You'll love this quote from ATT Callvantage tech support

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 18, 2005 Posts: 3

I recently signed up for Verizon FIOS (fiber optic internet). I've had comcast cable internet for a while now with ATT CallVantage Voip. I get my fiber installed and start having problems with the CallVantage over my fiber. I call the tech support and they tell me, and I quote:

"The fiber optic line is too fast for the callvantage service."

I had him repeat that to make sure I got it right. Don't worry, I'm not off topic... Vonage is part of this story too, because the next thing he tells me is that Vonage won't work either!

I thought you Vonage folks out there that are enjoying your Voip service over Verizon fiber should know that it doesn't work, in case ATT hasn't told you that, yet. LOL

I thought it highly unprofessional (aside from being inaccurate), that ATT first level technicians are telling people that Vonage doesn't work... they have no business doing that.

Posts: 2257

pdc123 wrote:

I recently signed up for Verizon FIOS (fiber optic internet). I've had comcast cable internet for a while now with ATT CallVantage Voip. I get my fiber installed and start having problems with the CallVantage over my fiber. I call the tech support and they tell me, and I quote:

"The fiber optic line is too fast for the callvantage service."

I had him repeat that to make sure I got it right. Don't worry, I'm not off topic... Vonage is part of this story too, because the next thing he tells me is that Vonage won't work either!

I thought you Vonage folks out there that are enjoying your Voip service over Verizon fiber should know that it doesn't work, in case ATT hasn't told you that, yet. LOL

I thought it highly unprofessional (aside from being inaccurate), that ATT first level technicians are telling people that Vonage doesn't work... they have no business doing that.

That's right up there with the scare tactic from one of "the other companies" that you can't have Voip from two services because "the FCC only allows you one phone number per person".

We need a thread of just these quotes. Smile

Posts: 1389

pdc123 wrote:

I recently signed up for Verizon FIOS (fiber optic internet). I've had comcast cable internet for a while now with ATT CallVantage Voip. I get my fiber installed and start having problems with the CallVantage over my fiber. I call the tech support and they tell me, and I quote:

"The fiber optic line is too fast for the callvantage service."

I had him repeat that to make sure I got it right. Don't worry, I'm not off topic... Vonage is part of this story too, because the next thing he tells me is that Vonage won't work either!

I thought you Vonage folks out there that are enjoying your Voip service over Verizon fiber should know that it doesn't work, in case ATT hasn't told you that, yet. LOL

I thought it highly unprofessional (aside from being inaccurate), that ATT first level technicians are telling people that Vonage doesn't work... they have no business doing that.

Welcome to the forum...when I read your post on dslreports I had to chuckle...Because as you know you would NEVER want to get your voice across the lines faster.... Wink

Posts: 23 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Sep 21, 2005 Posts: 23

If you think this is bad, just wait. If my own experience with SBC is any guide, now that they have acquired ATT the level of customer service will only get worse.

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Mar 25, 2004 Posts: 25

While he is off base in telling you that, there IS a logical explaination for this. Tell me if this makes sense...

A common misconception is that if you have a big pipe (even fiber) and/or QoS devices in house then you should have nice voice quality with your Voip service. While it is true that this effects you voice quality your call is only as strong as its weakest link. In this case your weakest link is the public internet. Your big pipe or QoS device can only conrol the call once it hits your premise. However your call may already be garbled, delayed, jittered, etc (via packet loss) before it ever gets to you (same thing when it goes out). The only way to control this is to get a PRIVATE circuit (DSL or T1) directly from your Voip provider. The only Voip prividers I even know that CAN do this are...

iTEL-ip www.itel-ip.com
MCI Advantage www.mci.com
Qwest One Flex www.qwest.net
(anyone feel free to add to this list if you know of anymore)

Of the 3 iTEL-ip has the most competitive rates and largest coverage area.

Keep in mind their T1's and DSL circuts will be more expensive than your local providers. This is simply becuase they are delivering your data (and call) in a Straight Shot to you. That means cleaner data, less paket loss, jitter latency and QoS!

I hope this helps. Thanks.

bbarnes (a Voip professional)

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 18, 2005 Posts: 3

True, your call is only as strong as it's weakest link, but the symptom I have isn't poor voice quality. The voice quality is great. The problem is that I can't receive data reliably. Browsing the web from any of my computers, (mac and windows) does not work at all. So it seems that for some reason when the Voip is on my fiber connection, it's eating up nearly all my bandwidth!?!

I can speculate that the problem is a bug in the router firmware, or perhaps on the server-side. It would be nice if someone knew instead of saying "your connection is too fast" and then telling me that other services don't work when in reality (according to the folks on this board) it most likely will... In truth, that effected my buying decision. I immediately jumped to Verizon VoiceWing because they're telling me nothing else will work (and yes, I'm not very patient when I'm frustrated and have many, many other things to do aside from pick a new Voip carrier!).

Thanks for the input.

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Mar 25, 2004 Posts: 25

No problem. Something still seems awry here...

I believe the 3 cariers I listed about will prioritize your voice over your data but it seems you should still have plenty of bandwidth to do both.

Ah technology, do we love it. Very Happy

Sorry to hear of your troubles, best of luck in the future...

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 18, 2005 Posts: 3

Well, I confirmed that the problem is contained to my router, the linksys wrt54gp2a. I plugged it into the dlink router verizon gave me and now I can place phone calls and surf at the same time. What's interesting about this configuration is that the linksys is in DHCP mode. If I put the linksys in place of the dlink (direct connect to the fiber network) and configure it for PPPoE, I have problems surfing. When it's in DHCP mode haning off the DLINK, I can place calls and surf without problem.

So the real answer is, don't let the linksys drink directly from the fiber and it works fine.

However, I figured out that getting two Vonage lines, one at $15 a month and the other at $25 month, I can save $10 a month. Right now I'm on the $50 a month 2-line plan. I went ahead an picked up the Vonage device today at Best Buy and it works great.

So today I had 3 services running: CallVantage, VoiceWing, and Vonage. I didn't notice any significant voice quality differences, but I did have an interesting problem with VoiceWing. The adapter wouldn't ring my desk phone! So aside from being the most expensive service, it didn't work "out of the box". They offered to escalate the issue but I told them to forget it. The still aren't priced competively.

So now I'm a Vonage customer!!! haha