[VoIP] Cable questions

[Martin Harriss]

Jayson,

I've heard very bad reports of phone service provided by cable 
companies.  This is not surprising, considering that they probably know 
very little about providing telephone service.

How about the following idea:  since you already have an asterisk box up 
and running, why don't you become your own telephone provider?  Find a 
wholesale provider from whom you can buy a local telephone number; 
outbound service wholesale costs a couple of cents a minute, and I think 
there are even providers that will allow free local calls within a 
portion of your own area code.  You may even be able to port your 
current phone number.

The only thing you would need is an Internet connection, either "naked" 
DSL or from your cable company.  You might want to invest in a UPS for 
selected parts of your setup.

Of course the whole 911 issue needs to be dealt with, but may be easily 
solvable by careful choice of provider...

Martin


Jayson Smith wrote:
> Hi,
> After this eventful weekend of lost DSL, dead DSL jacks, resurrected DSL
> jacks (we now have DSL and the jack wasn't replaced), phone line static,
> some DSL failures after that, etc. we are getting disgusted with Bell South.
> We've found we can actually save some money by switching to cable for
> broadband and phone service. I have a few questions.
> On the phone side of things, how does this work from a technical standpoint?
> Is dialtone being provided by the box they put at the house, or does it
> actually connect digitally to a real switch somewhere, which provides
> dialtone, ring, busy, etc? Also, if the power goes out, what happens? Do you
> get a little battery backup, then dead phones until the power comes back? Is
> it possible for a customer to hook the phone converter box up to a UPS, or
> is this strictly illegal/impossible/etc? I assume sound quality should be
> comparable to ULAW Voip service.
>      About Internet, what kinds of speeds can I realistically expect? I
> think our DSL is now 1.5 Mbit down, and a lot less than that up. I don't
> know what cable is even claiming. Also, does the cable modem typically have
> to be hooked up directly to a PC for initial
> installation/activation/whatever, then hooked up to a router, or can it
> usually all be done from the router?
>      One thing I'm dreading is changing E-mail addresses with everybody I
> know, do business with, etc. Oh well. Thanks for any info.
> Jayson
> 
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