tech support knows VOIP unreliable--no solution

Fusion Voice service, features and help.
41 posts Page 1 of 5
by sonicwasOK » Sun Nov 06, 2016 10:20 pm
I have had Sonic Fusion for years. After many attempts to solve degrading DSL service, I finally took Sonic's advice to "upgrade" to FTTN. After avoiding Sonic automatically trying to upsell to FTTN X2, I had FTTN installed, saving $20/month. Since install, the internet has been solid at 20Mbps, but the VOIP service has gone out twice in less than 2 weeks. No dialtone, nada.

A new ATA didn't fix it, and tech support has since confirmed that they 1) know it is affecting an undisclosed number of customers and 2) have no solution except power cycling/resetting the ATA when you discover no phone service (hopefully not when you need to call 911.) They are gathering information to try to figure out why they can't provide reliable service to customers.

Tech support also confirmed that they have no visibility into the modem stats or AT&T's network. This is shocking, as I can log into the modem I'm forced to rent and see that there have been no significant events since install. But Sonic can't see any of the vital statistics of the service they are selling? What support can they provide? Putting in a ticket at AT&T? Wouldn't it be more efficient for me just to buy U-verse?
by Luc » Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:08 pm
FTTN VOIP phone service is horrible, line drops dead, needing off and on cycling of ATA. Dropped calls sometimes within a minute, in one five minute call it dropped 4 times and line died once. Anther problem is a loud beep tone and blanking of my voice on the other end, sometimes a couple of times per minute. On my end I don't hear it. Then there is the occasional echoing of my voice on new calls.

I have started using Skype calling on my iPad to make phone calls because it's more reliable than the Sonic ATA. I shouldn't have to do this!

My first ATA died in less than a month, did resets and cycled off and on several times as instructed by Sonic tech, then it died completely. Took 5 days to get a new ATA, that was 5 days with no phone service. When people tried to call me they got a quick busy tone.

On my second ATA same problems, line drops dead requiring restart, dropped calls with dead air or sudden busy tone, loud beep tone and blanking of my voice on the other end, occasional echoing of my voice.

Tech support says it may be my phone causing the problem, worked fine when it was a landline a couple of weeks before. It looks like I'm not the only one having the problem.

The Grandstream HT701 ATA is always warm to the touch, 104 deg F in a room at 73 deg. (Non-Contact Infrared Thermometer)

Meanwhile both the Broadband and Service lights on my ATT Uverse branded Pace 5268AC router are a steady green like they should be.

This reminds me of old analog cell phone service.
by Guest » Mon Nov 07, 2016 3:06 pm
Something similar happened to us on Sunday. Accession showed an incoming call but there was no ring on our land line. There was a dial tone and we can call out, but we couldn't receive calls.

Rebooting the ATA using ***999 fixed it.
by parker_day » Mon Nov 07, 2016 5:42 pm
Does anyone have reliable phone service using FTTN? I'm a bit worried for my friend who just signed up.
by Guest » Mon Nov 07, 2016 5:51 pm
It's generally reliable but on occasion the ATA acts up and it probably is a backend issue. Having at least one instance of Accession on will help. My parents are on Fusion Fiber and they have told me of some instability in their land line at times, which is why I'm pointing my finger to the backend.
by sonicwasOK » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:21 pm
Wow! It looks like all kinds of people are getting crappy VOIP service. This confirms what Sonic tech support told me-that an undisclosed number of FTTN customers are having unreliable phone service.

At this point I would recommend to anyone considering FTTN to hold off. It is really disappointing as Dane Jasper is on record explaining why Sonic customers must take bundled voice service, since having available voice service is a real need.

I'm not sure what one poster meant by it's a backend problem, but it looks as if a lot of Sonic customers are getting a problem in the backend.

I haven't seen any concern from Dane about this. I haven't gotten any response to my email to support about this either.
by guest » Mon Nov 07, 2016 11:44 pm
sonicwasOK wrote: Wouldn't it be more efficient for me just to buy U-verse?
No.
by Guest » Tue Nov 08, 2016 1:12 am
sonicwasOK wrote:I'm not sure what one poster meant by it's a backend problem
Fusion FTTN VoIP is provided through an ATA. Fusion Fiber VoIP does not use an ATA. If both have glitches then the commonality is the backend and not necessarily (although it's also possible the ATA could be a part of the problem) the front-end.

Mind you my parents have experienced issues around 3 times since they've migrated to fiber in June 2016 and we have been on FTTN and outside the Accession issue which was corrected several months ago, we have experienced issues roughly once every 1.5-2 months. Rebooting the ATA fixes the issue.

My parents and my household use the land line a lot unlike young bucks who prefer cell service.

Traditional POTS is a lot more robust but AT&T had over a century to work out the kinks and it's a dedicated network unlike the internet where bad IoT devices can take large parts of the infrastructure out.
by Guest » Tue Nov 08, 2016 1:13 am
guest wrote:
sonicwasOK wrote: Wouldn't it be more efficient for me just to buy U-verse?
No.
Or if you can get AT&T Fiber and don't want to wait for Sonic.
by dherr » Tue Nov 08, 2016 7:34 am
I have Fusion FTTN and have tweaked the setup to the point where I like this better than the POTS of "pure" Fusion.

The main change was to start using Sonic voice mail instead of the answering function of the phone. This means that messages are taken even if power, internet, ATA, wires, etc. suffer a problem. I also have the phone messages sent to me via e-mail which is really nice when traveling.

Another non-standard setting that I use is the "Codec Preference" = "yes". This uses the G.711 codec. That is not recommended if you have a very bad Internet connection but FTTN has been rock solid for me so this setting seems to be an improvement for my situation.
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