Comcast has dedicated bandwidth for its VOIP unlike others like Vonage which use your internet bandwidth?

techs

Lifer
Sep 26, 2000
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The cable guy was just here doing some work and shared with me that if you use any other VOIP except Comcast, that they use your internet bandwidth, but that Comcast has dedicated bandwidth over and above your internet bandwidth for thier voip.
I never heard of this.
Has anyone else?
 

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
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Yeah, Mediacon does the same thing, supposedly. Their "phone" is routed separately over Sprint.
 

KK

Lifer
Jan 2, 2001
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I had there phone service. It wasn't VOIP like vonage or the other VOIP companies, but it came into the house on two wires just like regular phone service. whatever device they had was outside the house and didn't affect your cable modem.
 

PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
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i have Verizon Fios and our phone comes in over the fiber optic line. i'm sure it doesn't come over the internet but uses it's own dedicated bandwidth, but technically my phone line is no longer POTS but some variation of VOIP, right?

 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
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Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
i have Verizon Fios and our phone comes in over the fiber optic line. i'm sure it doesn't come over the internet but uses it's own dedicated bandwidth, but technically my phone line is no longer POTS but some variation of VOIP, right?

They call it POTS over FiOS.
 

PlatinumGold

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
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Originally posted by: BigJ
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
i have Verizon Fios and our phone comes in over the fiber optic line. i'm sure it doesn't come over the internet but uses it's own dedicated bandwidth, but technically my phone line is no longer POTS but some variation of VOIP, right?

They call it POTS over FiOS.

how can it be pots if it is digital?

wouldn't it be some kind of packet driven technology? ATM or something?

pots is analog right?
 

Sphexi

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2005
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Shaw does the same thing up here, the VoIP box has its own cable modem in it, it plugs into the cable not your router, and it has its own address. Technically it's sharing the same bandwidth that's dedicated to your street/neighborhood, but it isn't directly effected by your downloads or whatnot.

That being said, their $50/mth for their service is more than twice what I pay for Vonage, and Vonage has not failed me once in the 3+ years I've had it.
 

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
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Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
Originally posted by: BigJ
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
i have Verizon Fios and our phone comes in over the fiber optic line. i'm sure it doesn't come over the internet but uses it's own dedicated bandwidth, but technically my phone line is no longer POTS but some variation of VOIP, right?

They call it POTS over FiOS.

how can it be pots if it is digital?

wouldn't it be some kind of packet driven technology? ATM or something?

pots is analog right?

Honestly, I have no idea about telephony techonology. Spidey would probably know if he shows up.

What I do know is they made it very, very clear that it is not VoIP but a variation of POTS during the install.
 

oogabooga

Diamond Member
Jan 14, 2003
7,806
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Actually (since the topic seems to have had a slight derail) my new phone line at our new place doesn't go through our regular phone jack but our cable modem.

We don't have voip, but I do wonder why exactly our line needs to be routed through our modem and the cable guy didn't really have a good reason. They made it pretty clear it was a 'regular' line and not a VOIP or digital phone line, i just don't understand why they would need to route it through the modem.
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
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Originally posted by: BigJ
Honestly, I have no idea about telephony techonology. Spidey would probably know if he shows up.

What I do know is they made it very, very clear that it is not VoIP but a variation of POTS during the install.

It all depends on the system they use and how they set it up. They could just be using other cable channels for analog (or digital once it's on the cable system most likely) phone service. It could be bona-fide VOIP over the data service with the appropriate QoS in place. If need be they could allocate a small amount of bandwidth specifically for the voice calls.

The reason why with some systems the phone service is terminated in the modem is because it is the modem doing the analog-digital conversion and signaling.

So really it depends on the provider and how they chose to offer voice and if they're using the data channels or not.