SunRocket (VOIP) Easter Special - 1 free year VOIP service (today only)

[riffjim4069]

Well, I decided to order VOIP service from SunRocket.com a short while after doing the research. In a nutshell, it appears to have all the features of VONAGE (the reviews are pretty good), the CSRs speak perfect English, and you can prepay for 1 year of service (unlimited calling in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico) for $199 (with taxes, 40% less than VONAGE).

Well, I called in today to order the $199 annual service and was told they are having a Easter Special (not a Spring Special mind you) and that the 2nd year of VOIP service was free of charge today only. Not bad...$199 for unlimited calling, and all the calling features (Caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting, etc.) for 24 months.

It looks like I may use this as justification to buy that XBOX 360. For me, this is a $600 saving over landline service over the next two years (basic unlimited local only calling).

I have a temporary phone number setup until my phone number is transfered over. I won't be using the temp number, but if you call to order service please give them my temp phone number (540) 736-7232 because I'll receive a cheapy Uniden phone for a referral. Who knows, it may even be better one of our older wireless phones.

sunrocket.com
1-800-401-6059

 

[cdru]

SunRocket's "one day only" special has been going on since the begining of the month or so. At first it was advertised as for the first 500 customers, but apparently either less then 500 people have signed up or they keep extending it.

Sun Rocket has had quite a few issues lately. I'm not personally a SunRocket customer, but I do check in from time to time at DSLReports in the VoIP Forum. I've seen more then a fair share of recent problems with SunRocket recently, definitely more then I'd be comfortable with if I were a customer.

VoIP is still relatively new, and with something new comes inevitible growing pains and outages. I'm fine with that and can live with it, but more then just an occasional outage, especially unexplained, and I'd start to get nervous about quality of service. Also, a company that gives away a free years worth of service also makes me wonder about their financial condition. In a years time when all these subs suddently no longer have to pay, what's going to pay the bills?

Disclaimer: I'm a very happy ViaTalk customer. They have great rates (although not as good as the 2-years for $199 that SR has), but as low as $10/month for 500 minutes or $15.95/month for unlimited. They also have daily specials that usually get you an additional two months for any length of contract (even 3 months for the price of 1). Their customer service is responsive and their CEO and also tech support often can be found in the DSLReports forum linked to above. Use coupon code DSLReports for an additional savings of $35.

 

[thiggin2]

I've been a Sunrocket customer for over a year now and I haven't had any problems lately. I think its great for what you pay. It also works great with all the receivers in my house. The only time I have problems it isn't the fault of Sunrocket, its the fault of my internet provider.

 

[riffjim4069]

Most of the people I've talked to regarding VONAGE, Sunrocket, and other VOIP providers have had favorable experiences. To be honest, we've been paying $30 plus a month just so we can make a few locals calls each month, send/receive a half-dozen faxes, and not pay two $5 dual-tuner fees courtesy of Dish Network. All our long distance phone calls are usually make via our wireless phones, so I've been looking to stop wasting so much money on something we infrequently use. I would have dumped the landline a long time ago, but I couldn't tranfer our phone number over to VONAGE (WAF).

Anyway, $199 over 24 months works out to be $8.29 per month. There's no need to pay more since we have several cell phones in the house...and the service should work with our E* receivers.

 

[bryansr]

I too have been a happy SunRocket customer for over 6 months. If you have high speed internet why pay more for ANY phone service?

BryanSR

 

[T2k]

IIRC SR suffered several hours-long outage nationwide last year... right?

I have P8 and I never noticed a minute of outage...

 

[thiggin2]

IIRC SR suffered several hours-long outage nationwide last year... right?

I have P8 and I never noticed a minute of outage...

They did have an outage last year. But I'm sure they never expected the sudden growth they had last year, but now that they fixed that problem to handle the growth I haven't really seen any problems on my end. And if I do loose dial tone my internet connection is running really slow so that would be my internet providers fault and not SR.

 

[T2k]

I see, thanks.
However according to DSLreports they had way more than one outage during the last 9-10 months:

SunRocket Outage 2005-07-11

VoIP Troubles in the Summer of '05 - Sunrocket latest carrier to be plagued by outages 2005-09-09

SunRocket CEO Explains Outages - 'Degradations remain possible' 2005-09-12

More Sunrocket Problems -
Another outage yesterday 2005-10-04

SunRocket in Trouble - Our users are getting fed up 2005-10-12

SunRocket VoIP goes kaplooie again? BBR Members reporting outages 2005-10-13

SunRocket VoIP Service Interruptions - Sporadic service issues reported over last 24 hours 05-11-05

Another Major SunRocket Outage - After fall problems and apparent improvements 2006-02-20

Another Sunrocket Outage - 'System Upgrades' blamed 2006-03-29

I understand that outages are not always nationwide, of course but this track record is anything but convincing...

 

[digiblur]

I may pay a little more than SunRocket but I've got 2 lines for $20 a month with all the unlimited to the area codes I need with tons of features no other VoIP provider I've tried has plus a solid track record.

 

[doubletap]

Voip provider

So who's your Voip provider?

 

[thiggin2]

I see, thanks.
However according to DSLreports they had way more than one outage during the last 9-10 months:

SunRocket Outage 2005-07-11

VoIP Troubles in the Summer of '05 - Sunrocket latest carrier to be plagued by outages 2005-09-09

SunRocket CEO Explains Outages - 'Degradations remain possible' 2005-09-12

More Sunrocket Problems -
Another outage yesterday 2005-10-04

SunRocket in Trouble - Our users are getting fed up 2005-10-12

SunRocket VoIP goes kaplooie again? BBR Members reporting outages 2005-10-13

SunRocket VoIP Service Interruptions - Sporadic service issues reported over last 24 hours 05-11-05

Another Major SunRocket Outage - After fall problems and apparent improvements 2006-02-20

Another Sunrocket Outage - 'System Upgrades' blamed 2006-03-29

I understand that outages are not always nationwide, of course but this track record is anything but convincing...

Yes there maybe alot of people complaining but like anything that has to do with reports you will get more complaints then non-complaints. I can just talk about my experiences, but I've had no problem since they fixed there problem last year when they had the outage because of what I think was do to the sudden growth they experienced.

 

[riffjim4069]

I've had the service for two weeks and it has worked perfectly. We had one 30 minutes outage, but that was due to a thunderstorm and our lovely Adelphia broadband service. To be honest, if I had to have 24/7 phone coverage I would have stayed with landline and avoided VOIP (the only exception is FiOS VOIP service which I equate to landline). Having several wireless phones made discount VOIP, like Sunrocket, an easy choice.

 

[riffjim4069]

Cinco de mayo....free extra year.

It looks like Sunrocket is duplicating their Easter Special for anyone interested...

 

[T2k]

plus a solid track record.

Well... not in terms of uninterrupted service, as the facts show...

 

[T2k]

Yes there maybe alot of people complaining but like anything that has to do with reports you will get more complaints then non-complaints. I can just talk about my experiences, but I've had no problem since they fixed there problem last year when they had the outage because of what I think was do to the sudden growth they experienced.

Certainly but it doen't change the fact that they have one outage every other month average including this year (in February and March).
All I'm saying is probably it'd make sense *to wait* (ie to try another ones for few months) instead of buying a year worth of service from a provider with such a bad track record during the last 10 months... of course, it's just an opinion...

 

[riffjim4069]

I've had service for almost a month and it has worked perfectly (of course a lot has to do with the ISP): quality is as good or better than a clear cell phone call (usally as good as Verizon landline), phone line transfered over without hitch, all calling features work as advertized, they updated my Gizmo firmware which solved my fax problems (T.38).

Of course, I would never have VOIP (stand alone) if I needed 24/7 phone service.

 

[riffjim4069]

Just noticed that Sunrocket is having another special for the 4th of July. Two years of unlimited phone service for $199. I've had it since April and it works very well. Give it a try if you're interested, don't if you're not.