Review by danieljlevin 
Posted: 3.1 years ago
member for 3.1 years, 8 visits, last login: 2.8 years ago
 Ellicott City,Howard,MD
 $39 per month
 about 24 days
 Cavalier
CLEC party: Cavalier
 "Phonom is nice; Fast DSL speed for price; DSL + VoIP Package; Good equipment"
 "Available in select areas; General customer service reps incompetant"
 "Good service at a fair price if you can get configured the way you should be"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I've seen some of the reviews under this section and I really feel for you guys. I wanted to tell my story with them.
1. Transitioning from Verizon to Cavtel can be more interesting than it should be. Numbers port fine. You really need a cell phone though so you can survive the down-time. Ours was particularly complex since there were 4 lines coming to the house and we didn't know the numbers. In 2 conversions at 2 different locations we discovered that the switchover required human intervention (in the form of a vendor meet, and all the trials leading up to it). We're not sure who is at fault here. Eventually when they had people who knew what they were doing and why instead of the ones who just do what they've always done, our phones began to ring. DSL is static IP.
2. Transitioning from Cavalier Phone + DSL to Cavalier Phonom VoIP + DSL was really smooth in comparison. Converter showed up early. Phone was dead next day. Used cell to get configured and viola, VoIP works. Price is pretty good.
3. To their measuring site I get about 10Mb/s D/L. They don't measure U/L. To other sites it ranges depending on things I don't understand. I like speak-easy's meter. It consistently says 4Mb/s to DC D/L and 841Kb/s U/L.
4. To me Phonom has a slight advantage over most VoIPs because all I need to do is get to Cavtel's servers and that's the smallest hop possible. Other services have a slice of internet between you and them where anything can happen. Just my thinking. Of course you cannot take your VoIP box with you like you can with other services.
5. Another thing I like about their service is they use hardware that prioritizes the VoIP data over the computer data. I realize you can do some configuring on some routers, but I don't have to. Their box is first off the DSL modem and they control the throtling. When they used the Innomedia VoIP boxes, you could get 2 lines out of it ($15 more for second Phonom line). New boxes have 4 ethernet ports and only one line. We never used the second line.
6. I've seen other VoIP complaints regarding faxing. We don't receive faxes over it, but when we send them, it works great.
7. Cavtel doesn't seem to know if residential voice-mail has web access capability or not. My belief is that you do not. This is unfortunate, since it's pretty standard now with VoIP.
8. No way to forward when service is down. This should also be standard like at most VoIP providers.
9. Had a problem for a log time where Voice Mail picked up on 4th ring (that's 3 rings if you have a caller ID phone. Called up 2 times to get it fixed. No success. Wrote to feedback e-mail and got a call next day. Jeff was great! Now phone rings as long as we want. They also sent me latest VoIP hardware (free) to address potential issues with need to reset Inno Media VoIP box. We'll see if I can get more 9s reliability now.
Followup comments:  
memser
@cavtel.net
| OK experience with CavTel DSL for years . . . I'm 17,200 feet from the CO and grandfathered in with CavTel DSL and I've had them ever since they offered DSL service here in Va. Beach. Since I'm so far away, they uncapped me and charge me the cheapest rate: I get around 400 Kb/s down. The only real problems I have are that I'm at the cable end and there was only one working copper pair (and I have two lines - Verizon once did a repair and switched my DSL to the phantom pair and it was a pain to get it switched back, but that's Verizon). Because Verizon owns the copper, they would never really fix the poor line quality caused by the old underground cable. Then last summer, when Verizon installed their FIOS cable, they cut _my_ underground cable. Now I've got a "temporary" drop run from up the street, but my line quality is soooo much better. If I ever drop CavTel, Verizon won't let them hook me up again. I keep them because they give me a static IP and I can run any server I want, but my main Internet access is via Cox; I do route DNS through CavTel because the Cox DNS servers are not as reliable and I still use my CavTel mail address. The CavTel DSL tech people on the phone are not useful, but CavTel DSL has been so reliable for me (and more reliable than Cox), I haven't needed their help; when I have called for a POTS problem, they have always been very quick to respond and fix it the first time. | |
| tacoisleet
join:2007-04-18
Dendron, VA
| ** PLEASE READ ****** Basically any complaints against the service on due to the customers incompetence. The majority of people who call in do not follow instructions on the setup, or do not know how to configure their IP address. Another thing that these unintelligent people do not know that we use STATIC IP address so they hook up a router, and CALL CAVALIER TO SUPPORT THEM WITH SETUP, they are ignorant can't realize the concept that the router is acting as a DHCP server, so ONLY the router needs to be configured with the IP address, try to explain this one to a brainless one. Most of the complaints I've seen on this msg board are just due to ignorance in dealing with technology. *Noting* besides problems on the VERIZON side line which they own, most of the phone problems also lie on the users side, they either have the phone off the hook or just their phone has gone bad (which they will never accept this statement); techs can tell where on the line the exact problems lies if there actually is a problem.
Summary of Cavalier problems
10 % lies on the hardware side 90% in the cu stupidity
If you have some sort of education please read some of the negative comments some people have left and recognize how brainless they really are. | |
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