Hey guys.

This is directed to business owners with actual offices and phone bills:

We have a couple of servers in the office, 4 computers, and wireless for clients. We have a 1-800 number, free long distance, and some other crap.

I just received a bill from ATT owning us for $440. This months phone and internet bill. They were charging for a $130 deposit, $100 installation fee, $100 for phone, and $100 for internet (6.0 mbps).

Yeah, we got owned. I called to dispute and they tried to pacify me with a 3 year contract to reduce the price ($35 off internet, 25% off phone line).

I refuse to pay such premiums even WITH the discounts, so I wanted to know what you guys are doing as far as phone lines? Anyone using VoIP? Vonage any good?

We got 3 guys in our office, we don't plan to expand for about a year. We want the 1-800 number, and we want the 6.0 MBPS internet line. Any suggestions?

If that is a true 6mb line your internet is cheap. Even with business cable you are going to go higher than that. It sounds like the deal they just offered you is going to run you about $140 per month plus taxes and fees. That is a great deal. I would personally eat the deposit and instalation fees. The deposit is money in the bank and with the rate they are giving you you will make up the difference in 2 months on the Installation fee.

Write the check before they realize how much they are giving you. Problem with Voip is if you lose interent access there goes your phone system.

Its not a true 6.0 MBPS, its just "up to" 6 mbps. Also the price come outs to exactly $158.95. =\

I paid $140 for business cable internet. Not including the phones so it still seems cheap to me.

I'm with rrhodes. It looks like reasonable pricing to me.

Also the price come outs to exactly $158.95. What price? The one you said is $100 and they'd take off $35 if you entered into a long term contract?

I'm with rrhodes. It looks like reasonable pricing to me.

What price? The one you said is $100 and they'd take off $35 if you entered into a long term contract?

Yeah, I called back and worked the numbers. With 3 year contract, and several different features.. we get kicked at $158.95 a month for 6.0 mbps DSL and phone.

Hey guys.

This is directed to business owners with actual offices and phone bills:

We have a couple of servers in the office, 4 computers, and wireless for clients. We have a 1-800 number, free long distance, and some other crap.

I just received a bill from ATT owning us for $440. This months phone and internet bill. They were charging for a $130 deposit, $100 installation fee, $100 for phone, and $100 for internet (6.0 mbps).

Yeah, we got owned.

I refuse to pay such premiums even WITH the discounts, so I wanted to know what you guys are doing as far as phone lines? Anyone using VoIP? Vonage any good?

My home bill, with two phone lines, both with unlimited long distance, some call features, voicemail, 6Mps Internet, and 2 cell phones is a bit more than that, sans the deposit, which they're probably charging you because you're new.

Refuse all you want, but I don't think you're paying an exorbitant amount of money for what you're getting from the telco. It's very typical pricing.

If you want to cut your costs to the bone, then get one phone line with zero features, put 6Mbps DSL on it then get Vonage or another VoIP provider. I'm not sure if you'll save significantly over the cost of unlimited LD from the telco vs. VoIP though.

If paying install fees and deposits amounts to being "owned" - oh the fun of Internet colloquialisms - then 99% of the people with phones have probably been "owned."

Look into asterisk if you have any linux boys on staff. http://www.asterisk.org/

True, VoIP needs a GOOD Internet connection. Low latency, no loss and preferably low jitter. But if you are in a decent area, that's the norm, unless your ISP sucks.

We've been using VoIP exclusively for all incoming and outgoing calls, including a toll free number in several locations (on average 6 extensions per location) for the last 2-3 years. Overall, it's not as reliable as POTS but if done right, the performance is very acceptable (about an hour of downtime/breakups per year). No so bad for the flexibility and sawing you're getting. Just make sure you get a decent ITSP, not those all-you-can-eat for $5/month deals.

I paid $140 for business cable internet. Not including the phones so it still seems cheap to me.
wooow where do u live..in australia i can get business adsl 2+ with up to 24mbps with a good download limit and no overcharging and i think free install for much cheaper than 140 a month ....lol and they say australia has a bad net.

wooow where do u live..in australia i can get business adsl 2+ with up to 24mbps with a good download limit and no overcharging and i think free install for much cheaper than 140 a month ....lol and they say australia has a bad net.


I live in South Carolina, Around here you end up paying more for business becasue of the service SLA and uptime Guarantees. The same connection for a residential "turbo" package runs $59.99 per month.

This was a year ago but I doubt the prices have changed much. Like I said before $158 sounds like a good deal for a total Voice and data package.

Vonage is generally fine, if you can live with a once in a while outage.. (and I'm not sure if its vonage or just the fact I have to reset my custom pap device)

I have it call forwarded so in most cases nothing is lost anyway.. as far as internet goes just being honest but you should shop around for what's available and even try and pay residential prices if you can.. 90% percent of these forum users are on residential and they manage whole hosting companies with 1 or more residential's.. (I have 3+ internet providers available to me.. so I could do fail-over if I needed too.. not even bothering)

Even now I'm upset and trying to find a way to get my vonage bill down to from $65 to $10 or something (I have like 6 virtual numbers.. at $5 a pop they add up) and that means doing my own via asterisk or finding a new company to trust..

If there's one thing vonage is missing that I'm not happy about it's the ability to filter calls, pap2 support and the ability to track which calls come in on which number..

For the record vonage can do fax’s.. reports on other voip providers for faxing not so good..

I pay roughly the same price for 5mbit down 1 mbit up with 5 static ips with RDNS set. Its definately an affordable price.

that is actually a very good price. I'm in Niagara Falls NY and our phones alone were close to what your paying for phones and DSL. Recently switched phone service to an asterisks box, but that is not for the faint of heart. The setup took a lot of time and as others have mentioned VoIP line troubles are bound to happen.

can voip work with a 1866 number

VOIP can work with just about any phone number, it all depends on the provider you go with for it.

Voip from a good company they will support faxing through
g711 ulaw and T.38

We fax on it all they long our sucesse rate is 99%. No BS

And yes Good Voip company will only charge you per min not by how many number you have. And they should be able to offer toll free as well as local number.

Any Voip specialist will tell you they only do SIP / H323 no iax.

IAX is only for asterisk.

Most VOIP interconect via SIP.

So email steve @ idv.net or just gave them a call tell them your teleco need they can help.