Vonage Telephone Service, 25.99 a month instead of $60+, save lots of $$$! Edit: people reporting their experiences

[MazdaMP]

Originally posted by: isekii
damn I was interested in this

but then as soon as I was about to sign up..

they charge initially like 86 bucks..

it seems quite hefty for signing up for a service..

this does include a router though
and that router sells for ~200 on ebay


DO NOT SIGN UP JUST TO SELL THE ROUTER! please do
not cheat a good company like vonage!

 

[md500]

Hi!

Am I missing something here?

I don't understand what the great deal is supposed to be here. No offense, but 25.95 for phone service with a few bells and whistles really isn't that great. I pay the same for my regular land line without any risks of poor quality and "downtime".

 

[MazdaMP]

Originally posted by: md500
Hi!

Am I missing something here?

I don't understand what the great deal is supposed to be here. No offense, but 25.95 for phone service with a few bells and whistles really isn't that great. I pay the same for my regular land line without any risks of poor quality and "downtime".

i have RCN, downtown Chicago, and I pay $60 for the same thingthat vonage offers me for $25.99
so YMMV on the savings i guess....

 

[slappy76]

Welp.. I've been using it for 2 days now.. it's very plug and play. The incoming sound as good as my landline.. everyone else says the outgoing sounds okay (occasionally tinny). I notice service degradation when I'm using my upstream bandwidth.. (I share files on KAZAA). However on downloads.. there is minimal degradation.. It was totally plug and play.. I got on within a minute of connecting it to my existing router.. so I guess I'll ebay the other one. There is also a tiny lag of maybe 1/10th - 1/100th of a second (guessimating).

I think I'll be able to go just about anywhere and plug this box.. very neat toy for all the techies out there.

 

[syyid]

Hi
Someone mentioned about using this overseas. Has anyone tried that out? Also any idea about which ports it uses? Thanks a lot

 

[MazdaMP]

Hi,
I am goingto Germany next week,
so I will let you know then. I am pretty sureit will all work
bery good, heck, even the AC adaptor of the Cisco router takes
100-240V (Europe uses 220V)

Let me know if you have any other questions,slapy76, thanks for your review!

 

[ETan]

so, how does it work overseas?

and does anyone have a good recommendation for broadband in Pittsburgh, PA?

 

[MazdaMP]

Originally posted by: ETan
so, how does it work overseas?

and does anyone have a good recommendation for broadband in Pittsburgh, PA?

it is AWESOME.
i just talked to my girlfriend for 3 hours today - what did pay? NOTHING
then i called Staples to get a PM on a Harddisk (you cant call 1800 numbers from outside
of the US) and that worked, too.

for verification, if 1 or 2 Senior members want to test the call quality, feel
free to PM or Email me for my number and you can convince yourself

 

[jkellynewyork]

This is a very hot deal. What I like most about the service is that you can check your voicemail online and it actually outputs the message through a sound file. Also, I love the idea that you can move and as long as you have an internet connection you will have the same phone number, no more dealing with setting up your new phone line when you move.

But I am going to hold off until Vonage supports Tivo, Fax and 911.

 

[hotstuff2000]

This sounds really cool to me and I have been watching this company for months and if they ever get a local # in my area I will sign up in a heartbeat. As for the 911 service someone mentioned as a problem, well if you have a phone line connected now, when you disconnect it you will still get 911 service, just as pay phones all have it for free. For that matter all cell phones can call 911 free even if they are not activated. And finally, I seriously doubt you can get local service for $20, or even $25 from your local bell. Here it is closer to $30 for basic service once you add in all taxes and fees. There is an FCC fee of like $6 per line so that they can run lines out to the middle of nowhere. I don't like this so I dropped my landline a long time ago. Then theres the "tax" on your phone service, plus additional charges and fees, including the FCC "universal surcharge". I doubt you would have any of these fees with this company. Note I live in the south where things are usually cheaper so it may be above $30 for some of you!

 

[MazdaMP]

Originally posted by: hotstuff2000
This sounds really cool to me and I have been watching this company for months and if they ever get a local # in my area I will sign up in a heartbeat. As for the 911 service someone mentioned as a problem, well if you have a phone line connected now, when you disconnect it you will still get 911 service, just as pay phones all have it for free. For that matter all cell phones can call 911 free even if they are not activated. And finally, I seriously doubt you can get local service for $20, or even $25 from your local bell. Here it is closer to $30 for basic service once you add in all taxes and fees. There is an FCC fee of like $6 per line so that they can run lines out to the middle of nowhere. I don't like this so I dropped my landline a long time ago. Then theres the "tax" on your phone service, plus additional charges and fees, including the FCC "universal surcharge". I doubt you would have any of these fees with this company. Note I live in the south where things are usually cheaper so it may be above $30 for some of you!

bump

 

[mandy2003]

I'm sorry, but whoever posted info about 911 being available after disconnecting land line is seriously wrong. Most cellular carriers do have access to 911 even w/o service. However, when you disconnect your phone service from your local carrier, you LOSE DIAL TONE. NO DIAL TONE = NO 911. Call your carrier and they will confirm this.

My boyfriend works for Cisco and has even admitted that VoIP products are great for recreational use but only a little better than Internet telephones. Some carriers who provide dial-tone through thier DSL lines, are NOT doing VoIP or Voice over DSL, but simply sharing the pair of wires going to the carrier which are more reliable but sometimes static even w/filters.

Another warning - those who subscribe to AT&T "digital" phone service also run risk of downtime during power outage. They provide small backup battery which would not last more than a couple of hours - so either invest in larger backup or UPS system if you're running these.

Finally - even w/my home office setup, I find it's cheaper (and more reliable) to buy the basic dial-tone service (AT&T non-digital) and use someone like Airspring/Global Fibernet (or one of the many others on forum) for local toll and long distance which offers direct dial (no access codes) no prepay and quality line service for 3.5cents/minute anywhere in US.

 

[huesmann]

If you have DSL, why bother? You already need a landline for the DSL hook...

 

[hoodrat]

And finally, I seriously doubt you can get local service for $20, or even $25 from your local bell. Here it is closer to $30 for basic service once you add in all taxes and fees. There is an FCC fee of like $6 per line so that they can run lines out to the middle of nowhere. I don't like this so I dropped my landline a long time ago. Then theres the "tax" on your phone service, plus additional charges and fees, including the FCC "universal surcharge". I doubt you would have any of these fees with this company. Note I live in the south where things are usually cheaper so it may be above $30 for some of you!

Well, here in Chicago, I get local service from SBC for $13.80 (my last bill). So my DSL and voice cost me around $64 a month. I use my cell for all LD, which runs me about $50 a month.

I might try Vonage if I switch to AT&T cable, which would allow me to axe my local landline and use vonage + at&t at $76 for broadband and voice (including LD). Of course, I'm still going to keep my cell at around $50 a month, so all I would really gain is the extra features Vonage provides and the ability to use LD on my landline.

 

[HeyYoEddie]

Not sure how hot this is -- I'm kind of skeptical about using phone service thru broadband. Why not consider MCI's The Neighborhood plan? It's $49.99 a month for unlimited service (including long distance and extra services like call waiting, caller ID, speed dial, voicemail, and three-way calling). Have had it for months and have been extremely happy. I believe you also get a free month to start and an extra free month for every friend you refer.

 

[Anami]

mandy2003: turn on your Private Messaging. Send me a PM, and I'll shoot you an update to a question you asked about NiMH batteries in series, for portable phones.

 

[riznick]

I use vonage and its great.

You get unlimited call forwarding. You can
even forward a call to a cellphone in the middle of the call.

It replaces the need for a phone line, so you can deduct $20 from the cost.

The sound quality is normal, there is no lag.

We have two lines here. One is a land line, and one is a vonage line. If the
network goes down, the vonage automatically forwards to our land line.

 

[jamesd1343]

only problem i see with this is if theres congestion through your ISP at times. In corporate setups there is packet prioritization in place so the voice packets get proirity over the lan/wan. In this setup, your ISP is not prioritizing voice packets so with heavy isp traffic Im sure youll see delays.

Im sure voice quality must degrade during peak internet usage times.

 

[huesmann]

Voice quality over POTS isn't that hot anyway. They have hi- and low-pass filters that chop out a lot of the data that would be ordinarily transmitted. You can get decent voice comm over 56k modem, you know.

 

[MazdaMP]

Originally posted by: huesmann
Voice quality over POTS isn't that hot anyway. They have hi- and low-pass filters that chop out a lot of the data that would be ordinarily transmitted. You can get decent voice comm over 56k modem, you know.

i never had a problem with the voice quality, except RARELY the other party is very quiet....might be my FAR phone though...dunno

 

[linuxthinker]

I use Vonage's competitor's service -- iConnectHere. They're not bad, but if you like to be hand held through everything, definately stick with Vonage.

 

[wkendrvr]

They have a credit system too that will get ya $40 off your bill. This makes it even better! Pm with email if you want the info.

 

[Scyber]

Originally posted by: jkellynewyork
But I am going to hold off until Vonage supports Tivo, Fax and 911.

Well one of the three:

http://www.vonage.com/features_fax.php

 

[XenuEtrawl]

e. Device Returns in the Event of Calling Plan Termination

If any Device(s) was provided to Customer in conjunction with the signing of a Calling Plan, and the Calling Plan is terminated for any reason, Customer must return the Device(s) to Vonage within 30 days of termination. Failure to do so will result in charging Customer's account and/or credit card the full amount of the Device.

Better not sell the ATA on E-Bay. It looks like Vonage retains ownership.

 

[Scyber]

And for those of you that call Canada:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,5987344~root=voip~mode=flat

Apparently calls to canada will be included in plans soon.