Cablevision phone, is it awful?

Subject: Re: Cablevision phone, is it awful?

Anonymous wrote: Does anyone do their phone line through cablevision?? How is it?

I use it and love it. I like being able to turn features on and off myself (like anon call blocking when menacing calls come in). I like being able to check and clean my voicemail from the web, which makes travel real easy. I like that i can call anywhere at any time in the US and not pay a dime for it. and most of all, i like the fact that I am not paying all the regulartory bullshit charges to Verizon. I had the most basic service with no outgoing plan and that alone ran me like $30. now for $20 something, i can call anyone and drop my cell minutes. so for me, it rocks.

I think it's ok. I used to work at CV and it's a decent product. I actually dropped it after I stopped getting it for free because I was having voice quality issues, but Verizon is ridiculously expensive. Optimum Voice is worth a try.

Don't you have to change your phone number? I've had the same one for 15 years.

jayce wrote: [quote=Carnivore]I thought about cable phone and decided against it. Since it won't work in a blackout, it lacks of of the few remaining reasons to even have a land line (besides security- and I'm not sure how good it is in that regard either).

:idea:
you can always get their backup battery which, theoretically, last for 8 hrs standby and 6 hrs talk time. if thats the only thing that is keeping you off of VoIP, UPS can overcome that issue easily and can be set to give you time to power down your other electronics too. its always a good bet and it can work with the VoIP phone too.

just a thought.

I have Vonage (another VoIP service), and generally love it. However, even with UPS, if the 'net goes down, you have no phone. Also, you can keep your old number UNLESS your net connection is via DSL, since that runs off the old phone number (unless you change both your phone and ISP at the same time--check with your provider). Broadband is a must for good quality VoIP, so you have to have a cable modem (maybe satellite if you're one of those few people).

Long story short, VoIP is super-cheap and feature-laden, but it's not as plug-and-play as regular phones, you have to accept the fact that 911 doesn't work exactly the same way, and that you may occasionally be without home phone service--not often, but it happens. If you have a cellphone, this may not be a huge deal for you, but recognize that there are some things where landlines still have the advantage.

i have it, and sometimes when talking to someone they would say "your phone is doing that thing again" and i had no idea what they were talking about because it sounded fine to me, but it would usually stop... also no one has said that to me latley so perhaps that problem is fixed.

jayce wrote: [quote=JamesonVandy]However, even with UPS, if the 'net goes down, you have no phone.

since they offer a UPS that swaps for the plug to the cable modem itself, the net shouldn't go down unless there are problems at the service provider. so it powers the cable modem itself. the phone, depending on whether you use a wireless or wired phone, may or may not need another UPS.

That's what I'm saying. If the 'net hiccups, UPS doesn't help. Again, this all is pretty rare, but it does happen--two or three times a year for me.

Mr. Tips wrote: The only "bad" thing is - if no power - no phone. But thats the same if you only hav a chordless phone.

When the 2003 blackout hit I was the only one in the building who had phone service because I have one of those old fashioned 'wired' phones. Considering cheap non-cordless phones can be found anywhere nowadays, it's a good idea to have one on-hand just in case something happens.

But then on 9-11 my regular phone service was dead but my SprintPCS service was fine.

Slight tangent, but my attitude towards cable/DSL phones is you should simply get what works for you. If you have cable then the cost of the phone is less. But if you don't have cable and you have VerizonDSL, the cost of something like Vonage doesn't make sense unless you make TONS of long distance calls.