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RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone

I haven’t had a landline phone in almost 3 years…there really wasn’t a need to have anything besides just a mobile phone.  Now that I’m more or less working from home fulltime the need is definitely there as my wireless bill will inevitably soar through the roof at the rate I’m chewing through minutes, most of them long distance as well.  The obvious solution is to go with one of the services that allow unlimited long distance, the 2 most popular (that I know of at least) are digital phone through your cable provider, or to go with a VOIP solution like Vonage.

At this point I’m leaning heavily towards Vonage as A) it’s cheap cheap cheap (digital phone in my area is $40/month, Vonage is $25) and B) no annual contract…I can drop it at any time if I don’t like it/need it anymore.  Anyone out there reading this who has Vonage or digital phone?  Perhaps there’s another solution that I don’t know about (and don’t say Skype)?  How stable/robust is Vonage?

Posted Mon, Apr 24 2006 2:20 PM by Jayson Knight
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Comments

Ray Ray wrote re: RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone
on Tue, Apr 25 2006 6:49 AM
Well, FWIW, I've had Vonage for about 2 years now and it has been absolutely great. No complaints here whatsoever.
Mike wrote re: RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone
on Tue, Apr 25 2006 3:46 PM
I've been (unsuccessfully) attempting to get my wife to drop our land line with Bellsouth for two years now.  I use it for a call about once every two-three months.  To me, it's $50+ wasted every month.  Everyone that I've talked to with Vonage seems to like it so it must be reliable; although I would possibly put it on an UPS for power outages.  However, you might consider looking into the "911 controversy" if there still is one.  
Jacob wrote re: RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone
on Tue, Apr 25 2006 6:00 PM
I researched it for the parents, and the 911 issue is still there. In fact, Vonage got in trouble last month for putting a caller on hold while their house burned down (http://news.tmcnet.com/news/2006/03/23/1483349.htm). Also, there's the problem that your phone won't work during a power outage. Other than that, it's all supposed to be goodness.
Jayson Knight wrote re: RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone
on Wed, Apr 26 2006 12:41 AM
Mike, Jacob...good points on the 911 fiasco, I remember reading about that a while back. During the order process they set up a "local" 911 service for me...if I call 911 it will be routed to my local emergency dispatch, same as if I called 911 from a conventional phone. Regardless, I'm all Vonaged up now and my equipment will be here in 2 days. The process took 10 minutes total and was completely painless, total charges were less than a hundred bucks (including a top of the line phone). Can't wait to use the service!
Mike wrote re: RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone
on Wed, Apr 26 2006 1:34 AM
Let me know how it goes.  I might be able to leverage your experience against my wife.  
Ken Robertson wrote re: RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone
on Wed, Apr 26 2006 8:35 AM
I hadn't had a landline for years until I started working from home.  For my first month, I was using my cell phone for all of the conference calls and everything... boy did my bill soar through the roof.  Went out and got Vonage the next day and have loved it ever since.  I'm not on the unlimited plan, since my minutes are always under the 500 mark (think that is what my plan is).

One very nice feature I've used lately is their call forwarding.  If I am out of the office, or if Comcast goes down, it will forward calls to my cell phone after 20 seconds, and works very well.
chris@dotnetwookie.com (Chris Kirby) wrote Re: RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone
on Wed, Apr 26 2006 6:39 PM
I've had vonage for a couple of years now and have been pretty pleased with their service. They are on the higher end, price wise, for voip, but their quality and reliability of service speaks for itself. With that said, I'm actually in the process of switching to SunRocket. They have a nearly identical service offering to vonage with the exception of few unique features, and their price is hard to match (199/year unlimited w/ 2 numbers). But, SunRocket isn't without its problems; as of right now, I'm dealing with a major call quality issue which has yet to be resolved. So, the jury is still out on them.

So, I would definitely recommend Vonage if you are new to voip. I think it delivers the best cost/preformace experience, especially if you will be using it for business.
maxima1112@hotmail.com wrote re: RFC: Vonage Versus Digital Phone
on Fri, May 19 2006 3:58 PM
I used Vonage for about 2.5 years with no major problems.  It did not work well with DSL but worked great with the Cable connection.  I resently switched from Vonage to Sunrocket after failing to get Vonage to price match.  Sunrocket is awesome!!  They ported my number ontime but they took a month to get me the eqipment but they appolized.  They sent me two cordless phones all for $199 year - no other fees.  The voice quality is as good as any I've heard for phone service.  I use the speaker phone option all the time.  Funny thing is if I put someone on hold they hear elevator music playing.  If I had to think of anything to complain about Sun Rocket, it would problaby be although they have the call forwarding features they do not have the feature that only forwards calls when the broadband is down like Vonage.  Sun Rocket has more features and more features that benefit the customer for a lot less.   Good job VoIP.  Great job Sun Rocket!

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