Cable vs DSL

[ontherun]

I need help. Currently I have Charter Cable just for internet service and paying with fees $52.50 a month. I am thinking about switching to TDS metrocom DSL service.  If I go with DSL I would probably go with their 2MB plan at $35 a month. If I stay with Charter I would drop my phone service with TDS and switch to Vonage internet phone service.  In the end cost per month would be within a few bucks of each other.  So here are two questions,  is DSL service as good as cable and is Vonage a good choice for phone service

[Doug Mohr]

I just switched to Vonage for my business phone. The unit arrived yesterday and the number should be ported over next week. I won't be able to tell you until then how it is. I have a friend in Chicago that has had it for about six months and he loves it.

The great thing about Vonage is you can sit with your laptop in a wifi hot spot around the country and use their PC softphone software and a headset to use your home phone line anywhere.

Doug

[Tunebug]

I have had Vonage for about 3 months, and it is not bad.  I am very willing to deal with it's quirks in exchange for how much it saves me, but it is not as good as a plain old land line.  The sound quality is not quite as good (may just be my unit), and I have had more than a few calls where there have been connection problems (both on incoming and outgoing calls).  Most of the time it works just fine.  Also, if you want to use the "softphone", you need to pay an extra fee.  It is not included in the basic price...

[jfrancour]

I've used VoIP for about 3 months and love it. I stopped paying close to $40/month for TDS and now pay $15/month. I had dealt with the quality issue when I first set it up but haven't seen any problems in weeks. I like that I can check my caller ID and VM over the Internet, get my VM emailed to me, and we can bring the adaptor with when I traveling.

I haven't used to softphone yet because I don't want to pay the extra $10 a month, I use my cell phone and email too much to pay for the softphone.

[gparris]

In the NE part of the country the "Baby Bells" like Verizon are getting into the business for HDTV, Internet and Digital Phone because of cable companies taking away some of their core phone business lately.

In some areas (avsforum) Verizon is actually laying new fiber cables directly to homes, an expensive scenario, but I have not read much about the good and bad from actual subscribers, yet.
I think the phone companies are trying to get back their residential phone business (and more) from the cable companies this way.

[Tunebug]

While we are on the subject of VoIP and Vonage, if anyone wants to sign up for vonage, let me know.  I'll refer you and then you will get one month free and I will get 2!!

[Greg Oman]

As a TDS customer for many years, and a DSL subscriber through them, the thing to watch is that they rarely upgrade your service "just because".  I started with 768, which was $45 a month for the first 2 years.  A year later, they started offering 1Mbit to "new customers only" for $45.  Even when I asked, they said no, even with a new 2 year committment.  Finally last fall, they had an offer that existing customers could have, so I got 1Mbit now for $45.  It's honestly, not much faster than the 768 was.  I would have been better off dropping to the lower price.

Now, they offer up to 4Mbit for the same $45, but based on some other threads here, TW upgraded to 5Mbit, and it seems like several people here had good results.  Even the GF tested at nearly 4.8Mbs recently at her house, so when I move, I'm going to TW for broadband and cable (hopefully a 8300 dvr too!).

IMO, TDS needs to re-think how it treats existing customers, after all, it costs them more money to go out and get new customers than it does to retain existing customers.  Especially ones with good payment histories.

Greg O.

[AndrewP]

TDS was not a good provider for me. I quit after they started sending me bogus bills, that I made like 500, 600 calls per months. I don't really use regular phone. After complaining twice I just quit and back with SBC.

Andrew

[Doug Mohr]

I haven't used to softphone yet because I don't want to pay the extra $10 a month, I use my cell phone and email too much to pay for the softphone.

Do you have a residential plan or a business plan? I was led to believe that the softphone is included in the business packages.

Doug

[Bebop]

Something interesting to read.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050303.html

[jfrancour]

Do you have a residential plan or a business plan? I was led to believe that the softphone is included in the business packages.

Doug

I have the $14.99/month residential plan becaue we only used about 200 minutes a month paying $40/month to TDS. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have a land line and would just use my cell/email. My wife doesn't like the choppiness of a cell and is a nurse who is on call several times a week. She 'feels more comfortable' with the home phone if she is called in during the middle of the night. She just got a Moto V551 last weekend and she is starting to talk about axing Vonage too. Not because we don't like it, but because we don't need/use it.

[jkane]

Got one of these last year.  http://phonelabs.com/prd05.asp  It's a Dock'n'Talk.  Had a lot of problems all last summer and after 3 hardware (prom) upgrades, it started working great last fall.  I picked a tri-mode phone, and they had to write new software to work with it.  I like being a beta tester.  

We use it up north where I have no land line phone.  It plugs into the phones in the cottage and they all ring when it does.  Also you talk and call out on any phone like you have your very own PBX in your house!  I put an antenna on the roof and the connection is quite reliable.  We will use it thouroughly this summer.  After that I can either give it a great review, or a bad one.

For now, it's just a suggestion to those who want both a house hard line and a cell without both bills.  :cool:

FYI:  Dock'n'Talk doesn't support fax or modem.  Also, 911 needs you to tell them where you are.  They don't get a location automatically.

[picopir8]

I have the $14.99/month residential plan becaue we only used about 200 minutes a month paying $40/month to TDS. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have a land line and would just use my cell/email. My wife doesn't like the choppiness of a cell and is a nurse who is on call several times a week. She 'feels more comfortable' with the home phone if she is called in during the middle of the night. She just got a Moto V551 last weekend and she is starting to talk about axing Vonage too. Not because we don't like it, but because we don't need/use it.

I dropped my land line a while back and began using just my cell phone.  The savings did not offset the inconvenience.  With the added use, the battery seemed to need constant reccharging.  I was also too easy to leave the phone in the car, thus missing a lot of calls.  I dont know about you but I always seem to misplace my phone.  It makes it a lot more difficult to find a phone if you can call it than if you are tearing the house and car apart looking for it.

Anyway, I also realized tha I spend most my time at home or work where people could easily contact me.  So I decided to get vonage.  Next month Im going to switch to a lower cell plan to offset the cost of vonage.   If you are looking to save money, I suggest cutting back on the cell phone and keep vonage.

[ontherun]

Today I called SBC and their deal seems too good to be true.  If I switched my phone service, internet service and went with Dish Network it looks like I could save about thirty dollars a month.  Here is the run down
SBC phone service $21.95
Their faster DSL service $26.95
Dish Network , three rooms, American 120, HDTV  for $55.00
The big saving I would see is the switch from Direct TV to dish network. My current DTV bill with three rooms, Total Choice Plus with HDTV is now $70 including taxes.
One other advantage I see with SBC over TDS is that you only have to sign up for a year where TDS is two

[jfrancour]

Anyway, I also realized tha I spend most my time at home or work where people could easily contact me.  So I decided to get vonage.  Next month Im going to switch to a lower cell plan to offset the cost of vonage.   If you are looking to save money, I suggest cutting back on the cell phone and keep vonage.

I understand when that is the case but my work phone is my cell phone. I probably get  a dozen phone calls a day and the rest of my communication is through email. I can't get a smaller cell plan unless I give up national coverage and pay for roaming when I travel in the summer. I can't even remember how many 'roll-over' minutes I have but probably enough to last me a few months.

How long did it take any of you to get your number transferred over to Vonage or any other VoIP?