Anyone ever used Vonage DigitalVoice - "The Broadband Phone Company"

Brett_H · 02-12-2003, 07:24 AM

All,

In a funny coincidence, yesterday I received our monthly phone bill. $130! There's only two of us, and we don't even make *that* many calls. I was a little ticked, to say the least. Later that evening, I was checking my Yahoo mail and did something I've never done before: I clicked one of their banner ads. It was for a company called Vonage, who claimed to offer unlimited local & domestic long distance phone service over your existing broadband connection for only $40/month. Hmmm, let's see.... I already pay $45/month for my cable modem and lately I've been paying around $100/month for my phone service. Sounds like I could cut my monthly phone bill in half or more. Problem is, if it sounds to good to be true, it usually is.

So what's the deal with this technology? Anybody here ever used it? I'm about to do my usual googling of this product, but I'd like to hear from any of you that have tried this or similar services.

Thanks,
-Brett.

PS - One sticking point for me might be that my father-in-law is a retired Ameritech employee. My wife already brought that up when I mentioned this to her last night... but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

MickeS · 02-12-2003, 11:35 AM

Wny not just get a cellphone from Sprint or something? Nationwide long distance included $40/month for something like 400 minutes m-f daytime and unlimited min the rest of the time.

I have not used Vonage. I did use a PC-to-phone internet service a few years ago, but it was unreliable. I'm sure services are better now.

/Mike

Ryan Wright · 02-12-2003, 01:41 PM

Quote:

One sticking point for me might be that my father-in-law is a retired Ameritech employee.

So you're obligated to support a company he no longer works for? Doesn't sound very logical to me. (My father works for a government funded transit agency. When they were facing budget cuts and came to the taxpayers for more money, I voted no and encouraged others to do so via letters to the editor of our newspaper because the agency wastes the money they already have. He was upset with me as he considered this an "attack" on his job, which I thought was ridiculous. So repeat after me: "It's not personal. It's business.")

Anyway, I've never used Vonage, but I did try to sign up a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, they don't have any local numbers available in my area code, so I'll have to wait until they expand their service. My vote would be to sign up for the service and if you don't like it, take advantage of their money back guarantee.

Brett_H · 02-12-2003, 02:48 PM

Ryan,

Quote:

So you're obligated to support a company he no longer works for? Doesn't sound very logical to me. (My father works for a government funded transit agency. When they were facing budget cuts and came to the taxpayers for more money, I voted no and encouraged others to do so via letters to the editor of our newspaper because the agency wastes the money they already have. He was upset with me as he considered this an "attack" on his job, which I thought was ridiculous. So repeat after me: "It's not personal. It's business.")

I said that more out of joking than seriousness, but due to my personal ban on smilies that probably didn't come through all too well! He knows I have a deep hatred for the phone company as I've had a continual billing dispute with them since we moved a year ago, along with DSL hassles galore before that. I would be fine with scrapping them entirely, and I'm sure he'd understand.

I just checked their area code listings, and both area codes for my local area are available (216 and 440). I also found out that DSLReports.com has a forum dedicated to Voice over IP (VoIP), which is the term for the technology used by Vonage. There's a lot of threads there dealing with them, and a lot of positive experiences. One catch is that they don't currently provide 911 service, but we also have cell phones so that shouldn't be an issue.

I also found some FAQs on their site that answered a lot of my questions. This service is sounding more and more tempting... it rates at about a 9 of 10 on my geek-o-meter! Ryan, if you get this anytime soon, try to remember to post your findings here.

-Brett.

MickeS · 02-12-2003, 02:58 PM

I'm still not clear as to why you need separate long distance if you have a cellphone. I'd be interested to know why though.

/Mike

**HTF Ads**

Brett_H · 02-12-2003, 03:02 PM

Mike,

Quote:

I'm still not clear as to why you need separate long distance if you have a cellphone. I'd be interested to know why though.

Our cell phone plan is pretty bare-bones. No long distance included and not a whole lot of monthly minutes, IIRC. I'll have to double-check it sometime as she got it for me/us as a birthday present. We have two phones that pull from the same pool of minutes, costs somewhere in the $45-50 per month range.

-Brett.

Leila Dougan · 02-12-2003, 04:40 PM

You could also take that $40/month and upgrade your cell phone plan so you would have long distance on it too. Of course it's your call, but I personally do not like the idea of being chained to my computer just to make a phone call (unless you have some sort of wireless microphone set up).

Ryan Wright · 02-12-2003, 05:47 PM

Leila,

You aren't chained to your computer. Vonage includes a hub/switch that relays standard analog phone data over the Internet. In other words, you use the same phone you do now. You pick it up, you hear a dial tone, and you dial your number.

Popular Mechanics had a great article about the service in this (last?) month's issue. Assuming voice quality is decent, it looks to be very, very cool. You can pick a phone number in any area code you want... you can even roll your existing number into their service.

Quote:

Ryan, if you get this anytime soon, try to remember to post your findings here.

Well, like I said, I have to wait for Vonage to roll service out in my area. Could be awhile.

Michael D. Bunting · 11-28-2003, 07:52 PM

I'm looking at getting Vonage myself...as I'm moving here next week and don't want to pay Qwest a $31.00 connection fee (I'm already a Qwest customer at my current address!)...

Anyways, thought I would bring this thread back from the dead to see if there were any new experiences with Vonage by any of the HTF members.

Thanks for any info...