Anyone using Vonage or other broadband phone service?

[Carl R]

I've been researching the broad band phone services for a while and was somewhat hesitant to try it out. Then I saw that Vonage had dropped the price again to 24.99 per month with unlimited local and long-distance calling in the U.S. and Canada. It's $40 per month cheaper than the MCI unlimited plan I have now so I figured I would give it a shot. I signed up earlier today and should have the phone adapter next week. Does anyone else have this service or have another cable based phone service? Have you had any quality of service issues?

* * the biggest drawback I see for some will be the 911 service is a little different. I noticed where the company has solved the problem but it has not been rolled out around the U.S. yet, only in Rhode Island at present.

[Clipper]

My parents just got this service and had/have the following issues:

- Security system conflicts. I don't know what they are, but dad had to call his security company and alter some wires or something. I got a newsletter from my security company discussing various issues.

- Caller ID. Their number now registers as "out of area" on my phones, instead of their name. The newsletter I got mentioned this in regard to calling 911. Something about your number not really being your number.

- Echo. They can hear it, I can't. It started when they got the new service.

- Power. If their electricity goes out, they lose phone service since traditional phone lines don't run on electricity. I think dad fixed that, too.

Sorry I'm vague about these issues. I think they're still pretty happy with it. Can't beat the price.

[golanbenoni]

There are a growing number of Broadband IP providers in the states. They include AT&T (CallVantage), Vonage, CableVision (Optimum Voice), Net2Phone (VoiceLine - although advertised as direct to consumer, it is appearing behind the scenes at cable companies around the world).

This is becoming an increasingly competitive space, and my feeling is that the non-telco/cable companies may eventually drop out. Vonage for example is loosing money on a per customer basis, and the moment AT&T joined the race, they had to lower their rates further. AT&T claims they will have millions of VoIP customers in the next year or so.

Some of the issues cited here, such as echo, and caller-id issues will be resolved (this largely depends on which provider -- I'm certain AT&T doesn't have these issues). Power is really the key issue here, since your internet provider will have installed or shipped to you a cable/DSL modem which requires an external power source. Sometimes these units include your Voice over IP adapter (MTA), and sometimes you may receive an external MTA. Unless you've got these plugged into a UPS, you'll loose your phone during a power outage.

A potentially more serious problem is that of compatibility with the E.911 system. Make sure you fully understand what those limitations are prior to signing up with a Voice over IP service as a primary line.

Golan.

[Lizbv]

I just got digital phone through my broadband provider the beginning of the month. (Waited about a month to get it- its pretty popular). The guys who installed it worked with my security system in my apt. I have no issues or problems. It works great and is much cheaper than regular phone service and the plan is huge. 911 is not an issue, but I also have my cell phone if need be. Electric rarly goes out so I'm not concerned.

Like Golan said, I think issues that may be stated below in Clippers message are provider specific and shouldn't be generalized nessesarily to all providers of this service.

TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY MOJO

[Carl R]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I am more concerned about voice quality than anything else. Not really concerned about power outages, because we do have cellphone and I also plan on hooking up a UPS for battery backup. After reading more, it does look like I might have some problem with our alarm system and that may cause me to cancel. The equipment is supposed to be here Friday so I will know more then.

Liz, have you noticed any sound quality issues (echo, static, etc.)?

Knock on wood, I have Road Runner Time Warner cable service and it has rarely been down in the two years I'v had it.

[golanbenoni]

Originally posted by Carl R:

Thanks everyone for the responses. I am more concerned about voice quality than anything else. Not really concerned about power outages, because we do have cellphone and I also plan on hooking up a UPS for battery backup. After reading more, it does look like I might have some problem with our alarm system and that may cause me to cancel. The equipment is supposed to be here Friday so I will know more then.

Liz, have you noticed any sound quality issues (echo, static, etc.)?

Knock on wood, I have Road Runner Time Warner cable service and it has rarely been down in the two years I'v had it.

As for the sound quality, if you're internet connectivity is functioning properly you should not notice an issue with sound quality. If your cable company offers the phone service, you may want to choose that over a foreign provider like Vonage. The reason is that on the cable networks (in particular DOCIS 1.1 networks) there are provisions for quality of service which will prioritize your voice traffic over competitive data transfers.

The out of the box configuration for the MTA's is to make use of G.711 which is a CODEC that does not compress the sound -- the sound quality should be exactly the same as what you're accustomed to now. In some regions where bandwidth may be limited the MTA's can be configured for compression, such as G.729 or G.726 CODECs which takes far less bandwidth, but sounds more like a cellphone call.

Problems like echo are generally not the fault of your local connection, but rather a problem in the termination leg of the call (the far end) - Just like on your plain old telephone service, this should not happen on your VoIP calls either.

Good luck, and always have a charged cellphone handy in case of an emergency! I do not believe it even requires service, since all cellphones, regardless of activation should be capable of dialing 911.

Golan

[Lizbv]

Originally posted by Carl R:

Liz, have you noticed any sound quality issues (echo, static, etc.)?

Knock on wood, I have Road Runner Time Warner cable service and it has rarely been down in the two years I'v had it.

Hi. Carl I have Road Runner/TW also. The guys made sure my security system worked with the work they did when installing the digital phone service and then I called the station to test it. Made sure all my other phone jacks were tied in. It took about an hour for the work. There are no echos, or static. Sounds just like regular. My alarm system isn't "too" complex, maybe yours is? Does that make a difference? I have No clue. Hope that helped.

TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY MOJO

[Lizbv]

If you are on hold, can someone get crossed over to your line not involved in the conversation? Are there secure line issues with broadband phone service?

TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY MOJO

[golanbenoni]

Originally posted by Lizbv:

If you are on hold, can someone get crossed over to your line not involved in the conversation? Are there secure line issues with broadband phone service?

Liz, Audibily Crossed Lines is typically symptomatic of an analog system. It is not my expectation that this would ever happen in the case of VoIP. We have seen some cases where buggy controllers have connected the wrong people, but this is all historical.

As to your second question, yes there are secure line issues with broadband phone service. Depending on which VoIP carrier you use, and the underlying technology will determine to what extend there is a security issue. I'll try and answer your question.

In cable networks, Cablevision for example, encrypts their VoIP traffic to their CMTS units using the privacy encryption available in the DOCSIS standard.

If you are using a company like Vonage for instance, you should be aware that all traffic flows through the 'net in unencrypted form. That means anyone with a sniffer and the means (you'd have to be in between the sender and receiver) to decode the traffic (freeware sniffers, such as ethereal can do this) could certainly "listen in" to your call.

This is not much different than your email, or even your cordless telephony operation.

Getting "in between" however, is not so trivial. Most tier-1 internet providers "peer" or interconnect with each other over private peering links and no longer over a shared medium as they have in the past. Gaining access to these private networks would require gaining privileged access to equipment and networks -- although possible, it is not likely to happen. At the edge of networks however, as in the case of cable networks, most of the data traffic unclassified as voice is generally NOT encrypted between the Cable Modem and CMTS at the carrier. I have been told that people have modified their cable modems to convert them into Cable Modem Sniffers (by placing them into whats known as promiscuous mode) and lifting all the traffic on the shared medium.

If this is a real concern of yours, you may want to elect to choose VoIP service offered by your cable-provider, rather than a foreign provider, such as Vonage. You should also make a point of verifying whether or not traffic will be encrypted between your Cablemodem and CMTS.

On DSL networks, this is far less of an issue to begin with.

Golan

[Carl R]

I received the phone adapter Friday afternoon and had it hooked up to my router and the cable modem in just a couple of minutes. I unplugged the Southwestern Bell connection in the box on the back of my house (five minutes), and then plugged a phone line from the phone adapter to a telephone wall jack and all the phone jacks in the House work great. So far, can't tell any difference in quality after only 10 or 12 calls.

Main problem is as I anticipated, I have to figure out a way to get the alarm system to work. Haven't found anyone yet who can give me the answer so far, so that's my next project.