Here is a story that you need to read if you have Comcast Digital Voice (VoIP) service. I’m posting this because I have CCDV, and I hope that maybe by some chance the “internet revolution” can help change Comcast so that no one else ever experiences this issue.

According to this blog entry, the guy’s son had a seizure and he tried to call 911 (via Comcast) twice and ended up with some odd noise rather than an emergency dispatcher. The guy ended up getting in touch with medical help by calling 911 on his cell. The problem of course, is that 911 via his home phone (with Comcast).

Thankfully the guy had a cell phone. Playing the what-if game, we could really change things… what-if he didn’t have a cell phone, or what-if the cell phone was dead… granted, if you have Comcast Digital Voice (or any VoIP service), you’ll probably own a cell phone… again, this is just a what if. What if the guy had been alone, hurt and couldn’t get to his cell? Better yet, what if it hadn’t been a medical situation… what if someone was breaking into the house.

Yes, things need to change. To be honest, I haven’t even tested the 911 service with Comcast. You better believe that this evening when I get home, I am going to test it out. — Important note here, if you plan on testing 911 with Comcast (or any other service), DO NOT JUST CALL AND HANG UP WHEN THE OPERATOR PICKS UP. You need to tell the operator that you were testing to make sure the service worked, if you hang up they will spend time and money trying to call you back and possibly dispatch police and medical to your residence.

Back to the original story…. after his son (along with his wife) had been taken via ambulance to the hospital, the guy (still at home with the other son) tried to call Comcast support and get some answers. Can’t blame him there, I would have. He was bounced around from person to person and center to center.

Now, I don’t know exactly what happened, or what was said, but I can guess some of the things I would have said. Truthfully, there probably wasn’t a thing that any minimum wage call center tech could have done for the guy, even the call center supervisors were probably helpless… add that to a rabid customer, and they probably were willing to do even less than they could.

I agree with the guy on the point that this is something that should go all the way up. If the 911 service does not work, it needs to. It has to work. It doesn’t matter what the cost is to Comcast, this service needs to be in place. They’re squeezing enough out of the millions of TV subscribers that they should be more than able to pay for any necessary changes that need to be made to make 911 work.

I encourage everyone to Digg the original blog entry (not mine) to help spread the word about this.

Well, so far Comcast isn’t off to a great start. I had an install scheduled yesterday between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to set up my Digital Cable, High Speed Internet, and Digital Voice (VoIP). So, silly me, I get there before 1:00 PM and wait… and wait… and wait.

Around 3:00 PM I get a call from someone at Comcast that tells me that the installer is on his way. Could have been good news, but she follows up by telling me that the installer had used his last Digital Box, and we’d have to schedule someone else to bring one back to me…. or I could go pick one up at the main office. No biggie I though. If he was out by 4:00 PM, I’d be able to get my other errands done and still swing by the Comcast office.

So the guy arrives, looks at a few jacks, and mumbles something about the wiring. Apparently the new house (20 year old hose that is) has what he called “old 45 wiring” which isn’t going to work to well. He tells me that they need to schedule someone to come back out and run all new wiring. Thankfully, they will be able to get someone out there this Saturday… again, between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM. There goes that day.

Thankfully, I was able to talk the guy into at least turning on the TV. With a little reluctance, he does so, but not before saying “I don’t know how well the reception will be”. So, after he leaves, I hook up TiVo and the TV. Crystal clear. Don’t know what the guy was smoking, but it works, and works just fine. I’d bet that the internet would have worked as well had the guy at least tried to turn it on.

Oh well… at least I was able to watch Heroes last night, and schedule TiVo to records the episodes of Battlestar Galactica and The Dresden Files that I missed.

This is kind of a rambling rant against Frontier and Vonage….

For months now, I’ve been giving thought to switching my home phone from my current provider, Frontier, to an VoIP service like Vonage. I currently have two numbers with Frontier, one is dedicated voice and the other is fax. Neither line gets much usage… maybe a combined 20 minutes a month for local calling, and rarely is there any long distance. Now when you throw in all the fees and taxes, I’m shelling out around $83.00 per month for a phone service I don’t use a whole lot. - That’s almost a grand a year… a grand that could go toward a new computer, house furnishings, or something else.

I’m sure by now everyone has seen the Vonage commercials on TV. They’ve got an annoying jingle that you just can’t mistake. If you haven’t seen it on TV, then you may have walked past a display set up in BestBuy, Circuit City, or another electronic store. It’s all over the place here in Knoxville. They offer VoIP service for about $25 per month. Not bad.

But that’s the problem. All the advertising on TV and in local stores, yet Vonage is not available in Knoxville as one would expect. It’s very misleading and borderlines false advertising.

You see, you can buy and use the Vonage service in Knoxville, but you will not be able to get a phone number with the 865 area code. Because VoIP service isn’t like traditional land lines, you can use VoIP service with virtually any area code. This means someone in Maine could have a California area code that would ring at their house in Maine. This is something that is great for businesses, but not so useful for the average Joe.

Currently Vonage only offers the following TN area codes:

• 615
• 731
• 901
• 931

That’s basically all of middle Tennessee and Memphis. I’m sorry, but a Nashville or Memphis number is next to useless for me. Now granted, most VoIP services don’t have long distance fees so if I had a Nashville number and wanted to call the Knoxville area, I wouldn’t have a problem. Though what if someone in Knoxville wanted to call me? It’d be long distance for them. Friends, family, co-workers, even my next door neighbor would be charged. Doesn’t make much since, does it? — Though, on the bright side, I guess it would keep people from calling and bothering you, eh? :p

While Vonage may be the largest and most recognized VoIP provider it isn’t the only one. In fact, because Vonage has been unable to offer the 865 area code, I’m giving much thought to trying another company, SunRocket. You may have seen their advertising banners on websites all over the place.

They offer service for $200 per year. And the best part about it, the service is available with an 865 area code. I’m still looking into the company and the service, but it may well end up being who I go with. If anyone out there has experience with SunRocket, please let me know! I’d love to hear what you think.

I think people probably got tired of hearing me rant about how much I hated Sprint when the Sprint Nextel merger was announced. Those were some sad days for me. :/ I was a happy and proud customer of Nextel Communications. I still believe that Nextel was the best cell provider I had ever used (over USCellular, Sprint PCS, Version, and Cingular).

I hopped from one cell company to another as I would get frustrated, or in the case of Sprint, outright pissed with the service and company in general. So, when the Sprint Nextel deal was announced, and long before it was finalized, I dropped Nextel and went to Cngular.

Well, I can see the greedy, money loving, bastards are up to no good again. Sprint Nextel is suing Vonage and Voiceglo, another VoIP service provider, for “VoIP Patent Infringement“.

So the question to ask now is why now? Why single out Vonage, the largest VoIP service provider? How did they infringe the patents? What about all the other VoIP providers?

Kind of humorous that they choose to only go after the “top dog”.

I’m highly considering getting VoIP service through Vonage if they ever offer the Knoxville area code (865). This of course would replace my local (and somewhat expensive) telephone service provided by Frontier Communication.

I’ve asked OCC members if anyone has experience with Vonage, if anyone else would like to contribute to the discussion, that thread can be found here.