[DaleM]

Our cable provider is offereing phone service and I'm looking for opinions/experiences good and bad of using cable phone service over 'typical' AT&T land line. Any problems with clarity? I have a hard enough time hearing and understanding if someone isn't enunciating clearly.

 

[Highway Star]

I had problems with mine. They need to hook up some new modem in your house that requires 120V too, so when the power goes out, you have only what built in battery back-up the unit comes with too. Some people like it, I didn't.

 

[Mike]

I had the option when I went with u-verse.
Passed as I didn't want VOIP.
As said above ,requires a modem of sorts and as I'm in a hurricane area ,I'd like a working phone when the lights go out.
I've got the modem as I have the u=verse for internet & TV but no VOIP.
Judging by my dad's VOIP service in NJ ,sometimes it's hard to hear him and there's an echo.

 

[tpshea]

I have AT&T Uverse, and I cannot tell the difference from when I had the old telephone. Callers haven't mentioned any difference either.

 

[Alan]

I've had Comcast Digital Voice for a few years now. In the beginning the service kept going out, but haven't had any problems for a long while now. Sound quality is good IMO. Two downsides: 1) I had to rent their phone service/cable internet modem ($5/mo) as they didn't - maybe still don't - sell that modem; 2) the modem battery only lasts for 8 hours after power failure. If you had a APC power supply that lasted longer than 8 hours, that would help in a power failure.

I don't personally have any complaints with the service.

 

[72SS454Chevelle]

I have had Vonage for 5 years. The only real issue I have is using the VOIP for faxing. Some fax machines don't handle it well.

 

[1966_L78]

I have the AT&T Uverse, and the quality is great...

Yeah, I worried about lack of service when the power is down, but it has a battery backup (most of our phones are newer cordless than need power anyway)

I worry a little about 911, as it doesn't go directly to the local call center at first...

The only issue I have, is it takes a second or so for the dial tone. But i did also add new phones around the same time...

We were on a cheap AT&T plan, and still saves us a little money...

 

[Atlast]

I have Bresnan internet phone, sound great and no one has ever complained about the sound quality. Great deal - no long distance charges!

 

[ChaosEnvy]

Dropped the Land line years ago... I have my crackberry... that is all I need.

Used to have VOIP at work, using Cisco IP phones. I preferred that system over the current system we have in place.

My opinion, if you are going to have a phone in your house other than a cell, might as well be a VOIP phone. No long distance charges, and with Cable TV and Internet combos it's inexpensive to add.

Big D

 

[SuperChevy402]

I had the Cox cable telephone a few years ago, the call clarity was really good. I only got rid of it because I always have my cell phone anyway and rarely used the home phone.

 

[DaleM]

Thanks all. I rarely use our land line as well but it is used to allow DirecTV access to update programming and I haven't heard much on the positive side of this working well with cable phone service.

 

[rick]

Thanks all. I rarely use our land line as well but it is used to allow DirecTV access to update programming and I haven't heard much on the positive side of this working well with cable phone service.

Why would you have both DirectTV & cable service Or am I more confused than usual

 

[DaleM]

Why would you have both DirectTV & cable service Or am I more confused than usual

I compared channels for my area and DirecTV not only has more (and more in HD) but many come in east and west duplicates. Like CBS & NBC (and some premium show channels) may show a program at both 7:00 (east coast) and 10:00 (west coast) local time. So, if we miss a show at 7:00 we can catch it at 10:00. Same with channels like HBO, Showtime, etc. there are east and west broadcasts. Usually not the same shows repeating like network stations but it does double the shows available.

The only two networks I can't get due to some kind of regulation are ABC and FOX. If something is on those I can still watch it on basic cable particularly when the weather is bad we can tune to the local ABC station. Those stations and cable internet are all I use cable for now. I'd never use satellite for my internet connection. :noway:

We have two TVs on DirecTV and each can be watching different programs (and each can be recording another program) where I'm not sure if cable will allow two TVs to watch different stations...not sure on that one. We have a 3rd TV in a guest room with our current basic cable and setup for an XBOX but it's rarely used anyway.

So, essentially it's cable for Internet connectivity and two local stations and DirecTV for entertainment and from what I've looked into so far, (our) cable doesn't provide the same viewing flexibility.

We're really thinking of the cable phone service since basic cable/internet & AT&T phone is more than the package offered for basic cable/internet/phone from our cable company.

Since DirecTV requires a land line phone to update programming software, I'm wondering how the cable phone service would work with DirecTV.

 

[sg5492]

We had it for about 2 years. It seemed like it was off more than it was on. So we dropped the Land line and just have cell phones and I love it!! Most of the calls were for my wife so now they just call her phone and I don't have to deal with taking messages

 

[Bowtie70ss]

The cable phone service sucks. No power=no phone and if you don't pay your bill you can't even call 911. The government has unfairly handicapped the phone companies by not regulating cable companies and forcing them to provide quality service.

I have actually seen where the cable "techs" cut the telephone company drop wires and sabotage the customer's inside wire once they decide to disconnect. I guess they forget that once something is installed in your house it becomes yours and they cannot remove it. I would also not count on your bill remaining the same every month it will go up and up. I for one would never give another dime to the cable company and I consider the lesser evil Dish Network. I have DSL and wouldn't want to have to share my internet connection with everyone in my neighborhood like with a cable modem.

 

[AZCamino]

I switched to Cox a couple of years ago to get the fast internet service and switched to their phone service at the same time. No complaints. I didn't bother with the Cox televison programming; I have dishnetwork and love it. I don't bother hooking the Dish box to the phone line, I never order pay-per-view.

 

[Finally]

If you have Uverse with phone they will supply a battery backup for the modem so you can use the phone if you lose power.

I have uverse TV and internet, not the phone. You have to have a box on every TV, first one with the DVR and the modem comes with the package. Additional boxes are $5 a month. You can watch something different on every TV, I think max is 4 TVs but max of 2 HD channels at a time. You can watch your DVR recordings on any TV in the house. The HBO or Showtime packages also have the East Coast/West Coast channels. Only one version of the network channels but we get them all and DVR the shows we can't watch when they're broadcast. I don't know how big the harddrive in the DVR is but my son scheduled some series recordings and we had over 75 shows recorded at one time.

 

[87caprice]

I havent had a house phone for the last 5 years, I use either my iphone or my htc 6800 (old yeah i know) for calls. I dont see a point in a house phone anymore. But hey thats just me.

 

[DaleM]

Thanks all. I rarely use our land line as well but it is used to allow DirecTV access to update programming and I haven't heard much on the positive side of this working well with cable phone service.

I havent had a house phone for the last 5 years, I use either my iphone or my htc 6800 (old yeah i know) for calls. I dont see a point in a house phone anymore. But hey thats just me.

That's fine but see above for my dilemma.