TW Digital Phone

[Bigdog]

We were considering switching to this and was was wondering if anyone had who used it has any good/bad comments about the service. I know there are a few promotions going on now for it, so it got me thinking..

Thanks,

[Talos4]

I've had it for about 5 years.

In all honesty, never had a problem. When I had AT&T nothing but problems.

The TWC phone service works(ed) with the modems in D* stb's and Tivo's with no issues at all.  In the TWC literature about the service they state that some modems may not work with their service.  I've not had that experience.

[Jack 1000]

Digital Phone from TWC has been great!  They give you a router box, and maybe the one or two times that we had issues in the last two years we have had it, you just unplug the box, wait a few minutes, plug it back in and wait for the lights to come back on as it reboots.

Signals are clear.  If you have Digital Cable with Digital Phone you automatically get Caller ID on TV, which we love!  There are no time limits extra charges, or calling card codes needed for calling people.  The rates start at something like:

• $20 a month for unlimited calls to all of Wisconsin.


• $30 a month for  unlimited calls throughout the U.S.A, Canada, and Puerto Rico.


• $40 a mouth for unlimited calls throughout the country plus access to calls to over 100 international countries.

We have the $30 plan. (Nationwide Unlimited) and love it.

• There IS however, a $1.99 charge per each incident to use Directory Assistance.

The clarity is excellent as well.  See what kind of deals they may offer for new users.


Jack

[Bigdog]

Thanks a lot guys, I'll try to give them a call and see about setting it up. Were you able to keep your old phone numbers that you had with ATT/SBC as we'd like to do that if possible.

[Jack 1000]

Thanks a lot guys, I'll try to give them a call and see about setting it up. Were you able to keep your old phone numbers that you had with ATT/SBC as we'd like to do that if possible.

Yes,

Absolutely, you can keep your old phone numbers and jack connections.  Let us know when they come to install it and how you like it!

Jack

[Talos4]

Yes you can.

No Problemo!

[Bigdog]

I forgot to ask about that router that was mentioned before, where does that get connected into?  I already have a linksys router (for my RR) that I don't want to lose.

Is their phone service piggybacking through the cable modem??

Thanks,
Mark

[LoadStar]

I forgot to ask about that router that was mentioned before, where does that get connected into?  I already have a linksys router (for my RR) that I don't want to lose.

Is their phone service piggybacking through the cable modem??

Thanks,
Mark

Yes. When signing up for Digital Phone service, they will replace your standard cable modem for one that has the analog telephone adapter integrated into it. I think the one that my parents have is a Scientific Atlanta WebStar, but I believe Time Warner has at least one or two other models they use as well.

[Bigdog]

How are they tying the phone wiring in the house into that new cable modem them? The reason I am wondering is that my home office is on the 2nd floor and that is where I have the cable modem, router, etc.,   Quite a distance away from where the phone lines come into the house.

Thanks,
Mark

[LoadStar]

How are they tying the phone wiring in the house into that new cable modem them? The reason I am wondering is that my home office is on the 2nd floor and that is where I have the cable modem, router, etc.,   Quite a distance away from where the phone lines come into the house.

Thanks,
Mark

Phone lines, except in fairly unusual cases, are wired in series (a.k.a. daisy chain).

All you have to do is disconnect the home wiring from that going to AT&T, to prevent any chance of back-feeding your phone service into AT&T's network. There will be a disconnect point at what is called the Network Interface Device (NID). In a house, it's usually a plastic box mounted on the outside of the house. As you open the "customer access" side of the NID, you will see a short phone wire plugged into a jack. Disconnecting that will disconnect you from the AT&T lines. I typically recommend taping over the jack then, or tagging it off with a large warning label to indicate to anyone going in there not to plug that wire back in.

Once you've disconnected your household wiring from AT&T, you just run a phone line from the cable modem to any household phone jack. Because all the phones are (likely) wired in series, that then provides service to the other phones in the house.

If you do a Time Warner install, they will likely take care of all of this for you. (I personally use Vonage, so I do all of this myself.)

[Jack 1000]

I forgot to ask about that router that was mentioned before, where does that get connected into?  I already have a linksys router (for my RR) that I don't want to lose.

Is their phone service piggybacking through the cable modem??

Thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark,

Any updates on your TWC Digital Phone?

Jack

[Bigdog]

Well it is setup for them to come out the 26th so hopefully all goes well. They said there is like a $24.50? install charge which I didn't know about before I called so hopefully the service works good.  

I asked them if their modems had battery backup (my brother in Vegas said the ones they have out there do) and the TWC guy said no so if power goes out so does the phone.

[Jack 1000]

Well it is setup for them to come out the 26th so hopefully all goes well. They said there is like a $24.50? install charge which I didn't know about before I called so hopefully the service works good.  

I asked them if their modems had battery backup (my brother in Vegas said the ones they have out there do) and the TWC guy said no so if power goes out so does the phone.

Good luck!  One thing that does not relate to TWC Digital Phone, but a helpful issue is that if you have a cell-phone from a different company than your regular phone and if power does go out, you have a back-up in place.

That $24.50 could be a truck roll charge, not sure.  Do you have any other TWC services?

Jack

[Bigdog]

Maybe that is what the charge is for then. It's been so long since they came out to install anything I have forgotten. All of the other times here was due to service issues.  I know nothing is 100% reliable (the company I work for used to build the big routers used there) but hopefully will pretty reliable.