Broadband Phone Service

ok, what's a phone?

Two cups, and a string. You yell very loud on your end, and the person at the other end yells back!

yeah I got that, ours runs from the kitchen to the bathroom. There's no computer on the line.

First, I'd ask you to clarify exactly what it is that your referring to here. "Broadband Phone service" usually falls into 3 categories - VoIP, "Digital Telephone" or A trunk line (which is on the commercial end of things so we can disregard that one here).

The items you describe apply to VoIP but not all of them apply to digital phone service.

fishin'- I am referring to VoIP.

Thanks Phoenix! Ok, let's look at your issues:



This is true. If the modem is off you can't place or get any calls. For most peopl ethis is not an issue at all. There is no reason to ever turn your cable/DSL modem off to begin with.



Again true. You have to have the modem (and VoIP box) powered and on. A small UPS could deal with the problem for several hours and having a back-up (a cell phone) is a good idea. If you don't have a backup then you mauy find yourself out of luck in severe weather, etc..



This is, for me, the biggest issue. On occassion you can get bad connections. It depends on how heavily your broadband connection is used (remember that if you are on cable you are sharing with all of your neighbors!). From what I've picked up it this sort of thing happens on a few calls here and there - less than 5% of all calls and it isn't for the full duration of the calls. It is something you have to accept to deal with as a trade off on the cost savings.

Most of the larger services run about $25/month. For me that's less than half the cost of my current phone service and the main reason I'm looking at moving to VoIP.

fishin' - I just saw this today. Thanks for your input!

Hey Phoenix, I have 'packet8' service and over all I have been pleased. The only isue Ihave had were bandwidth related .... if you don't have a 384 kbps service forget it. Voice quality is on a par with a regular phone .... you can transfer your present phone number .... you get all he buttons and whistles free ......voice mail,call waiting, call forwarding, caller id, etc.

I kept my regular phone for a couple of months before I switched to voip exclusivly ... $24.00 /month for unlimited US and Canadian calls. Broadband is 'on' all the time but you still have to log on to the net, like your phone is always on, but you have to dial it .... voip works with the computer shut down.
Another service to try would be 'vonage'

Hint ...... Packet8 has a good deal on a 'uniden' phone that serves as a router as well as a phone.

check it out......