SunRocket impodes

[Kermit]

So I finally bit the bullet and signed up for VoIP phone service for my house. I figured, if I want to recommend it to others, I should make sure it works first. I waited until one of the major providers had a good sign up deal, and when SunRocket offered the first year for $99 (plus about $50 in equipment and activation) I thought, what the hell. It's less than $12.50 a month and my current phone bills run about $18-$20.

The first week was great. The quality was fine to at times even better than my POTS line. We called my brother-in-law in Germany for free (100 minutes of international per month is included). I set up the voicemail which you can check online or have forwarded as an audio-file attachment to your email. I even tried out the call forwarding by entering my cellphone number. I'd never miss a call again!

Then last week they went out of business. 5 days after I signed up, the rumors had started to circulate. I watch this kind of stuff pretty closely and never heard a peep. I called up the credit card company and started disputing the charge immediately.

Discuss.

[Q]

My wife as been using Voicepulse (http://www.voicepulse.com/) for her business line and she likes it so far.

I've never heard of SunRocket, so I have no comments in regards to them.

[Shadowrat]

I know you have a cellphone. Why even have anything else?

[Kermit]

Until a week ago, there were the #2 independent VoIP company.

I need a land line to separate my business from my life. Although I own a cellphone and wear it almost constantly, I hate receiving phone calls on it. It's like a leash. Plus, we want to be able to call Germany fairly regularly.

I had a bit of a hassle making sure that our primary home phone number did NOT get transferred, and I'm now signed up for Time Warner's IP phone service which they are coming to install on the 13th (should have been sooner, but we're going on vacation). The bonus at the end of my story is that when I was talking to Time Warner they offered me a year of Road Runner Turbo for free which is a pretty good bump up on the speeds for me. Currently I get 5mb down and 768kb up. That will be going up to 8mb down and 5mb up.

I've got a Team Speak server up and running in my basement (with the help of my business partner) If we lose the Vent server for any reason, I'd be willing to get it set up for general MC usage. 5mb up should be able to handle a few gamers at once.

[Shadowrat]

I suppose my needs for a phone are not everyone's needs for a phone.

I would like to score some of that road runner turbo myself.

[Kermit]

Don't you have Road Runner at home? If so, call them up and see if they are running the deal down in Milwaukee too.