[Eug-lug] Local dial tone providers - Qwest alternatives?

[Bob Miller]

John Sechrest wrote:

> Hal Pomeranz <hal at deer-run.com> writes:
> 
>  % Vonage is one company that does this.
>  
>  Yes, and Skype... But neither of these are the one. This one
>  was doing redirection and providing more traditional services. 

It seems like the only real value a VoIP telephone company can add,
for the hacker who enjoys building his own phone system, is routing
to/from the PSTN.  Skype and Vonage sell complete "phone service" for
nontechnical customers, and their product is no cheaper than Qwest
(for basic service).

There've got to be companies that will rent just a phone number and
forwarding to your home Asterisk server for a very low cost.

>  The real question is what are you doing to get redundant networks
>  to your house, so that your IP network is redundant. So that the 
>  answer becomes use the other pipe. 

If you're in town, you can easily do that.  Comcast, DSL and a WISP.
But the original question was, "How can I stop giving those jackasses
at Qwest my money?"  If you don't want to pay the jackasses at Qwest,
you probably don't want to pay Comcast's donkeys either.

-- 
Bob Miller                              K<bob>
kbobsoft software consulting
http://kbobsoft.com                     kbob at jogger-egg.com