Skype/Onesuite Versus Comcast Digital Phone
Vic Smith
something by doing so.
I'm not happy with my Comcast costs, which just north of Chicago cost
me
Comcast Cable Television $ 54.99
Comcast High Speed Internet $ 45.95
Comcast Digital Voice $ 47.56
Taxes, Surcharges and Fees $ 4.12
Payment Due Date 10/24/08 $ 152.62
1. Standard cable TV (no premium channels) which has lost 5 or 10
channels in the past year or so. They moved them to a HD package at
more cost - without reducing my price of course.
(I looked into sat dish TV, but because we commonly use 4 TV's in the
house, and paying for 3 extra sat receivers would cost $15 a month,
the sat TV would cost more for the same channels. I'm going to leave
that as is for now.)
2. High Speed Internet. I priced basic AT&T DSL at $10 a month for
the first year, then $14.95 a month.
IP Address: 1 Dynamic
Downstream Speed: Up to 768 Kbps
Upstream Speed: Up to 384 Kbps
Have to buy a DSL modem for $50.
Have to have AT&T phone service, otherwise the DSL is $19.95 a month.
3. Phone. I want non-cell phone in my house for a couple reasons. My
wife talks overseas a couple hours a week cheaply using a card.
Even my cheap cell minutes would get expensive.
We just like having a permanent phone that rings without always
carrying a cell phone around.
AT&T has a $16 a month plan that includes unlimited local and the
usual local toll zones. We can use a card for long distance.
Voice mail is an $8.95 a month, so we'd get an answering machine
instead.
So the internet and phone costs will drop to $26 a month for a year,
then settle at $31 a month. I expect taxes/fees, etc, to add at least
another $5 to that, so say $36 long term.
Looks like I can save $57-58 a month. About $700 a year.
I know the phone change will work fine.
My daughter, who uses a PC for schoolwork and Facebook, etc, will
bitch about the DSL being slower than cable, and it might irritate me
too. I don't normally do big downloads, and since I lived with
dial-up for years, I can probably deal with it.
Here's another flavor that might work. The same AT&T DSL at $19.95 a
month without AT&T phone service.
I saw a post from SoCalMike that got me interested in Skype, because
he plugs the phone into the router and doesn't have to have the PC on
for the phone to ring.
Depending on Skype costs and whether it will work with the AT&T DSL
package I mentioned, it might be better than going all AT&T.
We prefer having a few phones in the house and I don't know if that's
practical with the Skype setup. We could go to one phone though.
Haven't even got around to looking at OneSuite yet.
Anyway, I'm interested in any comments about this, especially from
those with experience in what I discussed.
Really not sure about the DSL, which I have never had, and how
suitable it is when using Skype or OneSuite.
TIA,
--Vic
John Weiss
> Want to run this by the frugalistas here, because I usually learn
> something by doing so.
> I'm not happy with my Comcast costs, which just north of Chicago cost
> me
> Comcast Cable Television $ 54.99
> Comcast High Speed Internet $ 45.95
> Comcast Digital Voice $ 47.56
> Taxes, Surcharges and Fees $ 4.12
> Payment Due Date 10/24/08 $ 152.62
> 1. Standard cable TV (no premium channels) which has lost 5 or 10
> channels in the past year or so.
Why not broadcast TV? Do you watch cable-only channels much?
> 2. High Speed Internet. I priced basic AT&T DSL at $10 a month for
> the first year, then $14.95 a month.
> Downstream Speed: Up to 768 Kbps
> Upstream Speed: Up to 384 Kbps
> Have to buy a DSL modem for $50.
> Have to have AT&T phone service, otherwise the DSL is $19.95 a month.
> 3. Phone.
> AT&T has a $16 a month plan that includes unlimited local and the
> usual local toll zones. We can use a card for long distance.
Make sure you can dial the toll-free numbers without long-distance access...
> My daughter, who uses a PC for schoolwork and Facebook, etc, will
> bitch about the DSL being slower than cable, and it might irritate me
> too. I don't normally do big downloads, and since I lived with
> dial-up for years, I can probably deal with it.
I've seen a lot written about the lack of reliability of DSL and significantly
less-than-advertised bandwidth. While it might do fine for e-mail, you or your
daughter might get frustrated when browsing graphics-laden web sites. Remember,
you're cutting your bandwidth by about 80%...
I also lived with dial-up for years, but I wouldn't want to go back! I get
forced to it occasionally when I travel, and it's not pretty!
> Depending on Skype costs and whether it will work with the AT&T DSL
> package I mentioned, it might be better than going all AT&T.
That depends on how reliable you need your phone service to be. Skype is great
for computer-to-computer calls, and DSL can easily handle voice calls (video
calls might be a different story). The cost for long-distance to other phones
is good, too, as long as you are calling the right areas (US, Canada, Europe);
some are quite a bit more expensive...
Skype charges by the destination, regardless of where the call originates. Even
a local call will cost 2 cents/minute.
> Anyway, I'm interested in any comments about this, especially from
> those with experience in what I discussed.
> Really not sure about the DSL, which I have never had, and how
> suitable it is when using Skype or OneSuite.
I just went the other way -- from Qwest to Comcast for the full digital package.
For 2 phone lines, Comcast is significantly cheaper.
Either one will work. It's a matter of whether you can put up with the
inconveniences to save the $$...
George
I think Comcast is a little pricey. We have them for broadband and TV
but use someone else as a VoIP provider. We use Callcentric and have
unlimited North America and all of the calling features, web management
, email notification etc for $19.95/mo/line plus really reasonable rates
to other countries.
SoCalMike
> I saw a post from SoCalMike that got me interested in Skype, because
> he plugs the phone into the router and doesn't have to have the PC on
> for the phone to ring.
> Depending on Skype costs and whether it will work with the AT&T DSL
> package I mentioned, it might be better than going all AT&T.
> We prefer having a few phones in the house and I don't know if that's
> practical with the Skype setup. We could go to one phone though.
philips sells additional phone/charger units as well for that model.
SoCalMike
> Skype charges by the destination, regardless of where the call originates. Even
> a local call will cost 2 cents/minute.
ive got "skype in", with its own number for $30/yr. i BELIEVE that means
incoming and outgoing (at least inside the USA) are free, as is voicemail.
the thing i know is extra charge is call forwarding to another phone,
and i think thats the .02/min charge. if i was expecting an important
call and i knew all they had was my skype/"home" number i set it to
forward to the cell.
you can also buy a box "internet phone wizard" that plugs into the
computer via USB and allows you to use a cordless phone system you
already have.
i tried it for a while and it worked ok, but the philips is nice in that
it gives you your contact list on the phone screen and allows use
without a running computer.
its not the cheapest option, but compared to $30/mo for
verizon/comcast/att/time warner giving you the same thing? the main
difference is that they can port a number- skype cant.
Bob F
"Vic Smith" <thismaila...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:p4jgh4lfrfav6m4cg...@4ax.com...
> Want to run this by the frugalistas here, because I usually learn
> something by doing so.
> I'm not happy with my Comcast costs, which just north of Chicago cost
> me
> Comcast Cable Television $ 54.99
> Comcast High Speed Internet $ 45.95
> Comcast Digital Voice $ 47.56
> Taxes, Surcharges and Fees $ 4.12
> Payment Due Date 10/24/08 $ 152.62
Call up comcast and say your thinking of going to someone else because they are
too expensive. When I did, they offered me cable and internet for $33/month each
for 6 months. This matches the new customer sales price.
Zar
> month without AT&T phone service.
> I saw a post from SoCalMike that got me interested in Skype, because
> he plugs the phone into the router and doesn't have to have the PC on
> for the phone to ring.
> Depending on Skype costs and whether it will work with the AT&T DSL
> package I mentioned, it might be better than going all AT&T.
> We prefer having a few phones in the house and I don't know if that's
> practical with the Skype setup. We could go to one phone though.
> Haven't even got around to looking at OneSuite yet.
> Anyway, I'm interested in any comments about this, especially from
> those with experience in what I discussed.
> Really not sure about the DSL, which I have never had, and how
> suitable it is when using Skype or OneSuite.
> TIA,
>
> --Vic
Getting an all voip service to replace your landline depends on how
you use your phone. If you have a mobile phone then its safe to do but
if the voip service is all you got then its quite risky as voip
depends on internet and power. Either one of those fail then you will
have no phone service at all. Comparing Onesuite and Skype has its own
pros and cons. I use Onesuite in favor of Skype because its better for
my calling habits. SkypeIn is $18/3 mos or $60/year (http://
www.skype.com/prices/) which you get a phone number and unlimited
calls to landlines in US. You need to buy a Skype credit to call other
numbers (mobile phones or international numbers).
For Onesuite voip (http://www.onesuite.com/access_VOIP.asp) you pay
$2.95 a month if you want a voip phone number and outgoing calls are
pay as you go basis.If you will just use it for outgoing calls then
you don't need a phone number then you can skip the $2.95 a month fee.
You may also request to port your current number fro free to your
Onesuite voip account if you want to retain your current phone number.
On top of that, your account is also good for their prepaid phone card
service (which is their main product) which comes handy if you find
yourself with no internet connection but with phones around
(payphones, house phone, etc)
If you intend to use a voip service, then I suggest you check your DSL
speed as voip will work better on 512kbps connection but can get away
with only 384kbps connection but don't expect a good call quality all
the time.
Cheapo Groovo
35g2000pry.googlegroups.com>, zahir...@gmail.com says...
http://cheapogroovo.vox.com/library/post/phone-service-for-1995-a-
month.html
The Real Bev
>> If you intend to use a voip service, then I suggest you check your DSL
>> speed as voip will work better on 512kbps connection but can get away
>> with only 384kbps connection but don't expect a good call quality all
>> the time.
>>
> Just use the MagiJack
>
> http://cheapogroovo.vox.com/library/post/phone-service-for-1995-a-
> month.html
Look for reviews first.
--
Cheers,
Bev
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Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
Fring
Yes look for reviews, ask around and finally call the customer support
and see if how long they answer the calls. These things helped me to
choose which company to go. I went with Onesuite because of the
factors above.