VOIP SunRocket Internet Phone Service $199 for 15months = $13.27/month

[agrall]

Originally posted by: georgepa
jlensbo-

Actually, the 15 month for $199 is very much alive and kicking.

Here is the link to it:

http://www.sunrocket.com/sign_up/signup.do?tcd=YAH98ks

I don't think there was ever a lapse in this link working for the 15 month deal.


FrankyJr.-

The thing is that the 15 month deal does not come with phones, so you got about the same value (just in phones, not free months) You could ebay the phones (if you already have a nice phone system) to give you the equivalent of those 3 free months.


agrall-

Here is the link for the $19.95 month-to-month promo:

http://www.sunrocket.com/sign_up/signup.do?tcd=WBFOGQ

That deal comes with the 2 free phones (worth about $55 to $60) which are yours to keep, even if you cancel service within the 31-day trial phase or anytime thereafter. Not a bad deal, as you end up with much more value than you start off with ($19.95) if things don't work out for you on the rocket ship.

Thanks man! You know, I might as well give it a go for a month or two and see how it goes. Can't hurt - if nothing else we would get 2 decent phones even if the service doesn't work out.

 

[agrall]

Well, I finally took the plunge. I'll try the 19.99 plan for the first month, and if the service is comparable to my Vonage service, I'll port my number over and then go to the annual plan.

Of course, we are moving to Tucson in late June, so I'll have to change my phone number... Hopefully that is not difficult.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: agrall
Of course, we are moving to Tucson in late June, so I'll have to change my phone number... Hopefully that is not difficult.

Of course, you could keep your old number, even after the move to Tucson and even before the move, you could pick an area code 520 in anticipation of the move.
Then, your friends where you live now don't even need a new # for you or your family. They can get you on the old # 'till you decide differently. I think S/R is pretty flexible with the second # option.

 

[georgepa]

agrall-

You really can't go wrong. The phones are a nice bonus and the free 31-day trial means that if you find that you simply can't hang with it during that trial you don't get charged anything, not even the $19.95. Make tons of phone calls to try it out and see what comes up. Day 30 comes and you are not happy, give the boot, get your $19.95 back and keep the phones. Deals don't get much better than that.

I did a feature and price comparison between Vonage and SR in this thread some 90-pages back. I'll PM you with it instead of reposting it here, so you have a comparison between the 2 services from my perspective.

 

[agrall]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: agrall
Of course, we are moving to Tucson in late June, so I'll have to change my phone number... Hopefully that is not difficult.

Of course, you could keep your old number, even after the move to Tucson and even before the move, you could pick an area code 520 in anticipation of the move.
Then, your friends where you live now don't even need a new # for you or your family. They can get you on the old # 'till you decide differently. I think S/R is pretty flexible with the second # option.

Actually, I already did that for the signature number. Although the city in the Tucson area code wasn't Tucson - hopefully it is a suburb that isn't long distance.

That is exactly what I was planning to do, assuming everything works out with SunRocket - Transfer our current number over to SR - Change it to our "signature" number after we move. If they had service up in the 715 area code, we might take that as our signature number after we move because we have family there.

 

[georgepa]

agrall-

Ridefree is correct that you can just keep your current number and make your signature number a Tucson number. Both numbers ring in and it really does not matter which number is first in the chain. You would have a number for your current area code and one for the Tucson area, so you are covered with people for both areas. There are a couple of problems with that, though. If you keep your current number, even after the move, calls to local areas in Tucson would then require 10-digits (with the area code) while calls to anywhere in your previous home town would still be 7-digits. Perhaps a flip would be better for you. The other biggie is E911. SR should have ratecenters in Tucson, so if you tell them about your move you will be assigned to the proper E911 center. A 911 emergency call would then correctly result in immediate, local attention.

You may want to approach it this way: Make your free signature number a Tucson number. Be sure to find a signature number that corresponds with the exchange that you are going to be moving to (unless you don't know yet what Tucson area you are moving to.) You can start giving that number to people from Tucson, so they can call you already, making local calls. When you make your move to Tucson give SR your new address and ask them to flip the 2 numbers (making your signature number your new primary number and vice versa.) That should result in the quickest and hassle-free way of becoming a Tucson Sunrocketeer.

 

[Kelemvor]

But the signature number is only for Incoing calls isn't it? SO if you call someoen back they'd see a different number show up than the one they used to clal you... Might lead to some confusion.

 

[RideFree]

"the one they used to clal you... Might lead to some confusion. "
Only for the likes of you and me who are probably graduates of This Custom Phone collection.
(If I'da knowed these were going to be so valuable, I might have kept a few.)

 

[georgepa]

true, frankiejunior. But he is making a big move to a new area. I am not sure keeping his old number as the main number (I believe Wisconsin?) indefinitely in Tucscon is practical. Eventually local calls are going to dominate. It makes sense to have a Tucscon number as the primary # for 7-digit dialing, 911 and the like. He'll still have the same 2 numbers in his "arsenal," so calls TO him will remain the same for all (using one of the 2 numbers, depending on where the calls come from.) The only thing changing would be the Caller ID info FROM him, which is usually expected to change with anyone's move across country.

 

[Kelemvor]

I saw someone mention something about known routers that don't work in the Modem --> Router --> Gizmo setup. Is there a known list at all?

For now I have an SMC 7004BR router that I'm using which will hopefully be replaced with a Wlinksys WRT54G for the QoS support as soon as I find a good dea on ebay... Unless my SMC won't work with this, then I might even have to take a bad deal on ebay. heh.

 

[Jlensbo]

To anyone who has renewed their one year service with SunRocket:

I received an email that my one year service was over on March 11, so I followed the link and told them that I wanted to go another year (13 mos. actually). I got a response that an "email will be sent to you confirming" my choice.

But now when I log onto the website under my account I still see the notice that my service will expire on March 11 and that I should enter my renewel information. I'm afraid to enter it again: either I'll confuse them or be double-billed? Anyway, I hope that, come March 11th, they'll know that I chose the one year continuance (instead of automatically enrolling me in the month-to-month plan).

Has anyone had this experience?

 

[Kelemvor]

Might want to call them up and make sure...

 

[daweeze02]

Originally posted by: Jlensbo
To anyone who has renewed their one year service with SunRocket:

I received an email that my one year service was over on March 11, so I followed the link and told them that I wanted to go another year (13 mos. actually). I got a response that an "email will be sent to you confirming" my choice.

But now when I log onto the website under my account I still see the notice that my service will expire on March 11 and that I should enter my renewel information. I'm afraid to enter it again: either I'll confuse them or be double-billed? Anyway, I hope that, come March 11th, they'll know that I chose the one year continuance (instead of automatically enrolling me in the month-to-month plan).

Has anyone had this experience?

Same here I called 2 weeks ago and renewed and got my 4 new phones, but have yet to be charged the $199.

 

[georgepa]

jlensbo-

If the order didn't go through as of yet (still some time left) it may not be a bad thing. I think daweezy mentioned that if you call them directly they will throw in another pair of Uniden phones with the renewal. So, instead of using the link I will call them next week directly to get the 2 phones as well as the extra month.

Call them up at 1-800-786-0132. I would probably try their SALES department in Canada (instead of CS in the Phillipines.) So, choose SALES instead of TECH SUPPORT or BILLING. Then ask them about the status of your renewal request. If they see it ask them for the extra phones. If they don't see it tell them to scratch it and enter the renewal order with the 2 free phones. Might as well take advantage of the extra value they are willing to throw in with the renewal.

 

[georgepa]

FrankyJunior-

From my own experience I can say that 2 routers usually had trouble with the "gizmo": Speedstream and Belkin, at least out of the box. The Belkin's have buit-in setup pages that force the router to accept the gizmo, but most other router brands need no such modifications. SMC should be fine.

Pretty good deal on the router you are looking for:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007...ref=nosim/104-3584338-8583145?n=172282

WRT54G $37.99 after $15 mail-in-rebate, free shipping.

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: TheTurk
Their technical blah, blah is not a concern of mine.
As a full paying user, I expect the service fully.
If they have technical issue, they should not be charging my CC until the service is fully functional.
Simple as this....
I stand by that they are by far the worst..still no incoming call.
yet they charge the full ammount.

this company SUCKS guys.
I am working on cancelling my account to try Vonage. I am coordinating with my fiends who signed up to cancel theirs too.

They have the same problem.

Don't promise if you cannot keep it.

I hope this company will not make me say "VOIP sucks"..

You didn't mention your set-up -- but your experience of no incoming calls sounds exactly the same as mine. When I first got it, I had set my gizmo behind my router and was able to make outbound calls fine within 10 minutes of the UPS guy knocking at my door -- but inbound calls didn't work.
After a bit of tinkering, I finally realized that my router has a Denial of Service (DoS) blocking feature that detects inbound "attacks" and blocks them. Well -- an inbound phone call triggered DoS and shut down the call.
I adjusted the DoS settings on my router to up the threshold -- and then SR was great!

If you haven't cancelled yet, you might give this a try -- or start over by putting the gizmo in front of your router (if you have one), RESET it, and ask someone to call you.

A router with DoS blocking causing issues with your SR gizmo seems very likely (imo) to baffle a front-line tech or customer-service rep -- since they can see your gizmo registering itself just fine.

hope that helps... if not you, then maybe someone else with a similar issue...

 

[ericboo]

Lurking in this thread while at work. I am a Vonage user for nearly a year now. This deal caught my eye.

Is service as good as Vonage and would it be a qiuck switch over?

 

[ericboo]

Lurking in this thread while at work. I am a Vonage user for nearly a year now. This deal caught my eye.

Is service as good as Vonage and would it be a qiuck switch over?

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: ericboo
Lurking in this thread while at work. I am a Vonage user for nearly a year now. This deal caught my eye.

Is service as good as Vonage and would it be a qiuck switch over?

I use SR and I talk to a friend of mine who uses Vonage. I'm happy w/SR and my friend is happy with Vonage.
Quality for me is as good as POTS was before I switched to SR a year ago.

For the cost savings, I don't know why anyone would stay w/Vonage. I guess that's called company loyalty.

If you're interested in saving money -- you can try it for no cost and no risk.
The obvious answer is: go for it. If it doesn't work for you, or you just miss paying extra fees, then cancel SR and keep your vonage. You've got a 30-day no-risk garantee.

 

[ericboo]

True. Can't hurt to try. My biggest concern is lag time switching my number from Vonage to SR but I assume the call forwarding features are similar; and I have free incoming cell service.

 

[georgepa]

ericboo-

Switchover would be fairly quick. I assume you are talking about porting your Vonage #s, right?

The thing to watch for is the penalty Vonage charges for early cancellation. Obviously you made reference to the fact that your year is almost up. Cancel early with Vonage and the cancellation penalty is stiff ($50, I believe.)

Pricewise, Vonage is almost triple the price of Sunrocket for the same thing. The call quality is the same, uptime is about the same, customer support is about the same (not so great with either,) Sunrocket has more features than Vonage. And SR is $13.28 per month ($199 for 15 months deal) whereas Vonage is $28.50 to $29.30 (exact amount depends on individual state's taxes) for the basic line, plus for a true comparison add $6.50 for the signature # (free with SR) for a total monthly cost of between $35.00 and $36.00. Factor in Vonage's startup costs into a monthly amount (SR has none) and you come up with a monthly price of about $40 you have to pay for Vonage for a primary # plus signature #, when SRs is $13.28. In addition SR has a $3 international call allowance, 2 free 411 calls, etc. Even if Vonage had more features than SR, would it be worth triple the price? Instead SR has more features than Vonage, some of them are very valuable and worthwhile.

Feature comparison:

Similar Features: Voice quality the same due to same voice codec used (g.711u); Click to Call via Contact List; Incoming Caller ID with name; 3-way Calling; Call Transfer; Call Forwarding; Call Return.

Vonage's basic feature list includes a couple of items that I wish Sunrocket had:

1. Busy Redialing - You get a busy signal, hit #5 and your phone will ring you back once the busy number has been reached by the system.

2. Simultaneous ring- Forwarded numbers can be rung simulataneously.



SR has a few features that Vonage does not:


1. True E-911 system-wide. Vonage is trying to implement E-911 across the board but currently only has a small portion of their userbase on 911. By the end of the year Vonage may have 911 implemented system-wide, but they decided to already charge each account an extra $0.99 for it, regardless whether you even have access to 911 or not. Imagine paying an extra $1 for a life-saving phone feature that you can't even use yet.

2. Better voicemail notification - When new voicemail comes in SR can be set up to notify via e-mail and cell phone, and also via IM (Yahoo, AOL, MSN, ICQ,) pager and SMS. When a voicemail notification arrives via phone (i.e. cell) you have the option to hit # and be transported immediately into your voicemail box, no need to call back into the box to retrieve messages.

3. Second signature number with its own mailbox included. That can be an ANYWHERE number, a "teenager line" or a fax number. Distinguish with distinctive ring. This # has all forwarding, notification and "Contact List Call" capabilities of the primary number.

4. Signature Message Screener - Screen messages coming in from any computer (even at work) and, if desired, intercept the call by forwarding it to any number before the person leaving a message hangs up.

5. Call Blocking - With SR you can selectively block calls from numbers you define. A long requested feature from Vonage.

6. DND/Selective Forwarding - You can set SR to Do Not Disturb and get no calls, or set it to call people from your VIP or Family groups only.

7. Find Me Forwarding - Enter up to 3 numbers in a list and the system will try to reach you at each of those numbers in sequence, trying to find you. You set the # of rings each # should ring before moving onto the next # in the sequence.

8. Outgoing CALLER ID WITH NAME - Those you call will see your number AND name. Those you call with Vonage usually either get "Unknown number" or "VONAGE HOLDINGS" with your number, but never your actual name.

9. Contact Lists - Define speed dials from your contacts and simply dial *01 from your phone

10. Anonymous Call Rejection - Get rid of those anonymous calls you get on your phone.

 

[GTFan]

Originally posted by: georgepa10. Anonymous Call Rejection - Get rid of those anonymous calls you get on your phone.

I sure wish this worked for 'Unknown caller/Unknown number' calls. The few remaning telemarketer calls that I get (magazine sub renewals etc.) use this no caller ID trick, but SR won't block them even with ACR set.

 

[daweeze02]

Thank you for taking the time to write to us at SunRocket!

Based on our records, you renewed your SunRocket service last 032306. Please disregard the notification on your account because you have already renewed. Thank you for your loyalty and patience thus far as we continue to grow our business.


what the hell 03-23 hasnt even come yet, and I still have not been charged, this is really odd. If you missed my other post I renewed my 199 plan 2 weeks ago.

 

[Kelemvor]

I did see something on the SR site that the "Simultaneous Ring" feature is something they are working on. Hopefully it won't take too long to get it implemented.

My SR equipment should be arriving today so we'll see what happens.

 

[Kelemvor]

Originally posted by: georgepa
Pretty good deal on the router you are looking for:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007...ref=nosim/104-3584338-8583145?n=172282

WRT54G $37.99 after $15 mail-in-rebate, free shipping.

That's a great deal except Amazon has no way of verifying what version of that router they have that they'd send me. I can't use the V5 of the router and need something previous to that to use the 3rd party firmware.

I called Amazon and they said that I could order it and see what comes and that if it's the wrong item, I could just return it and say it arrived after the expected date or that the item is defective and I wouldn't be out any fees or shipping or anything.

So I guess I'll order it and see what shows up...

Wish me luck.