 Review by SSidlov 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 1307 visits, last login: 3 days ago
 Pompton Lakes,Passaic,NJ
 $15 per month
 about 10 days
 "Optimum Rewards discount of $20/mo makes cost only $15"
 "VOIP - internet out? so's the service, but DO get modem battery pack or plug modem into a APS!"
 "Cost effective way to cut VZ's NJ $28/mo minimum cost POTS"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Aug 8, 2007 Update (14mos)
I still find that at times it's spotty service, I can tell since the OV voice message service would answer phone calls rather than my own answering machine.
I like some of the features, the 'find me' is cool and useful, I can see who's calling home on my cell phone and leave it or not for someone at home (or the machine) to pickup. I left my cell phone at a friend's home and they called me at home to tell me that I did, they thought it was strange that they could see themselves calling on my cell. This was with the "Find Me" function which allows up to a 4(?) phone numbers to ring as one, first one to grab it, gets it.
I set the features to email us when there is a voice message, because we're not used to checking it for messages, had a important call that was there for a month that we didn't know about.
Battery backup is still great, but having web access from somewhere else to change it so that it rings your cell instead, is better imho.
I've come across moments when the service just seems to drop out, can't hear anything on the other end. Don't know why. I don't like to ask people to repeat what they said.
It's been a good deal, we're are finally going to remove the second line (POTTS) this month. Maybe I'll go with the $15 second line, but with 3 cellphones in the house it's sort of useless.
But If they had Distinctive ring for a second number....I would use that for faxing. I DO use the Distinctive ring for known phone numbers, makes it easier during dinner if it's not in the VIP list, it's not answered.
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1. Caller ID is spotty, and Anonymous Call Blocker is also spotty. Caller ID is not always as informative as my Verizon line was. Some second line information is not as accurate, cell phones not showing the name (they did with Verizon -Cingular phone nos.) consistently. I have the Anonymous Call Blocker ID enabled and for the first time in YEARS with Verizon, I got a call with the caller ID saying "BLOCKED" which is exactly the type of call that is supposed to be blocked. Calls that are 'Anonymous' do come in on both systems, but they still show the phone number. Blocked calls don't.
2. No pulse dialing. We have one funky phone in the house. Even though it is set to do tone, it sometimes does pulse instead (when the batteries are low). If someone picks up the phone and doesn't understand that it won't work.....not a big deal, just have to put new batteries in.
3. We've had around 20 hours of blackouts in the last month. I got the battery pack for the cable modem from CV for $45. It works great. Phone worked 12 hours after blackout started though this exceeded specs, as the blackout was very localized to a few blocks, and not widespread to CV's head end in this area.I've upgraded the reliability for this reason.
4. Sound quality which was a question when we started is much more consistently great than bad. Even when doing things like BT....though I know that the phone packets for OV are prioritized on CV's network. It's sort of strange though -- calling other OV's customers as the full duplex sounds 'off' at times.
5. I had a friend cancel OV. I could not dial them via OV even though they had the number transferred to Verizon, even after a month had gone by (in case it took time to update the tables or whatever). OV would say that the number wasn't in service. I had to ask someone at CV to investigate and it took a few days to resolve.
--- Orig. Review ---
Phone service with the traditional carriers is a PITA. So many constantly changing plans, undisclosed taxes and fees, and variable bills each month based on usage. VOIP services offer cash management by having a set price, and are not yet subject to the FCC approved fees and surcharges that the major Telco’s charge.
I have been getting calls for months from OV's telemarketers. When we had a $100+ land-line phone bill the last month, I decided that it was time to switch. SO, I approved the install of VOIP over 1 of our 2 lines. We have had two lines for many years now, mainly because before we had DSL or Cable ISPs, we had dialup. We had clients or bosses who only supported dial up connections, and as my wife and I are both IT professionals, we needed to be able to talk and connect. Now that we have 3 cell phones, two phone lines seem excessive, and the bills certainly are excessive. Since I already have OOL and CV as my provider, adding OV @$35/mo which would then entitle me to an additional $20 monthly discount seems to be a no-brainer for cash flow. Prior conversations with CV techs had told me that the cable modems they use allow them to put OV’s traffic on a different subnet from their regular OOL traffic. The tech also claimed that this subnet had a better QOS than the regular OOL and had priority over OOL's regular traffic.
We had a 'simple' install -- with a few surprises. I knew that they connected via the nearest phone jack to the cable modem, and the unit supplies enough power to ring all the regular phones in the house.
They disconnect the pots line at the Telco’s box on your home, so that they are not interconnected. Unfortunately in my office where the cable modem is, are also, very full bookcases, a couple desks and all the phone jacks behind everything. I had to spend a day just preparing by packaging up loose items, and partially disassembling a desk so that we could get at the phone jacks behind it.
Given a block of time, 11AM-2PM - they tech/contractor showed up at 1:30PM without a prior phone call.
Interestingly, I already had a SBV5120 VOIP modem. The installer brought a new one, but used the old one's power cords. I told OV prior to the install that I had one. The installer brought in his reel of phone cord, but not enough to run the wire around the rooms' walls. Luckily, I had a 24' phone cord in my box of cords, we used that. I had to get a step ladder so that the wire could be dropped being the book cases which had to be slightly tilted out to allow the cord to drop. Since I didn't want him screwing around with my phone lines too much, I also had already placed a phone jack splitter on the line, so we used mine instead of theirs. The old SBV5120 shows a receive signal of -8dB. Which is okay (green) but close to the fringe. The new modem showed, -10db which is not okay (red). He said that they would send him back if the signal was not improved. The office is on the third split. He removed the third split, and ran a new cable from the second split which he changed to a 3-way rather than a two way. Barrel connections tied the old connections to the new, and the receive strength is now -5 to -7dB. This is supposed to be good. Anyway, the phone instantly worked, and I even got a phone call within a couple minutes.
Sound quality: it's interesting. At times it's wonderful, and at times, it sucks. I had a phone call taken elsewhere in the house where there was nearly constant crackling which I never experienced before. Other times, it was clear as a bell. My wife told me after a long conversation, that the volume faded at one point and she could distinctly hear another party's phone conversation. Well, we've had that at times on POTS, too.
It may be required that one more split be removed to get the service up to snuff, however, we just spent a ton of money residing the house, and I'm just not too keen on CV running a cable on the outside......so we'll see if the service quality issue continues....
There have been reports of inability to connect with other CV customers. I've experienced this, have no clue why. Additionally, the Caller ID service seems to vary in the amount of information presented on the displays. Where I always had names and phone numbers presented for my usual wireless callers and land/VOIP callers, now I am only seeing the state and the number. This has been a long standing complaint by many. It's a PITA for me as I regularly use the Caller ID to make call backs.
I went to the Oakland Optimum Store and picked up a battery pack for the SB5120. This is supposed to enabled up to 8 hours of standby time and a couple hours of talking. We've been having short power outages during the late June and early Aug thunderstorms, so I figure since CV is supposed to have at only 2 hours battery backup it's sort of overkill, though the $49 price is excessive in my mind since a lightweight UPS can be had for $100-200 which would power more than just the cable modem (you would need it to power your router and Vonage device if you were using that service or Skype). Anyway, it takes 12hr to charge that Moto battery pack, and when we did have a short power outage, the battery did take over but the sync light wasn't lit. Well, at least any messages were captured at the OV message center...
Followup comments:  
Tees
@optonline.net
| Iffy calling features. This service is very iffy as it relates to the calling features. They might work, they might not and it’s a mystery whether they will or won’t. The only way to get any of the features to work on a nearly consistent basis is to plug one phone directly into the modem. This is a draw back to me as I have a large home. And everyone is used to using the multiple jacks throughout the house. It would be a real pain to have to travel to one particular room in order to make and receive phone calls when for years with other companies all of our features worked fine on all of our phones. Customer service blow I was told the following.
1. The modem seems to be picking and choosing which numbers it wants to display.
2. Maybe its something with the wiring I’ll send a tech out at your expense.
The sound quality is very good and there have been very few service interruptions during regular business hours. But if I’m receiving calling features I’d like them to work on a consistent basis and not be iffy and unpredictable. | |
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SSidlov
Other Things On My Mind
Premium
join:2000-03-03
Pompton Lakes, NJ
 ·Cingular Wireless
 ·Optimum Online
 ·Optimum Voice
·Cingular Wireless
| Re: Iffy calling features. I'm surprised about the the 'modem' comment. Why would the modem have any say about it? It's a head-end configuration issue. I've heard that CV says it's only what they get from the other carriers, but on a tech level they should be getting what everyone else gets, unless it's a plot by the telcos. It's sort of interesting though, sometimes I see Cingular names, sometimes I don't (same phone).
Point 2. Well, your signals must be nominal based on the comment, but if they are not, it's always been at CV's expense.
Yeah, I would like the calling features to work all the time, too, consistently.
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