.

The FCC chairman is considering requiring them for all VoIP services. It is an interesting step as it is unclear how the VoIP can be regualted. See an article today.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1813050,00.asp

[criticaldev]

I switched over to vonage a month ago and the service has been working great for me so far. The 911 situation is scetchy, but as said above treat the service as you would your cell phone and be detailed about your location. I would also make sure you have a cell phone for a backup phone in case of power outages etc. I live in a rather rural area and the power goes out a few times a year.

[dpyers]

LOL. My mom lives in a rural area subject to power outages. She keeps an old rotary dial phone because it works off the current in the phone line. Frequently the power's out but the phone works.

[hground]

Has anyone ever used Lingo ( http://www.lingo.com/ )? Their rates seem to be very good for both US and International. Unfortunately Vonage (although the best advertized) does not have any area codes where I live. Lingo does.
Anyone used them or heard of them before??? Thanks!

hground

[sobocinski]

I've been a vonage customer for over 2 years i think. i cancelled my landline as soon as i was satisfied w/ the quality. had no problem porting my tele # over to vonage's system. early on there were some issues w/ sound quality--some breaking up, echoes, etc. I found V's tech support to be responsive, even though the problem was most probably the fault of the ISP. i haven't had any real issues in more than a year. the service is great, cheap, and the features can't be beat.

last year when we rented a beach house at the shore i stopped in at the local public library, got online on a public PC, connected to my vonage dashboard via the internet and told my home phone to forward itself to the phone at the beach house.

the only **minor** issue I had (and this is probably related to the question about supporting dial-up internet access) is when i got my tivo. even though tivo can be connected to your network w/ an ethernet port, it must still PHONE HOME on a POT (plain ol' telephone) line for the initial setup and registration. It can be done, but it takes patience and about a million tries. Or you can just take it to a friend's house and register it then bring it home. I actually ran it over the dialup line for a couple months before it stopped connecting--forcing me to shell out the money for a new NIC for the tivo (it only supports certain NICs)

they've resolved the issue w/ the 911 service, though it hasn't rolled out in all areas yet. it wasn't a technical issue so much as a money issue. the 911 lines are controlled by the big telephone companies and they wanted too much money to provide the access to vonage. evidently they came to some agreement.

my recommendation is go w/ vonage, dump the landline after you satisfy yourself and use a cell phone for backup.

[generic]

I have been having issues faxing out using my vonage system. dont know if its my fax or vonage, but the fax worked perfect with a land line so I am guessing its vonage.

anyone else having trouble with fax's?

[sobocinski]

you know what? i forgot to mention faxing in my post. yeah, i have to send them through 2 or 3 times sometimes. i guess it's vonage. i forgot about it b/c i use faxes so infrequently. actually, i get kind of ticked off when i have to use it. i mean, how 1980s can you get? i feel like i have to play Duran Duran, on cassette, when i use the fax.

There's a free online service you should check into that accepts faxes for you and delivers them as pdfs, which you can print out in your office if you need hard copy. for a small monthly fee you get some other extras. i can't think of the name right now, but you should be able to google it.

[dtay73]

I have seen it bandied about that faxing is not 100% supported with VOIP yet. Most carries have a disclaimer that it "should" work, but don't make any promises. Packet8 has it working on their business class lines, but have not yet made it availble to the home users (not sure why is should matter). It is the same with using a dialup modem over a VOIP line. Sometimes when testing a machine I will have to dial up with modem and it works some of the time.

[Revolution]

I signed up with Packet 8 about 3 weeks ago.

Quality is pretty good... most people I speak with on the telephone don't realize it's voip.

There are a few (related) problems I encountered though.

My dsl line is 1m down - 256kb up.

If I use (browse a website) the laptop while I speak on the phone - quality degrades noticeably during usage... immediately improves once I stop.

If I download a file (say 5 meg)... the person on the other end of the line completely loses me for the entire duration of the download.

I've become pretty good at change (url's) while the person on the other end talks... (stopping when I talk). Issue is primarily upload... not download.

International calls is basically useless. A recent attempt to call the UK was an utter failure.

A friend of mine has a 6m down - 768kb up cable line - and has never had a issue with local, long distance, or international calls... even while downloading.

Biggest difference is his connection speed - and he uses Vonage.

So far - I think the main issue is the speed... not the quality of the service. Packet 8's quality seems to be comparable to Vonage. Packet 8 costs $20/month. Vonage cost $25/month.

[sobocinski]

Originally Posted by Revolution

I signed up with Packet 8 about 3 weeks ago.

[snip]

Biggest difference is his connection speed - and he uses Vonage.

So far - I think the main issue is the speed... not the quality of the service. Packet 8's quality seems to be comparable to Vonage. Packet 8 costs $20/month. Vonage cost $25/month.

you don't read close enough. vonage offers a package for $15/mo. it has everything the $25 pkg has except you're limited to 500 mins of LD per mo. i don't use anywhere near that much.