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

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: maxcom
i'll stick with Bell South's all you can eat for $25 a month

Does that include long distance and international though? At least for me, I make a lot of international and national long distance calls, so a basic POTS line would cost me a fortune.

 

[georgepa]

Astrofan-

Bellsouth's $25 plan is for LD only. Requires a packaged plan which for FL is at least $26.95 plus tax. By the time fees and taxes are added the total would come to something approaching $65 to per month. A feature rich residential package - BellSouth Complet eChoice - with more fleshed out calling features (closer to the feature packages VOIP providers offer) is $31.00 per month, which, after taxes and fees are added brings the total of basic service plus all-you-can eat LD service close to $75 per month. There is no valid comparison here. Many would choose to take a few minor inconveniences to save over $700 per year, at least on the home front when cell phones are in steady use.

The caveat is that if someone is stuck having to keep a local line to get DSL anyway (as the only choice) the basic phone service expenditure is unavoidable in any case. At that point the choice to go either with VOIP or get an "all-you-can-eat" LD plan is a bit more in favor of staying with the POTS all the way (dealing with only one company, better reliability, etc.) I probably would still choose VOIP for the advanced features and "tweakability," but stuck with non-naked DSL for many the $10 or $12 savings per month aren't worth the jump, which I can fully comprehend.

 

[laketrout]

Anyone notice that 7-digit dialing appears to be working?

 

[agrall]

I was about convinced to switch to SunRocket, whether now or in December after my Vonage contract is up... But with all the outages lately, I'm a bit concerned.

Has this happened frequently in the past?

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: agrall
I was about convinced to switch to SunRocket, whether now or in December after my Vonage contract is up... But with all the outages lately, I'm a bit concerned.

Has this happened frequently in the past?

Since I signed up for SR about two months ago, I've only experienced one major outage, and to be honest I only knew about it because I read about it here--I was never home during the actual outage, so never experienced it first hand. Other than that, I've seen one brief downtime, late one evening last week, that seems to have been regional as not everyone experienced it. The one other one I've heard about was also regional in nature from what I could tell, as not everyone seems to have had problems. From what georgepa says, that was due to SunRocket upgrading hardware and having something go wrong.

I would only expect such events to get less infrequent. From what I've heard they've decreased in frequency and duration over time, and I expect they will continue to do so. After the one major outage I experienecd, I received (as did everyone else) an email from SunRocket explaining the outage, apologizing for it, and noting that they had tripled their server capacity as part of their effort to prevent such problems in the future.

To be honest, I think it's well worth the money. Not to mention that I have a cell phone backup anyway. I'd not let the infrequent (and increasingly less infrequent) outages dissuade you.

 

[NaughtyGeek]

So, I got my new Gizmo last night. I plugged it in and what do ya know, it works. One problem though; I have someone elses phone number. So I called CS and they couldn't figure out why so I am once again waiting for a callback. I am actually finding amusement in this at this point. All I can say is once they get their feet off the ground and start gaining market share, they better remember those of us that helped them "beta test" their system.

 

[laketrout]

The service has been very reliable for me too. I think it is regionalized issues that creep up. What city are you in Agrall?

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: laketrout
Anyone notice that 7-digit dialing appears to be working?

laketrout,
Here in the Denver market, 10-digit is necessary even with POTS.
My sister just put in Packet-8 in Wyoming and she has to dial 1 in front of all her local calls as well as the L/D calls.
Packet-8 was a free install and is now $19/mo. as I recall. Not bad at all.
Better than $56/mo. + tax up the wazoo, like the special "we now love our customers (and their pocketbooks)" Qwurst plan.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: NaughtyGeekLive to Ride, Ride to Live, and ALWAYS Keep the Shiny Side Up!

Is that anything like RideFree?

 

[agrall]

Originally posted by: laketrout
The service has been very reliable for me too. I think it is regionalized issues that creep up. What city are you in Agrall?

Milwaukee area. That brings up another question...

We may very likely be moving next summer. I would assume that there is no problem in changing phone numbers if you move, correct? Of course, it might be nice to keep our current phone number as one of the 2 phone numbers...

 

[NaughtyGeek]

Is that anything like RideFree?

 

[ajf3]

Lately my incoming calls have been going straight to email...

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: agrall

Originally posted by: laketrout
The service has been very reliable for me too. I think it is regionalized issues that creep up. What city are you in Agrall?

Milwaukee area. That brings up another question...

We may very likely be moving next summer. I would assume that there is no problem in changing phone numbers if you move, correct? Of course, it might be nice to keep our current phone number as one of the 2 phone numbers...

I was curious about this as well and couldn't find something about it on the website, so I called CS to ask. Basically they said there should be no problem at all, you'd just need to call them up and put in a ticket and it would be done.

 

[RideFree]

it might be nice to keep our current phone number as one of the 2 phone numbers.

Now, that would be nice... Sounds like it should be a no-brainer.
I thought that you could just plug the Gizmo into your new HSI when you move and request another line from S/R. (2nd line should be available by then.)

 

[Abem3]

Anyone else down right now? I can't get a voice light...

 

[RideFree]

Down for me...and I just rebooted the cable modem.
Voice light is on again but no soap.

 

[Robor]

Okay, I hate to crap on the thread but I have to say SunRocket officially sucks. I ported my POTS Verizon number over last month.

1) Since I've ported my number over I've had 2 extended outages.
2) Since I've ported my number over my outbound caller ID is "Out of area".
3) Since I've ported my number over my inbound caller ID's haven't been working (it appears that if I set the people I know up in my address book that it will identify them on the handset but I shouldn't have to do that).
4) My calls to SunRocket about issue 2 and 3 were not not resolved and I did not receive a followup call.

If you're looking for a VOIP provider and considering SunRocket I would say look elsewhere. I think I'm going to look around on my next day off.

 

[RideFree]

Since when are legit problems a thread crap?

Mine is showing the voice light ok but there is no connectivity.
Tell the truth, I'm suspicious of Comcast and I'll explain why...
I lost connectivity in IE just a little while ago and decided to do the second reboot of the day for the cable modem.
Then the voice light would not come on...decided to reboot the Gizmo (have only done that once or twice before).

Now, I have the voice light again but still no connectivity over the Giz. However, at least IE is connected now, as I am able to post this.
We'll see what the S/R guruz sez...

 

[Robor]

Same issue here (voice light on but I can't call in our out) on RoadRunner in the Tampa Bay area. No issues with my 'net connection otherwise.

I was going to call SunRocket but I'm sure they're slammed and I don't feel like sitting on hold wasting my cell minutes. I'm getting 2 free months or getting another provider ASAP.

 

[ElGuache]

Originally posted by: agrall
I was about convinced to switch to SunRocket, whether now or in December after my Vonage contract is up... But with all the outages lately, I'm a bit concerned.

Has this happened frequently in the past?

The way the service is going right now, I can feel your pain.
My service is out too, and I have no phone at this time.
Good thing I have cell phone, otherwise, I would be out.
And this is the 3rd time in less than a month.

 

[Robor]

SunRocket back up here - 11:28 east coast time.

 

[laketrout]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: laketrout
Anyone notice that 7-digit dialing appears to be working?

laketrout,
Here in the Denver market, 10-digit is necessary even with POTS.

Awww, when will they ever understand the health benefits of 7-digit dialing...

On a side note - I love Denver. I have family friends out there and for the past 3 years I made at least one trip a year to the Boulder and Lake City areas. I was unable to this year due to work, I miss it.

 

[mfbf]

Anybody else back down again? I can't seem to make an outgoing call even after I reset the gizmo.

 

[georgepa]

I currently have no service and it is somewhat of a pain. We have several backups but this seems like an extended outage. Hope they get it fixed sometime today. Can't get into a weekend with an outage like that. I would call this a "crippling" outage. I am sure they'll get it resolved, but they do need a working failover so calls go to another number instead. That way we could have seamless forwarding to another number that rings my house just the same. I am not sure if implementation of hardware is the problem here or something else. Voicewing was having a problem as well the last few days, so did Viatalk. They all use Global Crossings, so it may be on that end. That makes no difference, as the responsibility lies with the provider, of course.

What has me a little bit worried is the silence from Sunrocket. I would have thought they would shoot us an email explaining what is going on. hopefully that is still coming, if not there may be deeper problems. I hope not. They have a good product at a good price. Without them there will be many $24.95 clones charging for every change and extra feature and looking to add taxes and fees upon fees for anything from E-911 to "data recovery."

 

[ImSeeker]

Yes - extended outage here (Kansas City) - no phone service all morning.

Voice light finally came back on after multiple power cycles plus patience, still waiting for service though.