Currently, we have our local, long distance, wireless, and DSL through AT&T, and are largely satisfied with same. However, our local cable provider (Time Warner) has been running some pretty nice deals for adding Roadrunner and digital phone to one’s existing cable service, and as such, I might be able to reduce my overall monthly expenses by switching to TWC for phone and internet. Personally, I’d be content with just dropping the land line altogether and just start relying exclusively on our iPhones (as we hardly ever use the land line at all any more), but my wife wants us to have some sort of backup in case, I dunno, an aeroplane crashes into our local cell tower or something.
So, I welcome as much feedback as you all are willing to provide me with regarding the ups, downs, and in-betweens when it comes to your experiences with cable digital phone service (and internet) vs. phone company land line service.
I had the Cox bundle for some time. The problem is that when the internet is down, (which happens more than they’ll admit), then the phone is down. Land lines, even cell phones are far more reliable.
And that’s what’s always stopped me from getting the digital phone service. I know you’re talking Cox and I’m talking Time Warner, but out of curiosity, how often on average would you say you were without service when you had the bundle? Every once in a great while, I can take (after all, I judiciously, almost obsessively, keep my cell phone charged), but if it’s happening, say, once a month on average, that would be entirely unacceptable to me.
An average would be hard to state. If I had to , I’d say once a month, for anywhere from an hour to several hours. The problem is that it seemed to happen in clusters, then be okay for a while, etc. When the phone is down, there’s no 911 access, and obviously people can’t reach you, nor can you access the provider to report the problem and find out if the problem is on your end or theirs. Fortunately, we had cell phones available. We finally gave up and dumped the home phone in favor of cell phones.
In short, my only objection is the reliability of the internet phone service. And it’s not terrible, just inconvenient at times.
We’ve had internet and TV service from Comcast for about 7 years here. A couple of years ago we added the phone service, and I’ve never had a problem with the phone being out.
For that matter, we’ve only had the cable to go out 3 or 4 times over that 7 year period (one of which was Katrina).
My fear of it was always “what about 911 service?” but I was assured that Comcast provided an operator who would contact emergency services if I dialed 911. Sure enough, I had occasion to call for an ambulance one summer. The service worked just as they had promised and the ambulance was here very quickly.
I’ve got Time Warner phones and can think of two, maybe three times in the last five years when I’ve had an outage. Certainly satisfied with the service.
I was a hold out for years against cable phone service as I was sure it would suck. Finally, the bundle savings from Comcast versus the $40/mth I was paying AT&T for just phone was enough to get me to switch. I have to admit that Comcast’s phone has worked perfectly for the last year or so since we switched and my concerns were unwarranted. The modem has a battery backup for the phone as well in case the power goes out.
Part of my worry was about the internet uptime as, for the first year or two that we had Comcast internet, they had some real problems with it and some extended outages. They seem to have gotten their acts together since then as my internet’s been solid for the past year or so as well.
I’ve had phones through Cox for at least a half-dozen years. We’ve rarely had problems. Maybe once a year?
I’m the other way 'round…I’d love to have the cool features of U-verse, but I’m unwilling to switch to dish for television.
Twice last summer I was in a location with Direct-TV during tornado warnings, once with a tornado touching down only a couple of miles away. No television service = no idea what’s happening, which is completely unacceptable in Oklahoma.
Everyone in the place (small hospital) was coming to us for weather info because we’d called home on cell and were getting frequent reports from the SO who was watching 4 channels of full coverage on our cable.
Where I live, U-verse isn’t yet available. AT&T, of course, does offer DirecTV packages, but I’m not at all interested in going the dish route.
Thanks, all of you, for the opinions so far. I’m gonna hang back and see what others’ opinions are, but right now switching’s starting to look like a very viable option for me.
I replaced our land line phone with cable internet VOIP through our ISP, because our land line was unreliable. Strangest thing - we had to have a new phone wire buried every few years and even so the quality would keep deteriorating to the point that it didn’t work. The internet phone has been fine for a while now, maybe a year or two.
I use a cable telephone service at my Kansas City apartment, and it works perfectly well. But if I had to choose, I would stick with regular broadband and buy an Ooma box for unlimited, free US long distance.