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Review by klipko 
Posted: 356 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 618 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Portland,Washington,OR
 $50 per month (month by month)
 about 7 days
 "Very reliable/ good sound quality"
 "not much of a step up from POTS. High price and little features"
 "Its OK"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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A prior customer of AT&T Broadband Digital Phone (pre Comcast days) I made the switch to Comcast digital voice about 1.5 years ago. This saved me about $10 a month. I think at the time Digital Phone cost was $57 - $58 which included 300 long distance minutes plus taxes. That service was no different than a POTS alternative. When making the switch I had hopes to cut the cost and get more features like other VoIP companies provide.
Pluses:
* Call Quality - great, never had a problem even when I was a cable Internet subscriber and maxing out my download speed on some linux ISO.
* Voicemail email notification - Digital Phone nor POTS providers (in my area) has this
* Battery backup - battery backup on the unit has come in handy twice during the 1.5 years of having the service.
Lacking feature:
* Distinctive long distance ring - With Digital Phone it was nice to tell who's calling just by the ring (two short bursts for long distance callers) before looking at the caller ID.
* Selective call forwarding - choice of a number or numbers to forward and the option of day and/or time limits
* Send voicemails as a audio file via email - there is voicemail email notification but it would nice to have the voicemail itself (in a .wav, .mp3 or what have you) attached to the email.
Complaints:
* Cost - it's VoIP so I feel Comcast is charging to much for the service as compared to other VoIP providers. I know that Comcast does have control of the data packets (on their network) and that's how it's able to keep call quality high but still the lowest price for the service is $39.95 w/ cable TV and Internet through them. Shaping IP traffic doesn't cost much, I would like to see it $15.00 cheaper. Just a little bit higher than most other VoIP providers.
* Cost II - eliminate the different pricing depending on what other Comcast services a customer subscribes too. When I made the switch from Comcast HSI to Verizon FiOS, Digital Voice went up $5.00 to the price of $45.95 not including taxes. It's at that point to where I'm thinking of porting the number to an extra cell phone on my family plan with Cingular/at&t since we are slowing moving away from using a land line for most calls while at home. ($10 more on my cell bill or keep the ~$50.00 a month for Digital voice. I am aware that I'll loose some features doing so. )
Followup comments:  
Locane
@comcast.net
|  CDV
Not only can you receive email notifications of voice mail, but you can also check your voice mail online with your Comcast.net email account. Just log into Comcast.net, get into your email, and click a link called "message center".
You can also selectively forward calls, as detailed here in this FAQ question:
What is Call Forwarding Selective and how do I use it?
Call Forwarding Selective forwards only the calls you don't want to miss by allowing you to create a list of people whose calls will be forwarded to a number you designate. When you activate this feature only calls from those individuals on your list will be forwarded.
To use Call Forwarding Selective:
1. Lift the receiver and listen for the dial tone.
2. Press *63.
3. A menu of options will guide you in managing this feature. The prompts will enable you to activate and deactivate the feature as well as add, delete, or review the numbers on your list.
To cancel Call Forwarding Selective:
1. Lift the receiver and listen for the dial tone.
2. Press *83.
3. When prompted press 3 to turn the feature off.
Note: When entering the "forward to" number, remember to dial 1 plus the area code before the number if it's necessary to place the call. When creating your list, enter the area code plus the 7 digit number for both local and long-distance numbers. | |
| | klipko
join:2006-06-28
Portland, OR
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Comcast Digital Vo..
 ·Comcast
| Re: CDV Hi Locane,
I do the Voice mail email notification active but I would also like to have the ability to receive the voice mails sent as an audio file attachment so to eliminate the process of logging on the web or calling the voice mail number to retrieve the message. I know that this would keep the voice mail marked as new because it wasn't accessed via official channels (web or via phone) but at times I'm a little implant at the process of retrieving voice mails.
As for call forwarding I totally forgot about selective forwarding option. Thank you for pointing that out. | |
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