VoIP

[ctenidae]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9076-1749986,00.html

Interesting article on VoIP and Google's entrance to the market. Anyone use it (Google or otherwise)? Does your computer ring when someone calls?

London must be behind the times on the Gmail accounts. Quite rare? I doubt it. I've got 50 invites if anyone wants one.

 

[riverc0il]

i use vonage and have had mixed results. you seriously can not beat the price and options, VoIP is going to take a substantial cut out of standard phone companies take soon. why pay $30 for local only and no features when you could have unlimited any where with features for only $20?

my biggest issue is having to turn off internet tools such as download applications when someone calls. you really can not use internet and talk on the phone at the same time unless your upload speed is unreal. businesses on a T1 line would probably be able to get by. business is where the savings is huge with VoIP.

i know you can add features with vonage to talk through your computer, but that seemed like a waste of money to me. i use a standard phone connected to the router.

 

[BeanoNYC]

I use Lingo and like it a lot. For 19.99 a month I get unlimited U.S. Canada and Western Europe. Considering my wife is of Norwegian decent, It cut down our phone bill considerably. It's got all the bells and whistles you need too. Cons. Customer Support generally goes to India first. When they can't solve the problem then you get a real tech in the U.S. Rivercoil is spot on about bandwidth. It does slow down the internet. I play PS2 games online. If that phone rings during a round .... I don't even think of picking it up or I lag like a s.o.b. It's a tradeoff I can deal with. I use my cell phone normally anyway. I think we had a thread on this a while ago.

 

[riverc0il]

Beano reminded me an important thing i would like to mention about vonage. they have the worst customer service of any company i have ever dealt with in my life. not even exagerating in the slightest. email support has taken over two weeks to respond to a simple email and presales service via email was very unprofessionally done. i would like to believe that the company offers such a great product at great cost and has just expanded too fast without the service and support structure to handle the on slaught of new customers. however, i believe the issues to be systemically based as a company who's core value is customers would never sacrifice current customers for future expansion. i have a web space service provider that has some of the best service i have ever experienced, so much so that i am willing to pay a higher price for that service. so i know what good service is. through vonage i found out what the worst possible service is. so be wary, if you are tech savy you probably won't even have a need. but if you are not tech savy, vonage is not a VoIP service provider you would want to consider as you will not get good service. once they did not even return my logged service request...

 

[BeanoNYC]

if you are tech savy you probably won't even have a need. but if you are not tech savy, vonage is not a VoIP service provider you would want to consider as you will not get good service. once they did not even return my logged service request...

Ditto ... when I recommend my VoIP to a friend, I know I'm committing myself to at least taking a look at their problem before they call customer service. My friends aren't tech savy enough to think of turning the damn VoIP modem and broadband modem off and restarting on their own.

 

[Greg]

Our new pro speed DSL is a respectable 2.2 mbps at $24.99/month.

 

[bvibert]

Our new pro speed DSL is a respectable 2.2 mbps at $24.99/month.

Is that through SBC?

 

[Greg]

Our new pro speed DSL is a respectable 2.2 mbps at $24.99/month.

Is that through SBC?

Yup:

http://www04.sbc.com/DSL_new/content/1,,90,00.html?

We've got the All Distance calling plan, so it's $24.99/month.

 

[bvibert]

We have All Distance too, I'll have to ask my wife what we're paying for our DSL now...

 

[Greg]

We have All Distance too, I'll have to ask my wife what we're paying for our DSL now...

Prolly $25 for standard. The rates are for new subscribers, but you probably could take them into giving it to you if you threaten to switch to cable...

 

[bvibert]

We have All Distance too, I'll have to ask my wife what we're paying for our DSL now...

Prolly $25 for standard. The rates are for new subscribers, but you probably could take them into giving it to you if you threaten to switch to cable...

We already had to fight recently for whatever rate we're getting... :roll:

EDIT: found out we're paying 19.95 for regular 1.5MB DL DSL, not too bad.