Fri 15 Dec 2006
Switch to SunRocket
Posted by Andrew Mitry under VoIP/Telecom
[4] Comments
After a successful few months with PhoneGnome, I looked at how much we were paying per month for Verizon (around $30) and the VocalNet service ($14.99) and said that it just wasn’t worth it for the amount we use our home phone. Sherry and I both have cell phones and we have plenty of minutes on our plan. I was considering canceling when a friend of mine referred me to SunRocket. SunRocket is a VoIP only player similar to Vonage and is in the number two spot in the market.
They have a deal where you can pay $199 for the year and get unlimited calling to the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. The disadvantage compared to the PhoneGnome setup I had before is there is no backup and or traditional 911 support (SunRocket does provide Enhanced Emergency 911), but we have our cell phones for that.
I ordered it and they assigned us a temporary number to use until we port our home number. We ported our number on Monday and it is working well. What is cool is that you get to keep the temporary number at no extra cost, so I setup up with distinctive ring and the fax machine picks it up.
If you are interested in signing up, click here to give me credit for the referral.
December 15th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
I once again followed your lead in the wonderful world of VOIP I ordered SunRocket and recieved the equipment still haven’t set it up yet and my number is scheduled to be ported over on 12/25. Thanks for the referral man
December 18th, 2006 at 1:49 am
Hi Andrew, did you consider keeping your PhoneGnome but with a lower cost long distance plan? I only use 30-40 minutes of long distance a per month and my Pioneer Telecom LD bill is only a few dollars each month. I also periodically purchase $10 of Inphonex voip minutes for “click to call” and failover IP LD minutes. I guess I like the guaranteed quality of service provided by my local telco and the flexibility of the PhoneGnome, rather than the total overall lower cost of the SunRocket voip service. But saving $160 or more a year with SunRocket is a valid choice too.
December 18th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Hello Ron, I did consider switching to a lower cost long distance plan but the $30 a month with Verizon alone was too much to justify the advantages of guaranteed quality of service and the flexibility of PhoneGnome. If we were more dependent on the home line I probably would have stuck with the Verizon/PhoneGnome combo.
December 20th, 2006 at 12:41 am
I hope Sun Rocket works out for you. Of course you don’t have to stop using PhoneGnome. You can connect the Sun Rocket ATA to PhoneGnome (since the service is free) and still get PhoneGnome features (like free SoftGnome access to your Sun Rocket line).
We suspect you could have reduced your Verizon bill from the $30 at least a bit and followed the other tips we suggests here: http://www.phonegnome.com/tips.html to get your price down close to (or maybe even below) the Sun Rocket level and still have the safety, security, quality, and reliability of a standard line. In your area, basic local service is $10.44 per month for measuered rate local service or $15.87 for unlimited local calls. Adding in the cost for Verizon Caller-ID (a somewhat outrageous $8.20 in your area), you could bring your Verizon bill down to $18.64/month.
But anyway, we wish you well with the switch to SunRocket and remember, as we said,t hat doesn’t have to mean goodbye to PhoneGnome.