muzzle79 Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Today i'd like to share with my fellow Neowinians my experience thus far with AT&T Voice over ip (VOIP) call vantage service. Voice over ip technology is a simple system of providing phone service over your current broadband internet connection. Many people wonder "why would i want to use my internet connection with voip service?" The answer is simle, cost and features. Modern phone companys say they charge only $14.99 for unlimited local calls (here in the u.s. that seems average) what you often forget is the numerous taxes added on . My local phone service alone was $23.00 a month and that wasn't even including long distance charges. When coupled with my long distance provider i was seeing anywhere from $40 - $75 a month for residential service. Now lets take the principles of local and long distance and apply them to a business. I run a small business and my monthly phone bill because it was a busines was $150 - 200 a month. This was for only two lines and one was dedicated to fax only. With costs like these there's no wonder why i was looking for a cheaper alternative. I studied service plans from both Vonage and AT&T and to be honest they're pretty much the same. I went with AT&T merely for the fact that I have dealt with AT&T for phone service before and they weren't bad so i felt a little brand loyalty to say the least. My residential plan for unlimited local and long distance for my home phone is now only $29.99 a month. Thats half to a third the cost of my monthly averages. I decided I would also switch my business lines to the new voip service as well. I'm now paying $49.99 a month and have unlimited local and long distance and a second line. That itself is a great deal for my business. As any small business owner knows Saving money is a good thing for your often limited expense account. *setup* Setup was a breeze, although i have to admit, I've setup many linksys routers before and this wasn't much different. The really cool thing about the setup was the included instructions on how to wire your house with VOIP service. Most people would automatically think they'd have to rewire their homes. Not the case. Merely disconect the wires outside to your phone box and tape them off. Put the voip router in a location you want and plug in the phone cord to a phone outlet. Now every phone in the house has voip service. Here's the link to the information on setting this up. Quite simple i might add. Setting up one line Setting up two lines Once everything was said and done i was up and running with a couple updates through the AT&T website. One noteable feature is that when you setup your TA as the call it, there is a step that automatically updates the firmware on your router to the latest without any intervention on your part. That in of itself was a cool feature in my opinion. Many people forget or just dont know that you need to update firmwares in many devices, AT&T providing this is something that will definately help keep everyone runing at the best possible performance. I've made numerous calls and not one person can tell the difference of me not using a land line, the best part is around here we often had a little static on the lines. That's been completely removed now. One realy cool feature i like about this service is the ability to pull up your current voicemails on the internet. Thats right Voicemail ( eliminate that ugly answering maching from your room) With this feature i'm able to be anywhere at any time and pull up any msgs either business related or home related. This is invaluable for me as i'm often all over the place and have numerous calls that may need to get to me. Of course AT&T does provide call forwarding at no extra charge as well so you can set your home phone to automatically ring your cellphone or the phone where you'll be. All the standard features of caller id (often an extra charge by phone companies), reduced international rates (50%+ or more cheaper than my previous carrier) and 3 way calling ( yet another charged for service) come standard. *the bottome line* With plans like the following [residential] 19.99 for unlimited local and 4c a min long distance, 29.99 unlimited local and long distance to the us and canda [business] 49.99 for unlimited local and long distance plus a second line for fax and extended business features. It's a no brainer why someone wouldn't want to switch to voip service. One thing i have heard is the complaint about 911 emergency service should your cable / dsl be down. If you constantly have internet connection issues i dont recomend this service as for obvious reasons. However if you're like myself and have internet issues about as often as you have phone line issues ( extremely rarely) this this is a great alternative option for you. www.callvantage.com If you found this information helpfull and are interested in signing up for this service. PM me before you do so that i can send you a referall link. It'll help you out, whilst also helping me out :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulhaskew Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 any photos of your DTA, or what the acct things look like, voice mail interface, billing etc?? Of course with your personal info edited out... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzzle79 Posted December 24, 2004 Author Share Posted December 24, 2004 Gladly Give me a little bit of time and i'll have them up tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzzle79 Posted December 24, 2004 Author Share Posted December 24, 2004 Images are of home unit in my computer room for the home line. FYI no only the top router is being used. The bottom is actually a one port that was friend in an electrical storm (going to convert to multiple usb print server) the second was the router replaced by the TA unit. I merely stacked them to show what they looked like. : ) Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulhaskew Posted December 24, 2004 Share Posted December 24, 2004 Thanks for the updates there... Gotta love the stackability of Linksys products... That website looks far better than the Packet8 one... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpshiznid Posted December 24, 2004 Share Posted December 24, 2004 Thanks for the review! (Y) I was wondering what the hell was wrong with a friends phone when I tried to call him. I see now it is the Do Not Disturb feature... That's almost enough right there to have me pick it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzzle79 Posted December 24, 2004 Author Share Posted December 24, 2004 Thanks for the review! (Y)I was wondering what the hell was wrong with a friends phone when I tried to call him. I see now it is the Do Not Disturb feature... That's almost enough right there to have me pick it up. 585158041[/snapback] The do not disturb feature is quite nice : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prz Posted December 24, 2004 Share Posted December 24, 2004 Having used both, I can honestly say Vonage is a better deal. $25/month unlimited calls to anywhere in US/Canada - They give you the same router as above, and have a more attractive website/admin ui. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muzzle79 Posted December 29, 2004 Author Share Posted December 29, 2004 The rates are the same I'm using a business account as stated in the description : ) Cheers. My friends using vonage and he likes it .. Voip is here to stay i think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts