Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Comcast Digital Voice


About a month ago, we switched to Comcast Digital Voice for our phone service.  Comcast has bundled pricing packages for customers who also have TV and broadband services.


The install was pretty easy.  The installers brought a new cable modem that replaces the old one, and includes a phone jack.  In addition to this, the modem includes a battery for use in power failures.


So far, I am pretty happy with the service.  The quality is better than we experienced with Vonage.  The quality problems that we had previously, was not a problem with Vonage, but a problem with the network.  All voice packets went over the public network from the Vonage ATA to the Vonage servers, and this could add latency.  Comcast has the luxury to own a fast connection between the home and the server, so the latency is a lot lower.





Comcast Digital Voice also has some of the features that Vonage:



  • Able to listen to voicemail on the web

  • Web interface to see call history

  • Web interface to configure anonymous call rejection



Unfortunately, it doesn't include some of the features that Vonage has:



  • Ability to have the voicemail sound file attached to an email

  • Soft phone, which allows you to send and receive phone call from a PC



There is one problem:


  • Voicemail indicator.  When a voicemail is waiting, a stutter tone or FSK is used on the phone line to enable the voicemail indicator.  The problem is that even when there is no voicemail, and no stutter tone, the indicator is still enabled.

3 comments:

  1. I am currently experiencing the same problem with the indicator light on even when there is no message. I was told there was a code to stop this and then it happened again. I called comcast again and the 2ppl I talked to has no idea what I was talking about. Do you know how to turn this off?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry I can't answer your questions, but maybe you can answer mine :-) Did you guys receive a light with your comcast modem, or was it already on your phone? I have no such light and it is driving me crazy! I too like the service, but having to check the dial-tone gets old. Also, do you know if
    Comcast uses FSK or not. I would like to buy a light from Radio Shack or similar store, but I guess there are diff. kinds.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Paul, Tara and Erik, I'd like to know if this VM issue still exists and how much the service has improved since initial posting. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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