VOIP: Internet Telephone Question ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. I just recently signed up for telephone service through my cable company (It is supposed to be installed Tuesday, December 5.) Other than my cable company, I had considered services such as Vonage and Sunrocket. After I signed up with my cable company, I was thinking and had the following question: Is it possible to subscribe to two different VOIP telephone services at the same time and be able to use either of them whenever you want? In other words, after I port my current telephone number to my cable company and start with their service, what if I decide I need another line later and want to try another company for the new line, say Vonage, Sunrocket, or another one of my choice, for example?

A. It's thinkable, but you don't want to do that. Both would still be dependent on your ISP/HSI provider. (Better to have a land line as backup.) Second, your VoIP provider can give y0u a single ATA (analog telephone adapter) with two lines! Much simpler and it can handle the QoS issues better (Quality of Service: which line gets priority ...) Possible, yes -- but don't try making two calls at once unless you have really good service. Most home net connections are asymmetric and your 'outbound' connection probably isn't fast enough to handle two calls at once. And even if you can pull it off in the slow times at 4 AM, try it at 6 PM when everyone is home surfing the web and it won't go -- if you are really unlucky, you won't be able to get even one decent VOIP phone call through during the busy hours. Cable modem speed is /very/ dependent on how heavily they have your cable segment loaded with Internet users, and how much of the shared segment bandwidth they are using. That's the one saving grace of DSL -- it's slower, but it's all YOUR bandwidth, no sharing. Unless they overload the backhaul connection at the switchroom to Earthlink (or whomever), it's fairly reliable. I had tried DSL, but having been on cable before, I thought it was too slow. I was then looking for ways to save money on all of my home communications needs, and so I looked into my cable company for telephone service. I have a single line through them right now and so far the service is pretty good. I have even been able to fax both ways without any problems. I thought the faxing would be an issue since I had read somewhere else that faxing over this type of connection isn't always reliable, but I haven't had any problems send or receive. I remember reading somewhere else that AT&T is now offering VOIP Service (Internet Telephone Service) with their AT&T CallVantage? Service Plan. How are they going to be able to offer this and be competitive with cable? I'm no expert, but it would seem that with the CallVantage, you would need the DSL, which would also require a landline phone # or can you have DSL only? If you are required to have a landline phone, then what would be the purpose of subscribing to their CallVantage?Service? In other words, with this new AT&T CallVantage service, can you subscribe to DSL only and have the CallVantage service for your voice without having to pay extra for another line? I'm new at learning all of this stuff as it relates to VoIP, etc. So, the "ATT CallVantage" service can be utilized over a DSL or Cable connection, right? I guess what seemed confusing to me is if it can be used over a DSL connection, then in order to have a DSL connection, you usually have to have a regular landline, correct? Well, what seemed odd to me is why anyone would pay for a landline in order to have DSL service just so they could have the "ATT CallVantage" service, unless a person could subscribe only to DSL service without landline service. There are at least two forms of 'broadband' internet (or considered 'fast enough' for applications such as VOIP service). There is DSL, which is a telco service, and there is 'cable internet'. Cable is quite independent of your phone service. They are a lot the same, but many of us feel that cable is generally a bit faster. I used to have DSL when I was a customer of Southwestern Bell Telco; I have been with Cable One now for a few years, for both television and internet. I do not know if AT&T will sell their 'CallVantage' service to people who do not have DSL service. A few of us can easily have both DSL and cable internet, but there are many people eligible for one (because of their location) but not the other. Many of the cable companies are now doing phone service as well.

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