On Wed, 06 Dec 2006 06:11:29 GMT, Bruce L. Bergman
<blbergman@earthlink.net> wrote:
> On 4 Dec 2006 22:11:31 -0800, Korey <newsemail@cox.net> wrote:
>> 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?
>> What would be involved with doing this, especially if I don't have an
>> active landline? Would I need to go through my local telephone
>> company and have them install a new telephone line and then once it is
>> working, transfer the telephone service for the new line to Vonage,
>> Sunrocket, or some other provider of my choice? Would it be possible
>> to have two VOIP lines with two separate VOIP providers utilizing the
>> same high speed cable modem connection?
>> Just curious if this would be possible.
> 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.
> --<< Bruce >>--
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?
Korey
Korey Smith (newsemail@cox.net)