[Hidden-tech] Comcast Phone Service

[Chris Hoogendyk]

David Ruderman wrote:
> Of course, I just received my latest Comcast bill. 
> Their introductory offers are only good for a year, so it just went up $15
> for me.
> Instead of $69 bundled for internet and voice, it is now $43 + $44
> unbundled. 
> Drat!

I've had Earthlink TrueVoice for a couple of years. Still $19 (would be 
less if I didn't get paper bills and pay by check). I've had Earthlink 
cable for several years. It all runs over Comcast, but Earthlink deals 
with them, I don't. And, of course, when you have VoIP you get lots of 
capabilities that the 20th century wired phone doesn't get. Control your 
phone service settings remotely via the web -- that is handle call 
forwarding, call blocking, setting your answering message, retrieving 
messages, seeing your call history, etc. You can also get your messages 
over your phone and/or have it sent to yourself by email and listen on 
your computer. So I get important messages during the day, before I get 
home in the evening. My cable modem and VoIP box are on battery backup, 
and my 20th century wired phone plugs into the VoIP box and gets its 
power from there.

Unfortunately, I think TrueVoice got discontinued for new customers so 
Earthlink could focus on other services. So I'm a legacy customer. 
Anyway, I discontinued Verizon way back when. Have had virtually no 
problems. It has not been 99.999% like Ma Bell, but it's probably been 
99%. Oh, and you do get 911 service.


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Chris Hoogendyk

-
   O__  ---- Systems Administrator
  c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
 (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

<hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>

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Erdös 4