VoIP on primary DSL Line?

You will lose DSL. You can subscribe to "naked" DSL -- DSL without a line attached.

Chris Shearer Cooper wrote: : I get my Internet over DSL ... can I switch my one-and-only land line to : VoIP? Or will shutting off the phone service also shut off the DSL?

: I tried calling my ring-tone provider (QWest) and the guy I got could barely : spell DSL, so I don't know how much confidence to put in his answer ("Oh : ,sure!").

With Qwest, if you cancel your phone service, your DSL line will be canceled as well.

However, you can order "stand alone" DSL (Qwest vocabulary) that doesn't include a dial-tone.

If you have the right folks write the orders, it *is* possible to have all of the following occur at once: - write a disconnect order for your phone line (removing DSL as well) - write a new order for stand alone DSL - ask for the stand alone DSL to be ordered on the same wire pair that used to have you phone line (asking to "reuse existing facility") - ask for all of the above to be completed simultaneously

It's sometimes easier to find a Qwest agency, and talk to the folks there when you want complicated things like this.

When I did this for my office, I temporarily forwarded my office phone number to my work cell phone, and used that as my network availability number for my VoIP provider, so I didn't really have to worry about the exact timing of all the transitions.

Depends what country you're in, you can't do it in the UK, you have to have a phone line. No line, no DSL.

Ivor

Should also mention, I am in Qwest territory, and they're providing my DSL circuit on the same pair previously used for the phone line. Their business sales folks didn't have any trouble with this, but when I'd asked about it for home, their residential sales droids said it was impossible. (Turned out not to be impossible, just more expensive than getting cable internet and VoIP and turing off Qwest altogether at home.)

You obviously want to start this process by paying for a new install of a standalone line before you kill the old line, because once the old line goes, your phone number goes too..

No way to get it to overlap unless you do it all with one company, and even then it might not work. Qwest does sell VOIP services, but it's business orientated, not residential...

that depends on your telco providing the line, or vey likely it will ultimately depend on the regulatory sittuation in your place.

Depends.

Some telcos do not offer "naked DSL" ie a copper pair wire that has DSL only and no phone line.

Also not all VOIP services are 911 compliant so you need to check their service terms to determine how you will be effected.

Cost comparisons against your needs are necessary.

For example, can you drop your regular telephone service to it's bare-bones minimum (which keeps 911 service and often free incoming calls depending on service plans), keep the DSL, and then find that the call-per-minute rates for the VOIP will save money in the long run.