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One thing I think people need to take into consideration before getting any VOIP service is the fact that this is a relatively new technology. At least in the sense of it being used on a very large scale. We are more or less beta testers. There are going to be plenty of bumps in the road. If you are not prepared or willing to deal with these bumps I would suggest you either not get VOIP at all or use it in conjunction with a POTS line or a cell phone. Other things to consider is the quality of your broadband provider and 911 service. If your ISP is not reliable then getting VOIP will be very frustrating. Also, if your ISP only offers 128k uploads your call quality while using the net may suffer with Vonage which uses 90k. It has a 30k (low bandwidth) option but the sound sucks to be honest. Vonage offers a 911 service, but there have been issues reported that the service is not 100% reliable. I personally have Vonage's $26 package. That package includes unlimited local calling and 500 minutes of long distance a month to anywhere in the US or Canada. Other features include Free 3 Way Calling, Free Call Hunt, Free Personalized Voicemail, Free Call Forwarding, Free Call Transfer, Free Call Waiting, Free Caller ID, Free Caller ID Block (*67), Free Repeat Dialing, Free Call Return (*69), Free Vonage to Vonage calls (if your family on the other side of the country has Vonage as well as you, it does not count against your long distance minutes) and Free International Call Block. Your voice mail can be checked via the phone, online using your personal "Dashboard" or through email. The "Dashboard" is a personal control panel that all Vonage users have. It shows every call placed and received for the past week, real time billing and minutes usage, real time account management, voicemail access, and features control. One of the other optional ($5 a month extra) features that I really like is the "Virtual Numbers". Here is how this works. I live in Indiana but I have lots of family in Raliegh, North Carolina. I get a "Virtual Number" with a Raliegh area code. Now when my family in Raliegh calls me they call the "Virtual Number" and it rings into my primary Vonage number in Indiana, but it is a local call for them so there is no long distance charges. This would also work great for parents who have kids away at college. They can call home as much as they want and it only costs you $5 a month no mater how often they call. I just think this technology is great and wanted to share my experiences with you all. I have dropped my POTS (SBC) line completely. I have Vonage and a cell phone. Between Vonage and the cell phone I pay $62 a month. My bill was over $100 a month before I switched from SBC to Vonage The Baby Bells SHOULD be scared. Bottom line: Vonage is the perfect compliment for a tradtional phone line or a wireless phone. For some people it is also a viable alternative to them as well. Followup comments:
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I spent a good portion of a year attempting to figure out why Vonage was dropping calls. I kept power level logs on the cable modem, did long-term pinging to look for dropped packets, changed out switches/hubs in the network. I attributed it to the Linksys router Vonage had sent me upon signing up. The RT31P2 would constantly freeze up, reboot itself in the middle of whenever it felt like it, and ran extremely hot. Since replacing it, via a Vonage helpdesk representative on this site, the situation has resolved itself and has never been better! I haven't had a dropped call since the switch to a RTP300RB in Jan 2007. Installation is quite simple. Hook it up to the modem, connect the phone line and that's it. Anyone can do it. I subscribe to the 500 minutes plan at $14.99/month, but the final bill ends up being nearly 25% higher (due to fees, despite their current advertising campaign against Verizon) at $19.92/month. I don't nearly come to using them all. Even at $29/month for the unlimited calling plan, it's a good deal compared to what you'd be paying on a cell. The website hangs now and then, but serves up the voicemail as .wavs which is nice. All services, including adding new lines or features, are offered on the website with no phone calls required. Anonymous calling, the BEST feature offered, is now just a click away on the Dashboard. It's worked for me many times, blocking telemarketers, Presidential Campaigners, and probably someone offering me Ginsu Knives at a reduced rate. If you don't need portability and are looking for a good, solid service for the home, consider Vonage. It's rock solid as long as you receive hardware that doesn't routinely freeze up on you. If your cable and/or power is out, or Vonage isn't working, contacting someone to fix it is troublesome. Update: 500 minute plan is now $17.99. Total after fees is $25.xx though. Still, much cheaper than any other landline in town and having a cell. Followup comments:
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reliable - I have been a Vonage customer (2 lines) for over 6 years now - over that time I can only think of one outage. VERY few issues over the years with Vonage specifically - I can say the majority of issues are ISP related or home router (QoS) related. Features - unlimited calling to US, Canada, PR and 60 coutries for 24$ HOW CAN YOU BEAT THAT. iPhone - I can call to my ENTIRE vonage world from my iPhone WITHOUT using any carrier minutes using the free Vonage iPhone app - all included in my 24$ Vonage plan. I have an app for my iPhone that lets me setup simulring from my home number to my iPhone at the touch of a button. My vonage number is in my ATT calling circle so there is no charge on my cell for these calls. Service: I have never had a problem with service. When my old Cisco ATA's (origional Vonage adapter) seemed to be getting old - I was upgraded at no charge, seamlessly to newer technology. The few times I have had to call support I had positive experience with support Note: for those who continually complain about the taxes and fees charged by vonage - look at your cell bill or cable bill or electric bill One more note: My entire cost for Vonage for a year is only a little more than ONE months cell bill - think about that!!! Vonage is worth EVERY penny Followup comments:
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The biggest problem though, is the hidden fees and TOS traps. For the $24.99 plan, they added nearly $5 of fees. In June/July 2009, they increased it by $0.50 via shuffling -- decrease one fee by $0.50, but increase two other fees by $0.50 each. I called and complained. They offered me a discount of $14.95/mo for 6 months. I have a 2-year contract, during which I will pay $40 early termination charge if I cancel. However, if Vonage raise their prices or make "material change" to their TOS, then I may cancel without paying the $40 termination charge. There is a few problems with that. First, they don't have to email me about TOS change or price increase. Second, E911 or other feature add-on are exempt. Third, it takes 10 business days to port a phone number to another company. In summary, Vonage could raise their fees or charge new fees for a feature, and I have only 16-17 days to notice it in TOS and initiate termination, otherwise I'd be stuck paying the price increase or $40 termination fees (or both). UPDATE 10/22/2009: Vonage changed their TOS on 9/2/2009. Althoughthey didn't raise prices, the new TOS gave them more ways to raise prices while keeping me locked into my 2-year contract. So I cancelled my service for "material change" in the TOS. (TOS) Section 15 gives me 30 days to cancel without the $40 termination charge when there is a "material change" to the TOS, but it took ***22 DAYS*** for Vonage to port my telephone number to another company. By the time it was done, the 30 days has expired. I don't think that's a coincident. To get around this, I called within the original 30 days and asked how long it takes to port my phone number out. Then I asked if I should cancel before the porting is completed. Of course they said no. I requested the agent to document my phone call and give me a confirmation #. After the number is ported, I immediately called back to cancel service and request a waiver for the $40 disconnection fee citing my previous phone call. At this point the agent cannot help me with the waiver because it's past the 30 days, but she documented my request and gave me a second confirmation #. Next I filed a dispute via email (see TOS for address). When someone from Vonage Corporate office called back, I explained everything from the beginning and asked for the $40 waiver. She gave it to me. Cost was the primary reason that I cancelled Vonage. Although they advertise $25/mo, it's close to $30/mo with all the hidden fees and taxes. If you complain enough, then the agent on the phone might offer you $12.50/mo (add $5 for fees) for 12 months. That is still more expensive than other VoIP's. Vonage is a good replacement for AT&T and other traditional phone companies. The initial setup was easy and I saved 50% per month over my previous AT&T phone bill. Now I am ready to try a cheaper VoIP. Followup comments:
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Had Vonage for little over 11 months now. The service has been solid, no outages to speak of due to Vonage itself. Unlike my cable internet provider. Setup and activation was easy. I bought a Linksys PAP2 device from my local electronics retailer. Within an hour later had the service up and running. Since signing up I'm on the Residential Unlimited plan for 25 bucks a month, with taxes and fees that comes out to $31 a month. Still cheaper than my ISP's digital voice offering with less features. Call quality has been great, at 90k or 50k bandwidth usage on a router with no QOS. Vonage worked flawlessly with my hit or miss Comcast connection for nearly a year without any issues. And you can't beat all the features for the price Vonage offers. No Cable Companies bundled discounts can touch what Vonage offers. I would not hesitate to recommend Vonage to anyone. A couple days after getting all setup and working, I got a courtesy call seeing how everything went and if I had any questions. I think that is the first time I had any company do that. I found quite nice. 9/11/08 Switched to AT&T U-verse this past weekend, so I figured it's time for an update. Vonage still working great. Still using the Linksys PAP2 v2 phone adapter hooked into the U-verse gateway just as I did on my old Linksys BEFSR41 Now with a better ISP I have less to worry about.  9/30/08 Dropped the plan down from Unlimited Residential to the 500 minutes a month. Was not happy with being charged a activation fee of $9.99 when the service has been active for almost 14 months. I'm going to be canceling the service by the end of October. Just tired of paying for something we barely use. Also today had to deal with the annoying out sourced customer service and automated phone system. At this point I don't know if I'd consider going back. 11/4/08 I have been debating on canceling the service. I have not as of yet. I may not, and just ride this until Vonage possibly goes under at the end of the year. But 500 mins a month out going, and unlimited incoming for just under 20 bucks a month is not bad. Finally had 1 very brief service outage last week. Lasted a minute or two. 2/27/09 Received email today, stating the basic plan is raising to $17.99 a month starting in May. Thinking it will be time to dump it. Either for Uvoice or a AT&T POTS line. Other than the price increase, the service has been stable. 5/7/09 I've had the service about a year and a half. Funny thing is it's been more reliable than my old cable internet ever was. I only had one brief outage in that time. I've decided to keep the service. Still on the basic 500 minute plan. It's all we need, and for the price, POTS or Uverse voice can't compete. 10/19/09 Now after 26 months decided to cancel the service. Just was not being used to keep dishing out $24.xx a month. Was not too thrilled with how the customer service rep handled my call. Vonage is a good beginners VOIP service, but the price is getting too expensive for what we used it for. Followup comments:
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Ordering, we did online and it was simple and easy and was VERY clear about 911 and fee's even before we started so we knew what we we doing. it took a few days to get the portal box by ups and hooked it up and off we went with no problems. Very happy now after 2 weeks. Verizon: Less features and much worse sound $78 a month Vonage: all the features and clearlity $35 a month Followup comments:
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Update 08/03/06: I have been using Vonage now for over a year, and I am quite pleased with the service. The two original RT31P2 routers went belly up during the year as well as a replacement RTP300, but Vonage replaced the defective units at no charge, and the RTP300 and VT2442 I now have seem to be working with no problems. I now have all my routers and modems on a wall mounted open frame rack to increase air circulation as I suspect that my previous practice of stacking them lead to premature failure due to heat buildup. The only problem I have had with the quality of the service was Comcast's erratic lag time which caused voice dropout, but moving all VOIP traffic to Covad has fixed that. Update: 03/05/08: About two months ago I terminated my Vonage service. I did so partly because I was offered a price break from AT&T CallVantage, but primarily because of the treatment I received after a failed attempt to use one of Vonage's V-Phone USB dongles. Vonage marketing and billing refused to honor the terms of the MONEY BACK GUARANTEE as published in their Terms of Service agreement. Their argument was that the MONEY BACK GUARANTEE was only intended for new customers, not for loyal existing customers who were expanding their service. That failed experiment cost me $75.00 for the unusable USB dongle + $35.00 for the unusable first month's service. I was so pissed with their arrogance and treachery that I ported my other existing Vonage numbers to AT&T CallVantage, and terminated the service on the existing Vonage accounts. Way to go Vonage Customer Non-Service, turn an otherwise satisfied customer who was attempting to give you more business, into a churn statistic.  Update 10/10/2009: As much as it pained me to do so, I just signed up for a Vonage "World" plan. After AT&T CallVantage forced me to migrate, I moved one line to AT&T Mobility and for a while all I had was cell phone service. However, most of this week I had no phone service at home because of a cell tower problem. This forced me to reconsider the cell phone only option, and I was not about to further reward AT&T for shutting down their CallVantage service and taking almost a week to restore my cell phone service. The only saving grace is that I had increased my AT&T Mobility minute plan when I started being a cell phone only customer, and now I may be able to partially recover the cost of the Vonage service by cutting back on the AT&T Mobility minute plan. Installation was relatively painless since I just re-registered my old Motorola VT-2442 ATA, and everything was done over the Vonage web site with no interaction required from Vonage Customer Non-Service. Within minutes of completing the on-line registration, the new line was working for outgoing calls, and within an hour, incoming calls from AT&T lines also worked. Update 10/12/2009: After a couple of days and a few calls, I rediscovered something that I had forgotten about. Unlike AT&T CallVantage, Vonage does not work reliably when behind a load balanced router. I had to setup port binding rules to a specific WAN port for SIP and RTP for the Vonage/Motorola ATA. Not a deal killer, but I sure do miss my AT&T CallVantage service which worked quite well with a load balanced connection. Followup comments:
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The call quality was excellent and they had few outages. Most of the outages were the fault of my local cable company as VOIP is only as good as your internet connection. Their website and service offers extensive features including simu-ring, my favorite, which will ring two numbers at the same time. I chose my home and cell phone numbers. The control panel is very detail oriented showing all calls made and received and for how long. Voice mails can also be listened to online or just viewed. They used to offer emailed voice mail mp3's, but have since ended that, and now charge a fee for that service. They now offer world wide calling included in the base price of the $24.99 plan. Which is a nice feature now. Some of the negatives. There is no call blocking of specific numbers. Something that users have been requesting for a long time. They are very expensive now. When I originally ordered, I got my 500 minute plan for about $16.50 a month. That has ballooned to a whopping $24.94 a month with the $3/mo increase in price and added fake fees. That is too expensive for what you get. I could get the unlimited plan for $32/mo, but why. I make only 60 minutes worth of calls a month. I have left Vonage for that specific reason. They jacked the price up too high too fast and it drove me away. Vonage is nice and cheaper than a POTS line through the telco's but, it is expensive when compared to similar VOIP products. Why pay $25 a month when I can pay $9/mo for the same thing. Followup comments:
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Vonage
(41)
Indianapolis,Marion,IN
$32 per month
"Price, features, mobility"
"Not as solid as traditional phone line, Tech Support is AVG at best."
"Vonage (VOIP in general) is a great option for consumers."
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about 5 days
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