Due to a job change, I now need to setup a home phone line by next Monday. I used to have BellSouth land line (great!) then switched to Vonage VOIP to try to save and the quality was aweful esp during high internet bandwidth usage. With my job, I can't afford to have dropped call, static, echos, etc etc.

I currently have Time Warner Roadrunner for internet.
In my research, I think these are my options for telephone service.

- Time Warner Digital Phone Unlimited Nationwide for $19.99 (12 month promotion)
- AT&T Unlimited Nationwide Calling One - $25 (the new BellSouth?)
- Give VOIP (e.g. OOMA, OBI) a try again - pay for H/W, no monthly costs?

Is there any catch to the VOIP options? Seems there's a lot of OOMA options that it's confusing.

My goal is to keep the cost down but still have great quality.

[Edited on November 19, 2012 at 2:51 PM. Reason : thanks]

11/19/2012 2:49:36 PM

What kind of router were you using with Vonage? When we used to have it my roommate at the time had a special router that used QoS to make sure the VOIP traffic took priority, so even using torrents or downloading large files never made the quality drop. That might be something to consider if you're thinking about going VOIP again.

11/19/2012 2:56:07 PM

I had a BellSouth/AT&T line and switched about 6 months ago to Time Warner digital phone to save a little money

call quality is great, but it doesn't work if your power goes out, whereas an analog AT&T line still works without electricity

i'd call each company and see when their next available installation date would be if you need it installed in less than a week

11/19/2012 2:59:54 PM

^^ I had a dlink router with I used Vonage VOIP. It was hooked up like Wall --> Cable Modem Router --> Vonage VOIP. My friends are telling me now it should be Wall --> VOIP --> Cable Modem Router. Any VOIP you recommend?

^ So the AT&T (formerly BellSouth) is still an analog line? I talked to Time Warner and they said they can activate a phone line on my existing Time Warner Roadrunner service within 24 hours. But the phone line needs to be hooked up to the back of my cable modem which is currently on the second floor. So I guess I need to move my cable modem to my first floor where I'll be using the phone line. Power outage doesn't concern me as much. I'll resort to cell phone in those cases.

I may just lean towards Time Warner since it seems the easiest/fastest route to setup even though it'll end up costlier in the long run than VOIP. I don't think I have time to research, get, and setup a VOIP box.

11/19/2012 3:24:54 PM

The Time Warner phone service is VOIP, btw.

11/19/2012 3:42:54 PM

for TWC's phone, you'll basically plug a phone cord from a wall jack into the back of your cable modem, and that will essentially provide that phone service to every jack in the house...its VOIP like El Nacho said, but it hooks into your house's existing analog wiring to provide service to all your existing landline phones

depending on what your current TWC modem is though, there is a good chance they'll need to swap it out for different model, which they generally can't do within 24 hours of calling them

the modems i've seen them install on the last few AT&T-->TWC switch overs have been black Arris brand modems...two phone jacks on the back and a removable panel on the left side that may or may not have a backup battery installed

http://cdn103.iofferphoto.com/img3/item/138/283/241/arris-tm502g-touchstone-telephony-cable-modem-ethernet-93bb.jpg

[Edited on November 19, 2012 at 4:02 PM. Reason : pic]

11/19/2012 4:01:14 PM

callcentric + google voice + something like an linksys PAP2 ATA is what I use at home and it's great. If you want to test voip, try google voice inside gmail for free, just get a headset

11/20/2012 4:05:39 AM

How is your Sprint signal at home? I am rocking one of these:

http://goo.gl/G3jpb

$19.99/month for unlimited and the box is free

11/20/2012 9:44:22 AM

TWC VoIP will be superior in quality to vonage, ooma, and other 3rd party VoIP providers.

for all VoIP providers, all that happens is that your VoIP hardware converts the analog signal to data packets and transmits that data to that company's PSTN gateway where it's converted back to analog voice and sent out over the regular phone network.

QoS doesn't buy you much with 3rd party providers, as the ISPs don't honor any QoS tagging.

However, if your ISP is also your VoIP provider, such as the case of TWC, they own the network infrastructure, and do have end-to-end QoS from the modem to their PSTN gateway, so high bandwidth utilization will not affect voice quality as with 3rd party VoIP.

11/20/2012 10:26:39 AM

^ Thanks, that's the assurance I needed. I also talked to TWC today and they also reinforced bandwidth usage wouldn't affect voice quality since something about a dedicated bandwidth line for voice and not sharing the internet bandwidth line. Anyways, I think basically what you said.

^^ I wouldn't say my Sprint signal is 100% reliable and I'm weary of using any 3G service as my phone line. I can't afford any bad reception.

11/20/2012 3:14:03 PM

^ I built a new house that was finished in March and that's exactly what we have. One cable line was run from the box at the road to the voice modem, while a 2nd cable line was run for the data modem/router combo unit. I can be downloading porn at 30Mbps down while uploading photos to Facebook at 5Mbps (my limits) with no voice degradation.

In the olden days, TWC voice worked like Vonage and all that. A device that plugged into your existing data line and shared bandwidth.

11/20/2012 3:39:24 PM

Quote :

"QoS doesn't buy you much with 3rd party providers, as the ISPs don't honor any QoS tagging."

But if you do traffic prioritzation within the router it should be handled before it ever hits the ISP's lines, no? Granted, to do that, you'll need to run your own configurable router in between the ISP modem and the VoIP box. If the ISP modem *is* the VOIP box, that could be a problem as I don't know how common routers are that have coax inputs *and* outputs.

11/20/2012 4:57:06 PM

Ooma FTW!

I have had Ooma for over 2 years and I love it. Every month I have had it it reduces my cost more. I am down to about $7.50 a month. I think the call quality quite a bit better than Vonage...atleast based on my experience.

11/21/2012 7:45:53 AM

^^what he's saying is that the traffic may be prioritized on leaving/entering your gateway but there's no prioritization on the TWC inter-connects and other such routing. I'm not certain how TWC does voip traffic they own, whether they hand it to a "telco" interconnect at their CO or if they just route it over their data network until it has to go to a PSTN

11/21/2012 11:59:45 AM

I understand; I was just thinking that the router could not only QOS tag or similar, but also allocate a certain amount of bandwidth to traffic (internally) tagged as VOIP to ensure that it has a fat enough pipe exiting the residence such that nothing else you're running would produce any interference. Of course what happens to it once it leaves your place is out of your control (as opposed to provider VOIP where they may prioritize) but you can maximize your chance of a successful implementation within your own network.

Though I've never done it myself--perhaps I'm overestimating the abilities of consumer-grade routers.

11/21/2012 1:30:49 PM

Yeah, local QoS will help with ingress/egress contention with other data on your home network but not beyond.

11/21/2012 8:31:20 PM

out of curiosity - any reason you don't just upgrade your cell phone to unlimited minutes?

11/21/2012 8:39:12 PM

She has Sprint. That should answer your question in full right there.

11/21/2012 9:16:42 PM

true, though if sprint is that bad why not switch to a new service?

11/22/2012 9:54:49 PM

Time Warner phone works PERFECT, the quality is even good enough to send/receive faxes.

The only feature it does not have that I want is "no answer transfer" (so I can use my Google voice # instead of an answering machine). There is free call forwarding though so when I am not going to be here I just do *72 then my #.

Vonage & Magic Jack - I have had issues with quality. (Dropping, cant fax, etc)

Traditional ATT# you get dimed and nickeled for calling features and long distance.

ATT uVerse - Full featured and you should be able to get unlimited nationwide. The customer service is FUCKING HORRIBLE though.

I would recommend starting with TWC first, they can give you that "triple play" bundle and your bill will not go up much if at all. I think I am paying $10/mo for home phone which is about how much it is worth to me.


Also, it has been mentioned above. I am not sure if this a job that you want to be reachable when not working..but it may be just as cost effective to upgrade your wireless plan.

11/27/2012 3:40:05 PM