Vonage Phone Service; discuss...

G35stilez · 11-29-05, 07:27

So, in my area, Comcast has the market monopolized. Its terrible when you are paying $110.95 per month for Basic Cable (60 channels or so) and Cable Modem when you can get a full DSL setup for about the same price including a phone service. However, a DSL satellite is not allowed in our current residence, so we have to grin an bear it.

Now, a phone service wouldn't bother us a whole lot as my girlfriend and I only use our cell phones. However, it seems as though we live in a rut. The only service that works here is Nextel, which I think is terribly overpriced, especially for someone who will never use the 2-way. We both have Verizon with 2 month old phones. We do the satellite update weekly and still have little luck getting service. We have tried the antennas but they are a PITA and tend to not be good for the phone. Anyways, we are about to get a phone service.

We did some research around and Comcast is a rip-off for phone service as are the alternatives. We found out about Vonage and I have liked everything I've heard (free module with signup, $15 a month for the basic plan, route the calls to your cell phone whenever, etc). The only bad thing we found was that when your power goes out, you lose your phone service. However, we have only lost our power once, which was in a really bad storm. The outage lasted no more than an hour. So, this is fine.

My questions to anyone out there who is using/has used/plans on using Vonage are:

-How do you like it?
-Can you call 911 from it?
-Any connectivity problems?
-How's the customer service?
-Anything you dislike about it?

Feel free to fill in the blanks. I appreciate any and all help/advice.

Sludge · 11-29-05, 09:13

Sean,

I have had Vonage for about 4 to 5 months. It is very good and much better than the Lingo service I used the year before. You can call 911 from it, but the operator will not automatically receive your address like they do on a land line. However when you enroll with
Vonage you can manually enter your emergency address and then the 911 operator will recieve a location for your emergency call. I have no connectivity probems or dropped calls. Vonage was down for a couple hours right after we enrolled, but has worked flawlessly since.
I don't know anything about the customer service, have not needed it.

Here is a site where you can get much more information on Vonage and competitors:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip

I would rate voice quality better than cell phone, slightly worse than a land line.

Hope this helps.

Gordon

G35stilez · 11-30-05, 06:31

Thanks Gordon.

I ordered the service last night and already have 911 activated.

psl car wash · 12-01-05, 05:09

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6']['9 · 12-04-05, 07:57

i dont have vonage but i think that anytime you have a cable company that offers telephone it tends to go out more than when you have a landline. I have roadrunner high speed internet on my laptop and when it rains the phone, cable and internet go out. Where as if i had it on a land line the phone stays on when the power goes out and i could just rely on my battery source to keep using the internet. But if i were you id try to find a company that offers landline in that area. I was pretty sure vonage was through copper and not co-ax(sp?)