On the off chance anyone noticed, my site (along with all other sites I host) had about two hours of downtime earlier today. Sorry about that — as it turns out, the DSL modem had frozen up, probably from overheating thanks to the poor ventilation in my apartment. Once it was reset it was fine. Sorry ’bout that.
While I was bouncing around Speakeasy‘s site during the initial round of “what’s going on?” troubleshooting, I ran into some interesting information that may lead to me ditching my current phone service with Qwest.
Item One: Speakeasy OneLink — DSL service that doesn’t require a phone line.
Item Two: Speakeasy Voice — VoIP service.
Item Three: Nice savings when you order both packages.
I already use Speakeasy as my broadband provider, and I’ve been very happy with the service I get from them. I have a good package for a reasonable price, and the few times I’ve had to call tech support, they’ve been quick, friendly, and very friendly (and occasionally just a little bit silly).
I currently use Qwest for my phone service, and have very intentionally been getting the bare minimum necessary package. For me, that means about \$30/month for basic phone service plus voice mail, and nothing else. No caller ID, no call waiting, no other fancy features — and no long distance.
According to Speakeasy’s site, if I were to switch over to their VoIP service, I’d get unlimited long distance in the US and Canada, voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling, last call return, do not disturb, and I’d even get to keep the same phone number I’d have now — all for the same price as my current basic service from Qwest.
If I switched over to both OneLink and VoIP, my final cost would be about \$6/month more than what I’m paying now, but the first three months would be cheaper, as you get a “free three months” for signing up (some of which are offset by the setup costs, but that’s expected). All in all, this sounds like a pretty damn good deal to me.
Giving this one some serious thought.
“Predator (Final)” by Collide from the album Vortex (2004, 6:32).