markrb
join:2002-10-03
Merrimack, NH
4 edits | Looking for a SR replacement here is what I found
I am looking to replace SR and have made many calls around. This is what I have found out.
All plans are based on specials currently running.
All plans are based on my limited needs.
All plans allow 911.
All taxes are for NH.
Specials and ways to switch services to save activation fees are based on recommendations of the rep I called.
Lingo: $11.45 (7.95 + fees) $.03 Per minute $40 to activate $40 less then 1 year termination charge. Sign up for free 1 month plan, downgrade after 1 month($9.99 charge), get free activation.
Comast: +$20 (more then current plan) +HBO/STARS free 1yr +2mb/s increase in internet speed, can't port number, $29.99 install fee. After 1 yr price goes up. No fee to cancel.
Vonage: $17.98 ($14.99 + fees) Start with $21.95 plan for 2 months free, then downgrade for a $9.99 fee. No activation fees.
Viatalk: Can't contact too busy.
Telebrand: wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.
QuantumVoice: $9.95 (includes all taxes and fees) 250 minutes outgoing. Either 1st month free or free activation and free equipment. No brainer, free equipment and activation saves much more for me.
I am leaning towards Comcast because of the additional value of the HBO/STARS and the extra 2mb/s internet speed, but Lingo is tempting at almost half the price for the first year.
Hope this helps.
Mark |
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christcorp
Premium
join:2001-05-21
Cheyenne, WY
 ·Bresnan Online
 ·VOIPo
| At least you've researched it. That's a lot more than many others have done. Personally, vonage wouldn't be in the running if it were me. They have way to many legal and financial problems right now. They may not even be in business in the next year.
Comcast and other cable providers wouldn't be an option for me because they aren't true voip in the truest sense and they are much more expensive. Truest voip, I mean, if you want to go on a vacation, business trip, see relatives, etc... you can simply bring your voip adapter with you and connect it wirelessly or wired to ANY BROADBAND in the country, and you have brought your phone with you. With comcast and other cable, it only works on your cable. Even if you move down the road, if you don't have their cable service again, you aren't getting their phone. You may even not be able to keep the number.
Lingo is part of what is called the 3rd party voip providers like vonage, packet8, nuvio, viatalk, att, voicepulse, etc... This is the direction I recommend. There are literally hundreds of providers to choose from. You get real portability, mobility, flexibility (Change between 5 different broadband providers and it doesn't affect your voip and phone service), price is cheaper, etc... Anyway, that's my suggestion. Later... Mike... |
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LottaMoxie
join:2007-06-04
| said by christcorp  :Truest voip, I mean, if you want to go on a vacation, business trip, see relatives, etc... you can simply bring your voip adapter with you and connect it wirelessly or wired to ANY BROADBAND in the country, and you have brought your phone with you. Or if you're bringing your laptop with you and your provider supports softphone then you have your 'phone' with you without having to bring the adapter, as long as you have Internet access, of course. I like that. |
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vcdburn
join:2004-09-17
New Castle, IN
| reply to christcorp
Just because "vonage" lost some lawsuit doesn't mean their going to take the sunrocket route.
I looked at it this way, If they go belly up I get a new motorola router, and move on to someone else...maybe magicstick, that thing may be the answer! |
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SMCinAZ
Premium
join:2000-11-29
Glendale, AZ
clubs:
| said by vcdburn :Just because "vonage" lost some lawsuit doesn't mean their going to take the sunrocket route. I looked at it this way, If they go belly up I get a new motorola router, and move on to someone else...maybe magicstick, that thing may be the answer! You mean MagicJack.
I ordered one and cannot wait to try it out. If it works as advertised, my problems are solved and no more need to spend hours working on the "perfect" solution. |
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Carlito
join:2007-07-19
East Brunswick, NJ
2 edits | reply to vcdburn
The main financial problem with Vonage is not the lawsuit(s), but their cost to acquire new clients. They spend way too much money on marketing in relation to the number of new people signing up for their service. |
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vcdburn
join:2004-09-17
New Castle, IN | well...i'd say they just got a huge shot in the arm of old SR customers thats going to help A LOT! |
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ebruce
join:2001-12-04
East Falmouth, MA
| reply to markrb
You might want to consider GalaxyVoice (a reseller of RNK VOIP):
»www.galaxyvoice.com/resphone.html
If you're not looking for unlimited outbound, they have a "free" service for MA, NH, NY and RI residents that only charges for outbound minutes (2.3 cents a minute) and the first 60 minutes are free. They also charge some taxes and fees (my cost is under $3 a month). RNK is a CLEC (a real phone company). It took them about 1 week to port my number from QuantumVoice. I've had them for almost 2 years. No big problems.
Other charges:
Activation $25
ATA: $65 (including shipping) - BYOD is just the activation fee
Let me know if you have any questions about their service. |
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markrb
join:2002-10-03
Merrimack, NH | I used to have Galaxy as my Dial-up years ago back in Boston. Can't remember if I liked them or not. I will look into them, thanks for the info.
Mark |
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jdhampton
join:2007-07-20
Sachse, TX
·Packet8
| reply to markrb
I have finally decided on a service as well. First of all, I am a stock trader, so I do tons of research on companies on a day to day basis. I reviewed several companies and read many postings on BBR since SR went out of business. This is what I have found.
Seems like everyone is moving their service to ViaTalk. That is fine, except they were smaller than SR and were not setup to accommodate the number of clients they are receiving. I did not sign up with them, because of the volume, customer service will be bad, wait times horrible (I called and was number 78 in the queue) and there was no definitive time frame to actually get service.
Vonage has a ton of features, but they are in a patent lawsuit with Verizon. We all know Verizon has tons of lawmakers in their pocket, so Vonage is too big of a risk.
VOIP.com, Teleblend, Nuvio and some of the others are too new to rate. These companies do not have a ton of information available about them.
Packet8 seems like a good company. I researched their earnings and SEC filings. They IPO-ed in 2002 and have been getting closer and closer to profitability. They went from losing 24M in 2002 to only losing 2M in 2006. This is huge. With that being said, I feel this company should be around for a while. I also found out they have patents on their technology, so no lawsuits anytime soon. I signed up for their service online today and received confirmation of processing within an hour. I know they probably are being bombarded just like the other VOIP companies and I am so far impressed with the turnaround time. The only thing I don't like about them so far is their web portal. It is setup for business techies, and needs to be revamped for a non-technical consumer.
I am not ripping or recommending any company, I am just providing feedback from some of he research I performed to save people a lot of time.
Let me say this before everyone replies saying I don't know what I am talking about. I am not ripping or recommending any company, I am just providing feedback from some of he research I performed to save people a lot of time. I do not care about all of the supposed disparity of features between different companies. I use my phone as a phone. All I care about is voice quality, caller ID, 3 way, free long distance, voice mail and reliable service. Price is not really an issue as most of the providers range from $19.95/ MONTH to 24.95/Month plus taxes. This is not a big difference, plus they all offer the year for 200+taxes. I am going to do a year plan, so A)that makes the price difference null and void, B)I am still paying less than I would with a POTS line. |
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thref23
join:2006-04-20
Tempe, AZ
| reply to markrb
Don't know much about MasterCall (mymasterdigital.com), but here its a little more than $40 in startup fees (activation taxes etc), two months free no equipment fee. Plans start at $9.99 for 500 min (deomestic & intl), $19.99 for unlimited (just about). They have the best plans I could find and their website seems reassuring enough. |
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eabolden
Premium
join:2007-07-17
Falls Church, VA
| reply to jdhampton
On the subject of verizon/vonage/patents and lawsuits, I am not a patent lawyer but the world of patents and inventions can be a very tricky place. Tons of small companies loses infrindgement cases against larger companies. This is said, but true.
It does not mean they have lawmakers behind them, but what it does mean is that the large corporation generally has the larger internal or external legal support behind them. Basically, the larger companiy has the money.
Patent infringment case can take years to prove and get a decision on. The patentability "is an ever changing kaleidoscope of moods and colours" (B-52's Detour thru Your Mind".
Just ask any IP Lawyer (intellectual property) and why they are so hot right now. The fields of electronics, IT, and prescription drugs makes those IP lawyers rich. (think Blackberry, Verizon, and Prozac) |
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markrb
join:2002-10-03
Merrimack, NH
1 edit | reply to jdhampton
I ended up going with Quantumvoice for $9.95 a month.
I called each of the companies and spoke at length to each rep. I was most impressed by Quantumvoice with Lingo running second. Vonage was dead last as they guy was reading from a script and stumbled whenever I interrupted him with a question or comment.
No comment on Viatalk as I never could get to talk to someone. I gave up after three times on hold for more then 45 minutes. That scared me that if I ever needed assistance I would wait forever.
VoicePlus was closed for the weekend so I couldn't contact them. I would have liked to have talked to them, but couldn't wait.
I liked the fact that the rep at QV was upfront that their voicemail isn't the greatest. He seemed to want me to have my expectations in line with reality so I knew exactly what to expect, unlike others that way oversell features.
I hope I end up being happy with my choice. At least the money is cheap this time if I made another mistake, but the PITA factor is always a risk.
Mark |
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sandwidth
join:2004-10-22
Ontario, CA
·Time Warner Cable
| said by markrb :I ended up going with Quantumvoice for $9.95 a month. If I'm reading this right, by their website the $9.95 plan is only 250 local minutes & that's it! Pretty barebones!
Considering that their (Vonage/P8/blender/etc) equivalent unlimited plan is $29.95 I'd certainly hope that they wouldn't have answers like, "Our VM ain't the greatest."??
Anyway......I won't knock you for going elsewhere, but I think if I hadn't done the Blender thing, I'd probably have either done P8 or VT, myself. (I tried VZ Voicewing, but 3 days after I signed up, they STILL didn't have me E911 checked yet.) |
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oddgeezer
join:2005-03-22
Leawood, KS
| said by sandwidth :said by markrb :I ended up going with Quantumvoice for $9.95 a month. If I'm reading this right, by their website the $9.95 plan is only 250 local minutes & that's it! Pretty barebones! The site says, "this plan provides unlimited inbound calls and allows you to make 250 minutes of nationwide long distance calls (continental USA + Canada)."
Where did you get the "local" business? |
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markrb
join:2002-10-03
Merrimack, NH
2 edits | • Unlimited inbound calls from around the world.
• 250 minutes/month calls to continental USA & Canada.
• Taxes and 911 fee are already included in the monthly fee.
911 Dialing, 3-way Calling, Call Forwarding, Call Logs, Call Transfer, Call Treatments, Call Waiting, Call Waiting + Caller ID, Caller ID with Name, Phone Book, Return Call (*69), Simultaneous Ring, Softphone, Speed Dial, Voicemail, Web-based Phone Portal, plus any other standard features listed here.
If this is barebones, I would like to see what you consider to be full service.
If I was looking for unlimited then maybe this wouldn't be the company I would choose, but as I stated at the start I am looking for my low usage needs.
Mark |
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sandwidth
join:2004-10-22
Ontario, CA
·Time Warner Cable
| What I really meant to point out was a direct comparo of 'unlimited' vs. 'unlimited'.
You can do $9.95 plans similarly from other folks so 250 outbound is definitely a compromising number. (I don't use my phone much and I can tell ya' that 250 wouldn't cut it & wouldn't even come close to cutting it on, for example, my cell phone).
Unlimited = $29.95, no? |
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SMCinAZ
Premium
join:2000-11-29
Glendale, AZ
clubs:
1 edit | reply to markrb
Look at www.magicjack.com
Looks darn good.
Will try them out Monday and see. |
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brut7
join:2000-10-06
Babylon, NY
·magicjack.com
| reply to markrb
Being on Optonline broadband and cablevision TV I went with Optimum Voice from my cable company. It's going to cost me 14.94 a month. Sound quality is perfect for me (as was sunrocket) and we chose not to port the number but simply use a new one. I have my old SR number forwarding to it for however long that lasts and have filed for a SR refund with my CC company. I feel that Optimum Voice will be a reliable choice for a very long time and the price is pretty good as well. The phone line plugs straight into the new cable modem they swapped for me, no gizmo involved at all and I'm using my Uniden phones from SR (we have three) which I like.
Anybody switching to Teleblend is nutz, you want to loose more money or pay more money to the people who have not fulfilled their part of the agreement?
Best Wishes |
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frogli
join:2003-10-12
Yaphank, NY | reply to ebruce
I have been waiting since June 22 for Galaxy Voice to port my number from Sunrocket!!!!!!! |
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