Voip teleophony - Anyone know Packet-8 or others?

[ward at pong.be (Ward Vandewege)]

On Mon, Dec 12, 2005 at 11:37:13PM -0500, Laura Conrad wrote:
> >>>>> "WV" == Ward Vandewege <ward at pong.be> writes:
> 
>     WV> Odd, that; Speakeasy offers DSL in the Boston area through
>     WV> Covad, and you can get no-voice-needed Speakeasy DSL (they
>     WV> call it Onelink DSL). So Covad doesn't require a voice line, I
>     WV> would think.
> 
> Speakeasy claims to offer Onelink.  Has anyone actually gotten it?
> When I tried to sign up, Verizon told them the line wouldn't handle
> it.  Details at
> <http://serpent.laymusic.org/cgi-bin/lconrad/blosxom.cgi/2005/05/12#050512-nakeddsl>.

Interesting. I'm on the cheapest Verizon plan (metered service - about $13 +
tax/month), with Speakeasy DSL on that line. It used to go down occasionally
initially, but I have not had problems for over a year or so.

Of course, Verizon keeps sending me paper spam about 'getting Verizon DSL'.

I've considered going to Onelink, and porting the number to VOIP, maybe
Broadvoice (they let you use Asterisk!). That would probably save about
$10-15/month. Have not gotten around to it though; I'm kind of suspicious
that Verizon will mess things up somewhere along the line.

I find it kind of ironic that Verizon is such a pain that people switch to
Comcast. I don't trust either ...

Comcast Cable or Verizon DSL is not an option for me; I really value the
freedom Speakeasy gives me; I get truely unrestricted internet access. I can
run servers. I can run VOIP software from any third party. I can use the
words 'tcpdump' or 'traceroute' when talking to their support people, without
getting an awkward silence on the other side of the line. Their support is
good, in my experience. The only problem is that it is pretty expensive.

Verizon & co are undercutting Speakeasy by a wide margin - but their internet
offerings are pretty crappy. No servers; use 'too much' bandwidth and you get
capped; etc etc etc.

Ward.

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