Lawrenceville.Talk

By cheryl

August 16, 2006 6:35 AM | Link to this

Our family went with cable phone service about a year ago. We have Comcast and went with Vonage. So far, it’s been a great decision. Occassional minor problems, but we have not been without phone service for any great length of time, no more than an hour. We have cell phones so it’s not a problem. I loved telling Bellsouth that we no longer needed their service. I’ve felt that I’ve been held hostage by them for years. I have free long distance, caller ID, etc. all for a total of 27.00 per month.

By LD

August 16, 2006 7:31 AM | Link to this

I totally agree with the “hostage” feeling. We had cable phone but then decided to use cell phones only. We had all the perks as well for $32.99/month compared to BellSouth charging us $37.99 with caller id only. We were also charged $17.00 every three months for not using long distance. It was a good day when I cancelled BellSouth. GO CABLE!

By Dave

August 16, 2006 7:39 AM | Link to this

Comcast Cable with Vonage Phone Service user for over 2 years, I love not having to pay the ransom charges to bellsouth and love it even more when I get others to switch from the high cost($50-60 a month after taxes and junk fees)/bad service of Bellsouth to the $25 a month cost of Vonage !! I hope I never move to a area where cable internet/phone service is not available again!!

By H_Charles

August 16, 2006 7:48 AM | Link to this

We switched to Vonage. Cheaper than going Comcast. We were paying BellSouth $75 a month for local and long distance in total! Now we pay less than $30. Only drawback is you lose the phone if the Internet goes down, but even then all calls are forwarded to our cell during an outage. Paying BellSouth that outrageous fee is just throwing money away.

By SMG

August 16, 2006 8:10 AM | Link to this

You should have a back up battery in your unit allowing you to have phone service during storms. If you do not, call your cable provider and they’ll be glad to bring one out to you.

By TinaTeach

August 16, 2006 8:25 AM | Link to this

I agree. We got Vonage when my roommate’s girlfriend moved to Memphis and it was costing him 80 a month to call her. Our only problem is the sweetheart deal in Athens, meaning Charter is the only and only sitting King of Cable out there and along our particular road the cable can be shotty. We’ve had them come out to try to replace lines for months because ours are old and not properly insulated. We are only one household of many along the road with the same problem. But we have never had any problems with Vonage. The only time it has gone out is during Charter cable outages and then the calls are forwarded to my cellphone so it’s not a bad deal!

By Steve

August 16, 2006 8:25 AM | Link to this

I long for the day I can tell Bellsouth to go away, far, far away. There are two types of Bellsouth customers, those that are happy and those that have called costomer no service. Unfortunately, I live in an area where Bellsouth is my only option for DSL and I have to have it for my work. I tried to go to another DSL service, but Bellsouth would not “approve” the line for DSL… I feel like I’m in a hostage situation. We cannot wait to fire Bellsouth…. FOREVER!! And someday, we will!! If you want to get a popular blog going, ask people that are Bellsouth customers their opinions of Bellsouth… Personally, I’m telling everyone to see all their Bellsouth stock… NOW!

By Steve

August 16, 2006 8:26 AM | Link to this

Make that SELL all their stock…

By Andy

August 16, 2006 8:41 AM | Link to this

I am sick of the telemarketing calls about it. I even called Charter and told them to take me off their calling list. I still get at least a call a week! Too bad we don’t have a choice of Cable companies or that Bellsouth would let you get DSL without phone service. While Charter’s phone service is nicer than your other voips, $40 a month is too much. I too get Vonage for $28 and am about to switch to voicepulse for $20.

By E. Lewis

August 16, 2006 9:08 AM | Link to this

I did it to save money. With my cell phone, it just didn’t make sense to paypay $55+ for a phone that I only used a couple of times a week.

If I could, I would go to my cell phone only full time, but I am not quite ready for that yet.

By lomi

August 16, 2006 9:26 AM | Link to this

I’m interested in getting Vonage - What if the power/internet is out? Can you still dial 911?

By dcw

August 16, 2006 9:34 AM | Link to this

Vonage!!!! we went with the 14.99 plan and have never come even close to going over the 500 minutes. And even if we do it is only like $0.03/minute. Most of our phone calls are with our cell phones, especially long distance. We kept our number and save over $300 dollars/year vs. Bellsouth. We have Charter internet and rarely have problems.

By Meg

August 16, 2006 9:36 AM | Link to this

We went to Comcast phone, because I too have called Bellsouth customer “service” and it was OK but then for an extra $10 a month we got a cellular alarm system that didn’t require a landline and we are now cell phone only. It’s great, no telemarketing calls! We have a family plan so calls to each other are free, our relatives have the same carrier so calls to them are free, nights and weekends are free, so we don’t even use all our minutes every month. As long as we have broadband we’re OK, we’re more dependent on email than phone service.

By Peridot827

August 16, 2006 9:38 AM | Link to this

We got Comcast VoIP in May — LOVE IT!!! We haven’t experienced any outages yet (that we know of) and the price is much better than the landline companies offer.

The only problem we have is that Caller-ID doesn’t show our name when we call others. They tell me this should be fixed by sometime in Fall — that BellSouth actually owns our new phone number and it won’t be “released” until then. (???)

I really like the convenience of having one bill for cable, internet and phone, or else I would consider saving even $$$ more by getting phone service through Vonage. I still may look at Vonage later, though.

By Rod

August 16, 2006 9:40 AM | Link to this

I’ve got BellSouth and am happy with them. I’ve never had any problems at all. I pay less than $28 per month. Lots of people chose to waste their money on un-needed services. I need a dependable phone and that’s what I have. I don’t need: (1) free long distance - that’s what my cell phone is for (2) star 69 - when’s the last time you actually returned a prank phone call (3) call waiting - I absolutely hate it when I’m talking with someone who has it (4) speed dial - it takes me 4 seconds to dial, that’s speedy enough.

I choose to put the extra money towards my child’s college fund. $28/month and I’m perfectly set - even when it rains, I’ll still have a phone that works!

By Rod

August 16, 2006 9:42 AM | Link to this

I’ve got BellSouth and am happy with them. I’ve never had any problems at all. I pay less than $28 per month. Lots of people chose to waste their money on un-needed services. I need a dependable phone and that’s what I have. I don’t need: (1) free long distance - that’s what my cell phone is for (2) star 69 - when’s the last time you actually returned a prank phone call (3) call waiting - I absolutely hate it when I’m talking with someone who has it (4) speed dial - it takes me 4 seconds to dial, that’s speedy enough.

I choose to put the extra money towards my child’s college fund. $28/month and I’m perfectly set - even when it rains, I’ll still have a phone that works!

By Mom2Four

August 16, 2006 9:46 AM | Link to this

VONAGE+ Alelphia= 2 years and love it! My family lives in Canada and calling them used to be sooooooo expensive! All my calls to Canada and friends around the country without worrying about how much the phone bill is going to be… whew, what a relief!!

By Camille

August 16, 2006 10:08 AM | Link to this

I’m glad that I don’t have Charter as that would have been annoying to me. I live in Lawrenceville, also, but we have Comcast. I just had Comcast digital voice service installed the last week of July, and while the installation process was terrible (and getting all the little quirks resolved was worse), I do like the service. I especially love being able to get emails to let me know that we have a voicemail at home, and being able to listen to the message on the Internet (this works for me because I am at a computer all day). I can also see the incoming and outgoing calls, where right now, it’s more important to see the calls that we’ve missed during the day while we’re at work. It is also nice to have cable, Internet and telephone all on one bill that is cheaper than what I had using Comcast and Bellsouth together. Interestingly enough, BellSouth is now selling a package very similar (saw the Ad in Time magazine), with phone (including unlimited long distance, which they did not have before), Internet and either satellite or cell service, all for the same price as Comcast’s price. It would have been a good deal to keep, but I don’t want satellite or Cingular’s cell phone service. Bellsouth actually sent me a Hallmark type card trying to get me to return, but the Internet service that they were offering was only 3Mbs, less than half of what I get now with Comcast. They won’t be getting me back as a customer.

Word to the wise if deciding to make the switch to Comcast: make sure that your order is exactly what you want at the time that you place the order, and call them again to verify it all right before installation. This is also to make sure that the technician will also have all the proper equipment upon arrival. Also, if you are at all computer literate and need anything like a router installed for homenetworking (this includes wireless), do it yourself. Many of them are only trained to do basic installation; if they have to troubleshoot anything, you may run into problems (I had to actually show the 2nd technician that came out how to get my laptop to connect to the wireless router when he suggested to me that I had to purchase a wireless card from Comcast in order to get mine to work: I have a laptop only 6 months old with a perfectly good card, so his suggestion was ludicrous). When ordering the phone service, make sure that they add all the features to the package. For some insane reason, if you don’t specifically state that (although it should automatically be done), you just get basic phone service and it is hell getting that resolved.

By Gail

August 16, 2006 10:09 AM | Link to this

We have had comcast high speed internet and phone service for a month. I love the internet, jury is still out on phone service. I have already had several dropped calls, digtalized voices and no dial tone, I hope this gets better. Though the alternative has seemed no better. Talk America just sent a bill for a line that should have been turned off a month ago. We tried for a month to get them to release our phone number, we finally gave up and got a new phone number. I don’t have a cell phone since I am a stay at home mom(I really stay at home). But I am considering just sharing minutes on husband’s cell phone. I don’t really like any of my choices.

By pte

August 16, 2006 10:20 AM | Link to this

it seems that many people are using companies like Vonage for the price. Vonage succesfully avoided having to pay the Universal Service Fees that the wireline carriers have to pay by claiming to be an “information services provider” and not a telephone company, all the while marketing themselves as a telephone company. Just saw where they are fighting an FCC ruling that they contribute to the USF. If thye fail, look for their prices, and the other internet phone companies, charges to go up dramatically.

By lynn t

August 16, 2006 10:38 AM | Link to this

Not a choice for us due to the area we are in but you can bet when it does get here..bye bye Bell South!

By Shawn

August 16, 2006 10:53 AM | Link to this

I subscribed to an internet phone service about 1 year ago. LOVE IT!!!. The company I use to Packet8 (http://www.packet8.net/). For roughly 22 bucks, you cannot beat the same service that tradidtional phone companies provide plus ar few extras (like automatically transferring your calls to a cell in the vent that the service is offline). However, I’ve never had to use this feature :). Comcast has been trying to woo me with their $33 each for cable, internet and phone. Hoever, these prices are just a promotion. Why would anyone pay Comcast $33 (then more when the promotion ends) when I can pay Packet8 $23 for the lifetime of my plan?!?!?! Yeah right !!!!

By BillTager

August 16, 2006 11:04 AM | Link to this

I have no need or desire for a land line from BellSouth or the cable company. My cell is the only phone I’ve had for four years now. Everything else is redundant.

By Camille

August 16, 2006 11:20 AM | Link to this

I did realize that the Comcast rate is a promotional rate, but even the regular rate came out to cheaper than what I was paying using Bellsouth phone and Internet service and Comcast cable. I tried all combination of things, and at this particular time (given the current regular rates), Comcast was the cheapest choice for me to keep my current services. That was the important thing; I wanted to keep the services that I used on a regular basis. I didn’t go with Vonage because I would not have been able to continue to use my telephones in the same manner that I do now using the existing telephone jacks, without having to purchase the wireless telephone system. Plus, if you lose power, you can’t use the Vonage phones anyway. At least with the Comcast phone service, as long as the battery in the Comcast unit is good I can still use my phone because the telephone service is still wired to the telephone lines, not through the cable lines. I would just need one of those cheap phones that don’t need electricity to work. Besides, at the end of my year (or even during), if I find something better and cheaper, then I always have the option to switch :-)

By bravo

August 16, 2006 11:24 AM | Link to this

I used to have second thoughts about VOIP because of the inability to call 911 if the power is out, but then i realized that even with bellsouth I didn’t really have that ability because I only have 2 phones in my home and both are cordless, so in the event of a power outage I would have to use my cellphone anyways.

By Paul

August 16, 2006 11:47 AM | Link to this

Does anyone know if digital Comcast service works with sending/receiving to/from analog fax machines?

By Bill

August 16, 2006 12:04 PM | Link to this

Paul-

I just switched and added a second line just for my fax and it works great. Saving 30 to 40% with Comcast.

By George

August 16, 2006 1:02 PM | Link to this

I have two phone lines into the house. One has DSL and the other a regular phone line. I just changed out the second line which rarely gets used to Vonage and went from $42/month to $16.79/month. If I can figure out how to get DSL without the phone than I’ll change the first line too. The DSL is more reliable than cable so I wouldn’t use change to cable unless it was really cheap.

By Logical Dude

August 16, 2006 1:09 PM | Link to this

I have exclusively used a cell phone and no home phone for a year now. I just couldn’t see paying Bellsouth to get telemarketing calls again. (even though I had signed up previous numbers for the Do Not Call list.)

I signed up for Vonage last month because I have a foreign exchange student. 4 cents a minute to Germany. I couldn’t get a rate that good to call California with regular long distance! Otherwise, free calls across the country and a few other countries makes it worth using for a home phone.

negatives: I have noticed that one time my phone did not work when cable was going slow. Research information about faxing ability. Faxes use a different mode of communication that may not be possible with regular Internet phones. (Vonage offers a separate fax line for $10/month, which I do not have)

Otherwise, my student can talk for 25 minutes to Europe and it costs a dollar. With regular long distance, it would be $10.

By Nicole

August 16, 2006 1:12 PM | Link to this

I switched to Comcast with the new 3 (internet, cable and phone service)for $99 special to see how the service worked and I LOVE IT!!! I’m saving over $70/month after switching from Bellsouth (phone/internet) and Directv…need I say more? Just glad I’m not under their monopoly anymore!!!!

By Nicole

August 16, 2006 1:12 PM | Link to this

I switched to Comcast with the new 3 (internet, cable and phone service)for $99 special to see how the service worked and I LOVE IT!!! I’m saving over $70/month after switching from Bellsouth (phone/internet) and Directv…need I say more? Just glad I’m not under their monopoly anymore!!!!

By James

August 16, 2006 2:05 PM | Link to this

I worked at a cable/phone company for several years. They are less reliable because they are more susceptable to static electricity and wet conditions. There is a TAP about every 100-200 feet and a AMP or LINE EXTENDER for about every street. Each one of these is an electronic device which can be zapped by lightning due to numerous faulty grounds from either initial installation or maintenance, or from untrained, low paid, and generally can’t care less installers and technicians. This is the way cable companies run. There is no quality phone service out there because no company places emphasis on QC and Customer Service anymore.

By rid0617

August 16, 2006 2:55 PM | Link to this

Since Charter can’t keep the service on 3 days in a row at my neighborhood I don’t dare trust them for something as important as 911 and a telephone. Besides, Charter is well known for their rate increases so watch what that telephone costs in a couple years.

I just prefer not to deal with a company near bankruptcy for my lifeline.

By Jeff

August 16, 2006 3:29 PM | Link to this

Our family has had Vonage with Adelphia cable internet for over two years and its fantastic. We call family internationally often and the rates are less that 1/4 what we paid Bellsouth for years. Our service has only gone out a couple of times in over two years and only for a short period of time during each occurance. Vonage lets you set up another number for calls to be routed to in the event you cable modem goes down, so if our service ever goes down, all calls made to our home number get forwarded automatically to my cell phone number. With the great international rates, free caller id, 3 way calling, digital voice mail and free long distance in the U.S, Canada, Puerto Rico and many European countries switching to to a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone service like Vonage is a no brainer!!

By Susan

August 16, 2006 4:10 PM | Link to this

I understand that another draw back is that your home alarm system will not work with VOIP or cable phone service. The alarm systems are not wired for cable.

By Debra

August 16, 2006 5:59 PM | Link to this

Susan - Not true. I have the works from Comcast and my alarm system still functions just as it did before I changed over.

By DAVID

August 16, 2006 7:35 PM | Link to this

I made the switch about 3 months ago and could’nt be happier. I got thru my friend who’s a rep for this company called Lightyear. Now I’m no longer held captive by bell south where I was paying just about $100 a month for one line. Now I pay about $25 bucks. Some of the things I like about voip is that it has all the same features as a regular landline phone plus more. Like you can overlay diff area codes into your voip box. Now I’m originally from Las Vegas so I have 702 area code in my box. So when friends and family call it’s a local call. So it’s great if you do busn out of state and it’s very portable. You can take it anywhere and as long as you have high speed internet you have dial tone. Also you can check your voice mails over the computer and make calls from your computer. If you have high speed internet and you don’t have voip your just throwing money away to phone companies. I got it thru www.mylightyear.com/paytron

By Shannon, M.Div.

August 16, 2006 8:28 PM | Link to this

In what universe are the cable companies not monopolies?! Ugh to Comcast. They can’t even get our cable right. No way am I trusting them with the phone. No one that I’ve seen has answered the question about emergency calls when the phone from notoriously unreliable cable stops working. I wouldn’t mind switching to cable broadband from our DSL, but BellSouth has been a good service provider for us (even when we’ve had to call customer service), and no way do I want the insecurity of a static IP. I don’t think there are excellent options out there, though.

By CS

August 17, 2006 12:45 PM | Link to this

I would say that no provider is 100% reliable. I made a choice to risk some service interruptions to save a bunch of money. I switched to Comcast Internet and phone service about 6 months ago. The Internet service is much faster than BellSouth DSL and the phone service has worked since day one. I also have a second phone line with Comcast (only $10 more) and it is on my fax machine. My 14 year old daughter (who is on the phone about 4 hours a day) claims that the cable phone sounds better than the old BellSouth line.

By annandale

August 17, 2006 1:35 PM | Link to this

The 21st Century Comes Calling.

I always wonder what would life be without speech, because it costs a lot to talk and listen. I have abandoned POTS(Plain Old Telephone Service) long ago. I tried using cable telephony when RoadRunner and ATT were responsible for cable provisioning in my area. That turned out to be an expensive way to have unreliable and poor quality customer service. I went back to BellSouth, and their monopolistic “you will come back” attitude was so destructive I vowed never to return. I used their bundled internet and telephone service and paid the high price of incompetence and ignorance. Each business unit is a universe unto itself, with no communication between them or if they do you need a translator. I waited with a customer service rep for 4 hours to have my service turned off, and then was overbilled twice for service I never had.

So now I have embraced VOIP using Vonage for the past three years and SKYPE. The only problem I experience is with the internet provider Comcast, when I encounter transmission problems. My back up plan is my cell phone which costs an arm, leg and two ears. Verizon provides me no horizon for the future, but ties me up in contracts and legalese.

I am surprised that the cable companies are not radically promoting VOIP as this goes hand in hand with the internet service they provide. Instead they are still plying old telecommunications technology to those in the dark.

With Vonage I pay a flat fee per month for calls to the US, Canada and England. ( I do not like to do stupid things)

I use SKYPE intenationally with all my computer savvy friends that cost me nothing. All it needs is a microphone, a mouth to go along with the computer and internet service.

So welcome to the 21st century, some of us will get there slower than others, but I am not betting on a cable company to be my transportation vehicle. Long live the internet.

By Woodie

August 18, 2006 5:26 PM | Link to this

BellSouth has the best voice and internet service bar none. They are also very cheap. You get what you pay for. You want free voice service, call one of the cheapo internet companies that will probably be out of business within a few years because they have no business model and they make no profit. That’s because they can’t compete with cheap existing phone service providers such as BellSouth. Alot have tryed. They will keep trying, but my prediction is customer satisfaction and reliability will be the price you pay.

Nothing is free. Free is an illusion. The internet is not free. Neither are the services provided by the internet companies. The internet is not reliable enough to provide critical communications services. Probably never will be. I predict all these fly-by-night internet communications companies will be out of business within the next 5 years.