said by Anonymous :

Cable co in my area charges $29.99/mo if you bundle all three services so it's worth $5 extra just to have these benefits.

said by ftth_freak :

Cable Co's like Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and others use an entirely separate CMTS and separate return and forward signal than their cable modem system. This insures the QoS for the cable co's VoIP/phone service. For all of you P2P defenders, this mean when you are sucking up all of the upload and downoad capacity in your neighborhood with your cable modem, the VoIP/phone CMTS will not be affected.

said by ftth_freak :

Obviously you are technically lacking in VoIP knowledge. Cable Co's like Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and others use an entirely separate CMTS and separate return and forward signal than their cable modem system. This insures the QoS for the cable co's VoIP/phone service. For all of you P2P defenders, this mean when you are sucking up all of the upload and downoad capacity in your neighborhood with your cable modem, the VoIP/phone CMTS will not be affected. When using a third party VoIP like Vonage, Vonage piggy backs off of the same bandwidth as your cable modem and thus will be affected by the users bandwidth habits.

For instance, a user who pays for the lowest level of modem speed and uses Vonage will hear a degraded quality of voice and could also experiance dropped call if the down/up load a large file at the same time.

FYI...all things are not created equal in reality...only in your mind.

said by Matt :

Comcast controls the QoS on "their" network. Who cares if their network is attached to the internet or not, it never leaves their backbone so no, it never traverses the internet.

said by karlmarx :

Look at the cell phone this way. I used to pay sprint 59.99 for a 1500 minute plan. BUT, add in the taxes and fees, and the real price was about $82.00 a month. I dumped that when I left, and when I came back I bought a t-mobile prepaid. 10 cents a minute. I am using about 300 minutes a month, and I pay, bingo. $30.00. Period. No taxes, no fees, no early termination fees. The way I see it, if you're not a heavy phone users (i.e. less than 20 minutes a day), then prepay is definitely the way to go. Charge up $100.00, and get a free $50.00 upgrade.

said by funchords :

Except on Comcast, where it does -- albeit it never leaves Comcast's network but where it does ride on Comcast's network, that network is part of the Internet.

said by Matt :

Additionally, the MSOs VoIP product never touches the internet.

said by fiberguy :

OVER PRICED CELLULAR SERVICE. ANYONE here with a cell phone should rethink about bitching at even a $50 unlimited wire-line phone service when cellular service is THE most expensive way to place a call. (Not to mention, about 95% of the people in this site have no real reason to say they "need" a cellular phone.

said by lengyelc :

Comcast certainly preys on customer stupidity. Have you seen their commercials? Those alone were enough to make me puke and change providers!

said by ftth_freak :

Obviously you are technically lacking in VoIP knowledge.

said by ftth_freak :

Cable Co's like Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and others use an entirely separate CMTS and separate return and forward signal than their cable modem system.

said by ftth_freak :

Cable Co's like Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, Cox and others use an entirely separate CMTS and separate return and forward signal than their cable modem system.

said by Lenagainster :

Most folks are not that technically astute when it comes to VoIP. Most folks don't even know what VoIP means. Tell them to plug in the TA to the router and you'll get a blank stare. So when Commiecast says we will give you unlimited calling for $25 and throw in a few features with it, and let you keep your precious phone number, and Commiecast does all the work to set it up, sure they will go for it. It's less than the $50 plus they were paying to the landline company. Relatively few are technically saavy enough and brave enough to venture into the world of independent VoIP providers and get a much better deal for even less $$.