I’ve searched SDMB and found some older Vonage realted threads, some a few months old. As this is a newer technology I’d like to know how peoples connections have been over the few months. Has anyone ended up ditching Vonage because it sucked?
The wife and I are considering dumping our copper lines. We’ll be making lots of calls to Canada over the next months and I think Vonage would save us some money. We can also take it with us to Vancouver.
So my fellow dopers and dopettes, what’s the poop on the Vonage service?
We’ve had it almost a year and we love it. Used to pay around $35-$40 per month to have regular phone service, now we have the Vonage 500 minutes/month plan and we pay $17.84 every month. We’ve never gone over the 500 minutes so it doesn’t make any sense for us not to use it.
The only downside I’ve found is that on the rare (maybe 2x/yr) occasion that we lose power, the Vonage router has to be reset. But we don’t lose any calls because we set it up to have all calls roll over to my cell phone during a power outage. But for the opportunity to save $20/month, I can reset the router a couple times a year. No biggie.
If you already have the broadband service, it makes sense. But if you have to buy broadband specifically to take advantage of Vonage, it will probably cost you more than you’re currently paying.
Can’t you just plug the router into a UPS and continue to use the phone during a power outage? (Yes this is a Real Q. - I’ve heard people use the power outage as a reason to stick w/ the copper line phone service, but it seems so simple to solve, just checking if I am missing something)
Yes, you can, and it’s one of those things I always mean to do but never remember to pick up the UPS when I’m out. And it’s not worth making special trip to the store. But that’s absolutely the answer.
I’m not sure if broadband connections work during power outages. Does anyone know? In any case, the truth is that most people nowadays have cordless phones. Those are useless during power outages.
Anyway… I think I posted negative opinions of Vonage. But I’ve been too lazy to switch back, and I’ve found that sound quality mysteriously improved over the past few months. I think there’s still a very slight lag, but it’s hardly noticeable. Overall I’m happy with it.
The broadband router wouldn’t work during the outage but it wouldn’t matter, because neither will the TV or computer. The only advantage to having the UPS would be to avoid me re-booting the router after power was restored; it would just continue working. And yes, the cordless phones won’t work during the outage, but as soon as power came back on, it would work and the routers would already be up and running.
Incidentally, I don’t know if others have re-booting problems with their Vonage router, it might just be me. YMMV, and all that.
I’m with Vonage. No problems, really. Just one anicdote to share:
Once I was doing some electrical work in the house and shut off the power. While the power was off my mother called. The call got re-routed to my mobile as it’s supposed to. The only problem was my wife had taken my mobile with her on a business trip to Chicago.
So my wife answers in the airport. We got burned for some pretty brutal roaming charges that day (that call, plus several times we spoke normally).
The my wife calls me to tell me about the odd call she just got from my Mother, and gets… a busy signal.
I just wish if the call was being re-routed I had an option to let the caller know what’s happening. It’s a little hard to explain to someone who’s SURE they called your home number why you’re answering your mobile.
I don’t see why you couldn’t plug your phone (if cordless), modem, and everything into the UPS and have telephone as long as your ISP still has electricity. That’s what I plan on doing when I get another UPS for my computer. As little amperage as they probably draw, I bet the UPS could last for hours if not days.