US Cable Support > Comcast HSI > Comcast Digital Phone

Comcast Digital Phone

is it CDP (digital phone) or CDV (digital voice)?

reply to Fobulous
Comcast Digital Phone. Comcast digital voice is not avaliable in my area yet, and i believe Digital Voice is VOIP..

reply to Fobulous
Digital Voice is a VoIP-like service, however it doesn't cross into the public internet.
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If it's worth saying, it is worth saying politely

reply to Fobulous
If you have Digital Phone and NOT Digital Voice... you will get charged for the voice mail box. You may get the first X months for free but it will cost you 6~8 bucks more a month.

reply to jasqid
Just called CSR and she informed me that Voicemail is part of my plan! i asked her if this is something new and she said yes.

reply to Fobulous
Cool... My Bad.
I had Digital Phone the last few years and just switched to digital voice in Dec when it launched. I had the unlimited plan with them and voicemail was extra.

reply to Fobulous
I like this new Comcast Digital Phone service alot, not only it is much better than SBC but it's cheaper! I dunno, if they will try to get me to CDV or not if it becomes available in my area but i do have Home Security System and while i read that CDV works well, i sure don't want to take any chances and plus it takes 2-4 hours to do the installation?

Also, i guess with CDV, they will install a new Modem that has HSI and Phone capabilities?
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Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.-Abraham Lincoln

reply to Fobulous
I can only speak for my install, but, I had Comcast Digital Phone and switched to Digital Voice 3 weeks ago. I haven't noticed any difference in sound quality and I have a 7 year old ADT security system that works fine with it. You just need to let Comcast and the Alarm company know ahead of time for testing. They do something a little different on the install. I think they called it a direct wire. For my install the Arris modem needed to be located next to the alarm panel, then Cat5e to the office.

reply to Fobulous
with CDV you can also keep your current modem for HSI in some cases or if they take it, go to your local office and pick up a modem for HSI use only.

reply to jasqid
Some packages include voice mail as part of the package. The Any Distance package does not include voice mail. So your statement is not entirely correct.

reply to Fobulous
Eventually, all CDP customers will be forced onto CDV or will be forced to drop cdp all together. As for here in the twin cities, we are JUST NOW getting ready to launch CVD. We were already told that the leased switch is going back to Sprint at the end of next year so all DCP customers MUST migrate or leave.

Sucks for people like me becasue I have 5 phone lines and 3 of them have busy call forwarding on them. It's a feature not offered on CDV, and oddly a feature ONLY sold in MN. There ARE, however in some systems, EMTs with 8 line capability, mostly for MDUs though and in VERY short supply.

Thanks for the info fiberguy , If what you say is true than that means when CDV is avaliable in my area, they'll contact me to "upgrade" me? I know that this CDV is not really using my broad band bandwidth and the setup is different from the likes of Vonage, therefore my home alarm system will work with this setup without any problems?

It's very important for us to have the home security (Brinks) working, and that's the main reason that i didn't choose Vonage over traditional POTs.
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Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.-Abraham Lincoln

Yes, CDV will work with alarm systems. An "interrupt box", if you will, is installed. All this does is that if the alarm is tripped, it will give the alarm system the ability to "cut" the inside wires to the inside phones incase anyone is on the phone giving the alarm box control of the dial tone.

As for CDV, for the most part, it works similar to CDP in the way that it uses a private network to transmit the data from the house to the head end.

Each system CAN BE different with CDP. Our system uses both an RSU and a RiSU box for phone. An RSU installs on the out side of the house like a regular phone box, only the electronics are housed in this box as well. Ours are powered by the network by 90 volts. Some systems use an RSU but power it locally from the house, similar to Verizon FiOS's ONT is.

For MOST apartments here, an RiSU is used INSIDE the house. It's kinda ugly and looks like a thick laptop. It has two phone line ports, the electronics, and the batter for about an 8 hour back up installed. Some apartments also will use a shared RSU in the utility room. Some are 4 line, some are 16 line RSU's.

Either way, these units are similar to what an eMTA does inside the home with the modem. An eMTA communicates with VoIP equipment where CDP equipment ultimately teminates to a classic telephone switch. Our system has one main switch for the entire system, not just the head end.

There are also some systems/MSOs that are using outside VoIP RSU type equipment that is system powered. Our system is perfect for that since it could be system powered since we already run the power and all, however, I think due to the cost of the eMTA vs. the RSU, I think it's why we went modem style. Besides, when there is equipment on the side of the house, it takes longer to chase down the RSU and those things cost a few hundred each. The eMTA is less costly.

Again, all in all, the services are very similar. Your Brinks system should work jsut fine. The installer will make sure that you get in touch with your alarm company to advise them that your phone will go down momentarily and when done a test will be sent from your alarm system to the monitoring center.

The nice thinkg about CDV is that they are giving installers a few hours to complete the install. The desire is that the CDV VoIP service functions as well as a traditional land line as possible. On these installs, EVERYTHING is looked at on the line to ensure the best install. To be honest, if you have CDV in your house, you will also very much likely have a very clean install, at least to the eMTA.