Digital phone

[Brad Fink]

Hi to all, I have a question for any one that has digital service. How is it and how well does it work? I am looking at Vonage and trying to find some one that is using this service or another one. Thanks ahead of time



bradlaw

 

[Frank Marano]

I have digital phone, internet and TV through time warner Road Runner. It works fine and is clear but when the power is out, you have no phone or internet or tv. Yes you can use a cell phone when the power is out. The wires were a mess because all time warner did was come in and hook them up. I had to run them into the walls after studying what connection went where. There is a main "modem" that everything hooks into with a bunch of lights, looks fancy, lol

 

[Dre L]

I wish I knew if there was still a signal coming in during a blackout. I have a theory that if you use a UPS to keep the modem, routers, and phones working, if there is a signal, you will have phone.



During that big blackout a couple years ago, the land line phones died eventually (when all the batteries / generators were depleted), and I had issues with my phone for weeks after.



The digiphone people have a disclaimer that says if the power is interrupted you will lose phone service. However a lot of these places run on backup power for quite a while to prevent service outages during smaller power emergencies in normal times.



They won't flat out say yes or no, or they become liable. I guess the only way to know for sure is to see if the setup will work during a real blackout.



I will be going for TWC RR digiphone in the near future. Especially since they offer E911 service, and I don't care for Verizon. I figure I'll save about $20/month and have more services.



As for Cell Phones in a blackout, during a major blackout, once the power to the towers goes, so does your service. Your only option is really a satphone as long as you can power it.

 

[Dale Carter]

I have Vonage and love it! I can take the phone with me when I travel (anywhere that I have high speed) and it will ring simultaneously to up to five numbers. I have the Vonage and my cell phone ring simultaneously and the call is answered by the phone I pick up first. Very cool. Also, voice mail is emailed to both of my email addresses as an audio attachment. Sweet!! All this (and more) for $ 25 /month unlimited in North America and Puerto Rico.



Regarding power outages, as long s your high speed service provider has power to their switches, your UPS idea will work. In a serious outage (hurricane, ice storm, etc) they may lose power as well. Also, the phone company is usually more dependable for day to day operation thatn your cable provider. I still think that Vonage and a cell phone are the way to go.

 

[Deleted deleted]

Main complaint I hear about Vonage is it doesn't work with Tivo's or fax machines. They need a analog phone line to work properly, Vonage isn't able to do that.



I use my cell phone for long distance calls, never make many anyway, so Vonage doesn't appeal to me. I use DSL for broadband, so I have to keep a landline anyway. Local cable sucks big time here on reliability.

 

[Sal Adinolfi]

I use lingo. Only use is for calling overseas. Wife loves it.. she can call home anytime she wants.. and it still is only $20.00 amonth..



soem of the others are only in the USA.



we only have had problems when I first set it up.. has been running (as long as DSL stays up) ever since..



www.lingo.com

 

[Joey Hedrick]

I use ATT/Callvantage and have been very happy with the service. We do have a land line still for the fax. My only issue is it does noticeably cut down on your internet bandwidth even when idle, and if your on the phone... forget about uploading anything (downloads ok).

You do realize that CallVantage has support for fax machines, right? You just have to go online and request that it be enabled.



The bandwidth issue is something they can fix as well. Just call them up and tell them to change what "bucket" you're in. They initially set it to a very conservative number, so that they can ensure you have the best voice quality possible. Well, if you've got a ton of bandwidth (I have CallVantage and I've got 6Mb/s down and 512k up), they can adjust your settings to where it won't affect your bandwidth at all. There are alternatives that deal with installing a router that has QoS capabilities in front of your telephone adapter (this is what I have done), but that's more than most people want to deal with. It's easier just to call them up and have them change it for you if you're not into messing with anything.

 

[Dale Carter]

Vonage supports multiple lines and the Linksys router has two phone ports, one specifically for a fax (or other analog telco device). Tivo works fine with the Vonage adapter because all Tivo does is place a phone call to update the schedule it stores in memory. No different from a regular phone call. How do I know this? I have both a fax and a Tivo. I bought Vonage for those devices because I use a cell phone for everything else. That and my girlfriend said I needed a home phone for when the cell phone is dying.



ALL phones and faxes (maybe not all, but practically all, except for IP phones) are analog. The Linksys router converts from analog to digital and digital to analog, just like cd players and Ipods.