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Vonage, a victory for VoIP.
Website: www.vonage.com
Price: $14.99/mo for 500 minutes, 24.95/mo unlimited*
Reviewed by Clint Crocker on 07/21/2008
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Unless you've spent the last few years in outer space, you could not have missed some of the most annoying ads on television. Even now, I can still hear the ridiculous "Woo-hoo, Woo-hoo-hoo" and see the man in the lobster suit fighting his way through the revolving door (yeah, you remember that commercial). I guess that's the point though, you do remember that ad. Well, aside from the unnerving abuse to our crustacean friend, the company isn't all bad. In fact, their telephone service is quite good.
In case you don't know VoIP from ISP, I'll give you a quick run down. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) does pretty much just what it says. It takes your telephone, plugs it into the 'net and routes all of your calls through the world wide web. Why, you ask? Cost. On the surface the $25/mo doesn't sound a whole lot cheaper than what the phone company claims they are charging for your existing line, but stay with me for a minute. What the phone company conveniently forgets to point out is the cost of extra features, long distance, fees and taxes. With Vonage, you not only get a real phone line, with a real phone number but you also get ALL of the features that would easily run a standard phone bill up over $100. They include call waiting, 3-way, caller-id, voice mail, in fact at least 23 features are included at no additional charge. They also throw in free long distance to all of the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and most of Europe.
It isn't just what features are included, but more importantly how they include them that make Vonage worth looking at. Take the Voice Mail for instance, not only does it record messages as all voice mails do, it makes these messages available in some pretty convenient ways. For those allergic to excitement you could always just dial *123 to get your missed calls, but for the more adventuresome, you can also check your messages at their website or even have your voice mails emailed to you. Most of the features incorporate their attachment to the internet in addition to operating in the more traditional fashions. This lets you use your phone like a phone, but also allows you to access some very handy almost futuristic extras when you have access to a computer.
Our experience with Vonage has been very positive thus far. Due to constant troubles with our cell phone provider we needed a reliable phone service to run our company on. A few calls to the phone company confirmed my fear that a traditional phone line with most of the features we needed would run near $100 a month. I decided to seek alternatives. Vonage has provided us with problem free, reliable service that includes features I now can't imagine doing without. Features like SimulRing aren't even available from Ma Bell. SimulRing allows you to specify up to 5 other phone numbers that will also ring when someone calls your Vonage number. For instance, I can set it up so that if I am out of the office and someone calls the office line, my cell phone rings. The system also has fail-safes built in so that if my internet connection goes down it automatically forwards all calls to my cell phone. AT&T sure doesn't offer any of that.
Installation was very simple. I just plugged the power and network cables into the Vonage box and attached a cordless phone. There wasn't any configuration, no tinkering, no troubleshooting. I was almost disappointed (I like a challenge sometimes). That little box sits under the desk flashing its little lights and has never needed any assistance from me. Based on our first-hand experience, I'd recommend Vonage to anyone with a decent broadband internet connection such as DSL, Uverse, FiOS, or cable internet.
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* Pricing information is approximate as of the time this report was written and is based on observed market selling prices and/or list prices. Actual selling prices may differ.
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