VOIP Experience

[Furu]

I have just about had it with CenturyLink and my copper landline. The technicians tell me the company is not doing any upgrades to the equipment and that it is just failing due to age and they have issues getting repair parts. I have lost my "reliable" land line three times in the past three months. Cell phone only is not an option as coverage is at best pathetic and unreliable.
I am looking at going VOIP. I currently have DSL through the phone company which is actually more reliable than the phone line (don't quite grasp that but they are different technologies.)
Considering going to Starlink for internet and VOIP with it. Have read a lot of conflicting reports which is not surprising so thought I would see what is the feeling on here.
Starlink has a glowing number of people who love it.
What I am looking for are the negatives.
Reports are that there is NO support other than to send new equipment. Can't even call to talk with sales reps to ask questions.
Questions
1. After you buy the $599 equipment what happens if it breaks and you are told you need to get a replacement unit since there is no technical support.
2. How does it connect to existing systems. Does it just plug into the RG8 cables that are in the house or is there a rewire required.
3. For VOIP it seems you have to buy a separate unit to plug into the Starlink and then have to buy a VOIP phone.
Can that VOIP pone then power the old phone wire in the house or be plugged into the legacy wireless phone system that was used with copper wire phones?
4. If you have a second "home" in another location (500 miles away) can you pack up the system and take it or do you have to have the mobile RV plan to do that (50% more per month)

Probably more things to consider but that is what I have at the moment.

 

[dodge man]

My only experience is where I worked. Before we got decent internet speed it wasn’t that good, calls breaking up, dropped calls etc. After we got higher speed internet it was pretty flawless.

I asked my wife, she used to work for the phone company, and she said there is a piece of equipment, I assume some kind of box, that the phone plugs into and the internet plugs into the box. She isn’t sure if phones might have this built in now?

Do you get enough cell signal that a booster antenna on your roof would work?

 

[Chewwy]

Can’t help with your questions but VoIP numbers appear to be the preferred type of phone number for scammers and robocalls.

VoIP phone numbers are relatively easy to fake. And the caller ID information can be easily manipulated.

 

[Furu]

Can’t help with your questions but VoIP numbers appear to be the preferred type of phone number for scammers and robocalls.

VoIP phone numbers are relatively easy to fake. And the caller ID information can be easily manipulated.

Scammers and robocalls are all so called businesses. VOIP is much cheaper for businesses than the legacy landline.

 

[Furu]

My only experience is where I worked. Before we got decent internet speed it wasn’t that good, calls breaking up, dropped calls etc. After we got higher speed internet it was pretty flawless.

I asked my wife, she used to work for the phone company, and she said there is a piece of equipment, I assume some kind of box, that the phone plugs into and the internet plugs into the box. She isn’t sure if phones might have this built in now?

Do you get enough cell signal that a booster antenna on your roof would work?

Boosters have not worked in the past.

 

[ultrarunner]

Cut phone from 12k per month $1200 per month at work.

It’s has pluses and minuses but only as good as the internet and your router and cabling.

Last week the phones were horrible but a new router fixed it…

 

[plowhog]

I have three Starlink systems. Had them for coming up on a couple of years now.

There are occasional quirks here and there, but never a problems. Based on my experience many of my rural neighbors bought SL. Installed it in some horribly obstructed locations and it still worked. Yes I use my for wifi calls.

The only time SL did not work was in Yosemite. But I was camped up to the edge of a granite wall thousands of feet high that blocked the view to the satellites. Not really the fault of SL.

 

[ponytug]

We use VOIP over Starlink. One downside to our system is that since Starlink reassigns the IP address and it can take awhile before the VOIP system realizes that your VOIP link has moved. Outgoing calls are fine, but incoming are routed to voicemail. No biggie for us. I am told that there are other systems that hack this, but I don't know if I believe it.

However, I would not do VOIP. Just turn on WiFi calling on your phones and use Starlink.

Starlink does have tech support, and I have used it a number of times. When we had a failing cable/router, they FedExed us a replacement router and cable. I'm working on some minor glitching at the moment with them that is increasing our latency in bursts. Just bear in mind that the big cheese seems to view customer support as a loss leader, so this isn't the Apple Genius Bar.

You can use the Starlink WiFi out of the box, and / or plug in their Ethernet adapter and use your existing hardware. If you aren't set up for 1gigabit networking (in your cabling, switches, router, access points), I would use their WiFi, as Starlink does routinely hit 0.1-0.2Gbits/s.

If you get and pay for the RV version, you can move it, but it costs more per month to have.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ericm979]

If your internet reliably has good bandwidth, wifi calling should work.

Our local telco Frontier is terrible. They buy systems from other carriers and then don't maintain them. They won't even put downed lines back up. We dropped the land line years ago.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

If your internet reliably has good bandwidth, wifi calling should work.

I jumped in to say this also. I've used WIFI calling before in the same situation and it worked well. Doesn't cost anything, just have to turn on the setting on your phone and be hooked up to the wifi.