>> >>> I just recently signed up for telephone service through my cable
>>> company (It is supposed to be installed Tuesday, December 5.) Other
>>> than my cable company, I had considered services such as Vonage and >>> Sunrocket.
>>> After I signed up with my cable company, I was thinking and had the
>>> following question: Is it possible to subscribe to two different VOIP
>>> telephone services at the same time and be able to use either of them
>>> whenever you want? In other words, after I port my current telephone
>>> number to my cable company and start with their service, what if I
>>> decide I need another line later and want to try another company for
>>> the new line, say Vonage, Sunrocket, or another one of my choice, for >>> example?
>>> What would be involved with doing this, especially if I don't have an
>>> active landline? Would I need to go through my local telephone
>>> company and have them install a new telephone line and then once it is
>>> working, transfer the telephone service for the new line to Vonage,
>>> Sunrocket, or some other provider of my choice? Would it be possible
>>> to have two VOIP lines with two separate VOIP providers utilizing the
>>> same high speed cable modem connection?
>>> Just curious if this would be possible.
>> Possible, yes -- but don't try making two calls at once unless you
>> have really good service. Most home net connections are asymmetric
>> and your 'outbound' connection probably isn't fast enough to handle
>> two calls at once.
>> And even if you can pull it off in the slow times at 4 AM, try it at
>> 6 PM when everyone is home surfing the web and it won't go -- if you
>> are really unlucky, you won't be able to get even one decent VOIP
>> phone call through during the busy hours.
>> Cable modem speed is /very/ dependent on how heavily they have your
>> cable segment loaded with Internet users, and how much of the shared
>> segment bandwidth they are using.
>> That's the one saving grace of DSL -- it's slower, but it's all YOUR
>> bandwidth, no sharing. Unless they overload the backhaul connection
>> at the switchroom to Earthlink (or whomever), it's fairly reliable.
>> -->--
> I had tried DSL, but having been on cable before, I thought it was too
> slow. I was then looking for ways to save money on all of my home
> communications needs, and so I looked into my cable company for
> telephone service. I have a single line through them right now and so
> far the service is pretty good. I have even been able to fax both
> ways without any problems. I thought the faxing would be an issue
> since I had read somewhere else that faxing over this type of
> connection isn't always reliable, but I haven't had any problems send > or receive.
> I remember reading somewhere else that AT&T is now offering VOIP
> Service (Internet Telephone Service) with their AT&T CallVantage=AE
> Service Plan. How are they going to be able to offer this and be
> competitive with cable? I'm no expert, but it would seem that with
> the CallVantage, you would need the DSL, which would also require a
> landline phone # or can you have DSL only? If you are required to
> have a landline phone, then what would be the purpose of subscribing
> to their CallVantage service?
> In other words, with this new AT&T CallVantage service, can you
> subscribe to DSL only and have the CallVantage service for your voice
> without having to pay extra for another line?
You are very, very confused - it may not be your fault. "ATT CallVantage" IS a VoIP service over whatever broadband (cable) provider you may have. [VoIP is totally different from DSL which is not too different from "landline".]