TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: VOIP: Internet Telephone Question

Re: VOIP: Internet Telephone Question

Bruce L. Bergman (blbergman@earthlink.net)
Wed, 06 Dec 2006 06:11:29 GMT

On 4 Dec 2006 22:11:31 -0800, Korey <newsemail@cox.net> wrote:

> I just recently signed up for telephone service through my cable
> company (It is supposed to be installed Tuesday, December 5.) Other
> than my cable company, I had considered services such as Vonage and
> Sunrocket.

> After I signed up with my cable company, I was thinking and had the
> following question: Is it possible to subscribe to two different VOIP
> telephone services at the same time and be able to use either of them
> whenever you want? In other words, after I port my current telephone
> number to my cable company and start with their service, what if I
> decide I need another line later and want to try another company for
> the new line, say Vonage, Sunrocket, or another one of my choice, for
> example?

> What would be involved with doing this, especially if I don't have an
> active landline? Would I need to go through my local telephone
> company and have them install a new telephone line and then once it is
> working, transfer the telephone service for the new line to Vonage,
> Sunrocket, or some other provider of my choice? Would it be possible
> to have two VOIP lines with two separate VOIP providers utilizing the
> same high speed cable modem connection?

> Just curious if this would be possible.

Possible, yes -- but don't try making two calls at once unless you
have really good service. Most home net connections are asymmetric
and your 'outbound' connection probably isn't fast enough to handle
two calls at once.

And even if you can pull it off in the slow times at 4 AM, try it at
6 PM when everyone is home surfing the web and it won't go -- if you
are really unlucky, you won't be able to get even one decent VOIP
phone call through during the busy hours.

Cable modem speed is /very/ dependent on how heavily they have your
cable segment loaded with Internet users, and how much of the shared
segment bandwidth they are using.

That's the one saving grace of DSL -- it's slower, but it's all YOUR
bandwidth, no sharing. Unless they overload the backhaul connection
at the switchroom to Earthlink (or whomever), it's fairly reliable.

--<< Bruce >>--

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: John Hines: "Re: Who/What is 773-874-8589?"
Go to Previous message: Rick Merrill: "Re: VOIP: Internet Telephone Question"
May be in reply to: Korey: "VOIP: Internet Telephone Question"
Next in thread: Korey Smith: "Re: VOIP: Internet Telephone Question"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page