Rogers Home Phone Service Launched

Ohenri · Jul 2nd, 2005, 01:44 PM

Well, after much talk, they had soft launch of the service.

Details here.

Not sure what you cats think, but I might just stick to Vonage for now. Better pricing I find, + no need for additional h/w (Rogers hits you with another modem). On top of that, you may not keep your phone # if you move. Vonage's Soft Phone is an awesome feature, + the pending wifi handset looks even more interesting for the VoIP fans - which Rogers service is not.

AND, they are trying to charge ON TOP of the monthly fees for North Am LD. Wow.

You can find a PDF of the service guide here

Anyhow, it's here - and the word is that Rogers is excited about the ability to cut into Bell's $. Not sure about this so far... Pretty underwhelming launch.

H!

iPetie · Jul 2nd, 2005, 02:50 PM

Wow, that is a full $15 more a month than I pay for Vonage when you figure in the LD at $19.95. Surely, they can't be serious.
Here they are, sitting on something that could bury Bell as competitor and they don't take advantage of the opportunity.
I had hoped that they would cost around the same as Vonage when all bundled up. I would jump if that were the case. Although, I'm not sure they would allow me to have a 416 (which Vonage does) living in the 905. It saves our friends money that way.

depmode101 · Jul 2nd, 2005, 06:24 PM

	Quote:
	On top of that, you may not keep your phone # if you move.

Rogers allows you to keep your current home number when switching over to their home phone service.

	Quote:
	Pretty underwhelming launch.

Rogers isnt rushing into this one - when videotron did in quebec, they had to deal with an onslaught of customers making it impossible to keep up with the demand of installing new customers.

iPetie · Jul 2nd, 2005, 06:44 PM

Depmode101,
I think he is saying that if you move, as in change addresses or areas, you can't keep your number.
I like Rogers, have had nothing but good service and C/S from them. They have 2 cells, extreme internet and a big TV package from us. Our phone service with Vonage runs over their cable. So take what I have to say with that in mind.
Rogers should be copying and matching Vonages services and flexibility, not tackleing Bell on what amounts to a $5 discount. If they were to come out aggressive, they would have won huge amounts of customers. The simple fact of the matter is that the margins in VOIP would allow for this easily.
If, as you say they are going slow, they should have waited, used Videotrons example and come out ready and extremely mean.
As it stands, more and more telephony is running over the Rogers lines and they don't own it.

MBD · Jul 2nd, 2005, 07:02 PM

I like using Skype Out and keeping a regular no frill phone. I'd like to get a usb connector so I can use it with my cordless phone but I don't think they have anything that works with the Mac unless you buy a whole new phone.

Ohenri · Jul 2nd, 2005, 07:10 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by iPetie
	Depmode101, I think he is saying that if you move, as in change addresses or areas, you can't keep your number.

more like you may not keep it. Depending on where you move to.

	Quote:
	Rogers should be copying and matching Vonages services and flexibility, not tackleing Bell on what amounts to a $5 discount.

Agreed. They need to take a good look @ the flood of features that Vonage offers (I love Dashboard + checking your vmail online as a wav). Nothing pkg'd like Rogers is trying to do right now.

If they want to wait to see how this rolls out, then so be it. But I don't see how they can make immediate in roads w/o having a really competitive plan. I'm also kinda uninterested in more hardware to hook up when I know it can be down w/o it.

H!

depmode101 · Jul 2nd, 2005, 10:14 PM

	Quote:
	I think he is saying that if you move, as in change addresses or areas, you can't keep your number.

my apologies - i thought that i may have been misunderstanding that point.

	Quote:
	If, as you say they are going slow, they should have waited

the rush may be because mr ted is on his way out in three years - there seems to be a lot of different things going on all at once in the rogers buildings these days.

	Quote:
	They need to take a good look @ the flood of features that Vonage offers (I love Dashboard + checking your vmail online as a wav).

i was looking at the vonage extras ahead of getting my rogers home phone set up and was disappointed that none of the cool features were being offered at launch. i hear many things are coming down the line, but as for now, slow and steady.

iPetie · Jul 3rd, 2005, 12:33 AM

Upon further research into the data provided by Rogers, it would seem that they are not offering true VOIP. They are offering straight voice over cable to a main switching station which then leverages traditional carrier protocols and infrastructure. So, VOIP to say the data centre, then not. Very expensive way to operate but in theory would lead to more reliable telephony.

However, when the net fails, it fails large or local only. So, they're selling it as more reliable, but in fact it makes no difference. This gets more bizarre, the more I research it. Why would they go that way and not place themselves on an equal playing field with Vonage, Primus and others? Our Vonage has never failed in 8 months, and our call quality is very good.