VOIP Recommendation?

[davenlei]

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.

I have Cox cable and phone service so I think my internal phone wiring must be disconnected from the telephone company right now.  I remember the Cox tech made some modifications to my home phone wiring. 

Your read my mind on my next question.  My company pays for my Cox Internet and phone services right now but if (when) they cut that, I would seriously think about doing this.  But I was thinking of getting something like DSL Extreme for Internet access, in which case, I probably need to reconnect the telephone network but use another pair for the internal phone lines like you are mentioning?  Or, to make it simpler just keep the Internet from Cox?

If you have pictures of the work you did on the outside box, when you have some time, that would be greatly appreciated.

I will try to snap some pictures in the next day or so.

It does sound like you are already disconnected from the telco lines so you are good there. 
I switched to cable modem from DSL after ten years of having DSL because I needed more speed and the DSL service in my area was maxed out at 1.5mb/s.  I asked when they plan to roll out the higher speeds in my area and they said there are no plans to increase the speed in the area for at least a few years.  I checked out Cox and although it was about $20 more a month than I was paying with DSL, the speed was much faster.  I bought a Motorola DOCSIS 3 modem and get 20mb/s pretty consistently.  Sometimes I drop down a few mb/s but that does not last long.  I have to say, the difference between 1.5mb/s and 20mb/s is huge.  It is worth the extra $20 a month.
When I first switched to cable modem, Cox opened the pipe as a teaser and I was getting about 60mb/s speed.  That was very fast but I don't want to pay what they want for that service.  If they drop it down closer to the 20mb/s plan, I may think about switching.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Yeah... the problem with DSL is it is distance limited... and has a throughput limit. AT&T Uverse is supposed to help with that, but that's only available in limited areas.

I was also on DSL for a while and the switch to Cox was like night and day (not to mention they could do next day installation vs. having to schedule a month in advance for AT&T).

 

[davenlei]

Yeah... the problem with DSL is it is distance limited... and has a throughput limit. AT&T Uverse is supposed to help with that, but that's only available in limited areas.

I was also on DSL for a while and the switch to Cox was like night and day (not to mention they could do next day installation vs. having to schedule a month in advance for AT&T).

Your comment reminded me of something the AT&T person told me when I was cancelling my DSL service.  They said they are maxing out on dry DSL 'numbers' in many areas.  A dry DSL line is when you have DSL service without their phone service (wet DSL is one combined with phone service).  I was on VOIP already so to have DSL service their system has to assign a 'phone number' as an account ID).  So she said if my area ran out of DSL numbers for dry service, I would not be able to come back as a DSL customer.  AT&T is really doing a bang up job of keeping up with the competition rather than using scare tactics.....not.

 

[zovall]

Thanks to all on this thread we have made the switch to VOIP at home.  I considered the Ooma and then chose another route: Obihai with Google Voice and Call Centric.  It cost $58 to go this route and another $22 to port my Cox number.  Moving forward, it is $1.50/month.  Here are the details in case anyone is interested.

I purchased the OBI110 device at Amazon for $50 (you plug it into your router and you plug your phone into it).  We have a cordless system with 3 handsets and I plugged the base station into the OBI.  By itself, the OBI110 doesn't allow you to make calls.  You have to sign up with a VOIP service.  You can set up two VOIP services on the OBI110 and the two VOIP services I used are Google Voice and Call Centric.  Google Voice is free for US/Canada calls in 2012; that could change in the future.

Google Voice
I created a new Google account and signed up for Google Voice and picked a phone number through them.  Then I entered my Google credentials into the OBI (that's why it is better to make a brand new Google account just for this) and then you should be able to use your phone as you usually do.  If someone wants to call you, you'll need to give them the new number you picked.

Call Centric
Why is another VOIP service needed?  For 911.  Google Voice doesn't support E911 (which is what lets 911 know your name/address when you call them).  Since the OBI has the ability to support 2 VOIP services, I set up Call Centric as the other VOIP provider.  I signed up at Call Centric on their Pay Per Call program.  It cost $5 to load up the account and $3 to start up the 911 service.  And then they charge you $1.50/month.  If you call 911, the OBI will route the call through Call Centric.  Everything else will go through Google Voice.

So, the total out of pocket so far is $58  (including the $5 credit at Call Centric).

We tried out the service for a week and thought it was perfectly fine and usable. Ideally, we'd like to keep the Cox phone number we've had for the last 8 years.  But Google Voice won't allow you to port a land line number to it.  The way to do this is to port the Cox number to a T-mobile (or AT&T) prepaid phone and then port it from that to Google Voice.  My brother in law had an old T-mobile phone so I borrowed that from him.  We ordered a SIM card from T-mobile for $1.07 shipped (and it includes 10 minutes).  After activating (write down your PIN), we got a # for the cell phone.  Then, we called up T-mobile and said we wanted to do a port and ported our Cox number to the T-mobile prepaid phone.  They said it should be done within 24 hours but it took another call from me to get them to manually port it.  Once it was ported to the prepaid phone, we could make and receive calls (there were 10 minutes on the prepaid SIM).  Next, we initiated a port on Google Voice and Google charges $20 to do that.  Once the number was ported to Google Voice, we were able to use our original Cox number again (but via Google Voice).  Total cost of the port was about $22.

And so far it has been working just fine.  If you try it or have any questions, let me know!

These threads were very helpful in figuring out how all this worked:http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/google-voice-a-cheapskates-guide-to-cheap-voip/10500http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=1051.0