VOIP from Verizon

[Harry]

I got FIOS about a month or so ago and was thinking about converting my telephone service to one of their freedom plans when I discovered their Voice Wing service. It is your typical VOIP service for $25 a month for unlimited long distance, all the features etc. I signed up for it because it will end up saving us some money and make life easier about long distance calls.

The enrollment process is a pain and the whole activation process takes weeks before they ship you the gear and then port your number. It is like their heart isn't really in it. They just offer so they have an option if you call and say you are going to Vonage or someone. They sure don't advertise it.

I will post some more as I work my way thru the process.

Harry

[pilotbob]

I got FIOS about a month or so ago and was thinking about converting my telephone service to one of their freedom plans when I discovered their Voice Wing service. It is your typical VOIP service for $25 a month for unlimited long distance, all the features etc.

What is the real technical difference between POTS and VoIP when you have Verizon FIOS? Is there one? Or, is the price the only difference.

What is the bottom line with taxes and fees added to that $25? Is this the ONLY phone bill you will have now?

I also assume the Voice Wing doesn't entitle you to the $10 discount on Internet/TV like the traditional freedom plan does?

BOb

[Harry]

I don't know about the $10 discount. I hope it doesn't, I didn't ask in any case.

With taxes the bill is about $30 a month (29.xx). It will be the only telephone bill I will have.

Interesting question about the technical difference. I almost suspect that other than the wiring/connections at the house, there may not be any real difference at all. You would have to get someone who understand what happens with the optical to the house, copper inside the house configurations as they move thru the Verizon network. I know the VOIP has a ton of features you can activate thru the internet that the copper package does not have. You can even buy an alternate number in another state so that people there can call a local number.

Harry

[pilotbob]

Interesting question about the technical difference. I almost suspect that other than the wiring/connections at the house, there may not be any real difference at all.


Cool, keep us up to date on how the install goes and how the quality is.

Do they send you an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter), or is that built into the ONT? Or, do you need to provide your own ATA?

BOb

[Harry]

I have not received my install package yet but from the sounds of it, they will supply the ATA. It is about all they supply. They do not supply a router. That is not a problem for me since I already have one from FIOS but could be for someone else.

Harry

[Harry]

Time for a further update. I received my install package yesterday (a lot faster than advertised). It was dead easy to install. They use a Linksys adapter for the phone connection. The instructions and the booklet and the adapter all talk to having two lines but I had asked when I ordered and was told they only support single lines. I wonder if it is a billing or "market strategy" issue rather than a technical one. I tested it with the temp number they give you quality seemed fine.

I requested a number port to my old number and got back a note in a short time saying that the number would be ported on the 15th. We will see about that.

I did some exploring and it looks like there are some things you want to change/setup in your account manager function online. They also don't make it easy to figure out how to setup your voice mail and retrieve it. All that is hidden in the online help. Expect to spend a little time with it. The only doc they send you deals with setting up the hardware.

Harry

[Harry]

Another update, they now offer a two line option for $44.95 a month. It was too late for me, we had already canceled our second line and told folks it was gone but if you are considering it, be aware it is an option even if their website does not say anything about it.

Harry

[Harry]

Well they cut over my phone number last night and killed the old copper number. All seems well. The voice mail is a little clunky to access from the phone but does give you the ability to access from the web which of course is a something different. Other than that so far so good. We have used it for some calls to the UK and call quality there has been marginal. It has been fine however for domestic calls.

Harry

[Harry]

Well, I have another update. After a week or so of being cutover to VOIP with my phone number moved, a new adventure has happened. Got an email from the FIOS folks, they could no longer bill me for my service, call immediately or my service might be interrupted. After playing the phone game (voice menu) and one switch of customer reps (if you have TV also you need to talk to someone else), I got a rep on line. It took her almost 10 minutes to look up my record and decide that they could bill me by mail instead of my having to provide a credit card. Fine, I hang up. Ten minutes later, I get a call on my cell phone from the rep (how did she find the cell number, it is Verizon but... I called on the VOIP line. In any case, some how in the number transfer process the messed up and they now can't figure out a way to bill me at all. They want to turn off my service and reprovision it, I should only be down for 24 hours or so!!!. So I lose my internet, TV and home phone because they screwed up. When I wasn't thrilled with that, she went back and talked to her supervisor. They finally decided that they would do the process tomorrow morning and that it should be done by 5 pm that day. They also will give me a $50 credit on my bill for the mess. The rep is supposed to update tomorrow on my cell as to the progress. Just a warning. Apparently Verizon does not work and play well with Verizon. Thank god I wasn't using Vonage!!!

Just a side note, I have noticed that all the voices are much louder with the new service. I have all the phones set to low volume and it is still loud. I have not found a way to set the universal sound level lower.

Harry

[Harry]

Well here is the latest update, after going thru major pain last week to get all my Fios stuff reset so they could do a seperate bill for the internet and TV rather than the phone, internet and TV bill I started with, I called today to start the process to cancel voicewing.

My wife was just not happy with the quality of sound when she was talking. It also seemed to be very unidirectional which bugged her. The real final straw was that we kept having problems on outbound calls where we could not hear it ring and we could not hear anyone answer. On the other end it would ring and they would pick up and not get anyone on the line. This would happen on about 50 percent of our calls.

Anyway, my reaction is, nice idea, not quite ready for prime time.

Harry

[Roger 9]

I used Vonage for my second line and I started to get crank calls. Vonage said they had the anom. call block but even after doing the *77, only calls labled "Blocked" would not get through. The ones with "Unknown" did so I decided to cancel the service and that was a horror story.

Firstly, depending on your carrier and where it is located, intentionally blocked ID calls will display differently essentially making VOIP a crap shoot if you are trying to keep your incoming calls under control (that plus the "Do Not Call" list).

When I attempted to 86 Vonage, it was like I was talking in braille because I kept getting offer after offer NOT to disconnect. No matter how many times I said it wasn't about the service but instead about the technical part, I would get another offer to stay. Needless to say, what should have taken about 10 minutes turned into a near one-hour venture - with the SAME goofy gal.

Vonage offers a smaller package than the $24.95 you see on TV and that is what I had. It was $14.95 with all the bells and whistles HOWEVER you were limited to 500 total minutes. If you are not a big phone user, I found that was the cheapest way to go with local, long distance, etc.

I never had a problem with Vonage with quality of service and sound and I love the online part where you can monitor incoming and outgoing calls and how many minutes used. Just beware the customer service is you want to close your account.