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Vonage Phone ServiceVonage phone service is one of the major talking points in the provision of broadband telephone services with over 2 million subscriber lines as of September 30, 2006. Introduction Vonage phone service is sold on the web and through national retailers including Best Buy, Circuit City, WalMart and Target. Vonage commercial service is available to customers in :
The Residential Premium Unlimited and Small Business Unlimited calling plans offer consumers and businesses unlimited local and long distance calling, and popular features like call waiting, call forwarding and voicemail - for one relatively low, flat monthly rate. Residential Premium Unlimited Plan This plan offers Vonage phone service residential users the following services for the price of $24.99 a month (as of 19/12/2006):
Requirements Add-on services for this plan include the following :
Vonage Phone Service Reviews
"For those of you who haven't switched to a Vonage phone service yet and may just be thinking about it, I thought this list of pros and cons may be useful. It is by no means complete and some of these may not apply to all people. Also, I calculated a while ago that the $40 unlimited plan is better only if you consistently make over 858 minutes of Vonage phone calls per month. Pros: - CHEAP! For $26 you get what most phone companies may charge $65 - $70 for - Cheaper international calling rates; calls to Canada count as domestic calls - Ability to PROFIT from having service; if you can make one referral per month, you will get $40 back per month translating to a profit of over $13/month if you have $26 plan. More referrals = more profit! - Detailed and continuously updated online tracking ability on your Vonage commercial plan - All calls to other Vonage phone service numbers regardless of area code count as local calls - Virtual number capability; For $5/month you can get a second number in any Vonage phone area code so people can call you from that area code for free - Good e-mail customer service - ALL calls within area code are local and free; Not necessarily the case with local phone companies in many area codes - Can easily turn on or off voicemail temporarily - Can easily enable or disable international calling - Easy number transportability; You can take Vonage box anywhere in the WORLD where there is broadband and receive your calls - Ability to access voice-mail anywhere you have online access - Can easily enable voice-mail to kick in instantly or from anywhere between 5 and 50 seconds once ringing begins. - 3.9 cents/minute for long distance calls over 500 minutes. No major carrier I know of has rates that low unless you include cell phones. Cons: "I signed up last month and so far I have been impressed with the quality and price. The Motorola installation instructions were overly complex - I just plugged the moto box in my Linksys router (just like any other PC) and it works fine. Some updates to "cons:" - "Bases of all phones in your house must connect to the Cisco ATA provided by Vonage." I unpluged the jack from the telco network interface (outside), and plugged the Motorola into a jack in my house. Now all my jacks are live and I share 2 cordless & 2 wired phones on my Vonage line. - Caller ID gives number only, not name. My Vonage phone shows caller ID & name for incoming calls. - Switch to service may result in change in phone number. I ported my local phone number, since it was available in my area. - If you lose power, you lose Vonage service; though you can have calls transferred to any other phone number for free. I plugged my DSL modem, Linksys router, and Motorola adapter into an inexpensive APC battery backup, so I still have Internet & phone service during a power outage. The phone company also uses batteries in their central office to provide service during power outages. - 11 digit dialing required for ALL calls. My Vonage phone works with 7 digit (local), 10 digit, and 11 digit (+1) dialing. Other Pros: I am using Qwest DSL without a phone line. The service is called "standalone DSL" and it costs $5 per month extra plus the ususal DSL & ISP charges. Vonage replies via email pretty consistently, but I had to wait on hold a long time to reach customer service on the phone. (My question was not technical, I had a billing question.) People who have never set up a simple home network before, should probably ask a tech friend for help, before sending the box back if they have difficulty. Once Vonage is installed properly, it works great." Return from Vonage Phone Service to Residential VoIP page
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