Phone service thru Comcast?

[hipower]

OK guys, I would appreciate any comments you would have on phone service thru Comcast.

We've been thinking about dumping the land line and joining the 21st century, but my wife is against it because of several reasons I won't go into.

I'm thinking of it along the lines of lowering the total bill by dropping AT&T, combining everything on Comcast and getting their "reduced" rate for a package deal.

I guess what I'm asking is along the lines of this.

Do any of you have it? What's it like? Any pros or cons you'd care to mention?

I appreciate anything you might tell me on it. Thanks.

[TripleDigitRide]

When we had it, the phone service worked great. If you lose Internet service, you also lose your phone service. We decided to stick with cell phones only.

[Volzfan]

I've got all three after complaining about the nearly $200 month price and now I'm @ $140. Too many service interruptions to suit me but I'll live with it. Every company has issues it's just a matter of what you can put up with.

During the storms of a week ago my service never even flickered but the next day after the storms had left the area, it was sunny and calm, guess what? Service went out for a couple of hours! Explain that. I can't and Comcast won't. 

[Lowpower]

I'm call Direct tomorrow. I plan on keeping my old road runner service (now comcast) for the internet.

My "package deal" through comcast just went up to $200 bucks and we don't have hbo, sho, or tmc. we do have show and

encore. Their service in Memphis has been substandard. We have lots of outages from every reason they can think of, except of

course, they're lousy. We have had it for long time and my wife was...the only thing that kept m with it. Yesterday we got a $200

bill and she finally woke up and said lets move to another carrier.

 

Facts: the telephone line from comcast part of the router. Lose the router for any reason and you lose; TV, Internet and Phones.

Any power outage does exactly the same. 

 

For example, we have an ice storm or tornado in the vicinity with 60 gusting 70 mph winds that knock down trees into power lines.

The only thing that worked in the past was a land line phone. We've even lost cell phone reception due to storms. Not good when you'd

like to advise other family members or work that everyone is safe. The only thing that worked was a land line. 

 

My plan tomorrow is to call Direct and get their basic tv dish service, call ma bell and get a land line and call comcast to cancel everything but

internet service. I should probably save $100 a month. With Direct I will get free genie and lock in my price for 2 years. I believe I will have to pay 

an additional fee for the HD channels but at $29 to $37 a month I think I can afford the additional few bucks. I think land lines with Long Distance 

are up to $35? Then, $39 for comcast internet service which is much better than DSL or one way satellite.

 

Lp

[Lowpower]

I've got all three after complaining about the nearly $200 month price and now I'm @ $140. Too many service interruptions to suit me but I'll live with it. Every company has issues it's just a matter of what you can put up with.

During the storms of a week ago my service never even flickered but the next day after the storms had left the area, it was sunny and calm, guess what? Service went out for a couple of hours! Explain that. I can't and Comcast won't. 

That seems to happen to us after every storm too. In the past 4-5 years comcast has come to the house 12-15 times. They've replaced our DVR's 3-4 times. All the cables have been rerun.

We got a supposedly brand new DVR from them about a month ago. It took 2 weeks to get it running somewhat correctly. POS comes to mind. I'm completely tired of it and my wife finally agreed

to move on. 

 

Lp

[2.ooohhh]

We use an Obi 110 to provide VOIP to our home telephones for free via a google voice acct.(though the free ride will end in March 2014 it's been a good ride for the last 3 years)

 

If you provide your routers/switches/VOIP hardware with backup power the internet generally doesn't go down during most power outages as the substations seem to have reasonably reliable backup power as well.

 

Our UPSs(battery backup, not the shipping co.) will run our IT infrastructure including phone/internet/alarm monitoring/cellular bridge for around 4 hours, it's not enough for massive week long power outages but it gives me plenty of time to decide if I really need to drag out the generator or not. The alarm has 4g wireless as backup should the cable internet go down.

 

So for us the plus is that pretty much everything hinges on the comcast internet service and we only have that one thing to worry about and can concentrate on keeping it as reliable as possible.(hence the battery backup) the con is also that EVERYTHING hinges on internet.

[Guest TankerHC]

Dont get phone service through Comcast. Buy an Ooma Telo. I bought one last year after researching it. One of the best purchases I ever made. 

 

Ooma Telo is also VoIP. Runs through your modem, back out to your router. Crystal clear. Same thing with Comcast, except.

 

For 9 bucks a month I get two phone numbers. In any area code. You can get two new numbers or for a one time $25 fee you can port your old number over.

 

Unlimited Nationwide calling and Mexico and Canada. If you need worldwide like I do there is no contract. I needed it this month because I had some business in Scotland and my daughter is in Germany. $17 bucks to 61 countries and unlimited 24 hour calling.

 

911. 411, three way conferencing, personal blacklist, free voicemail to text and free cell phone alerts so if your waiting on a call at home, you get alerts through your cell phone, multi ring in case you have phone calls coming over separate lines, call screening, call waiting, call return, remote voice mail retrieval, online managed address book, encrypted calling, QoS firewall, 7/10 digit dialing and a bunch of other features.

 

All of it managed online, Everything Comcast offers, plus a ton of extra features, and 1/4th the price. It will go off if your broadband service is interrupted, but so will Comcast's. 

 

Six months ago I spent the 40 bucks to purchase the digital splitter, so my 423 number is both a regular number and my fax, my 601 number which I had ported over, is still my number. 

 

Here is the thing, if you dont want to pay the 9 bucks. Buy the Ooma Telo and unlimited US calling is FREE. And it works just like any other broadband, same phones, same everything.

 

I bought mine over a year ago, and I HAVE saved a ton of money. 

 

Edit: Almost forgot, they also sell a wireless adapter, you dont even need to plug the thing into your phone.

Edited December 30, 2013 by TankerHC

[jcj]

Ooma is the way to go. I use mine for work. 2+ hours on the phone almost every day and costs almost nothing.

[analog_kidd]

You can also do something like this:   http://www.instructables.com/id/Use-your-cell-phone-through-your-home-phone-wiring/

 

It uses a Bluetooth gateway to connect your cell phone to the house lines. You don't need any kind of land line service at all, just pay one time for the gateway and your monthly cell service.

 

I should say that I have never used one of these, so I can't comment on how well they work. I just knew that they existed and thought I'd throw it out there.

[Patton]

Google Ooma telephone and you can buy me lunch next week for the tip!

[TheBeej418]

I think I'm sold on Ooma now! "High five" oh, wait...

 

We have Comcast phone here at the office. We have 5 lines, one of which is a dedicated fax. Fax was the biggest concern switching over given some reviews but we've had ZERO issues. As said above, when you lose internet, you lose phone too. However, the modems have a backup battery in them so that they're not interrupted by simple power outages. I would say that we lose phones maybe once or twice every few months. It's typically back up and running within a few minutes. I picture it being like at home, someone has to reset the master Comcast router every once in a while for it to operate properly.

[2.ooohhh]

Ooma is just like the Obi I mentioned except it is locked to one VOIP provider. (Ooma) I switched several years back to Obi b/c it is open so there are far more options for compatible VOIP providers.

 

Anyone considering Ooma should also check out the Obi.

[NRA]

2 years service with all the bells and whistles for only $199.95. VOIP  

 

http://www.phonepower.com/voip2yr

 

We have used them for over 5 years now and never looked back

Edited December 30, 2013 by NRA

[battleop]

OK guys, I would appreciate any comments you would have on phone service thru Comcast.

We've been thinking about dumping the land line and joining the 21st century, but my wife is against it because of several reasons I won't go into.

I'm thinking of it along the lines of lowering the total bill by dropping AT&T, combining everything on Comcast and getting their "reduced" rate for a package deal.

I guess what I'm asking is along the lines of this.

Do any of you have it? What's it like? Any pros or cons you'd care to mention?

I appreciate anything you might tell me on it. Thanks.

 

 

If it's your ONLY source of telephone service stick with POTS for now.  If you have other sources of telephone service like Cellular then go ahead and save some money but don't look at just Comcast.  If you have a fax machine or home alarm you may or may not have trouble depending on the device.  

[kieefer]

We have the bundle service with Comcast including the phone. No problems at all but this Ooma sounds pretty good.

[Mike.357]

as part of my package from Comcast I pay less than 8 bucks a month for a land line telephone.  Kind of a no brainer to have it.  

 

It works as well as any phone service I have ever had.

[Guest TankerHC]

I think I'm sold on Ooma now! "High five" oh, wait...

 

We have Comcast phone here at the office. We have 5 lines, one of which is a dedicated fax. Fax was the biggest concern switching over given some reviews but we've had ZERO issues. As said above, when you lose internet, you lose phone too. However, the modems have a backup battery in them so that they're not interrupted by simple power outages. I would say that we lose phones maybe once or twice every few months. It's typically back up and running within a few minutes. I picture it being like at home, someone has to reset the master Comcast router every once in a while for it to operate properly.

 

 

Comcast never resets Routers. Here is a short list of SOME of the reasons, but the primary ones, why you have service outages.

 

Someone takes a shotgun and blasts the Fiber, then a Fiber trailer and team has to be called. WHEN they get there, the Fiber has to be taken down, split, and the fiber has to be respliced, strand by strand. If your REAL lucky, you will have a digital splicer, and not only a mechanical splicer, so at least you only spend 10 hours splicing fiber, rather than 11.

 

Someone decided to plant a garden. (See above)

 

A Blade goes bad on a Cisco Blade server. The engineer who is 100 miles away gets a call from Colorado, drives the 100 miles and waits on the Headend Tech to show up. While waiting on the headend tech to show up Cisco is contacted, Cisco (at whatever time, 2 AM, 3 AM) sends a guy out to the airport with a replacement blade, the guy has to get on a plane (Always ready) and fly the blade to a location within the region. Someone waiting with a vehicle on the other end grabs the blade and delivers it. The Engineer slides the new blade in and calls Colorado, together they configure the blade over some complicated headend Cisco software. All this is supposed to be done in less than 4 hours or is reported to corporate and shows up on the Techops Managers weekly report as a negative.

 

Your neighbor decides to get "Free" cable. In the process, since unused Taps are terminated (And in the case of electroline, not even active), while attempting to get his or her "Free" Cable takes a pair of pliers and breaks off every port on the tap, including the one your cable is plugged in to. The customer then calls the cable company and yells at the Customer Service rep for not keeping the cable on (Which she or he has entirely nothing to do with) and threaten to move to a different service. Since non competitive agreements built into the franchise agreement with the city keep the customer from actually moving to another cable company, rather than having to spend the money sending out a tech (again) switching the customer back when they find out how bad twisted pair signal sucks, "its cheaper to keep em" so the customer gets a deal. Same thing with all those "Threaten the cable company on leaving and they will give you a deal" deals. Plus it really helps when your house is on the homes serviced column rather than just the "homes passed" column on the weekly financials.

 

 

Thats just a few, in over 4 years I never once had to reset a server, thats why there are Cisco Blade servers, each blade supports a certain number of customers. If one blade goes out you dont lose everyone. I worked on the 5200 series. I also had the complete and absolute miserable experience (Numerous times) of having to splice fiber, because of some knucklehead. not once have we ever reset a server, we do that at home on 100 dollar equipment, not in a high tech headend with 25 million dollars worth of equipment.

 

Just thought I would clear that up. 

Edited December 30, 2013 by TankerHC

[Caster]

We have it. One thing I like, if you're watching tv, the name and number pops up on the screen.
So, I don't even have to get up or move a muscle if its someone I don't wanna talk to.

[hipower]

When we had it, the phone service worked great. If you lose Internet service, you also lose your phone service. We decided to stick with cell phones only.

 

Yes, I understand that possibility. We have rarely had service issues where we live(I know that could change at any time.) and we plan on keep the cell service till shutting down other phone service as well.

 

I've got all three after complaining about the nearly $200 month price and now I'm @ $140. Too many service interruptions to suit me but I'll live with it. Every company has issues it's just a matter of what you can put up with.

During the storms of a week ago my service never even flickered but the next day after the storms had left the area, it was sunny and calm, guess what? Service went out for a couple of hours! Explain that. I can't and Comcast won't. 

 

Interruptions are rare for us here. The last was in a total power loss when the area substation went down.

 

 

 

 

[hipower]

Thanks to all for the information. I've got plenty of things to check on and research for best fit for us.

 

I do appreciate all the input.