kael said:
I'm not sure if this is the forum for this question but here it goes. I am looking at the digital phone service by twc and wondering how folks like it? How is the sound quality? And does it slow down the internet speed ? I guess the Question is whats it like?
Well I can only comment on digital phone that my mother has in Pinellas County with BHN along with Comcast Digital Voice that I have in Nashua but they should be good tests as they both work pretty much the same.
With both BHN and Comcast if your also a high speed internet customer you will get your cable modem replaced with a new modem that will handle both the voice and internet services. This unit also has a battery backup as well. The units so far are different on BHN and Comcast. BHN uses a Scientific Atlanta combo modem while Comcast uses a modem made by ARRIS. The one I use is the ARRIS Touchstone TM402P and it works quite well but its a very big sucker compared to the SA one my mother has. Both modems can use the existing phone jacks in the house and I can verify this as I've seen both in action. This is how it is connected.
First for this to work you must have a phone jack (not a wireless one but a real phone jack connected to the switching system within the house itself) near the computer itself you are connecting it with. Please note that nearly all houses will work with this as they all have switching systems. So say if you have a phone jack in the kitchen, living room and the two bedrooms. Say you have the computer in the living room near the phone jack. You would take a plain old phone cable and connect it to both the modem and the phone jack. At this point in time that jack in the living room cannot be used with a phone but all other phone jacks in the house (both bedrooms and the kitchen) can have any phone plugged into them and they will work as if you have Verizon. All the extra jacks in the house can have a phone plugged in and they will work like your existing phone company.
I like the service quite a bit and I've even told Verizon that until they offer fiber I'll be with Comcast and not them. So far I've had the Comcast Voice service for about a day and its been perfect so far and my mother's has been perfect after the first couple of days because of unrelated issues caused by the power company in the area. The power company cut the cable lines but beyond that her service has been rock solid.
Both include all calling features such as Caller ID along with at least unlimited long distance calling to anywhere in the USA. Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks offers unlimited calling to Canada as well while Comcast doesn't offer Canada.
Either way they are very good deals when being bundled. I'm not sure if TWC offers this or not like BHN but if you switch to digital phone and you have HBO/Cinemax/Showtime/TMC and Premiums On Demand you can get 10 bucks off per month on this package as long as you keep phone service. The normal rate is 30.00/month so the same package will cost 20.00/month with digital phone. Also don't quote me on this as this might not apply to you.
At least for me as a new customer with Comcast I'm getting digital cable with all premium channels, two HD DVR boxes, internet and digital voice service in a bundle for 12 months that costs me with all taxes and fees 195/month which is a great deal. I was paying BHN 212/month for just cable and internet with no voice. I'm saving tons of money and getting more on both the phone front and OnDemand and HDTV offerings so I'm sure not complaining.
I'll be sure to give updates on my mother and I so you can be better informed. Also you do have a 30 day free trial so if within 30 days you don't like it you will get the entire 39.99/month back. If you call anyone outside of what is unlimited you must pay these costs though. I'm also assuming that you would pay 39.99/month but it might be more if you don't get the triple play but I'm assuming you have both digital cable and high speed internet today with TWC and are just adding TWC digital phone.
I hope this helps you out and I also hope things didn't get too complex.