Speakeasy → Speakeasy Voice!

Heya-

I apologize for any confusion regarding our trial coverage areas-- Speakeasy is conducting its beta trials in as many places as coverage is currently available, which consists mostly of the major metropolitan areas.

Speakeasy's VoIP offering provides for standard 911 and E911 emergency dialing. With Speakeasy Voice, unlike with most VoIP providers, your 911 calls are routed to the standard 911 trunks (not the General Access Line) and your address and telephone number are provided to the 911 operator by way of E911. In addition, you do not need to register for 911 dialing, as you are automatically registered when we complete your order.

We have made the design decision to offer voice service only in areas where this level of integration was possible. These features are equivalent to what the local telephone company would provide with the following exceptions: traditional 911 dialing is not possible in the event of a power loss or loss of connectivity.

Speakeasy's major feature of our VoIP offering is Voice Quality of Service. Speakeasy has spent the last year upgrading to a next generation network to prepare for and support future services such as VoIP. Since we control the last mile connection, in addition to the backbone network, we can prioritize voice packets over data packets (we call this VQ Technology). The result is that your internet activity during a call, such as downloading and surfing (either upload or download), does not effect your voice call quality. To our knowledge we are currently the only VOIP provider offering this level of service quality.

A full listing of features is available at:
»www.speakeasy.net/reside ··· l/voice/

As some of you may have noticed already, we're also offering a promotion with the VoIP product-- first 3 months free! Speakeasy's VoIP product will be available to all Speakeasy broadband customers, where VoIP service is available.

We're currently taking pre-sale orders as of today, and will begin fulfilling these orders on October 15th. If VoIP service isn't currently available to you, we will retain your account and contact information, as we continue to bring up rate centers, expanding the coverage area for service. Most major metropolitan markets are available right now, though!

We're in the final testing stages with LNP, which will be launching before the end of this year. Once testing is completed, we'll open the door for number portability, so you can bring your existing home phone number with you.

Speakeasy will be providing a press release regarding the product launch tomorrow which will have additional information should you have any other questions!

Thanks,

Adam Alexander
Speakeasy, Inc.

Thanks for the informative post. Do you know when (or if) the Speakeasy VOIP will be available for business customers?

said by adamA6:

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We're in the final testing stages with LNP, which will be launching before the end of this year. Once testing is completed, we'll open the door for number portability, so you can bring your existing home phone number with you.

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I wish you guys were offering this now, as I would sign up for the new service. I want to be able to bring my current number with me.

said by Endorphine:

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I wish you guys were offering this now, as I would sign up for the new service. I want to be able to bring my current number with me.

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Ditto, LNP is a deal-breaker for me, without it I have to keep my old POTS line which negates the cost advantage of VOIP for me.

After trying Vonage, Phonom and Lingo I am very excited to see if SE's service lives up to its claim of voice call quality even under heavy downloads (which the others mentioned definitely suffer from). IMHO VOIP is not going to be widely accepted by non-techies until traffic prioritization is implemented (like SE is claiming to have done).

No one wants their phone call to go in the toliet just because someone else in the same household decided to start downloading a file. Downstream traffic can only be managed at the ISP's equipment, there is nothing the end user or the ATA can do to manage the traffic at the CPE end of the DSL link - it has to be done at the other end for it to work effectively.

Adam,

I'm very confused. Your message and the press release state that Speakeasy will be offering true E911 service. But the actual Terms of Service, state very much the opposite. Since the Terms of Service is the contract between me and Speakeasy, if it says there is no true E911, then there is no E911.

Given that it's nearly impossible to test E911 without getting into trouble with the dispatch people, I would not order Speakeasy VOIP with those Terms of Service. Care to explain?

Charles Pint

I noticed the same verbose disclaimers regarding 911 in the Speakeasy voice TOS when I signed up today. While I would certainly prefer full E911 service, I'm willing to forego that for now. Besides our cell phones, we'll have a second, completely separate POTS line with measured service and no features. They're very cheap.

A separate voice line with a modem on it is a handy backup for Speakeasy/Covad outages (which have been infrequent so far). Since it's a separate loop, it will work even if the primary (DSL) loop is physically cut.

I don't think you would get in trouble for making a test call. I have done that many times...whenever I move, change providers...or do anything else that impact my phone service....call 911 and make it clear that you are making a test call and verify the info that is populated on the dispatchers screen.

said by chuckpint:

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Given that it's nearly impossible to test E911 without getting into trouble with the dispatch people, I would not order Speakeasy VOIP with those Terms of Service. Care to explain?

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It's not difficult at all. Call your local police station, and explain to them that you are using a VOIP service, and you would like to test and verify that your information is transmitted correctly, and ask them the proper way to proceed.