Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Experiences with Alternate Local Phone Companies?

Posted by Cliff on from the dodging-the-baby-bells dept.

chasmosis asks: "In the last few months, I've moved about 25 minutes outside of St. Louis and discovered that the local baby bell charges exorbitant rates (at least in my view). I've explored alternate local carriers like Sprint and others who have had uncompetitive prices, poor customer service records, or were unclear on things like 'specifically what exchanges can I call that are still considered local calls'. Right now I'm on SBC's Metro plan where I can call to and from much of the St. Louis local area as a local call instead of a toll call. I'd dump my landline entirely and get another cell if I didn't need it for dial up internet, since I live in the sticks and there is no cable, no DSL, and the top speed for dialup is 28.8. What are other people using for alternatives to their local telephone provider? What are your experiences, good and bad?"

6 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Personally... by rusty0101 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I use Vonage as my non-cell phone. However this is because I do have a Cable modem connection. So this is no help to you.

    If you can live with the Cell phone for phone service, you might want to look to DirectWay, or StarBand (or others) to provide Internet service. Response times might not be as fast as dialup, but even with fair use caps, you will probably get better data rates than dialup.

    Good luck.

    -Rusty

    --
    You never know...
  2. I'm in the same boat... by RandyF · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From what I have found you have these options:

    1. Satalite (good speed but the lag time causes problems with session-based protocols such as VPNs)
    2. Line of site microwave (I'm not going to pay for building a tower on my place!)
    3. Paying for a fiber/cable/T1 line (way too expensive)
    4. Forming a "bandwidth coop" where the locals string together cable modem lines and equipment and share a single connection somewhere (there was an article on /. sometime back about this)
    5. Two cans and a string (Bandwidth is just way too slow...)

    Another option is an idea for a grass-roots company to bring high-speed to the last mile...

    good luck.

    --
    --==-- I've found Karma to be a relative thing... Ya know, the kind you invite to Christmas... ;)
  3. The ups and downs of Vonage by gad_zuki! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is going to be month two on Vonage for me (voip phone service through a cable modem) and its a good service but...

    1. They have significant voicemail problems. I think the consensus at dslreport's voip forums is that they are overselling/pushing their VM system too hard or they just expanded too quickly. Its not just lost VM but sometimes my phone wont ring when VM is enabled. Workaround: use a plain-jane answering machine. Afterall, you get a normal POTS phone jack from the Cisco ATA they send you.

    2. Be mindful of you upload speed and what apps you're running on your home lan. You don't want to use this when kazaa or whatever is maxing out your upload cap. Throttle bandwidth to leave yourself 100kbs. Vonage also has a 30kbs compressed codec for people without much bandwidth.

    3. Of course, if you lose network connectivity (or power for that matter) you lose phone. That probably isn't much of a concern in a world of cell phones, but its something to consider if you don't have a cell phone and are far from your neighbors.

    The pros

    1. It sounds excellent. Its POTS quality as far as I can tell. Think of it as MP3 compared to CD.

    2. If you're already paying for broadband its a smart investment. Telling the local monopoly to piss off is very gratifying. Not to mention you have built in number portability. Just plug that Cisco ATA anywhere and you have your old phone number.

    3. The geek quotient of using VoIP without the other party know or asking, "What are you calling me on, a damn tin can?"

  4. Re:what about the pizza? by dasmegabyte · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So make your own pizza. It's not hard. Buy some frozen crust ($.79 or so) and leave it on the counter before going to work. COme home, roll it out. Can of Furmano's tomato sauce is $.79. Brick of good whole milk mozzerella is $4, i use about half. Then, do it up how you like. I add some grated romano to a half cup of ricotta, black pepper, minced garlic and finely chopped pineapple and put a layer down before the mozz.

    10 minutes at 500F and you can kiss PizzaHut goodbye.

    Don't let the stodgy food industry keep you or your family from decreasing your communications costs! I spend around $220 per month in those (cell phones for me, my wife & my mom $97, telephone $35, i-net & cable $90) and would love to reduce. But i'm so lazy!

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  5. Re:If you really want to escape by ncc74656 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ok in what world is cable more reliable than DSL?

    Las Vegas, to name one example. We have both here in the office, and while there have been occasional issues with our cable-modem connection, our DSL usually only goes for a day or two before the modem needs to be reset.

    Most of the DSL problems stem from the service provider not owning the lines...they're stuck with getting problems resolved on Sprint's schedule, whatever that happens to be. Given the weirdness I've also seen with voice service, I'm not convinced that Sprint is up to keeping any type of service (voice, DSL, whatever) going reliably. Cox doesn't have to deal with another company to get line issues, etc. resolved, and when a problem does pop up (which happens much less frequently than with the DSL), it usually gets taken care of fairly quickly. 24/7 tech support for cable-modem service is also a Good Thing.

    (I should probably point out that both services are business-oriented, not the garden-variety residential service. I also have the same cable-modem service (at a lower speed level) at home. It costs no more than same-speed residential cable-modem service, but you can order static IPs for it, run whatever services you want, etc. As for speed vs. DSL, the cable modem almost always beats DSL for upstream and downstream transfers around here.)

    --
    20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  6. Cavalier by Sternn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Cavalier (CavTel) kicks much arse. For anyone on the East Coast who can get it, do so. They are about half the price of Verizon, offer more services, and are extremely helpful when you call them.

    And plus you don't have to deal with Verizon.

    The only problem is Verizon doesn't like it's customers switching, so as others have pointed out getting switched is an issue. Verizon screws up the orders on purpose usually meaning you will go a day or two without service. Verizon is losing you as a customer, so they really don't care if you complain or not. I know of a dozen or more people who have had them kill their service a few days early when switching.

    And Verizon also tells techs your loop distance from the CO is too long when you order CavTel DSL. However a few persistant phone calls will force them to actually send out a tech who will report this is not the case.

    In fact, two friends who had Verizon report to COVAD their loops were two small got sales calls from Verizon trying to sell them DSL just a week or so after they were told it wasn't possible.

    My suggestiong is any solution other than Verizon is good. They are evil bastards.

    -S

    --
    -Sternn