TWC digital phone

[summerfun]

Anybody use this service yet? Pros - Cons?

They have my attention. I can keep my old number, it works with all my old phone equipment and it works with 911. All things I was worried about.

$39.95 includes all long distance including Canada, call waiting and caller ID. Nothing to buy and free installation. I'm paying that now for SBC without long distance.

[gparris]

Have had Digital Phone for many months since its introduction and loving it.
They put in on your bill along with your internet and cabletv bill (if you have one) and the billing is seamless.  

As for clarity, the sound is actually better, calls go through quickly, no upfront costs, everything is covered except 411 calls for information (suggest you use your internet search ahead of time for phone numbers, I do) and no hidden adders other than what you'd expect for taxes (as is usual).

The only thing about it is you might have loss of it if the internet goes down and since you have not had that as an issue-go for it! :wave: It's a no-brainer.

My neighbours have it, my cheap-o brother has it (uses it for his sideline business along with RR for internet) and no complaints from them, either.

My only concern would be if you use a fax machine or home security system, although that issue may be taken care of by now, in addition to the second line requirement as if you'd run an office from home like some do.

[Bebop]

If you look around, there are other options out there for half the price.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip

[gparris]

There is a mixed bag of results so far with other VOIP phone services and with Digital Phone, I know TWC will out and running to my home if it goes out, without a doubt...you get what you pay for - that is a preference, not an answer.

[summerfun]

I was a little skidish about the whole voice over IP. I had a couple of friends try it and not like the results. 911 was also a big concern for me.

But TWC explained that they are NOT voice over IP. They are using regular phone circuits and delivering them to your home via cable. Different that VoIP. This is also why 911 works on their system and not others.

[Gregg Lengling]

I have the complete package..digipic 4000, Road Runner and digital phone and just love it so far.  And yes 911 ALI all works, the only thing that I have to get used to is they don't send a Voice Mail signal to your phones to light the Voice Mail light...you just get the stuttered dial tone to tell you that voicemail is waiting.

So far so good.

[Mark Strube]

I'm curious how do they go about hooking it up? Would they need to add another split to our cable service? Do they hook it up at our incoming phone box so it automatically works with all our phones?

[gparris]

With my home, the cable and telephone come in underground as we have no overhead poles, but the junction of both along with the electrical service panels all are in the same area and I would assume that overhead lines meet at the same point in other homes, too.
This is good because the Digital Phone box requires a plug in power outlet at some place close by and the power panels (where the circuit breakers are) have outlets on their sides.
When building, I opted for 8 cable connections around the house when building with my contractor and the phone lines are next to it as I would assume other homes have similar basement hookups, too. One of the 8 hookups on the cable hub acts like the input line for Digital Phone and its output for its box hooks into the home telephone lines so all your phone jacks are Digital Phone jacks and the DP box becomes the phone company, so to speak.
The result with my cable hub and its adjacent powered signal booster and DP box with its green blinking lights looks somewhat like a lab experiment on my rafters of my basement-cool to look at, but uncluttered and very functional and maintained by TWC.

[mhz40]

I'm curious how do they go about hooking it up? Would they need to add another split to our cable service? Do they hook it up at our incoming phone box so it automatically works with all our phones?

You get a cable modem that has two additional ports... RJ11(?) phone jacks.  Only one  line is active at this time.  If you already ahve a cable modem installed, then it's a simple modem swap.  Otherwise, an additional cable outlet is needed for the new phone modem.  It can tie into your whole house phone wiring or into just a single phone, depending on your setup/preference.
It's voice over IP, but it's not 'internet phone'... very different than the www based technology out there.  I have had it for a month or two and no longer even think of the technology behind it anymore when I use it.
When converting, you can get a new number or keep your existing one.

Cheers...
MHz40

[Gregg Lengling]

I'm curious how do they go about hooking it up? Would they need to add another split to our cable service? Do they hook it up at our incoming phone box so it automatically works with all our phones?

At my house they installed a combination Telephone Modem and Road Runner modem.....all you need is a phone jack in the room with the modem to plug the modem into the house wiring.  So when they installed he set it up in my computer room and plugged it into the telephone outlet in the wall and disconnected the SBC feed on the outside.  The cutover was in seconds.  As far as splitting the cable he split the cable in a 2 to 1 splitter and one output fed the cable/data modem while the other feed a 4 way splitter to feed my HD-DVR/regular digital box and 2 additional tvs.  Everything works great.

[sp44again]

I have the complete package..digipic 4000, Road Runner and digital phone

So far so good.

How much does that cost?

[picopir8]

I was a little skidish about the whole voice over IP. I had a couple of friends try it and not like the results. 911 was also a big concern for me.

But TWC explained that they are NOT voice over IP. They are using regular phone circuits and delivering them to your home via cable. Different that VoIP. This is also why 911 works on their system and not others.

If 911 is truely a concern, then I would stick with a standard land line.  Cable is much more prone to outages than land line.  Not to mention that electrical outages will also result in cable telephone outages unless you have your equipment on a UPS.

Also vonage does offer 911.  You have to initialize the service and it will be routed to your local dispacher.  The dispatcher wont have your address though.  So it pretty much comes down to whether you feel its worth paying $15 more each month (price differential between TWC and vonage unlimited plans) to have your address sent to the 911 dispatcher.

[kevbeck122]

If 911 is truely a concern, then I would stick with a standard land line.  Cable is much more prone to outages than land line.  Not to mention that electrical outages will also result in cable telephone outages unless you have your equipment on a UPS.

We've only had one or two big outages with TWC in the past few years, so in my experience/area it is pretty reliable.

Does the digital phone service offer a forwarding option to something like your cell phone in the event of a power or cable outage like Vonage does?

[Mark Strube]

To us, outages wouldn't be much of a concern. Who doesn't have a cell phone?

[AndrewP]

Well, maybe it is a good service. But I think that my SBC plan for $21/month with unlimited local calls is better for the money. And for long distance I am using my cell minutes and it works just fine. When TWC will make the price about $25 then it will be another story. Competition is a very good thing.