Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA | reply to fiberguy
Re: Not a good deal
Well I guess other cable companies are charging $40 bundled. That's way too expensive. In fact I was hoping that Mediacom would match Vonage. |
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Big V
@68.87.x.x
| Think about this...
Vonage (and any other low cost service providers) does not provide any kind of service to your home, they just have a data center which translates your IP signal then routes it onto the phone switch. They could care less about your quality across the publicly switched internet (once you leave your ISPs network).
In this sense, the service that Mediacom and Comcast are providing is superior (assuming that it is working with the same level or reliability) as they can actually control the amount of lost packets and routing of your IP packets to guarantee QoS (quality of service).
This to me is worth the extra money as I tried Vonage and for some reason my call quality was extremely poor. After weeks of troubleshooting, I determined that it had to be the public internet component of my connection to their data center. I now use the cable company's service and the call quality is 100% better...for $15/month more.
As for the cable company de-prioritizing packets for these other phone providers, my friends at the cable company tell me that they have enough problems dealing with their own internal routing to keep it up to date and could not possibly manage to de-prioritize packets for specific services. Can you imagine the amount of administration it would take to maintain that amongst their other routing rules? Not realistic...especially since it would leave an obvious trail for anti-competitive law suits. This argument is so ridiculous I cannot believe that people even bring it up. |
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rachelsfx
join:2004-09-27
Pensacola, FL | reply to Anonymous
Cable VOIP to the home is Regulated
Vonage isn't, yet. A PSC can't really touch Vonage except maybe on 911 service. However, if a Comcast customer complains, they can fine them for providing lousy service with lots of outages. Cable VOIP ISN'T Net based either. |
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