Anyway I ran some speed tests today and the results were better than I expected. You can run a speed test that will show the ping result along with your upload & download speeds then you can click on a tab to show how you relate to others in the area and the world and your ISP, your city, state, region, etc. Here's my best results today so far:
Like I said, the results were surprising. Apparently my country rank is faster than 94% of and my global rank is faster than 96% of connections. As you can see, I'm using Comcast for my internet. (Though I have Dish Network for my channels.) I've been using Voip.com for my home phone service ever since Sunrocket went out of business last year. The problem with the whole concept is that the quality of service is based on available bandwidth. Now, I'd think that with results like above I should have no problem however that's just not the case. The voip.com hardware connects to my router vs. directly to my cable modem so not only does that use up one of my ports, it also makes it subject to the network traffic on my local home network. (The Sunrocket hardware connected directly to the cable modem and then to my network router.)
Long story short, my wife is pretty sick and tired of this service that is less than 100% reliable when she, apparently frequently enough, experiences no dial tone, can't get incoming calls, can't make outgoing calls, other end can't hear you, etc which makes her hang up and use her cell phone and/or turn on call forwarding online to automatically forward all calls to her cell phone. My experience has not been so frustrating and seems worth it for all the features we get for $16.66/mo. and being able to be free from Qwest (Qworst).
So last week she called me letting me know that someone representing Comcast was going around in our neighborhood door-to-door offering their Digital Voice service for just $5 more per month to our internet bill. (Introductory offer for 12 months.) It seems to have all the same features I already use, they can port my number, and I'm told I won't have a loss or interruption of service. When my wife asked me what I thought I left the final decision up to her and she didn't hesitate one bit. I'm sure she feels glad to be soon rid of the frustrations she's had for the past several months.
I don't use the phone much at home unless I'm working VO. I try to do most of my communication over the internet (e-mail, IM, Blog, and social networking sites). We'll see how it turns out when they set us up later this month. Until then, at least I have fast, reliable internet.
2 comments:
What about upgrading your Comcast Internet and going with a Skype solution? I just saw they have $2.95/month unlimited domestic calling plans.
I'm also in Seattle and we just upgraded our regular Comcast Internet ($65/mo) to a Comcast Enhanced Businss Internet line ($90/mo) which is allegedly 20 up/2 down. Our speed tests have been about 3x what you're showing, and I never have any interruption of streaming media, slow-loading pages, etc. anymore. I'm very happy with Comcast, which is the first time I can ever say that.
I have an unlimited cell phone plan through Verizon so I don't have a need for other voice, but it seems like the improved Internet would make the call quality better.
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