VOIP SunRocket Internet Phone Service $199 for 15months = $13.27/month

[TheTony]

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin

Originally posted by: TheTony

Originally posted by: laketrout

Originally posted by: RideFree
Note: To All,
Amazon rewards are back...
(Today, at least, I was able to redeem 25 points.)
They must have a sniffer as I just finalized my last order with Amazon, *yesterday*.

Ahhh..back to $2.99 for another satellite uniden phone then. High-five.

No. They're OOS. Available from other sellers on Amazon, though.

The DCX750 is available, but I have heard little to nothing about it, since it's new. Not sure if it's simplified compared to the 640 or has more features. Also not sure if its the same form factor/size as the 640. Anyone who can answer is welcome to, as I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in finding out.

They're available from J&R through Amazon and the g/c's still work although you don't get free shipping. It's worth noting that if you cash in $50 of Amazon codes and use less than $50 then you just have a credit on your account. ie One phone + shipping is $34 so you'll have a $16 credit. Shipping was $6.35 for one for me and $7 for two so order two together if possible.

I swore I posted something last weekend that listed a vendor on giveanything.com that had the 750's but I must have gotten distracted by my crack pipe and not hit submit. I did send something to builditbetter so they must have gotten the hint.

Yes, the 640 is still available from Amazon from J&R and others for a higher price and paid shipping. I'm considering it.

That said, the 750 extra handset that I said was available is at Amazon - like you said, looks to be the new free phone for SR. I may get one, but I'm not sure if the 750 is an improvement or simplification of the 640. You did post about it last week - that's why I tried to solicit someone's feedback on it (see above). :laugh:

 

[georgepa]

Actually, SR started putting the 756 phone on the frontpage of the website 2 weeks ago. They changed it to ONE phone instead of two. However, clicking on the bird brings up the good ol' 2-phone deal with the 640 Unidens. I haven't seen a 756 phone yet, only know that the handsets will be compatible with the 640 system SR used to bundle. Best I can tell the new phones have the same features as the 640s. They are a bit bigger. The base unit has 2 things that distinguish it from the 640 base unit, according to the description: A speakerphone in the base unit (in addition to the actual handset) and a way to plug in a tape recorder or other such device so one can record conversations. I am not sure if that also applies to the base units of the extra handsets, though.

 

[TheTony]

I guess as long as the new DCX750 ( the model of the additional handset) supports the 64x's ability to transfer phonebooks between phones, I'd be satisfied with it. As long as it isn't terribly larger than the 640, that is.

 

[dchakrab]

Originally posted by: georgepa
dchakrab-

:roll:

No offense, but I am suspicious of your posts here. Just my 2 cts.

Really? What are you suspicious about? Unlike you, all of my posts aren't about SR. And unlike you, I didn't join this forum after SR released its service.

I've been honest about my experiences with SR, I've outlined the problems I've had with them, I've still recommended them as a service (and kept their service) and my review of their service is currently on the first page of Google for "Sunrocket review" and a ton of other SR-related search terms...and there's no advertising or anything else on my site that could be benefitting me as a result of this. A lot of people seem to think that's relevant...it makes up a large amount of my site traffic, even though my site's not really on SR or even VOIP. I also get a *lot* of traffic from people searching for SR troubleshooting help. This would tend to suggest your claims are highly inaccurate.

I've also posted my thoughts to other users who've had problems, from the time to time I've stopped by this thread, in an effort to help out and share my experiences, since I think SR is a fair value even with its problems.

You, on the other hand, have this habit of jumping down people's throats when they're critical of SR. You've done it to me earlier this thread, and to other posters. Why? What's your motive? Do you honestly have a reason for not letting anyone criticize SR without feeling the need to jump in shout that they're in the minority, that no one else has ever had that problem, and that they need to stop making general statements (note the general statement "no one else ever has these problems")? Is it impossible to have a bad SR experience? Is it impossible for a large number of people to have such an experience, even if you and others love them and I and others don't love them so much but still think they're a fair deal?

It's easy to post back with a smart alecky remark, but you haven't responded to or addressed anything I said.

I suggest that for you to respond to someone's complaint with a statement that their complaint is not a general trend (incorrect), that this thread somehow proves this (also incorrect...I see a great many problems with SR posted in this thread, and elsewhere on the internet), and that they shouldn't make general statements (ironic, because you follow this up with the general statement that no one else has these problems with SR) ...when you do these things, you are policing this forum to create a generally happy, pro SR tone for anyone who happens to be reading it. Do you disagree?

This is also an incorrect tone, because the number of complaints posted here disprove your statements. And last time I checked, you weren't an AT mod...nor was AT a SR cheerleaders' hangout.

What's more ironic than your generalizations is that I think, in the long run, you're actually hurting SR...I think many of the customers who post here with a problem would like to see their complaints answered, instead of meeting with some hostile comment about how their comments aren't representative of the general population. Anyone with Google can find a thousand website reviews, articles, and forums posts to prove you wrong on that one. Then again, that's true of most companies. Why make yourself look like a company muppet by trying to discount every one of them?

D.

------------------
Dave A. Chakrabarti

4 Month Sunrocket Review

Nirman - My dealings with a dishonest Varanasi, India nonprofit organization that ended up stealing my computer equipment when I volunteered for them for over 3 years.

 

[TheTony]

Take it to PM, please.

 

[DAVIDE]

My experience with SR:
Signed up and recieved package on 2-9-06, which took about 5 days.
Installation OK and made first call of 2-10-06, and CC was charged $199/15 months.
About 1 in 6 outgoing calls had a delay.
As a pilot we have a special 1-800 we can call the FAA to get weather and file a flight plan. Living near Houston my calls usually go to Conroe, but with SR my call went to Florida.
Recieved email that telephone number porting will take 20 business days, as will E911 service.
Then I tried to call my new SR home number from my cell and got no such number recording.
Tech service said local number will work 16 business after first use, but still wants to charge CC for $199.
What part of NO WAY!!!! do they not understand until all services promised work should they charge CC.
Thanks,

 

[doan]

I've tried SR....voice quality was OK, not great. My main problems were:
- E911 was not supported in my area
- I do a lot of telephone conferences that are operatorless...SR had hard time interpretting the login codes, etc..

If you want a sample of their sound quality, call customer support. They are clearly using their own service and the qulity is not great.

 

[agrall]

Originally posted by: doan
I've tried SR....voice quality was OK, not great. My main problems were:
- E911 was not supported in my area
- I do a lot of telephone conferences that are operatorless...SR had hard time interpretting the login codes, etc..

If you want a sample of their sound quality, call customer support. They are clearly using their own service and the qulity is not great.

Did you compare SR to other VOIP companies, such as Vonage? Is the quality of all VOIP companies likely to be the same and depend on your internet connection?

I've been thinking of switching from Vonage to SR, but only if the quality of the line is the same or better.

 

[dchakrab]

Originally posted by: agrall

Originally posted by: doan
I've tried SR....voice quality was OK, not great. My main problems were:
- E911 was not supported in my area
- I do a lot of telephone conferences that are operatorless...SR had hard time interpretting the login codes, etc..

If you want a sample of their sound quality, call customer support. They are clearly using their own service and the qulity is not great.

Did you compare SR to other VOIP companies, such as Vonage? Is the quality of all VOIP companies likely to be the same and depend on your internet connection?

I've been thinking of switching from Vonage to SR, but only if the quality of the line is the same or better.

Never used Vonage, but I can compare it to Lingo. Lingo call quality in general was better than SR (Chicago, IL, on Comcast cable and SBC DSL), both to regular phones and to other Lingo / SR customers.

However, Lingo international (to India) was *terrible*. Call quality was much, much worse than SR. SR in general has some issues calling internationally, but they're the same issues you'd have with a calling card to India. Disconnects, hard to hear, garbled speech, and there's always a slight delay. With lingo I had the same problems, but much more frequently and they were much more of a problem. SR seems to be intermittent...once in a while a call is garbled, then I just call back, and it's usually fine.

SR for domestic calling is a real problem when you're calling a cell phone...cell phone garbling / quality problems compounded with SR problems can sometimes make for an unuseable phone call. Other times, it's great. There's also the occasional call where Ill be able to hear perfectly but the other party won't, or the other way around.

If you don't use the phone a lot, I don't think it's a big enough problem to keep you away from SR. All of these problems are intermittent...kind of like what you'd have with any cell phone.

Dave.

------------------
Dave A. Chakrabarti

4 Month Sunrocket Review

Nirman - My dealings with a dishonest Varanasi, India nonprofit organization that ended up stealing my computer equipment when I volunteered for them for over 3 years.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin

Originally posted by: TheTony

Originally posted by: laketrout

Originally posted by: RideFree
I did send something to builditbetter so they must have gotten the hint.

Gotten the hint or you'd have The Tony drop by and pay them a visit?

 

[TheTony]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin

Originally posted by: TheTony

Originally posted by: laketrout

Originally posted by: RideFree
I did send something to builditbetter so they must have gotten the hint.

Gotten the hint or you'd have The Tony drop by and pay them a visit?

:laugh:

I can't take credit for that. I can, for the return of Amazon GCs, however.

Hello...,

Thanks for reporting the problem. We have fixed the problem on the Rocket
Rewards page, so you should be able to use it again.

Thanks again!

Member Service

 

[georgepa]

davechabrati-

Probably a language barrier problem, but my short reply was meant to express: I am not interested in your opinion. Flames don't belong in here. Whatever issue you have is best dealt with either by contacting Anandtech's site administrator or via PM. Everything else is nothing but flaming.


Given that you "borrow" your wireless internet from someone and you are using a wireless bridge to connect to SR your posts to new visitors should come with that as a disclaimer, as VOIP via a wireless bridge is going to be less dependable and less stable, regardless of VOIP provider. Thus, your posts are very suspicious.

There, I really did not want to get into detail, figured that my short remark took care of of it, but you obviously did not "get" it.

Any additional personal gripe from here on out will either be ignored or handled, as suggested, via the PM system.

 

[georgepa]

The Tony-

Thanks, mate. I went on last night to get several Amazon credits sent to my email. Who knows how long that tie-in is available, so best to take care of it before it is unavailable again or, even, completetly off the books.

 

[dchakrab]

Language barrier? That's a cheap shot. Should I be offended? I'm an English major from the 5th ranked liberal arts college in the US, and I was born here. I'm also an author. My SAT II Literature score was 790, out of a possible 800. I'd like to think my English is good enough for this discussion.

If you had read either my posts here or the content on my site, you'd know that I am *not* using VOIP via a wireless bridge. I tried this, since SR insisted it would work, and it did not work very well at all.

I am using SR as I have been using it since I got the service working 4 months ago: hard wired to my cable router. It's in front of the router, which is the only configuration SR directly "supports".

Now are my experiences with their service valid?

If you want to make this personal, yes, let's proceed to pm. However, in this public forum you have stated that specific criticisms of SR's service are not "generally" true. You've also stated that my user experiences are suspect. I'm publicly stating that my user experiences are based on SR's exact recommended configuration, and that I don't feel my experiences are suspect...since they reflect a user experiences based on SR's exact recommendation, on a standard broadband internet connection (Comcast), they are relevant, since I imagine most SR users will be in similar circumstances.

And my internet connection is "borrowed" from my landlord, with his full knowledge and consent. I fail to see how this makes my experiences suspect. Is anyone who disagrees with you suspect? I will not flame you in a public forum, but your definition of "flame" appears to include anyone who disagrees with you (who you would prefer handled things only by pm). I reserve the right to disagree with your public statements publicly. I also reserve the right to criticize your public actions publicly.

There's a difference between criticism and flaming. Your insinuation that there's a language barrier, that my internet connection is stolen, and other attempts to discredit me are flaming. Or are you exempt?

This dialogue disgusts me, so I will not continue it. But I will post to point out that you are biasing the view on this forum to spin things in a positive light for Sunrocket. And i will post this as often as you do it. Fair's fair. I'll also continue posting my own experiences and responses to anything else on this forum that interests me, as always.

D.

------------------
Dave A. Chakrabarti

Sunrocket Review

Nirman - My dealings with a dishonest Varanasi, India nonprofit organization that ended up stealing my computer equipment when I volunteered for them for over 3 years.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: TheTony
Yes, the 640 is still available from Amazon from J&R and others for a higher price and paid shipping. I'm considering it.

That said, the 750 extra handset that I said was available is at Amazon - like you said, looks to be the new free phone for SR. I may get one, but I'm not sure if the 750 is an improvement or simplification of the 640. You did post about it last week - that's why I tried to solicit someone's feedback on it (see above). :laugh:

Talked the parents into signing up back in November and now that I think back they received the 750's from Sunrocket. I only used them briefly when I was plugging everything in but it didn't seem like they offered anything else feature wise. Personally I prefer the smaller size of the 640's but to each his own.

 

[georgepa]

dchal-

Flaming is flaming. The definition of it is simple and easily obtainable. If I disagree with someone about their post I will say so. That is not a flame. If I go after YOU PERSONALLY, that is FLAMING. Please review the differences, so your posts in the future stay within the "constructive objecting" parameters and do not cross into the area that you have attempted to take this thread into.

Your posts have always been "suspicious" to me, both in your blog as well as here, because you are using BORROWED internet ON A WIRELESS BRIDGE. Not only can nobody know how the internet is used in your landlord's house (i.e. massive downloading of movies, songs, does his network have viruses unbeknownst to him?) but using a wireless bridge makes VOIP very unstable. Your stories will have to carry the disclaimer that you are using your VOIP line in both of these unconventional manners simultaneously. If you won't disclose your differences from the norm in posts 40 pages down the thread, I will do so for you if you wish.

 

[TheTony]

Originally posted by: dchakrab
If you want to make this personal, yes, let's proceed to pm.

I think it already has. You've already both been asked to take it to PM. Please do so. None of us here are interesting in reading through/around this pissing match.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: TheTony

Originally posted by: dchakrab
If you want to make this personal, yes, let's proceed to pm.

I think it already has. You've already both been asked to take it to PM. Please do so. None of us here are interesting in reading through/around this pissing match.

The Tony has spoken! And, unless you guys want to become personally acquainted with "Slugger", do what he says.

However, I think the truth will fall on the side of: hardwired Gizmo or "BORROWED internet ON A WIRELESS BRIDGE".
George, he says it's hardwired...how can you discredit that?

 

[TheTony]

Exactly, RideFree.

But we could do with out half page diatribes in order to make that conclusion. Honestly, I don't want to know people's SAT score nor do I see what it has to do with this thread. At least try to keep it on-topic. :disgust:

Hey, Soul Asassin:

How much bigger is that handset? I'm only asking because I'm planning on mounting it under a cabinet, and want to make sure there's enough clearance.

 

[dchakrab]

Agreed. Looking back on my posts, I did cross the line from being purely objective into being personal. I still feel most of what I posted has merit, however.

My SAT score is relevant when you call my English into question. A somewhat personal remark, I thought. Your comments would appear to fit your definition of a flame fairly well.

Either way. As I have said before (several times now) my connection is hardwired. My VOIP gizmo connects to my cable modem, which connects to Comcast. It passes a connect through to my landlord's wireless router, which connects his laptops and my computer. I have full admin control over the router, and he's online maybe twice a week, one machine at most. I, on the other hand, am online constantly, since I work from home a great deal.

Why do you keep insisting I'm using a wireless bridge to discredit my posts? I tried that originally, it never worked, I switched to a wired connection. This is simple. I've explained it many times. If you'd like to come to my house and take some pictures to prove me wrong, feel free to do so.

Until then, I don't feel any particular need to add a disclaimer to my posts. I seem to have *exactly* the setup Sunrocket recommends, so my user experience is as generic as it's going to get. If you feel the need to add one for me, when I'm telling you (for the nth time) that it's simply not true, well...I'll let readers be the judge of who knows my home network setup best.

I guess my disclaimer should be "I'm using *exactly* the configuration SR recommends, connected *exactly* the way they want it. If your configuration is different from mine, be warned...higher quality user experience may ensue"

And my experience with SR is constant dropped calls, disconnects, and silence when I pick up the call...meaning that I have to flip through my caller ID and call back the person. This happens often. I also get flaky international call quality calling India, and sometimes flaky call quality calling Germany. My SR connection is almost never as good as a regular phone line...tending to be more like a mediocre cell phone most of the time.

My experience also included absolutely abysmal tech support, every single time I've had to deal with them. I would not recommend SR to anyone who's unable to handle their own tech support. I've already asked a couple of community technology centers to avoid it.

Am I keeping SR? *Yes*. Because I don't use the phone often, and I think the amount I save is worth the hassles I endure. Would I recommend it to someone else? Yes, depending on how they're going to use it...I've already referred my girlfriend to it, and she's using it quite happily (again, not a heavy phone using family). I do make sure anyone I recommend it to knows that it's not going to be a POTS replacement with the same quality. Similarly, I feel there is value in posting my experiences here, as well as any workarounds / solutions I've come across, because this SR *could* become a truly stellar service if they worried more about the quality of their product and less about taming the blogosphere. Especially if they're one of the first to jump on the 802.11 VOIP possibilities...I'd gladly pay more to be able to use a VOIP wireless device whenever I'm near a hotspot. I've heard rumors that Broadcom (or is it Broadvoice?) already offers some kind of mobile handset that does this, but wireless techies I've talked to said that it's going to be bursty (meaning terrible QoS) with the existing 802.11 standard, so we're not looking at true Wifi VOIP till new standards emerge, presumably allowing for more constant transmission.

Dave.

 

[doan]

Originally posted by: agrall

Originally posted by: doan
I've tried SR....voice quality was OK, not great. My main problems were:
- E911 was not supported in my area
- I do a lot of telephone conferences that are operatorless...SR had hard time interpretting the login codes, etc..

If you want a sample of their sound quality, call customer support. They are clearly using their own service and the qulity is not great.

Did you compare SR to other VOIP companies, such as Vonage? Is the quality of all VOIP companies likely to be the same and depend on your internet connection?

I've been thinking of switching from Vonage to SR, but only if the quality of the line is the same or better.

I did not try other VOIP companies... there are probably subtle quality issues between them all, but mostly it depends on having a solid internet connection. We use VOIP internally at work on a gigabit backbone, you can't tell the difference between POTS and VOIP.

 

[TheTurk]

two things"

has been 10 days still cannot receive incoming calls, hopefull it will work soon. they said 10 days maximum, we shall see.

2- NO TAXES, internet is not taxable. goooood for us...

it is working so far, the line got cut off once, but i think it is rare, i had 50 minutes of not stop good quality convers one time.

over all it works.

no tax..did i say that...lol
to bad uncle sam...
I pay enough already....

 

[SoulAssassin]

Originally posted by: TheTony
Hey, Soul Asassin:

How much bigger is that handset? I'm only asking because I'm planning on mounting it under a cabinet, and want to make sure there's enough clearance.

I would say it's an inch to an inch and a half longer and maybe a quarter of an inch wider but again, I only used it for a minute or two back so I'm mostly making those #'s up. While looking through the manuals (page 2) for both models I did notice that the battery for the 640 is 800mah and the 750 is 600mah, unless they've been able to reduce the power consumption in the 750 then you should get longer battery life out of the 640.

To each his own, but I still think the 640 is the way to go.

Manuals and feature overview:

http://www.uniden.com/pdf/DCX750om.pdf
# Caller ID/Call Waiting? - Displays the name and number of the caller in Call Waiting even while you are on the phone. ?To activate the Caller ID features, you must subscribe through your telephone company.
# Speakerphone on Handset
# Personalized Ringers
# 10 Speed Dial Memory Locations
# 10 Ring Tones + 10 Melodies
# DirectLink? Technology - 2-way Radio Communication
# 100 Dynamic Memory Locations
# New Message or VoiceMail Indicator+ - +To activate the Caller ID features, you must subscribe through your telephone company.
# Call Screening/Call Recording from Handset
# Banner Display - Name Each Handset
# Trilingual Menu Displays - English / French / Spanish
# Ringer and Speaker Volume Controls
# Mute and Hold Function
# Last 3 Number Redial
# Accessory Handset and Charging Cradle


http://www.uniden.com/pdf/DCX640om.pdf
# Caller ID/Call Waiting? - Displays the name and number of the caller in Call Waiting even while you are on the phone. ?To activate the Caller ID features, you must subscribe through your telephone company.
# Backward/Forward Compatibility - Your phone may be compatible with other Uniden phones using 2.4GHz Digital Expandable Systems. Look for the technology icon on our product boxes.
# 1 Caller ID Accessory Handset with Charging Cradle - This is an accessory handset & charger and will not operate without the main base unit!
# Handset Speakerphone - This feature gives you the freedom to use the handset as a speakerphone.
# 100 Programmable Memory Locations
# Mute and Hold Function
# Alphabetical Search
# Transfer Memory Locations Between Handsets
# New Message Waiting Indicator with Alert Tone Option
# Voice Mail Waiting Indication - To activate the Caller ID and/or VoiceMail features, you must subscribe through your local telephone company.
# Intercom or Call Transfer Between Handsets
# 20 Distinctive Ring Options (10 Melodies + 10 Ring Tones)
# Headset Compatible - Allows for an optional headset to be connected for convenient hands-free operation.
# BT446 Rechargable NiMH Batteries
# Trilingual Menu Displays - English / French / Spanish
# Clarity Booster
# Room / Baby Monitoring
# Last Three Number Redial
# Earpiece and Ringer Volume Control
# Ringer Off Option
# Find Lost Handset Key
# Belt Clip Included

 

[georgepa]

Tony-

I honestly thought a one-line reply to that guy was enough. He went into another one-page diatribe in reponse. I asked him to take it to PM but he wanted to keep it in the forum. I won't respond to his stuff anymore, as long as it is above board and to the subject, pro or con. However, if he attacks me personally again the way he has I will not sit idly by and let him do so. PM is my preferred method, but if he refuses I can't help that.


ridefree-

I remember way back when he came into the thread. The discussion centered around using a wireless bridge through walls. I'll try to dig those posts up, don't remember how long it has been. Perhaps half a year?


SoulAssassin-

What makes the 750s perhaps interesting is the "mothership." The Uniden 756 that is currently being offered as the phone they'll ship when you go to SRs website has a couple of interesting added features that some may perhaps find valuable: Speakerphone on base (in addition to on the handset,) plus "Call Screening/Call Recording from Handset," whatever that means. Sounds like a plug-in for a recording device of some kind.

http://www.uniden.com/products/productdetail.cfm?product=DCT756


Caller ID/Call Waiting? - Displays the name and number of the caller in Call Waiting even while you are on the phone. ?To activate the Caller ID features, you must subscribe through your telephone company.

Speakerphone on Base

Speakerphone on Handset

Personalized Ringers

10 Speed Dial Memory Locations

10 Ring Tones + 10 Melodies

DirectLink? Technology - 2-way Radio Communication

100 Dynamic Memory Locations

New Message or VoiceMail Indicator+ - +To activate the Caller ID features, you must subscribe through your telephone company.

Call Screening/Call Recording from Handset

Conference Calling* - 3-Way

Banner Display - Name Each Handset

Trilingual Menu Displays - English / French / Spanish

Room / Baby Monitoring

Ringer and Speaker Volume Controls

Mute and Hold Function

Last 3 Number Redial

Desk or Wall Mountable - Saves space and charges in two positions - horizontally on a desk or in the hanging position.

 

[TheTony]

Soul Assassin:
Thanks for the scoop - very helpful information. I visited the Uniden product pages but they're a little short on information and the descriptions (and event product manuals) are fairly different even if the phone featuresets are fairly similar. Knowing that the battery life may well be better on the 640 also helps.

Georgepa:
Yes - I realize you've been trying not to incite anything. I just don't think anyone here cares to see the back & forth (other than for pure entertainment value ). It certainly adds little to the thread - I hope he's gotten the point. Let's get back to constructive discussion in the thread. Thanks for the 750 series information - I've seen that on their website when I visited. The 750 does look to have one or two interesting features.

Having said that, and compared the two, I'm sticking with the 640. It's back in stock at Amazon (link), albeit with a week delay, at $26.59. The 750 is new at Amazon (link) for $24.99 and eligible for free shipping (over $25), if anyone else is interested.