View Full Version : AT&T Shutting down its CallVantage Internet-based phone service
AT&T is shutting down its CallVantage Internet-based phone service.
AT&T Inc. is making the disclosure in letters to subscribers this week.http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517440,00.html
...its internet phone service.
LOL, that is a shock title if I ever saw one.
, that is a shock title if I ever saw one.
Guess that's what happens when you watch too much Fox News;)
Guess that's what happens when you watch too much Fox News;)
!rolling
Well it made you click on the post didnt it lol
Steve Mehs
04-22-09, 01:51 PM
No real surprise, they stopped accepting new VOIP subscribers a year ago. I believe Verizon also shut down or will be shutting down Voice Wing.
I'm in the process of switching back to POTS service with Verizon, from Packet8.com.
I never had a problem with the VOIP, but it was a pain to support when the power would flash, or cable modem go out, and have to explain power cycling to my wife. Modem then router, then adapter.
Funny, I got a regional plan with Verizon (no long distance, use cell minutes) for $9.99/month which is half of what my VOIP was costing.
If we didn't have kids at home/in school, we probably wouldn't have any POTS phones.
miketorse
04-23-09, 11:27 AM
Interesting, it was less than a year ago where I was looking at AT&T VOIP. Didn't go with them though.
bjamin82
04-23-09, 11:35 AM
No real surprise, they stopped accepting new VOIP subscribers a year ago. I believe Verizon also shut down or will be shutting down Voice Wing.
Because they have this now...
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/vzhub/overview.jsp
Steve Mehs
04-23-09, 01:43 PM
Because they have this now...
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/vzhub/overview.jsp
The Hub may have played a part in it, but remember VoiceWing was a Verizon offering, and The Hub is a Verizon Wireless thing, they're pretty much two totally separate companies. VoiceWing was mainly shut down due to financials issues with the company the provided it to Verizon, whose name escapes me, along with wanting to focus on Fios Digital Voice.
A friend of mine has VOIP on his 256KB DSL line and has experienced a lot of problems. For example, if anyone else in the house is downloading something or getting their mail while he's using the VOIP phone, audio quality becomes unintelligible.
His caller ID has not worked correctly since he's had it a year ago in spite of numerous help-desk calls.
Seeing what he's gone through makes me want to stay with my good ol' POTS.
Dave
Tom Robertson
04-23-09, 02:29 PM
Updated the title and first post to be a bit more user friendly...
Cheers,
Tom
A friend of mine has VOIP on his 256KB DSL line and has experienced a lot of problems. For example, if anyone else in the house is downloading something or getting their mail while he's using the VOIP phone, audio quality becomes unintelligible.
His caller ID has not worked correctly since he's had it a year ago in spite of numerous help-desk calls.
Seeing what he's gone through makes me want to stay with my good ol' POTS.
Dave
He's having issue because of his line speed, that's very slow to be using for a shared connection and VoIP, at lease for the call quality, caller ID is a differnent issue.
Steve Mehs
04-23-09, 11:09 PM
Yep, 256K is pretty slow, and will cause any voice over internet service to freak out if there's any other network traffic. That’s one reason why I will never use real VOIP, even though I have a 15Mb connection, I want every bit I possibly can get. That and I have very little confidence in VOIP being around for the long haul (in the consumer market that is). I don’t want to do business with small mom and pop providers who could go under at a moments notice a la Sun Rocket, and AT&T and Verizon have both ceased their VOIP operations.
Shades228
04-23-09, 11:44 PM
I don't see how supporting VOIP is not cheaper then supporting land based phone lines. I know people who work for QWEST and they say that every state and city has different regulations and taxes they have to explain all the time. VOIP from a support standpoint would be cheaper CS wise. So there must be something else that makes it not as cost effective. People won't give up internet service but they'll give up a land based phone line in a heartbeat. VOIP should be the solution to help keep home phone service for less cost per month. Seems like they're conceding that home phones are dying and that people will either have their fiber based phones or cell phones.
I left Sprint and the only thing I miss is http://www.nextel.com/en/services/airave/index.shtml?id9=vanity:airave I wish all providers had this.
Steve Mehs
04-24-09, 02:16 PM
Why spend money on support when hardly anyone uses the service? From what I gather, there weren’t that many subscribers to AT&T CallVantage, or Verizon VoiceWing for that matter. Both companies never said how many subscribers they had to their respective VOIP service, so I’m guessing it’s pretty low. They’re competing against their own traditional landline services which have tens of millions of subscribers and have been around for ages. They would have to pretty much force people to migrate from POTS to VOIP, and personally, no matter how much I hate Verizon, I have to say POTS reliability has been excellent, I personally don’t trust VOIP. People are either dropping infavor of going wireless only, of in favor of cable telephony. Comcast and Time Warner are quickly becoming decent sized phone companies.
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