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Review by robscullion 
UPDATED: 21 days ago
member for 8.1 years, 3176 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Philadelphia,Philadelphia,PA
 $43 per month
 about 14 days
 "Good sound quality & reliability (assuming cable is OK)"
 "Way too expensive once promo rate expires & forces CDV rental & tech install"
 "Investigate other VoIP offerings"
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December 23rd, 2009
Having moved to Comcast HSI in May, I decided to try their Digital Voice offering in August at the promotional rate of $19.99/month for six months. I was disappointed to find that, in addition to the expected delay due to LNP porting, I'd also have to wait for a tech to come out and install the modem. I'm not clear on why I couldn't just pick a modem up at the local service center since I already have HSI, but that's the way it is. There's also the issue of being forced to rent the CDV. If there's no way to avoid the CDV rental with Digital Voice, IMHO that cost should be reflected in the monthly price.
Once the service was installed, it ran fine with one exception which I've noted in my Comcast HSI review. In the end, Digital Voice is a solid product but it can never be more reliable than the cable plant allows. Once our physical cable issues were resolved, I found Digital Voice to be rock solid, with perfect audio quality and zero downtime.
Unfortunately, staring down the barrel of a $15 rate hike at the end of the promo period has lead me to look into other, non-Comcast, VoIP products. Currently, we're evaluating Callcentric. If all goes well, I'll be porting my number over before the CDV promo price expires and should save around $35/month ($30/month service price diff + $5 modem rental).
Digital Voice is a great alternative to a fully blinged out Verizon POTS line, but in the era of sub-$10/month VoIP products it's really hard to justify the extra $'s.
January 9th, 2010
Just to clarify, my expected savings of $35/month for moving from CDV to Callcentric is based upon the $40/month base price of CDV + the $5/month modem rental. I have my own modem for HSI, so I can drop the rental modem entirely once I leave CDV. Since I expect Callcentric to be $10 or less/month, I'll end up saving $35+ per month by leaving CDV.
January 19th, 2010
My involvement with CDV ended today with the port of my # to Callcentric. It was a bit of a bumpy ride getting my service moved back to my own CM100. Evidently, the port-out caused Comcast to schedule a tech visit on the 28th of January. This scheduled visit seemed to provide much consternation to almost all the Comcast reps I spoke with, one of them even citing it as an FCC requirement that could not be cancelled due to legal reasons. This existing service call seemed to prevent anyone from provisioning a new modem until after the visit had taken place.
Luckily, I was fifth time lucky and was finally put in touch with a CDV rep who provisioned my Linksys modem, allowing me to return the Comcast modem on my own time and thus skipping the trouble of being home for the tech. The automated system still tells me I have a tech visit scheduled, but I've been assured by multiple reps that no one is going to be coming out.
All it all, I think CDV was a good service. Too expensive for what you get but still a good service. Even though I was less than thrilled with the confusion the port-out caused with regard to getting my CM100 provisioned, I suppose it's not a case most reps have handled. It helped a lot that everyone I spoke with was genuinely courteous and really tried to help vs just following policy etc. And, as with most prior Comcast customer service experiences I had, it was just a matter of being patient enough to find the person who knew what to do.
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 Review by FicmanS
UPDATED: 67 days ago
member for 5 years, 1792 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Brownsburg,Hendricks,IN
Contract price not specified.
"Ongoing issues have quality of the service down..."
"Reliability"
"Not very reliable of late"
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Back to having issues again...
I am Seeking other providers for services....
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 Review by fatmanskinny
UPDATED: 86 days ago
member for 6.1 years, 2047 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Atlanta,Fulton,GA
$42 per month
about 5 days
"Less expensive than telco, more features, quality just as good"
"As always, Comcast's Customer Service!"
"AT&T who????"
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UPDATE: 11/15/2009:
Voice service is still pretty solid. I am still a happy camper.
UPDATE: 5/6/2009
I am on a bundled special now for a triple play. The phone service is still rock solid and I love the fact I can fax over it with such ease.
Outages are rare and I must say that they usually last for a brief moment. Overall, I am happy with the service and glad I made the switch for the super-expensive telco option.
I've had Comcast Voice for some months now and feel I am ready to review it so here we go:
BEGINNING OF PROCESS:
I was paying $70+ a month for AT&T unlimited local & long distance. By having that disease funds-are-low, I needed to find ways to cut expenses.
I checked out Comcast to see if DV was in my area. It was and they offered a 1-year promotion for $19.95 a month plus $3 for the EMTA / modem box. Cool. So I called Comcast to get the ball rolling. Then, we ran into a snag (expected with Comcast, of course!).
Comcast said they would have problems transferring the AT&T number over because the AT&T account was in my name and the Comcast account is in my wife's name. So, Comcast suggested that we work on getting the account information updated at AT&T to reflect my wife's name.
We called AT&T. They had to run a credit check on my wife and I believe they said it would be a charge for it. We decided to just leave it as it is and go back to Comcast.
We called Comcast again. They said we could try going in person to a Comcast office and changing the Comcast account name to match up with my information. They couldn't make changes over the phone.
We took a trip to a CC office. The agent that assisted said he could not change the account info without closing down the account and we would lose any promotions we have on the account. Great! More time wasted.
Sooooo, we called Comcast back again and got another representative. This young lady told us "it rarely happens where the number cannot be ported and that is on AT&T's side but we usually get it ported over if address information match up." Great. I am happy I reached someone who knew what they were talking about but, dang, did it have to take numerous phone calls and a trip to Comcast's office?
Ok, we got the number ported and received an install date.
On installation day, the tech that came out was very professional and wired up our phone outlets so the EMTA would light up all of the outlets. He also rewired our home alarm system to work over Digital Voice. He confirmed dial tone and we were able to place and receive calls.
**** AROUND 7/1/2008: ****
We had a technical issue and called Comcast about it. The issue was that calls coming in sounded distorted but the person who called heard us fine.
We called Comcast to do some standard troubleshooting and they said they will send out a tech. Then, they called us back on the CDV line and claim they left a voicemail because we were actually having an outage. A question comes to mind: If I am having voice issues where I cannot hear callers' voices clearly, how would I be able to understand a message from Comcast left at my CDV number??
So, this resulted in me taking time off of work and sitting through a cancelled appointment. When I called Comcast about it, they said "we left a message for you". Again, how can I understand the message if my issue would not let me hear incoming voice well?
Anyway, the phone line issue cleared up but during some recommended troubleshooting from a CDV user on DSLReports, I tried taking the backup battery out. Guess what? There wasn't a backup battery in the EMTA. It wasn't installed with one. Great!
Battle number two: Getting Comcast out to deliver a backup battery. They missed the first appointment and then after I called them and laid into them a bit, we got someone to deliver and install it a couple of days later.
Bottom line: It is a great service and has a ton of useful calling features including being able to fax via CDV. The bad part as always with Comcast is dealing with their Customer Service department. It is terrible. I cringe everytime I have to call them because they just plain out suck.
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Review by JerryTimes
Posted: 106 days ago
member for 8 years, 139 visits, last login: 11 days ago
Roseville,Macomb,MI
$39 per month
about 3 days
"Clear sound. I can call anywhere at no charge."
"None."
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I had my Comcast Digital Voice installed about 4 years ago and a second line about a month ago. I've had no issues and it sounds clearer than my old landline did.
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 Review by Johkal
UPDATED: 122 days ago
member for 7.2 years, 3464 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Happy Valley
$39 per month
about 2 days
"No shared bandwidth. Battery backup is a great feature."
"A bit more expensive than VoIP providers."
"We'll see after a few weeks!"
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10/8/2009: Very smooth installation. The Tech set me up with the Arris TM602G EMTA just for CDV, while my own Linksys BEFCMU10 v4 modem supplies the internet. Even though my signal levels were excellent, he still replaced the 2-way & 3-way splitters with a 6-way, while adding a new 2-way at point of use for the two modems. My levels remained excellent and my TV reception improved as well. This was all done while I was at work and to my surprise, he even connected my router and switch box ,making sure my network was functioning wired & wireless.
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 Review by CO_Chris
UPDATED: 126 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 3958 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Broomfield,Broomfield,CO
$33 per month
about 2 days
"The call quality"
"nill"
"Well worth it"
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Review update 10-5-09
Well its been 3 years and i am still loving my CDV it has worked so well.Thanks.
Review update 3-1-2009
service is still great and I have been happy with CDV
Review update 8-10-2008
Still working great after all these years.I am not sure why someone would go to Vonage
of other VOIP providers for the Quality of service i get from Comcast.
Thanks Comcast...
Review update 12-8-2007
Well it's been a year now and i still have CDV and love it no big problem so i would still recommend there service
11-28-2006
Since i use to have TWC DP and it worked so well in Houston that i will give Comcast a try here in Colorado and man it work's the same. I am paying 33.00 a month for it for 12 months and it's well worth it.
CC DP works better then vonage and the other because it says on there network till it drops out at the CO and by far this is so much better then Vonage because they use the UL/DL to make call and some times they are very choppy .
I have to say for the money go with CC DP you be happy that you did.
Also they use a real 911 service
My total bill with tax and all is 35.68. this is not so bad
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Review by techie301
UPDATED: 143 days ago
member for 7.5 years, 298 visits, last login: 137 days ago
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$30 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"Call quality it wonderful! Installtion and porting was easy."
"Poor management from Web Site. Address Book not linked to Caller ID."
"Value is OK. Very reliable and great quality."
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I moved from VoicePulse to Comcast in order to consolidate and save money. Also, I heard that Comcast DV had very good call quality... I agree. Last point is that I like having the eMTA before my Router/FW. I don't like that I have to "rent" the eMTA.
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 Review by camera_man
Posted: 147 days ago
member for 5.9 years, 35 visits, last login: 143 days ago
Penngrove,Sonoma,CA
Contract price not specified.
"None"
"Always going down"
"Save your money"
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We purchased this as part of their triple play and am I sorry we did! The phone service is ALWAYS going down which leaves you with NO PHONE SERVICE FOR HOURS, and if you're really lucky, when the phones go dead so will your internet connection which leaves you totally SOL.
When we had this service setup they swapped out my cable modem with one made by ARRIS. The service tech has had to replace 4 of the units already and it's only been 2 months! We are now on unit number 5 so we'll see how long this one lasts before it grenades. Sure AT&T was more money per month however it NEVER was down which is HUGE especially in an emergency. You might have better luck with it than me but forewarned is forearmed.
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Review by JnKC
Posted: 172 days ago
member for 1.6 years, 169 visits, last login: 8 days ago
Independence,Jackson,MO
$134 per month (12 month contract)
about 120 days
"very few service outtage since 2004 on DTV and HSI"
"had 10mbps auto upgrade to 16mbps never could deliver"
"I down graded to 6mbps to save and am happy-overall service very good"
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I started service in 2004 for TV and HSI using Vonage for DV because CDV was not available in my area until late 2008. I had DVR added along with some other package things and was happy. I have never had trouble with DTV and very little trouble with HSI. When I did have trouble with HSI a few years back I had to get on the rep a little when the service person could not find the problems. It turned out it was a problem in the area that was totally out of the scope of being fixed on the user end. I had crappy HSI for a few weeks until CC reinstalled the equipment and have had no issues since. I live in an apartment building which means terrestrial TV was stupid to try and sat TV is a no go here. I abandoned Telcos at the turn of the century for VOIP with RoadRunner as soon as I could. I will not use ADSL or dial up type of connections because the Telcos upset me that much! With that all said; I am only able to use one provider where I live. Being locked into CC hasn't really bothered me because I have what I want and need. I have swapped out modems a few times for newer models which got no argument from CC. I am an extensive computer user; I administrate 2 windows 2003 servers and a web server for the owners of a web chat site. I am by no means an expert and by no means a newbie with computers. So, my initial hook up experience was good because I knew what to do going in. The motorola surfboard modems I had were good enough and my lan router is only 4port for use with 2-3 computers in use 24/7/365. I've had more trouble with computers than with CC LOL! About mid year I decided to do some cost cutting. That was an experience with custormer service had trouble in defining what my service actually was. When I asked where the over all cancel button was; things got a lot easier. I ended up down grading to digital starter for TV and 6mbps HSI and was talked into CDV for like a 6 month intro. The CC VOIP is reported as better quality over Vonage with everyone I have spoken with; that is to be expected. The bottom line is I was able to reduce from nearly $190.00 per month to $134.00 per month and still have all the TV I used and HSI that still pleases me. As soon as all the boost technologies were introduced by the cable companies, the mundane tests for speed have been skewed in my opinion. I do know from upload and download from sources I get 1mbps up and 4 to 5 mbps down which is acceptable for me. As far as being a trapped customer; I'll live with it with possibly replacing VOIP with cellular at some point. Other than that, CC works for me and customer service has really improved over the years.
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 Review by wenter99
UPDATED: 208 days ago
member for 6.1 years, 531 visits, last login: 122 days ago
Albuquerque,Bernalillo,NM
$39 per month
about 4 days
"Reliable and inexpensive. Free nationwide & Canada long distance. Excellent sound quality."
"None thus far."
"VERY satisfied with the reliability and quality of Comcast DV service."
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Signed up for CDV in July of 2008 for $39.00 a month including taxes and unlimited free long distance calling to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. Have had Comcast HSI and Cable TV since April 2001. Had used Qwest landline since 2001 at a cost of $50.00 a month, including taxes and fees, and additional for long distance.
Comcast tech came out and installed the Arris TM502G telephone modem as scheduled, 4 days after I order the service. Installation took a total of about 45 minutes. CDV has had loud, clear audio and continuous connection since day one which was just a little over a year ago now.
So far CDV has been a totally positive experience for my household. I haven't had a single problem with CDV, so there's been NO NEED to contact customer service regarding CDV or any of my other Comcast services. What has made CDV the best value for us is the no extra charge for long distance. My wife makes frequent calls to family in Canada, and that's been a major bonus for us.
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Comcast Digital Voice
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