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AT&T Callvantage will disconnect in Feb

AT&T stopped taking new orders for CallVantage several months ago, but has made no announcement that the service is being completely discontinued that I'm aware of. If it's being discontinued this month, they're not giving very much time to allow people to port out their numbers and whatnot.

Yea i knew that they weren't taking new orders and therefore the bell was starting to toll (subtle pun intended) but I didn't know it was official until today. I wonder how many people know and if anyone has actually received the termination letter yet?
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JAXx, aka Stephen
~ All my opinions are only my opinions and if anyone else shares them - it's chance ~

Well, your post here is the first I've heard about it. I haven't received a letter, e-mail, or anything else from AT&T saying that they're discontinuing CallVantage.

Well I called AT&T this morning at 866-596-8464 and talked to billing because i have 2 lines and wanted to cancel the 2nd line (fax machine) because i just bought magic jack for the fax line (and happily magic jack works with my fax) and was told by the biing rep that I would be getting a letter soon announcing the end of service. She actually couldn't cancel my 2nd line b/c of this pending end of service. I am in NYC but she said this was going to be nationwide.

Would you like to call them and see if you can confirm as well?
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JAXx, aka Stephen
~ All my opinions are only my opinions and if anyone else shares them - it's chance ~

reply to JAXx
yes it is true. I called this morning to discuss service changes and they apparently stopped adding new customers. The notices are supposed to go out in the near future about termination of service but sounds more like mid year before or so before service is terminated.

reply to JAXx
I have 2 lines with CV. I'm currently in the middle of waiting for one of the lines to port out to another provider. It's been about 2 weeks since I started the port process. Hadn't made a decision as to what I was going to do with the other line, but I guess it'll be going away. Wonder if they're going to have some type of replacement for CV? It's too bad they're killing it off, as it really is an excellent service. I never had any problems with it, and the voice quality was very good.

I don't really like my choices but I'm going with a bundled package with time warner (already provide net and TV). The only good thing is that phone service wont be disrupted when their crappy internet dies, lol, as it is unaffected oddly by internet service (even though its going through the net, makes no sense)
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JAXx, aka Stephen
~ All my opinions are only my opinions and if anyone else shares them - it's chance ~

reply to JAXx
Oh crud ! I knew it was too good to be true. CV was absolutely perfect for our home since we rarely use the phone. I loved having such a low phone bill with no contract.

Now I am going to have to look into either Optimum Voice or Vonage.

I already have Cablevision for my internet and television services so I may be able to work out the discounted "Triple Play" package with them though I was not all that thrilled with the voice quality having used their VoIP at a couple of friend's homes who use their service.

I did recently get them to reduce my cable bill when I was planning on changing to FIOS and retained them instead so maybe I can do something with the price.

Still cruddy ! I hot wired my whole house with CV for 19.99 since I was already a cell customer.

I feel your pain Annmarie! I won't go with vonage because a) they've been having problems and b) i'm not willing to go with a company that offers VOIP as its only product - if that product gets in trouble they have nothing else. i want a company that will be around a LONG time but i fear we have not seen the end of the voip shakedown.
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JAXx, aka Stephen
~ All my opinions are only my opinions and if anyone else shares them - it's chance ~

reply to JAXx
I guess we can't be too surprised that the service is being tanked. I'm very disappointed, because it has worked extremely well for my family, and I hate to see it go.

Sounds like it may be worth a call to see what the timing of the disconnect is...

Oddly enough, I was able to add a Simple Reach number to my account, and it looked like I would be able to add a 2nd line. (I didn't go through with the additional line order--seemed like it would be more of a hassle to get rid of, especially given the earlier post in the thread.) One would think that if they were discontinuing service within a few weeks (or even a few months) that they'd disable ordering of new numbers. That's not to say that I think the OP is lying, just that one would think ATT would disable the ordering of any new numbers for the service.

It seems very discombobulated. I talked to tech support today and they had no idea that it was being discontinued and I called billing back a second time and they confirmed that it was being canceled.

You don't have to take my word for it, call AT&T at 866-596-8464 and go to billing and ask them yourselves.
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JAXx, aka Stephen
~ All my opinions are only my opinions and if anyone else shares them - it's chance ~

It's not an issue of questioning your word. The main concern I had was that one post (yours) indicated that it would be canceled within weeks, and another (the anon poster above) indicated it was more like 6 months. While I'm not happy with either of them, I need to know whether (or when) I should be getting a port started...

reply to JAXx
What do you supposed this means for corporate customers?

reply to Fisamo

reply to Fisamo
Until we actually get the official letter I think we're just speculating on the cut off time. When i quoted the billing rep as saying "a few weeks" I think its fair to also say that she may not really know.

I suggest we lobby BBR to contact AT&T at the highest possible level for more info. I am going to email Kurt Bode who runs the news section of BBR.
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JAXx, aka Stephen
~ All my opinions are only my opinions and if anyone else shares them - it's chance ~

I am afraid to even call AT&T - I don't want to know. I was contemplating putting in a second line next month and now this bit of news.

Again, I knew it was too good to be true especially once they stopped accepting residential customer installs.

Annmarie
Yes it would seem a poor time to be adding a line with them even if they allow it.

And i'm not much into pushing alternatives given that BBR users tend to realize that each person's experience tends to vary by region, personal taste etc, but having said that and *if* your 2nd line was of secondary importance you may want to look at magic jack (www.magicjack.com).

I just got one as a second line replacement (this is how I found out about AT&T because i called them to cancel my second line) and i'm using it for my fax machine and as a backup to my main line.

The good:
- It's super easy, you can buy one at radio shack and have a dialtone 60 seconds after plugging it into a usb port on your computer.

- It's cheap. $39.95 buys the device and 1 year of service. Additional years cost $19.95/year or as low as about $11/year if you buy 5 years of service.

- Unlimited local and LD service.

The Bad:
- It only works when your computer is awake. Incoming calls will go to voicemail however when your comp is asleep and voice messages are emailed to you as well as being available from any phone.

- Call quality seems good but not perfect. As an example if your comp is using a lot of bandwidth i've found calls get a bit choppy.

- When my comp woke up this morning I had to unplug and replug MJ to restore service.

- You can't port an existing phone number - yet, but you can pick from a lot of area codes and exchanges.

The neutral:
- It is not a phone itself, but a bridge to a dialtone. You either plug a corded or cordless phone(s) into it or if traveling use a laptops built in mic/speakers or a external headset.

Personally I would not use it as a primary line but as a spare line its hard to beat the price and ease of use.

**How's that for not pushing a product!!??** =
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JAXx, aka Stephen
~ All my opinions are only my opinions and if anyone else shares them - it's chance ~

reply to JAXx
I did call AT&T this morning to see if I could get some more information. The CSR I spoke with was very friendly and apologetic that the service was going away (kind of sad, herself, it appeared). The important thing, though, was that she seemed to have the best explanation regarding what to expect as the service is decomissioned.

According to the CSR who took my call, no 'impending disconnect' letters have yet been sent out by AT&T. They plan to send the letters out in waves over the next several months (may take more than a year). The letters will contain details regarding the timing of the subject account's latest termination date. [I'd expect them to also include (when applicable) some kind of carrot to convert to U-Verse Voice or AT&T POTS.] She also indicated that it was her understanding that users would have 60 days from the mailing date of their letter to move their service to another provider.

With this information, since I do prefer the CallVantage service, I intend to hold on until the bitter end. When I have to, I'll port to another VoIP provider. Two providers that have my attention are Voicepulse and Voipo. Voicepulse, because they've been around 'forever' and they have a solid feature set and solid reputation, Voipo because as a Voipo beta tester, I've had good experiences with them. With Voipo, I recognize that they're early into their post-launch phase of existence. That, to me, means that there will be occasional service hiccups (as detailed in the »VOIP Tech Chat forum). However, their response to the issues that have come up has been impressive, to say the least. I just hope they can develop their Voipo Connect (similar to CV's Control-by-Phone) feature before AT&T sends me the disconnect letter. That's one feature voicepulse does not have, and it's a clear differentiator for me.