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

[bostonkarl]

Since this is a "Hot Deals" forum, I'll focus my post on whether or not I think that Sun Rocket is a hot deal. I would presume that what this thread is a discussion about; it seems like that's what's disucssed in this forum. Is suchandsuch a hot deal or not?

There are some very breathy posts about how fabulous SR is. There are some nasty posts from people that don't like it very much. Like all threads, it is up to the reader to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I would suggest that anyone interested in trying the service look at REVIEWS on www.dslreports.com. SR doesn't come out on top, but it fares pretty well considering that review updates recently lowered its ranking. This seems to have been due to the recent widespread extended outage(s), which we all hope is/are over. Time will tell.

SR has some great features and is missing some others. My suggestion to newcomers to VOIP is to look at the feature set and see if they are of value. A feature that you dont intend to use doesn't have value.

One standout included SR feature is the free signiture number, which is a godsend to many people. It has the potential to let folks make a local call to you that would normally be long distance.

A standout missing feature is that at present, during outages, failover to voicemail and call forwarding is iffy. That means that when SR is down, folks calling you can receive dead air. There are reports that SR is working on this. Time will tell.

SR does put its money where its mouth is. SR can be ordered with no up-front costs (no activation fee). One gets a free gizmo and phones. You're basically set up without any cash outlay (if you do a month to month plan).

On the down side, SR has experienced appreciable downtime recently. There have been posts about how this is a thing of the past, never to be seen again. Well, that's what was said after the outage(s) at the beginning of the summer.

Is it a hot deal? The service sure is cheap. The sound quality is quite good -- to my ear, near POTS if not POTS. For folks that use the signature number the deal is even better, given that it is free. For folks that use all the features, the deal becomes more attactive. That said, when the service is down, it is down hard. The review ranking over at dslreports indicate that the outages temper the overall euthusiasm for the service (despite the spin threads on the forum).

Let's hope that service remains uninterupted as it has been the latter part of the week. With good service and a reliable failover, SR will become hot indeed.

TGIF. Enjoy the weekend.

----------

If it sounds like a troll, it probably is.
If it sounds like astroturfing, it probably is.

 

[georgepa]

It makes it an ultra-hot deal because you can keep the phones. The phone system is valued at $70 (probably closer to $50 resale value on ebay.) So, you get this VOIP thing shipped free to you, they provide shipping labels to ship it back upon cancellation, there is no fee whatsoever, no cancellation fee, nothing. So, realistically, you can sign up (even without need for VOIP at all,) extract the phones, close the box again, let it sit for a few days and ship the entire thing back, keeping the 2-phone speakerphone system. Where is that not the hottest deal anywhere for someone wanting to "score" a couple of free cool phones for free?

If I were interested in such a deal I would probably try the VOIP offering that comes with it, to see if it fits my personal needs or "how this new technology actually works". But from a "Hot Deal" discussion point-of view I would like to see any other offer that gives away a $70 phone system with absolutely no cost involved to the person wanting to score a deal. There is no better deal than this for the phone "score" alone. I am sure I'll be flamed again by the usual suspect(s) but don't really care. Convince me that there is a better deal out there when it comes to securing a "Hot Deal" with a $70 phone value (or $50 resale value) absolutely free at very minimal inconvenience.

There is simply NO LOGIC in these dire warnings of "Stay away" when seen purely through the lense of a "Hot Deals" discussion. If a person going for this (and scoring the phones) finds that after trying out the service he/she actually likes it, they may stay on longer (not that they can't leave at any point without penalty whatsoever.) If they don't, they don't. Or if they just want to score the phones they send the rest of the package back within hours of receipt without ever even trying to plug the VOIP adapter in. "Hot Deal" it is, any way you want to look at this.

 

[astrosfan90]

For me the deal is not only in the phones, the high-quality connection, and the great customer service experiences I've had so far, but also in the fact that if I do decide to cancel, unlike other companies, I can cancel with no problems, fees, etc. I cancel, and done. No cancellation fee, no hearing from CS that "they're not accepting cancellations" that day, no nonsense. SunRocket cuts the bull out of phone service, and that alone to me is worth my money and loyalty.

 

[imported_troyconrad]

t makes it an ultra-hot deal because you can keep the phones.

It's also worth mentioning these are *nice* and expandable phones. Tiny, great speaker phone, walkie-talkie features, etc. I like them so much, I've bought a few sets (from geeks.com when they have the refurb sets) for friends and family.

Furthermore, SunRocket keeps getting better. A perfect example is the 7 digit dialing (now working for me as well. w00t!) and the proper Caller ID with name (working for me for about 2 months.)

I never expected a newly incorporated and very low cost VoIP provider to come anywhere near the reliability and voice quality of my landline. That being said, it's has worked perfectly in excess of 95% of the time since I've had it, which is more than I can say for my cell phone, which is far more expensive and based on more "mature" technology.

The sound quality is often superior to my landline for local calls, and generally far superior for long distance calls. It's shockingly better then my cell phone for any calls. (I need a new cell phone, clearly.) :-/

Great deal if I ever saw one.

 

[Mythman]

I would say that if your phone requirements are not of a critical nature, such as business etc. and have an alternate source of communication (ie cell phone) this is a very good deal. The problems will be ironed out and if not then depending on how badly your wife MUST be able to talk to her mother is when you decide to go back to POTS.

 

[astrosfan90]

Originally posted by: troyconrad

That being said, it's has worked perfectly in excess of 95% of the time since I've had it, which is more than I can say for my cell phone, which is far more expensive and based on more "mature" technology.

That's the truth right there.

 

[ckwhy]

OK, I'm ready to roll. Anyone wanna gimme a referral? First to pm me gets it...

 

[zainali]

Originally posted by: ckwhy
OK, I'm ready to roll. Anyone wanna gimme a referral? First to pm me gets it...

you got pm.

 

[TheCoop]

I still like them and will probably stay with them. If only they would have been honest and told us what the problem was and that they were trying to fix it. At least put it up on their main web page that they are having difficulties and will get them repaired due to software issues. And then post when the repairs are made and what they were. We are only asking for honesty. I understand they are the cheapest thing out there so don't expect perfection. I own two cell phones so I had other service available.

 

[georgepa]

There have been reports that faxing works 100% all of a sudden for everybody who tried (thread on BBR) whereas before it was hit or miss. Has anyone tried faxing recently? Mine (HP Officejet 3150) always worked, but now those who claimed they had problems before are reporting it working well for them. Can others here confirm that function as "fixed" and working well for them?

 

[dabuddha]

Mine has always worked

 

[SirPsycho]

Originally posted by: georgepa
There have been reports that faxing works 100% all of a sudden for everybody who tried (thread on BBR) whereas before it was hit or miss. Has anyone tried faxing recently? Mine (HP Officejet 3150) always worked, but now those who claimed they had problems before are reporting it working well for them. Can others here confirm that function as "fixed" and working well for them?

I used my Sunrocket connection to fax in my insurance documents to my office last Thursday, and it worked great even on "fine" resolution. I've only ever tried faxing with it one other time, back in July, and it worked great then too.

Now, if I could only get my connection to be reliable overall...

 

[astrosfan90]

Got a chance to test out the 7-digit dialing over the weekend, good stuff. It's almost a foreign concept to me after having had a cell phone for so long and no POTS really.

 

[ajf3]

I'll have set up a fax test... prior to this change(?) I could send sometimes, but never receive. Understood the issue to be that they supported the t38 protocol, but not the g3 protocol (which is what my canon uses). I'll report back after I get a chance to try it out.

 

[FoBoT]

i was having fairly poor quality with the gizmo in a DMZ behind my router
so i moved the gizmo to the front, directly behind my ISP/bridge (WISP) and set the upload limit to 160 kbps ( i don't upload much and surfing still seems fine at the at level, i might bump it up later)

the quality is much better and my wife called Sprint-Local yesterday and cancelled POTS service . they asked her why, she told them "you are too expensive. we paid $88/month for the "pacakge" of VM and junk and unlimited LD. they have no reply after she told them that :roll: )

we also went by the T-Mobile store and added a 3rd line/cell phone to our mobile plan, so that we can keep a cell phone at home when we are both out of the house/if power is lost while we are both out, etc and for 911 (we are outside SR normal area so 911 doesn't work for us.)

if we can keep our mobile plan to 1000 minutes, we save $50 per month (or $58 when you pay the $200 for 1 year of SR, right now we did $25/month to try it out). if we have to bump up to 2000 minutes on t-mobile, then we drop to $20/$28 per month savings

 

[newbs]

does anyone know how much bandwith up and down sr uses per line as I was thinking about getting 2 sr lines.
Thanks

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: newbs
does anyone know how much bandwith up and down sr uses per line as I was thinking about getting 2 sr lines.
Thanks

I believe it's about 96kbps in each direction, MAX.
I have "normal" cable (1.6mbps down/~250kbps up) and have tried 2 calls at the same time -- and the calls had no degredation. (probably should test 2 calls, plus file-sharing at the same time...)

However... there is a rumor, which I believe *STRONGLY*, that SR will enable both phone-line ports on the Gizmo in the near future -- thus making "getting 2" quite redundant. (Unknown if my cable connection could handle 4 simultaneous phone conversations)

 

[newbs]

Well I have dsl rated at 3.0/768 but actually get 2.8/768 and it's all static ip's and such so I just want to make sure I am okay bandwith wise. Also my router does allow packet priority settings ensureing enough but hay I still want to surf.

 

[M00T]

Sunrocket uses G711 codec, which requires ~60kbps and up to 90kbps with overhead.

 

[crowderd]

Bummer. No service in Memphis. What's the next best option for VOIP?

 

[georgepa]

SR just signed a partner agreement with XO Communications. They have tons of exchanges in Memphis, so SR should become available to you shortly.

 

[crowderd]

Great news! Thanks george!

 

[laketrout]

Oh yeah, $5 rewards for Fandango...so $20 total now. Me using those up to go see the Constant Gardener. Ahh, the silver lining.

 

[RideFree]

VoIP news from the BBC

I'm leaving the Gizmo behind the router for now...

 

[georgepa]

laketrout-

Actually, it's 10 points. If you got 10 points in July you have 20 now. One more outage and the credit will give you a $25 "something" at www.giveanything.com or www.amazon.com.

A good bet at www.giveanything.com would be their link to www.restaurant.com. $25 should be enough to get you and your wife into a nice Dinner for 2 at a decent local restaurant. Hey, beats "The Constipated Gardener" any day.