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

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laketrout-

Sure, they can port. When you sign up just go through the porting portion of the equation. Even if it comes up as "This number can't be ported" it still can. Then you have to call them and let them send you a Microsoft Word document to fill out and fax back. Sometimes they can only port to the "signature number" that way, which for most would still be A-ok.
 
Great news. I'll let them know.

I came across some other random discussion about people receiving sunrocket flyers in the mail? Any news on an expansion or anyone receive sunrocket flyers recently?
 
I received the 'flyer' in the mail. It was like 3 6" square pages about it. 1 page talked about the free international minutes each month, another had a code on it.

The code just gave you the free phones, not the discounted month-to-month rate that was posted earlier in this thread.

I received it last week.
 
Interesting, I have seen more online banner ads for them too. Have you all seen them? I wonder if they are making another expansion push?
 
Yes. I download most of my internet security/adkiller/virusfighter software from a place called www.majorgeeks.com, and there it was, the new Sunrocket banner.

Interesting is that for the free phones they are showing different Unidens. Looks like the DCT748. I wonder if that is the phone they are going to ship with new service now? From what I understand these are "downward compatible" with the handsets of the old Uniden system they shipped before. These are a bit advanced compared to the once they used to ship (i.e. comes with a built-in answering machine).

Uniden DCT748 info
 
That is interesting...looking at that ad closer up it doesn't have the same base unit as the DCT748 as you can see from the buttons along the right side.. a closer match otherwise is the 748-4s though it is same series with the same specs (going by the green glow for the display):

DCT 748-4

Do you think they would remove the answering machine capabilities since they already have an independant voicemail feature?
 
Oh joy. My bro just called me on my cell because my incoming calls are ringing fast busy - AGAIN.

A word of advice to those considering porting their regular phone service over to Sunrocket - DON'T. I don't mean to thread crap but I ported my Verizon number over 2 months ago and I've had nothing but problems. I *really* regret doing it. The simple truth is SunRocket is not reliable enough to use as your primary phone service. You've been warned.
 
saw robors post and immediately tested...

Called myself from a cell phone, and got ringing. Hung up the cell, and the (SR) phone kept ringing till i picked up.
Then tried placing a call and 7-digit dialing gave me a busy. 10-digit dialing worked fine, though.

SR status page says "some customers... problems... blah blah blah" (the usual)

something is definately happening
 
Originally posted by: ttown
saw robors post and immediately tested...

Called myself from a cell phone, and got ringing. Hung up the cell, and the (SR) phone kept ringing till i picked up.
Then tried placing a call and 7-digit dialing gave me a busy. 10-digit dialing worked fine, though.

SR status page says "some customers... problems... blah blah blah" (the usual)

something is definately happening
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was able to make outbound calls then while I was on the line the call dropped and when I tried to call back it didn't even ring.

I'll say it again, Sunrocket is a nice "toy" or something to use as a spare/second phone but they can't be depended on for your primary phone service. Sad to say, this is the classic, "you get what you pay for". 🙁

 
Originally posted by: Robor
[I'll say it again, Sunrocket is a nice "toy" or something to use as a spare/second phone but they can't be depended on for your primary phone service. Sad to say, this is the classic, "you get what you pay for". 🙁
Click to expand...

Yep, my sentiments exactly. It's unfortunate, but maybe someday they'll grow up and turn that 'toy' into a real service. How many will stick around to see it through? My guess is a lot of folks as long as they keep it cheap with the features and free stuff that they have.

 
Ok, it's driving me crazy. I have been scouring BBReports, here, and the entire web for months trying to find SunRocket's SIP settings to allow me to use the service from a softphone, and haven't found them yet. I've even called SunRocket a few times, since I'vce heard they will sometimes provide this information, but no suck luck. I know people have this working, as several people have mentioned it in the forum and on BBR. Can anyone provide this information?

Thanks,
 
I have my Gizmo hooked up behind the router and everything works ok, but for some reason, my WAN light isn't on at all now. Any cause for concern?
 
Originally posted by: Ensign
I have my Gizmo hooked up behind the router and everything works ok, but for some reason, my WAN light isn't on at all now. Any cause for concern?
Click to expand...

If you're not having any issues, I wouldn't be too worried, but it's probably worth calling up customer service and asking them about. That's what they're there for. 😛
 
Originally posted by: RideFree
Originally posted by: CChaos
Thanks for the help guys, but I wound up cancelling this and going with Optimum Voice. It turns out it's only $15/month for me and I just couldn't pass that up.
Click to expand...
Get unlimited calling throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada, and 13 popular calling features, all for just $34.95, all inclusive! I guess that's an all inclusive plan.
Possibly even better with a couple of S/R phones.

So, how do you get the $34.95 plan for $15?
Optimum Voice
Click to expand...

Sorry for the slow response. I have iO digital cable and Optimum Online cable internet from Cablevision already, so I get a discount on Optimum Voice. The featuers are about the same as Sunrocket, but from the reviews I've read it's more reliable. While pricey, I've never had a problem with my Optimum Online. It hasn't been down in years and offers blistering speeds.

Also, I'm shipping my Gizmo back soon, but keeping the Uniden DCT746-2 phones compliments of Sunrocket. I can't find much info online for this model, but that's definitely the number. I spoke to Customer Service yesterday and asked how much it would cost to keep the phones when requesting my RA# and she told me I just needed to return the Gizmo. I guess they're really pushing for customers!


P.S. Check here for some specs on the DCT746-2 phones Sunrocket is now shipping.
 
Part of SunRocket's deal is that you get to keep the phones free of charge. Always has been to my knowledge, that's one of the benefits. When they say $199/year, no signup or cancellation fees, they mean it.

Besides, this way you'll still have the phones when you sign back up in a month or two! 😛
 
Originally posted by: GTFan
Originally posted by: Robor
[I'll say it again, Sunrocket is a nice "toy" or something to use as a spare/second phone but they can't be depended on for your primary phone service. Sad to say, this is the classic, "you get what you pay for". 🙁
Click to expand...

Yep, my sentiments exactly. It's unfortunate, but maybe someday they'll grow up and turn that 'toy' into a real service. How many will stick around to see it through? My guess is a lot of folks as long as they keep it cheap with the features and free stuff that they have.
Click to expand...

They are growing. Quite fast, in fact. Right along with the rest of the VOIP industry.
 
Originally posted by: M00TThey are growing. Quite fast, in fact. Right along with the rest of the VOIP industry.
Click to expand...

Growing fatter, yes. Growing smarter, no. Look, I know you used to work there, but even you can't seriously defend their shoddy uptime track record. It just sucks, no two ways about it.

 
Reading through these pages is like vonge deja-vue.

All you complaining about SR havent REALLY tried vonage yet.

Sure, there are always some claiming vonage is the "best", but we know about vonage's referral scheme and why they try to promote them.

 
Guess I have been lucky. I just got my gismo and phones this week. BTW, The phone is model DCT746 with an extra headset DCX700.

I have had no outages in Indianapolis area. I plan to kick the tires for a couple months before giving up my land line and porting the number over. I'd like to stay married and having the wife pick up the phone to no dialtone is not a good idea 🙂

The price is only a couple $$$ less than I am paying SBC now ($19 vs $22) but it does have long distance that I will not use much of. In the end ends up being a wash, but I am not a fan of SBC by any stretch of the imagination.

If it is reliable and I can get my TiVo to dial on it, I will be happy!
 
Originally posted by: GTFan
Originally posted by: M00TThey are growing. Quite fast, in fact. Right along with the rest of the VOIP industry.
Click to expand...

Growing fatter, yes. Growing smarter, no. Look, I know you used to work there, but even you can't seriously defend their shoddy uptime track record. It just sucks, no two ways about it.
Click to expand...

I defend nothing.

Please count up the hours of downtime SunRocket has accumulated. Please indicate when you've been without service for more than 1 to 3 hours.

Most of the downtime that I can remember from recent times has been during the day. It came back within an hour or two. It's funny how people can be so mad when they can't use the phone for an hour. The angriest ones are the home business owners, although it is beyond me why they don't have a backup system. It is a residential service, not a perfect business line.

I watch the dslreports threads too... Most people wouldn't even know about the outtages unless they sat around the forums like vultures waiting for the next downtime thread.

I don't post much at all on dslreports anymore because nobody seems to want help. It ends up being "what proof do you have" or "you are wrong because my third cousin twice removed is an engineer who says otherwise"; It's senseless "defending" or arguing about VOIP in general. You tell someone to buy a Ford and all the Chevy zealots will cry bloody murder. You tell someone to buy Chevy, and all the Ford zealots scream blasphemy. It's a never ending battle of personal opinions.

I give credit to georgepan and ttown for trying to assist others here, along with many others on DSLreports. I only wish people wouldn't take such a bull$h|t stance against a company because of some petty downtimes. SR works diligenty to improve the system, but nobody seems to care about that. It's always the downtime that everyone rages about. SR has given you no obligation. You can cancel at whim, without fees/charges. If they aren't the best in your opinion, try a different VOIP company.

EDIT: about the "growing smarter, no" thing... You really don't have any idea of the calibur of the employees who build/maintain SR. Customers only experience the call center and higher echelon Tech Support people. While most of them are very helpful, they aren't the founders/designers/engineers of the company who activly improve the infrastructure. Life is not a perfect series of events. It takes trial and error combined with time to perfect a product. I hate to refer to Microsoft in all my posts, but they are a good example. Their products are thrown in the trash and replaced by new ones which you are requested to pay for once again. They take years to come close to perfection.

A simile given to me by a nameless engineer... "The telcos have been perfecting their systems for over 100 years. VOIP can't begin to match such experience in a few short years."
 
There is no question that SR is growing very fast. The result is that the system they have in place occasionally can't keep up and that tech support is slow to respond. It is, of course, a very good problem to have if you are the owner(s) of the company, but that is small consolation to those who have inconveniences, however minor.

The business model is sound and basic service comes with the best feature set of all VOIPs, so the future of this venture looks bright, as evidenced by recent investment from very reputable capital firms (Doll is considered an investment guru.) The growing pains can be a "pain" at times, but I agree that some of the outages I would not know about were it not for threads on dslreports.

Moot, the problem here is that there are VOIP companies who have already gone through their growing pains for the most part (i.e. Vonage) or are hardly growing and are therefore better able to keep up with voice packet movement. The measuring sticks are services who are "Mom and Pops" with little growth push or growth stagnant providers like Broadvox Direct, a service that is looking to get out of consumer VOIP altogether. Due to lack of growth these services are able to stabilize the system to the point that uptime has been reported as decent to very good.

Phone service is such that folks want to be able to take dialtone for granted. For me, I have personally experienced very few problems. Still, uptime has to be improved to the level of other VOIPs. Occasional problems are expected with VOIP, but they are and should be every once in a while. SRs rapid growth has caused a few problems with some people. The VOIP market has exploded this year and from what I was told SR is about to unveil business service and an "under $10" 500 minute service (probably for the holiday season.) It is important for uptime to be on par with other VOIPs (especially Vonage) to keep customers who after all have been lured with expensive advertising and free hardware.

We are all big boys (and girls) here, and whoever does not have adequate backup to their VOIP lines in form of cell or a no-frills "measures" landline has not paid attention to the quirks of VOIP. I will save over a grand a year compared to what I used to have (Verizon,) and with referrals the picture is even better. I am willing to live with a few quirks and some outages for that kind of unexpected financial windfall into the family coffers. To keep things in perspective I have taken my wife to 3 delicious dinners courtesy of SRs referral points, ordered family related products online for free and as a family we are travelling to Europe in the Spring, helped by the savings. Even with occasional problems that may make it necessary for us to go to Plan B (cell backup) for a short while, my wife would not want to reverse course and go back to Verizon under any circumstance because of what the move to VOIP has done for the family finances.

That said, I can't imagine that SR does not put everything into place to make uptime stellar and provide failover. Competition springs up everywhere and many would switch as soon as another service offers similar features at the same or better price, using a very similar business model, that is if they are dissatisfied with any part of the service. From what I understand SR is revamping tech support to be more responsive and thorough and they are building a redundancy system to avoid unnecessary downtime. Reason is, of course, that Word of Mouth is the best advertising and customer retention is key to long-term viability as a company.

SR is and has been an excellent service and I would not switch, but there is room for improvement on some levels. If they are smart and get the few areas in which they can improve tightened up this year they will emerge as the most serious indipendent competitor to Vonage before next summer.
 
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