Comcast Digital Voice infrastructure?

[Jerry Feldman]

On Sat, 8 Sep 2007 12:13:27 -0400 (EDT)
Scott Ehrlich <scott-DPNOqEs/LNQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> My parents currently have RCN for voice, cable, and Internet, and are now=
=20
> re-evaluating who has what and associated costs.  They were at a Comcast=
=20
> service center and called me from their cell phone to have the Comcast=20
> customer service person explain to me how their digital service works.  I=
=20
> pushed, verifying their offering was not VOIP, and they confirmed.  I the=
n=20
> asked how the infrastructure was designed once the signal left the=20
> customer.  The best I got was it goes over coax, Internet services is not=
=20
> needed, the service uses Comcast' own private network, and the customer i=
s=20
> given an 8 hour battery in case power goes out.
>=20
> What more can the list offer for how Comcast' service works?  How about=
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> RCN's?   What do people see if price differences?  How about in compariso=
n=20
> to FIOS?
>=20
> For Comcast Digital Voice, can I go out and get a larger-capacity UPS and=
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> slap it on Comcast' connection and extend the life beyond 8 hours?

I've had Digital Voice for a while and have not had a problem. It is
integrated into the cable modem. Comcast supplies it with 1 battery,
but the unit takes 2 batteries. Certainly if the cable goes out you
lose TV, Internet and phone, but that is the same with FIOS and DSL
(except DSL does not include TV).=20

Additionally, Comcast brings fibre down to the neighborhood. I'm not
sure what the ratio is between copper and fibre.=20

One of the advantages of Digital Voice over VOIP is that it never goes
out over the public Internet.=20

In my experience I have not had an outage in a few years, but I know
other people who use Comcast in other towns have had problems. I know a
few people in Waltham who never got good service from Comcast and its
predecessors.  I also routinely measure over 6Mbps with 8 on the test I
just ran.=20

The bottom line is that go with the best price/performance and
reputation in your area. I've had several bad experiences with Verizon
and very good service from Comcast, but others have had the opposite. I
believe that Dan Bricklin posted his experiences, and he had bad
experiences with Comcast and switched to FIOS. Again, check with
neighbors.=20

--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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