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Review by macfreddy 
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 1.5 years, 6 visits, last login: 1 year ago
 Albuquerque,Bernalillo,NM
 $20 per month
 about 7 days
 "worked"
 "took 2 service visits"
 "better than qwest"
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VOIP modem RCA DHG535-2
Didn't quite work when 1st tech connected modem to house wiring... got a good dialtone but incoming calls all failed + no ring.
2nd tech asked what kind of phones we had: all cordless 5.8 GHz.. he said we didn't need to connect to house wiring. after disconnecting line to wall outlet, everything worked.
voice quality is SUPER: no humming, static, clicking.. just crystal clear voice.
we currently have basic cable + broadband for $111/mo. VOIP will add $20 more
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 Review by jkj860
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 2583 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Valparaiso,Porter,IN
$39 per month
about 7 days
"Great price, features, and call quality."
"None so far."
"Same quality as POTS service and less cost."
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Was installed 7 day's after ordered as scheduled. Installer was quick and efficient. He made sure to test incoming and outgoing calls and explained features before leaving. They were able to use my existing phone number from Verizon so I kept the same #. This is what takes time. I would recommend them as the quality is as good as a regular landline and for me $20/month less plus no additional long distance charges for calls in the US.
No issues since install date. Performance has been rock solid and savings from land line Verizon are a huge plus.I would recommend this service to anyone that has it available to them.
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 Review by Chris 313
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.3 years, 3396 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Houma,Terrebonne,LA
$33 per month (12 month contract)
about 17 days
"Calls are crystal clear, no hiss in the background, no reseting everytime you lose power. No sucking of internet bandwith."
"ARRIS e-MTA 502G has upload speed problems, but using a modem for internet and one for phone, a temporary solution can be found."
"Comcast Digital Voice rocks so far. I'm glad I switched from my AT&T CallVantage VOIP service."
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As far back as I can remember, I started with a phone company called South Central Bell. Years later it turned into BellSouth and there we were were with 3 phone numbers over 18 years and a 4th when I got my VOIP service.
CDV reads as my 5th phone number in all the time I've had phone service. Hopefully, this one will stay for a good long time.
Back in January 2004, I jumped on the Broadband bandwagon with Time Warner Cable's RoadRunner service when I moved into my new house. I loved the speed, but we still had plain old POS POTS service from BellSouth. After paying to have the place wired to our specs and the number we had for several years prior transfered, a botched jack install in my bedroom was the last straw. I was sick of paying so much every month for so little.
(We had local and long distance calling and Caller ID in this package for 88 plus taxes a month.)
After the botched install and getting that fixed, I decided to dump BellSouth and check into VOIP services like Vonage, using my broadband connection to make calls for cheaper. 35 bucks vs 88+ really is a no brainer.
After checking into Vonage and them failing the test because they didn't have my area code when I went to sign up, I checked into a rival service of their's called AT&T CallVantage. They had my area code and was 32.43 a month.
I jumped on eagerly, even though I had to lose the phone number I had for at least 5 years.
After a bit of a false start, I got up and running with the service a month later and used it through price drops and great service for almost 4 years. But rising prices through bogus fees, sapping of my bandwith during calls, the occasional 911 call where I had to tell them where I was, and most annoying of all: Having to reset the damned VOIP box whenever power or net hiccuped in the slightest, drove me to look into alternatives like Vonage again, or a service my cable company was offering: Comcast Digital Voice.
After going to Comcast on 6/13/08 and checking into it. The deal was sealed when I talked my way into a Triple Play Premier deal with phone, internet and TV all in one package with a few extras like DVR and faster internet added in at a decent price.
Before I left, I had a new, unlisted phone number and an install date of 6/30/08 from 2-5 pm with most of the CDV install charges waved.
That brings up to today: 6/30/08
Today at 2:10 PM a Comcast truck pulls up to my house, I see two people inside just yaking. They looked like they were finishing lunch, and since I had a window of 2-5 PM, I didn't begrudge them an extra 5 minutes. As they walked up to my house, I saw them looking under my carport and heard them saying something about a telephone box.
Back when I moved into this house in late 2006, the house had been remodeled several months prior, leading to telephone and cable wiring being ripped out. I had the cable custom re-ran and didn't even bother with the telephone wire as it wasn't needed since I had Cable and VOIP.
As they walked up, they introduced themselves as Blair (Dressed in a Comcast shirt and gear.) and Dustin (Dressed casually. I think he was in training, but, eh.) I told them there was no box and that my phone would plug straight into the modem. They said great as that would make their jobs a whole lot easier.
After they got inside, they told me they were going to swap out my trusty 4.5 year old internet only Motorola Surfboard 5100 for the E-MTA that does both internet and phone. I was a little weary of that as I heard certain brands and models of the E-MTA's that Comcast uses give funny internet speeds compared to regular internet only modems.
So, I told Blair about this and he looked at me funny, as if he didn't know what I was talking about, went to the truck and came back with an ARRIS Touchstone Telephony 502G E-MTA. As soon as I saw it, I told him that I'd like to keep my Motorola 5100 for the internet and just use the ARRIS for the phone only. He just nodded, went back out to the truck with Dustin, grabbed a splitter and two lengths of cable, came back, screwed my main modem cable line into one end of the splitter, the two lengths of cable into the other ends and then into my modems.
They both lit up like Christmas trees. Blair and Dustin went out to the truck, did something. The Arris, which was syncing up at the moment lit up completely. They came back in, plugged my phone in, had me test it. It worked immediately with 7 digit dialing. (Yay! No more VOIP and that 10-digit dialing for locals anymore)
They had me sign the work order after I ran a speed test to confirm my Motorola was still working the internet side of things and they were off. It took from 2:15 to 2:36 PM.
I have never had such a trouble free install and two of the most pleasant and agreeable installers I have ever dealt with. These guys deserve points.
After they left, I made a few test phone calls to update my family on the new, now working number and there was no slight background hiss like when I used my AT&T CallVantage VOIP service.
I am very pleased except for the fact that I have to use one modem to get my full internet speeds and another for the phone. Until ARRIS puts out a firmware that fixes the issues on the internet Upload speed side. I will be more then happy to run the two modems.
A friend of mine has done this also and it works great for him too.
I'll update this as more info comes.
Update: 7/4/08
After 5 days of not having access to the CDV Center, I found to be able to access it today. I have also found a few detractors. One, they mis-spelled my name, both there and on my bill, they've also marked my number published when it was supposed to be unpublished both in the book and directory assistance. I'll be going to Comcast monday to fix these.
The second thing I don't like and wish they had was a phone book to list contacts and numbers and a click to call ability.
Third thing I noticed is that they don't have an online listing for speed dial that I've found, you have to program all those numbers into your phone. I'm still looking, but that's two things now that AT&T CallVantage had over my current Comcast Digital Voice service.
If anyone knows that the CDV Center has a phone book and I'm unaware of it, please leave me a comment.
Other then that, the service has been working flawlessly and I like it. I've also had a power outage. I was plugged into a UPS, but the phone still didn't miss a beat.
Other then the bits I've listed, I'm finding the service a high quality replacement and I'm liking it.
I'll update this as I get more info.
Update: 7/11/08
Two days ago, I went to Comcast, talked to a CSR named Sheila and she shorted my name and had my number unpublished. Said it'd take about two days for the changes to take place. Later that night, I found that both had happened, sooner then she said. Yay for her quick response.
I'll update when I get more.
Update: 7/13/08
Tonight, I had a disconnect on the internet side, but my phone stayed up through the whole thing. You couldn't do that with my previous AT&T CallVantage VOIP service.
I'm loving what Comcast has put together.
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Review by SteveKinn
Posted: 1.2 years ago
member for 3.4 years, 36 visits, last login: 138 days ago
Bloomfield,Essex,NJ
$40 per month
about 12 days
"No outages - battery backup allows calls during brief outages"
"Customer service poor - Digital Voice Center the worst - Poor feature mix."
"Many better services to choose from - High price for poor feature set."
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I have had Comcast digital voice for over a year now. I switched to them from SunRocket (a service I loved). The service is not worth the price. Call quality is good, but not better then my previous provider. I have only had one outage. Which was storm related. Customer service is the worse. Not only does it take 10 minutes just to get to the part where you can talk to a human being, but when you do most of the time they can't help, and a serve call is necessary (of course, that way they can charge you). When you do, don't expect to see them anytime soon. Plan to wait 5 days to a week.
The feature list is poor. You get caller id with name, voice mail, and call forwarding to one number. That’s it. When you listen to messages from the phone, you can not delete them until the messages finish playing. So if you like to save messages for a time as I do you are forced to listen to each message in it’s entirety.
The worst part of the system is the Digital Voice Center. Not only does it take 60 seconds to load (when it is working, which in my experience has only been 1/2 the time), but it misses calls entirely. I received a call at 9AM that rang 6 times on my phone, and did not appear anywhere in the system.
I have been a digital voice customer for over a year, and the following message has been on the web page for all that time.
"Calls that go to voice mail may show up as "Answered" instead of "Missed". Actual voice mail records are unaffected."
Also a source of great frustration is the handling of voice messages online. When someone leaves a message, you receive an email. Click on the link in the email and you are taken to the sign in page. You then have to type your phone number and password. There is a check box that says you can remain signed in for two weeks, but that doesn't work either. Then you are taken to the digital voice center where you have to click through 2 more times to get to the message. When you finally get to the message, you click on it and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait while the message is retrieved.
So now maybe you would like to download the message to save it. Good luck, there is no download option. If you have the patience you can email the message, which requires you to type in you own email as the sender and receiver. Now isn't that convenient!
Bottom line, my year contract is up I’ll be switching to Vonage; and when FIOS moves to my neighborhood later this year I be switching entirely.
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Review by Tom867
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.5 years, 106 visits, last login: 241 days ago
Edison,Middlesex,NJ
$34 per month
"Awesome sound quality and performs excellent"
"Feature set is lacking compared to some others"
"Awesome service"
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A
Followup comments:  wstagner
join:2003-06-23
Yorkville, IL
| CDV connections I'm generally satisfied with the service however there ARE some phone numbers (especially interrnational ones) that will not connect.
I've reported to their support and I never hear anything back. After several weeks the number(s) still don't work.
I get "we're sorry your call did not go thru" message. | |
| chas3
join:2004-12-03
Dallastown, PA
 ·Comcast
 ·ViaTalk
1 edit | get ready for price increase Since you commented that you have been on comcast voice for 7 months now...
Figuring that you have triple play, in 4 or 5 months, the special price for triple play should be expiring...
After that, the monthly price jumps like 40%. I was told the $99 becomes almost $140/month. Be ready for it and start shopping soon if you don't like the increase.
As far as DND, the service I am using has DND and can be preset to go on/off automatically by time of day. | |
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Review by danf100
Posted: 1.2 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 883 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Orland Park,Cook,IL
$33 per month
about 4 days
"Excellent call quality & feature rich."
"None that stand out enough to be called "bad.""
"Excellent value for the cost."
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Transferred two lines when CDV came to town over a year ago and couldn't be happier, especially when the 2nd line has full features for only $20/mo. Saving a ton of money over at&t; even when U-Verse came to town, they couldn't come close to nor would they match the services that I get from Comcast for the cost (I have triple-play). I have family all over the country, I make tons of LD calls including many to Canada, and my bill is always the same.
A month or two ago when my triple play promo expired the costs jumped up a fair bit. However, I took my bill to the local Comcast office, asked them (kindly) to adjust my bill to put me back on the same pricing, and they were happy to do so. I’m sure that something will "jump" again in the next 6-12 months and I'll be back in their office asking them to fix it again, but for the time being, I have yet to find any service that comes close to the value for the dollars paid.
In terms of reliability, in a year's time I've had two or three instances, perhaps, when I've picked up the phone and not had dial tone. Each time, service was restored within minutes. I've only had one "extended" interruption that was caused by a local business piping their satellite dish signal into the Comcast cable disrupting service to the entire area. Comcast disconnected them (or they fixed their cabling) and all was well within 24 hours. In all, since I never lost dial tone with at&t in the POTS days, I cannot give Comcast a "5" for reliability. Nevertheless, for the cost savings, I'll take some rare momentary interruptions.
Finally, amidst all the horror stories of Comcast CSRs and poor customer support, I’ve always found them to be polite and helpful when I call for any of the services they provide.
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Review by seige101
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 71 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Palmer,Hampden,MA
$33 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Quality of service/Price"
"Slight SNAFU on install date"
"Well worth it"
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With the savings with the internet/tv/phone bundle it came out to $17 bucks a month for the phone service compared to $30+ with Verizon POTS. The call quality is as good if not better than POTS.
Haven't had any outages (yet).
Love the fact that it includes long distance.
Overall very happy with it and will probabaly continue service after the initial contract runs out.
Update 5-23-07
First outage today. Tel 1 and tel 2 lights blinking rapidly no dial tone. Called customer support tech will be out same day between 12-4pm. Will up date later
Update 5-23-07
Service started working within a few hours, don't believe a tech even needed to come out.
Update 11-1-07
Apparently my pricing promotion ran out without notice resulting in my bill jumping $50 per month for my internet/phone combo from comcast. Tried calling to signup for another year long commitment but they had nothing to offer.
Called Verizon in regards to their triple play bundle and will be switching soon.
Was happy with the service and value at the bundle price ($69) for internet/phone, and have never had problems over the years but this price hike is to much.
Update 7-31-08
Back to comcast, service and reliability is great. Will be switching once a year when the pricing promotion runs out though.
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Review by paulebailey
Posted: 1.3 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 254 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Auburn,King,WA
$49 per month
about 20 days
"Quality, back up, fast port, mature E999"
"Lacks alot of things smaller VOIP providers have. Oddly line quality, cost too much"
"Ok for now"
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The port and install where good. Service is stable. Web page is dated, and for the price it should have lot of the features that the smaller VOIP providers have. Both online and phone interface to options and VM is choppy and like everyone else has said, it cost too much for what you get, but, like the others, here I am. It's still a better alterative to having you yard dug up, new drops run, equipment drilled though the house. The bundles are a fair enough deal, but not anything to be impressed with. My telco had the nerve in this market of raising my price, so, off I went.
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 Review by NETSH
Posted: 1.4 years ago
member for 7 years, 1962 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Port Saint Lucie,Saint Lucie,FL
$30 per month
about 4 days
"All in one package"
"None So Far"
"Great deal if you bundle your tv/internet/phone"
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Money wise its great....have had no issues with call quality and in fact it seems better than what I had with vonage. E-911 is a better system than Vonage by tying your modem with your address. Also has a built in battery incase of a power outage it should last up to 6 hours (a feature not available with Vonage)
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 Review by gdm
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 8.4 years, 4720 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Mchenry,Mchenry,IL
$45 per month
about 5 days
"Quality is great, doesn't come off my bandwidth, if internet goes down phone doesn't unless both go."
"Web portal needs some serious improvements and the ability to modify phone features via the web."
"I am very happy for the price."
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****Update 3/3/08
I decided to leave Comcast after having CDV and HSI for a 1.5 years and then cable the last 6 months. Things were good but when the promo pricing runs out it's hard to get a good deal. AT&T U-verse got installed on 2/15 after some issues. So far I like it and I am saving over $60 a month compared to comcast. Downloads about the same without powerboost upload is twice as fast. Same station package I had before. This isn't a promo rate just the regular day to day rate and no contract. Also signed up for AT&T Call Vantage since U-verse Voice isn't an option yet in IL.
I have to say I had no issues with CDV. The web portal I had hoped would have moved along much farther then what had.
*****Update 9/11/07
So far so good still with CDV. Every so often the modem needs a reboot but otherwise all is working. The web portal has gotten a little better giving the ability now to listen to voicemails on the web and control some features. Still wanting to get that backup number if some thing ever happened like Vonage has.
I think since my last post I have only had 2 outages. One was trouble at the head end and CDV/HSI were both out. Came back up in about 40 minutes. The other time was during winter some how my line got disconnected from the pole. Called comcast on sunday when we got back in town and had a tech out monday to fix it.
******
I signed up for CDV back in mid October and ported my Vonage #. Well some things happened with the order and Vonage itself being a PITA. I went to the comcast.net forums and got some help from the tech there. Once Vonage finally released the # then it took 5 days to get Comcast out here to install. Install took no more then 30 minutes. That was swapping out to the new Arrius cable/digital voice modem. Then calling in to have the account updated.
Phone is very clear and people comment on it. It's nice to see cell numbers with names vs cellular caller, etc.
So far I am very pleased with the service and have had a few friends sign up.
Two things that need to be worked on are the web portal and have a backup number if the service does go down. Basically like what Vonage has where you enter a number in the portal and if service goes down the calls get forwarded to that.
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