Verizon Hub

[Todd Covini]

For all you gadget gurus...
Anyone have one?
Is it truly the "Home Phone Reinvented" or just a really big fixed cell phone?

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/vzhub/overview.jsp

Landline service in Beaumont is the pits and we're not ready to personal cell only just yet. Looking for landline solutions...

[evarner]

For all you gadget gurus...
Anyone have one?
Is it truly the "Home Phone Reinvented" or just a really big fixed cell phone?

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/vzhub/overview.jsp

Landline service in Beaumont is the pits and we're not ready to personal cell only just yet. Looking for landline solutions...

Digital Voice is a Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) service that offers phone service over a broadband Internet connection instead of through a traditional telephone network.

The quality of your Digital Voice call is affected by your broadband speed / bandwidth. So, customers with a lower bandwidth, like 768K, may experience poorer sound quality than customers with a higher bandwidth, like 3.0 Megabytes per second (Mbps) will enjoy.

Recommended bandwidth subscription: 1.5Mbps

No DSL or Cable... out of luck

[Todd Covini]

Well, sound quality can't get any worse than the landline I have now.
Got cable and it's advertised at 3Mbps, but sure doesn't feel it.

If the connection were slow, I don't mind poor sound....but if it cuts out, is choppy or simply doesn't connect....that's a problem.

What's the common complaint with VOIP?
Has it improved in the past years? (Initial reports were that it sucked as was unreliable.)

[evarner]

Well, sound quality can't get any worse than the landline I have now.
Got cable and it's advertised at 3Mbps, but sure doesn't feel it.

If the connection were slow, I don't mind poor sound....but if it cuts out, is choppy or simply doesn't connect....that's a problem.

What's the common complaint with VOIP?
Has it improved in the past years? (Initial reports were that it sucked as was unreliable.)

VoIP has come a long way since a decade ago when dropped calls were common and callers sounded like they were talking with a mouthful of Rice Krispies. No longer is VoIP a pure trade-off of quality for savings.

I swiched over to VoIP about 8 months ago and never had an issue with voice quality.

There are some sites to test Internet speed/quality.

[AllZWay]

I would bet your office phone system is VOIP.

Home use wasn't great several years ago, but it has came a long way and I know several people that are using through the local cable company with no problems.

[Nick]

Land lines work when the power goes out.

[JJordan]

VOIP will forward all calls to your cell (or any other number) when the power is out. I switched over to AT&T's VOIP (CallVantage) about a year ago and have never had a problem. $19.99 a month for unlimited local and long distance, call waiting, caller ID, etc. Unfortunately, AT&T no longer takes new customers for CallVantage because they are pushing their U-Verse phone which is much more expensive.

Also the taxes on VOIP services are much lower than on a land line. My after tax rate is only about $24.

-Jay

[mitchntx]

Land lines work when the power goes out.

:lol:

[Todd Covini]

There are some sites to test Internet speed/quality.

I tested mine and seemed OK.

6.64 MB download
.59 MB upload

Since I know nothing about internet technology, would VOIP need both download & upload speed? Would that mean incoming tones would be great but my outgoing tones would suck?

What are the speeds some of you successful VOIP guys running?

[donovan]

I have been using Time Warners Digital Phone (VoIP) for three years now...

Never had any problems, speeds are 8MB/768MB

And mine works when the power goes out!! $50 battery backup keeps the cable modem/phone/router going for about two hours... If I have my notebook charged up I can even get online with no power to the house!

DD