Thanks very much to those of you who offered suggestions and ideas regarding the big cable/DSL/VOIP/etc research. After much number-crunching and hand-wringing, Michele and I are going out on a limb and springing for DSL (through Speakeasy) and VOIP, with cellphones as emergency backup.
It’s uncharted territory for us–will we find a new paradise of telephonic freedom, or will we come crawling back to Comcast and SBC in shame and defeat, begging like prodigal sons for scraps from their monopolistic table? You, my friends, will be the first to know.
by 
So what led to that decision? I think it’s interesting that you decided to have BOTH SBC and VoiP.
The direct-DSL setup we have with Speakeasy will let us drop SBC. It’s a bit more expensive than DSL that piggybacks on your normal phone service, but still substantially cheaper than our current Comcast + SBC setup.
We’ll see how it goes!
Speakeasy is a GREAT ISP to deal with, and their “dry DSL” (dunno what they call it, but that’s what it’s called in the industry when you don’t have phone service through the LEC) should be just as good of an offering. In my experience, Speakeasy has been tremendously geek-friendly and solid. You’ll pay more, but it’s worth it.
Keep us up-to-date!
I use the Comcast + Vonage setup. It works very well for us (so far; the only issue being the caller-id not displaying or name for some reason…). We have the 24.95/unlimited setup which includes national/canada long-distance and even .03/min to the UK!
-j