VOIP versus Digital Phone

We recently moved, which meant losing the nice flat-fee telephone package that Sprint has ceased to offer. Uninterested in a return to the old $500 per month phone bills from SBC/AT&T, we turned to our ISP, TimeWarner.

On a side note, I'd recently discussed VOIP (telephone service over Internet lines) with an associate who has VOIP via his DSL provider but said he was not "in love with it yet". The problem was that it was set up so that Internet service was "first" (first call on the services, one supposes) — meaning that, if he were on the phone and tried to send a large file via email, his phone reception would break up somewhat. He suggested that we tell our service provider that the phone ought to take precedence.

As it turns out, what TimeWarner offers is not VOIP at all. I haven't looked into the technology in any more depth than to discover that it's digital phone but, aside from apparently being a different technology, what this seems to mean is that there is no sharing of the phone/Web service, no either/or scenario as would occur with DSL.

Once the TimeWarner guys set up their modem, the television, Internet and phone services come through the cable, and any phone jack in the house works. Pretty convenient. Cost-effective, too.

I'll also say that the sound is at least as good as regular telephone service. It does seem a little clearer (less noise) … but at least I can say it's not worse. :)