We’ve had Packet8.net VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) at our house for a couple years. The first year, we put up with the hassle of dropped connections because of the “cool” factor. A co-worker who is very tech savvy installed his about six months before we did, and is still using it with no complaints. He has given me lots of advice on how to tweak Packet8 for better performance, but without success.

Now it’s just too big a hassle.

We get a lot of complaints that calls aren’t completed. It rings to the caller but not to us, and there is a lag when first answering the phone, long enough that people often don’t hear us say “Hello.”

So I started shopping online for an alternative. Looked at Vonage but it’s not available in our area. We live in a college town of 50,000, not in the sticks, so c’mon Vonage what gives.

I thought we might give our cable provider a shot, but since their broadband service isn’t that great (at least one disconnect a day) we decided no.

Looks like Bellsouth wins by default. They were our old phone carrier, but we’ve been gone long enough that I’m hoping we can get some kind of incentive to return.

That’s what I’m working on now.

So we’ll still have Skype Video for the family in Florida, but everybody else will be pleased to know that we are back among the majority when it comes to phone service.

I guess that’s why they call it the “bleeding edge.”