Vonage - VOIP

[DavidL]

Now I'm not terribly good with IT, but I have just noticed that Vonage has now widened its free call list to the UK with its 'Unlimited package.' If you have a Broadband connection then the unlimited phone service with free calls within the USA and other countries including the UK is $29.99 plus tax (I presume) per month.

Does anyone on here currently use vonage and have an opinion?

www.vonage.com

David

[Bobby]

I was golfing with a buddy the other day who raved about it, and says he's on 1c per minute to the UK. I don't understand the full package implications as opposition to what I have right now with Bright House but I'm sure I pay about $140 per month for high speed internet, basic cable and 2 phone lines. This Vonage has got to be better. I just haven't had time to look into to it yet. Anyone with any information on this, please post. It's got to be a good thing!!

Bobby

[DavidL]

Bobby,

All I know is that like you we pay around $45 for our broadband connection and a further $60 per month (sometimes as high as $100 per month) for our Sprint phone line. The way I see it is that the phone service will depend on the connection qaulity (service & speed) and it just means that the cable modem & router will need to be left pernamently switched on 24/7. Apart from that, the savings look quite reasonable especially as they have just made calling land lines in the UK and some other euro countries FOC. Naturally, calls to moblies and no doubt dodgy sex lines will not be FOC :(

[fllion]

Have been using Vonage for 18 months now ,after paying sprint nearly $170.00 a month for all my UK & long Distance calls ,decided to give this company a try ,Orderd the $24.99 Unlimitled Package ,also a Freephone #
and aFax Line ,works out 39,97 a month plus tax ,with all the calls ive made over to UK ,our bill was never more than $70.00 .So saved my self about $100.00 a month ,Have kept my sprint line Basic rate $25.00,as at the time i couldnt swap my 352 over to vonage ,so still $75.00 better off

the only problem ive had is when the PC or cable goes down ,and the vonage
help line is not to good ,apart from that ,iam glad i changed over

if they keep all UK calls free my bill should only be 39.97 + tax

[kimmy]

have just bought the wireless-G broadband Router from circuit city for vonage for $110 with a mail in rebate for $110 so havent got anything to lose have not connected it yet but it should save me money as at the moment we are paying $160+ a month:)

[Kriz1]

I thought my bill was high at $39..plus $20 for calls to the UK....

[floridapete]

We use SKYPE VOIP to 'call' our grandaughters in San Francisco every Sunday (teatime for us - breakfast time for them).

It is just like having them right in front of us, the quality SO good and it's totally free to any other Skype user !

[fllion]

Hi Pete ,ive got skype as well and google talk ,both work great soon there be know need for land lines

[DavidL]

We use SKYPE VOIP to 'call' our grandaughters in San Francisco every Sunday (teatime for us - breakfast time for them).

It is just like having them right in front of us, the quality SO good and it's totally free to any other Skype user !

We also use SKYPE and I find the quality to be excellent but many if not all of the people that we need to call do not use the facility even though I do try and 'promote' the service.

[fatbrit]

Use Lingo (http://www.lingo.com) -- excellent service these days and a tad cheaper than Vonage.

[JulieC]

I used Skype, with the video as well so I can see my son and granddaughter live. Saves us a bundle. Im only interested in ringing my kids in the UK and they have set up for it specifically at the other end so we can talk for free for ages. Nearly as good as having them here.

[katya]

Yes, we are on SKYPE too. I find it brilliant !!

[Kriz1]

All of you keeping my hubby in work I see......:)

[DavidL]

Yes, we are on SKYPE too. I find it brilliant !!


Remember, Skype has an offer on this weekend with free landline calls to the UK. I've just spent 30 mins talking to ma and 20 mins to bro and the quality was great.

[lorraine]

Hi all bringing this subject up again. We have been looking at vonage we currently have bright house and pay aol seperate. If you have vonage who do you then get your dsl line into your house??? We have skype which I use to speak to family, but vonage looks best package. Thankyou kind regards Lorraine

[peter gold]

comcast and vonage works great for us
I also use Skype if I wnat to see them????

[anniefromessex]

Hi, we use Vonage too and we speak to our kids for hours on end for nothing - it's great. Had glitches sometimes, a very posh voice comes on and says all the lines are busy, try again later, but we just dial again and away we go!!! We pay $24.95 per month which gives us free long distance, free calls to, I think, 6 countries including U.K, plus call waiting and caller ID. Obviously have to have High Speed Internet which Brighthouse installed, but Embarq do it, obviously loads of others too.

[lorraine]

Hi thanks Peter and Annie. Peter how much is comcast DSL??? Thanks Lorraine

[peter gold]

$39.99

[Jax]

Hi
This may sound like a silly question but to get high speed internet don,t you have to have a phone line? Does that mean paying a monthly standing charge with a phone company as well as paying Vonage. We have a package with Embarq for phone,internet and Dish but we are interested in Vonage
Help

[lorraine]

Tried comcast not in our area the only ones in this area are brighthouse and sprint so looks like we stuck with them for dsl cable and will go vonage for use. Thanks for you info.

[peter gold]

brighthouse is good

[lorraine]

Yes we with bright house now just they putting their prices up going with road runner, we pay aol seperate at the moment and have brighthouse. We can no longer pay aol seperate and bright house want alot more money.

[anniefromessex]

I'm not very savvy with all this, but as stated before we now have Vonage, High Speed Internet was installed by Brighthouse and whereas we used to have Sprint as our telephone company we now dont have them as our carrier at all, I think it goes through computer lines or some such thing so we just pay Vonage and Earthlink - Ted's not here so can't verify that with him, but I know we don't actually have the normal telephone line in the house anymore.

I know I sound totally thick but I was born in the age of not even having a phone in the house, how sad is that?!!!

[lorraine]

Hi Annie ditto I dont understand any thing technical, this one for this, this one for that, give me old fashioned typewriter and a phone and I happy. Dont even like having a cell phone and I wont answer it whilst driving at all. lol

[Mairi_melanie]

I use Skype for making calls to home Texas. Its free if I'm calling to other Skype user anywhere around. And for US and canada they have these annual $29.95 packages. And I haven't had any problems with the connections yet.
So Skype is working for me.

I get the details of latest rates from skype website.

www.skype.com

[floridapete]

Skype video is GREAT !

I may have been slow to discover the 'video' aspect of this because I am one of those 'curious' people who prefers an Apple Mac computer to a Windows PC, and the video version of Skype for Mac has only recently become available.

But on Sundays around tea-time for us, and breakfast time for them, we get to see and talk with our granddaughters (8 and 5) who live in California. It's just like having them in the same room with us. Sound and picture are SO clear !

And it's free to talk for as long as we like !

[Sab]

question about vonage.....
We currently have a phone line with Sprint, As i understand it we tranfer our number to vonage, the sprint line is terminated.
Does anybody know what happens in a power outage situation? Do I loose my land line? I live in an area with bad cell phone reception. Am I then stranded with no phones ?

Sab

[peter gold]

simply put yes as the line for your phone is coming through the computer and if that goes down so does your phone and you will need a cell

[Kriz1]

question about vonage.....
We currently have a phone line with Sprint, As i understand it we tranfer our number to vonage, the sprint line is terminated.
Does anybody know what happens in a power outage situation? Do I loose my land line? I live in an area with bad cell phone reception. Am I then stranded with no phones ?

Sab

We have com cast and have battery backup....we have hand held phones which need power so we loss our phones in an outage anyway....

[Sab]

My vonage router arrived this morning. I connected it all up myself and now we have free landline calls to the Uk.

I have made a couple of calls on it already and the clarity of the line is excellent. Plus we got two months line rental free.

Hopefully we will have no problems

[SHEILA 13]

Hi Sab,We have been on it for nearly a year now and people always say "you sound asif your next door"(nothing to do with my mouth).
Sheila

[peter gold]

If you introduce another customer get another free month

[debd]

Hi everyone
I've not looked at the Vonage package so I can't comment on that but I've always used a company called Tel 3 Advantage. It costs 2c per minute to call the UK and they just top you up in increments on $10, $25 or $50 when your credit runs out. It handy if you don't want a monthly fee, and I've found that $25 lasts at least 2 months if not more and thats me calling back to the UK nearly every day, it can be signed up for online and for newcomers theres normally a special offer given more free minutes

[SHEILA 13]

Hi Deb,Its ok if your not on the phone all the time but I like vonage as I am on the phone to the Uk everyday for at least 3 hours everyday(yes I like to talk a lot ) and I phone Spain every week and again on the phone for another couple of hours.
It is a good idea though so you dont have another bill at the end of the month.
Sheila:)
ps It was nice to meet you last night

[peter gold]

Vonage 24.99 and free calls US and UK cannot be beaten value and quality
Downside is if computer or sever crashes you have no phone and need a cell

[ChrisG]

For Vonage you do NOT need a computer running. Just plug your phone into the router also lets you use DECT phones so you can have your extensions dotted around the home WITHOUT wires.
So YES you lose your phone if your cable/highspeed supplier is down; your router or even power. I personally have had no problems or downtime since subscribing in 2005.
It has been a god send to me the last few months while in the UK, I only pay the 14.99 for 500 US minutes etc but I purchased a V phone (USB Stick) switched my routing address from my US router and hey presto make calls over wifi in UK to US out of my US minutes. Meant I could keep making US business calls without the large phone bills the typically accompany them.
Works alongside Skype etc so have the best of all worlds.

[Kriz1]

We have battery back up with our cable phone...so if the power goes we can still phone out on the none wireless phones..

[McSporran]

Can anyone tell me if they have Vonage and a monitored alarm system (like ADT), and how this worked. I agree that Vonage is great value, but I'm worried that I'll loose our alarm system????

[kimmy]

we are with brinks and they put a adapter on your phone line it does work because we have had a false alarm and we was called

[McSporran]

Thanks Kimmy - I had already ordered Vonage - then I remembered the alarm, so glad it can be sorted. - Thanks again McS

[McSporran]

Probably me being thick..or old...or both...but whats VOIP?:drool:

[telco]

VOIP - Voice Over Internet protocol.
This is the moethod of transmission for the voice calls you make through companies like Vonage, Skype etc....

Sorry but Telecoms is full of abbreviations. It's hard not to use them

[McSporran]

Thanks Telco.

[ann h]

We have Vonage it is great but how do we get the alarm system to work.
We do not have a phone line only a cable for TV and 3g Internet.
Anns hubby
Andy

[Susie]

Kay told me about a new company called VOIP , no contracts to sign , free unlimited calls anywhere in the USA , Canada and Puerto Rico @ $19.95 per month or pay for the whole year up front @ $16.95 per month anyone use or heard of this company?

[Kriz1]

We were offered wireless for our alarm...incase we got VOIP....

[telco]

Ann. Alarm sysytems rely on communication via the phone line. Depeneding on the type of connection you have with Vonage, you may be able to have the alarm connected. However, if the alarm system is permanently wire, not just a phone plug, then it will not work. You will have to contact the alarm company.

Susie. No I have not heard of them However, I never offer pay up front for a year, and I advise you not to. Any company that wants 12 month contract or pay for a year up front be very wary of.

Peter. Vonage is the market leader for this type of service. However, they are hugely in debt, and unless ATT buy them (as they buy everyone in Telecoms), they may not be around too long.
Down side is that you have to pay your minimum phone line rental. However, gives you that facility should the power issue be a cause for concern.

[ann h]

If we have a power down we have it set up to divert to a Cell phone after 30 seconds of a person calling.
Seems to work we tried it out last night

[Frederick]

Just thought Id chime in on this thread since I recently purchased a device called the MagicJack that allows you to make and receive calls via the internet - Viop.

The product cost me approx $46 inc shipping. It plugs into a USB port and then you can either plug your normal telephone into it or use the computer screen and some headphones / speakers to make and receive calls. Depending on where your located you also get a local number.

The $46 is total for one whole year of usage - no bills at all. After that I think its approx 50 for two futher years of service. Ive been using it now for about 1 month and its okay, basically dont expect its performance to be as good as your 30-40 dollar a month brighthouse "landline". But for the price I cant complain. I use it to make calls to the UK at 2 cents per min mainly and can make unlimted national calls here inc canada AFAIK.

Hope this helps folks that are on a budget. I found telephony and internet prices here extremely un-competitive - well in my area anyways. ;)

[britcan]

I am using Igonet and find that to be very good.

www.igonet.com

[Steve in clermont]

Hey guys

Vonage = Rip off

I have a gadget called a Magicjack, it cost $39 .
With it plugged into my pc i get free calls in US pueto rico etc just like vonage. I also get international calls at 2c pe minute. I have voice mail , call waiting and all the other usless gimics the phone companys give you.
I get my own magic jack phone number which i can choose the dialling prefix.
I just plug my ordinary phone into the magic jack and can make and recieve call just like a land line.
If i send a magic jack to my relatives in UK or anywhere in the world, they can call me or anyone else in the USA for free, and once they have a magic jack i can call them free too.

Im not a sales man for this product , but i can say for 20 bucks a YEAR i save a small fortune by not having a standard land line.

[Steve in clermont]

www.magicjack.com

[Steve in clermont]

oops sorry i didnt notice frederick had already mentions it

[Frederick]

oops sorry i didnt notice frederick had already mentions it

:p

Yeah, its not a bad device. Really cant go wrong for the price to be honest.

[Arthur Mo]

For Vonage I find you need a high speed above 5mb to get a good connection