Captel or Caption call phones?

Someone on this fourm must be using Caption_call.

Again if you type it into the search engine for this forum you will get all the info you could possibly want.

I’d be very interested to see if your CaptionCall phone works better then mine. I know others who have lots of problems with the Wi Fi as well. It’s my impression they are getting rid of the first generation phones and will come out (or maybe have already) a new phone.

BTW since we have VOIP service and a “1” is not needed before calling our phone service and the CaptionCall phones automatically have a “1” programmed in, I’ve asked that be changed. To get around the problem we had to put our VM number as a “contact” and not use the already configured item in the menu for connecting to our VM service.

In addition up to this point there isn’t a way to put in symbols as part of your password so if you connect to your router using symbols you’ll have to change that. That was another suggestion I made.

I sent Sorenson a whole list of items, some have already been changed. My basic problem is loss of signal and the dying scrolling making my model of phone essentially not useable. Others may have a different experience and I’d love to hear about it.

Having said all the above my two CaptionCall phones were “free” since I was part of a test market group, as were many others. While I can’t complain about the cost, even free isn’t any good if the phone’s captioning ability is not useable.

I like the Captel a lot better than the CaptionCall phone.
One big benefit for me, I can save my captions on the Captel to review for later, you cannot save the captions on the CaptionCall phone.

Also, if I have an issue with the captions on my Captel, I can turn the caption button off and then on again to get a new captioner, without having to disrupt my phone call.

@Michelle said:

I have a CapTel 800i and two CaptionCall phones, I’ll say it’s a mixed bag.

When the Captel 800i came out I sent a lot of suggestions. First I was told it was Wi Fi capable, it’s not. You need a wired connection. Having said that we hooked mine up to an Apple “Airport Express” which we use as a wireless bridge to allow me to use it upstairs while our router and modem are downstairs in the basement…it works fine.

The CapTel 800i seems to be designed for either people who have visual problems or aren’t really computer savvy. They don’t have automatic updates so you have to go in yourself and ask for them, there haven’t been many. I requested the ability to turn off the backlight on the keypad and they did “fix” that. They have a little monitor so you can see if you’re voice is overloading the system which I like since I can’t always tell if I’m speaking too loudly. The screen is a decent size and the relay service works fairly well.

The CaptionCall is WiFi but has a lot of problems to work out. In our set up neither phone holds an internet connection. All our other wifi devices have no problems (two laptops, an iPod, Internet radio, voip phone service). Our Modem is an Apple Time capsule and can serve up to 50 clients so that’s not the problem.

I suspect the antenna in the phone is too weak, not positioned properly and the software they are using is apparently not self correcting and no time is allowed to reconnect so I’m constantly getting a message saying service is lost.

The scrolling on the phone often locks up so the captions aren’t seen, you have to scroll by hand and that sometimes doesn’t work. The relay service (Sorenson) I don’t think is as good as Sprints, although it’s hard to tell if it’s the CA’s or the voice recognition software they are using. I sent them a whole list of items for them to upgrade and they have done many. Their updates are downloaded automatically.

It’s a handsome phone and the headset is very comfortable. Having said that if the connection and captions are flakey it doesn’t do much good. As much as I like a lot of things about the CaptionCall I end up using my CapTel almost all the time.

Any questions, feel free to ask. I’ve looked at both phones with a critical eye!

Hello,

Our CapTel 800i works fine with none of the problems you talked about. Updates are available on the menu. Last week they notified us that an update was available and, as it turned out, was mandatory.

Does the CaptionCall phone work with homes that have VOIP phone services? All the website says is that it requires a landline?

Depends on the model you purchase or receive from the state.

I just received my CaptionCall phone and yes, you can save your caption calls. Maybe they have revised it for better options.

I got a CaptionCall phone installed a few weeks ago. I like it but the problem is that people that I am speaking to have trouble hearing me and say the sound quality is poor. I called Tech Support at CaptionCall and they said they needed to install updated software (from their end) and that should take care of the problem. But it did not. I called back and was asked to unplug the phone for a minute and then replug it. Callers still have difficulty hearing me. Tech Support said the next step would be a hard reset (setting the phone back to factory settings). I have not done that yet. Are others having this issue?