Vonage

[jackrabbit]

Has anyone used this service for your studio/residence? Im tired of getting hosed from my current phone provider, so i started researching VOIP options.
It seems that vonage has had their BBB accreditation revoked, an if you have any problems with the service, it becomes a painful ordeal! There have been thousands of complaints (largely to do with customer service, and the charge for ending service), but this is compared to millions of (presumably) happy users, some im wondering if is worth a shot for the potential savings. Any experiences?

[KingDaddyO]

Originally Posted by jackrabbit

Has anyone used this service for your studio/residence? Im tired of getting hosed from my current phone provider, so i started researching VOIP options.
It seems that vonage has had their BBB accreditation revoked, an if you have any problems with the service, it becomes a painful ordeal! There have been thousands of complaints (largely to do with customer service, and the charge for ending service), but this is compared to millions of (presumably) happy users, some im wondering if is worth a shot for the potential savings. Any experiences?

It's a good alternative, but I would caution you if you are in the habit of making critical phone calls with it. My opinion might be improved if I had a higher speed connection (I have 384kbs cable), because I often experience 2-way sync issues (less than full duplex performance, and have to insert a 1-2 second pause when speaking for each side to fully hear the others words) and phase artifacts. I've learned to make sure no other computers are accessing the internet when I use the VOIP line.

All this isn;t to say it isn't worth it for saving money - it does work fairly well. But I would never say that it is a seamless replacement for my landline. God only knows that my digital cellphone certainly isn't either!

[heyman]

Guys, there was lot of hype with Vioce over IP... Fact is, you need superfast dedicated lines and hardware.. Only then does it work somewhat acceptable.

They are not there yet.. Close, but not quite..

[T_R_S]

Try Skype then you can see if you like VOIP

[dragan]

I've used Vonage for year and a half or so. Worked great on my 6mbit/384k connection.. In the beginning of my service, sometimes a call would drop after an hour, but it stopped. The only downside was having to piggyback their gateway over my router, took half an hour or so to figure it out.

[jackrabbit]

thanks for the input....
i think im going to try a basic landline, with skype out for long distance....try out one of those dual DECT phones that let you do both....