Does anyone have WOW phone service? I know plenty of people with Wow Internet, but none of them have their phone service.

I am so sick of getting ripped off by AT&T, that I would like to switch to either wow or comcast phone.

Any recommendations of one over the other?

I have AT&T CallVantage and it's been great. I had one 2 hour outage in 4 months and that was a system wide problem. I love that it sends me a message to my Blackberry with an MP3 of voice mail messages!

We have WOW cable + phone + internet. No complaints, except on something I knew would happen someday: The "modem" black box that makes the phone and internet connections has a battery backup that only lasts about six hours, so during last August's four-day power outage we were without phone service for the duration. (We also have a cell phone from a different provider... but, of course, that was also out at the same time.)

Anyway... total WOW bill is $142.51/mo. They don't itemize the separate services, but in general we have...

Cable: Digital Basic. 75+ channels, including the 13 Starz!/Encore commercial-free movie channels. No HBO, HD or DVR (although we have a stand-alone TiVo we couldn't live without.) Two cable boxes. Also feed the "raw" cable directly to a few other TV's for the <ch 100 analog channels.

Telephone: One line. Unlimited local and long-distance calling at no additional charge. Would be really great if we had lots of friends and relatives across the country. Includes all the bells-and whistles... caller I.D., call forwarding, etc. etc. etc.

Internet: "Advanced" rated 4.0 Mbps download / 512kbps upload.

Just did a speed test and it reported:
Download: 4414 (Kbps)
Upload: 514 (Kbps)
Close enough.

No problems to report. The techs who installed the cable, later the phone, and still later an upgrade were all on-time and super.

HTH --TedE

quote:

Originally posted by perplexed:
I have AT&T CallVantage and it's been great. I had one 2 hour outage in 4 months and that was a system wide problem. I love that it sends me a message to my Blackberry with an MP3 of voice mail messages!

+1. We have AT&T as well, and it is fantastic. I think I pay between $25-28 a month, and never had a problem.

The problem I am having is that AT&T could give a crap about the DSL speed to my neighborhood. I barely get DSL speed into my home, so it crawls. Neighborhoods to the south of me, farther away from the central station, are getting double the speeds I am getting. My neighbor works for AT&T and he has WOW. He has complained to AT&T about the service and he won't use his FREE DSL line.

I like the idea of CallVantage, but I don't think that will increase my speed for internet. Looks like WOW is my best solution....Will not get rid of my DirecTV for cable.....

Thanks for the info Ted, perp and BE.......I appreciate it...

We have WOW cable, internet and phone and very happy with all 3 of them. Their customer service has always been good. Our bill averages ~$150/month (2 TV's 1 with digital, but no movie channels).

I should have been more clear, we have WOW internet with AT&T VOIP.

agreed. I have Comcast with AT&T VoIP. Comcast, all be it is expensive, is so freakin fast. Probably because I am the only one around not using WOW? I wish I could stop giving Comcast my money, but their speeds are WAY faster than WOW that it is scary.

I also use DirecTV and will never ever go back to cable, because, well, cable TV sucks and always will.

I know what my other concern was with VOIP, my Tivo. I thought I read something that my Tivo won't work with CallVantage.

So, I assume you guys use your highspeed connection through Comcast or WOW to facilitate your AT&T CallVantage connection?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: IMJ,

quote:

[Comcast's] speeds are WAY faster than WOW

Make sure you're comparing similar service levels. WOW offers something like five or six different speed ranges. As the speed goes up, so does the cost. I assume Comcast does the same. The technology is the same for both. Within each, you get what you pay for.

quote:

I thought I read something that my Tivo won't work with CallVantage.

There are some quirky things about having your TiVo call home every night via non-traditional phone lines. But if you connect your TiVo to the 'net via broadband instead, it'll work fine... and it will also add a whole bunch of wondrous TiVo bells-and-whistles as well.

You might take youe specific question to The TiVo Community Forum.

I had WOW before I got CallVantage. We did up the speed for WOW since we run 2 computers all day. We have both been on the computer with the kids watching TV and I have had a VOIP and Skype video call going at the same time without any issues.

Skype is another nice program to have. I use it for international video calls. Also Skype is free. The video feature is cool and it keeps me from working in my pajamas!

Oh and if I didn’t say it before, thanks BlueEchoes for the recommendation for AT&T!

We also have WOW Phone, Cable/DVR, and Internet and have been very happy with the service. We also had all services out for 3 days last August after the storm, so the cell phone did just fine.