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EarthLink offers new VoIP service
January 30, 2006
Beginning this month, customers in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego and Washington, D.C., will be able sign up for Home Phone Service, EarthLink's voice over Internet Protocol phone service.
The service is competing in an already crowded market where cable operators, standalone VoIP providers such as Vonage and Skype, and Internet companies such as AOL, Yahoo and Google are all trying to get a piece of the telephony market.
Unlike other Internet telephony services, EarthLink's Home Phone Service converts the analog voice signal to a digital signal after the call leaves the consumer's home. This means no special "box" or equipment is needed in the home to run the service.
EarthLink's service is also available from all existing phone jacks in the home. And like traditional phone services, Home Phone Service will operate during a power outage, and it will support enhanced 911 calling.
Because the service is IP-based, customers will be able to take advantage of several enhanced features they wouldn't otherwise get with traditional phone services, such as call prioritization, click-to-dial, number blocking and Web-based voice mail.
The service is sold along with EarthLink's DSL service, which provides up to 8Mbps of bandwidth for downloads. Pricing for EarthLink DSL and Home Phone Service starts at $49.95 per month. The company is using Covad's DSL infrastructure to deliver the service.
EarthLink began offering this Internet telephony service in Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose in January. The company also said it has expanded the service within these cities.
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They are going to start charging me a $5 per month "Network Access Charge". This is in spite of the fact that I just signed a 1-year contract with them 4 months ago in May 2007, with an early termination fee. This is worse than 'bait and switch' since they seem to think they can charge whatever they want while I am bound to them by contract. They should not be able to charge me any price increase for the duration of the contract, or at the very least they should let me out of the contract.
The first time I called in September the supervisor "Chris" said he would make it so I wouldn't be charged until the end of my contract, and gave me a confirmation #. After Earthlink charged me the $5 increase this week, I called to complain and cited the reference number to another supervisor, who said they could do nothing but refund one month's fee. I pointed out that Chris said that I wouldn't have to pay it until the contract expired, and he said he could not honor that commitment.
Originally I wanted just not to be charged the $5 monthly fee until my contract expired, but now since they lied to me and caused me a lot of stress, I just want out of the contract so I can get phone service through someone else.
I have been a happy mindspring/earthlink customer since 1995. Now, I want out.