I may get one of these when I move since I’ll have cable internet. Many plans are only $15 for the kind of service I want (just local calls, I only make long distance calls 2-3x a month)
http://www.broadvoice.com/rateplans_unlimited_state.html
That offers unlimited local and in-state calls for $10/month, and even when I do make long distance calls they are always in state. Does anyone know anything about this company, or any other broadband company?
I’ve got Vonage and I pay $15/month for 500 minutes of calls to anywhere in the US and Canada. The unlimited minutes plan is $25/month I believe.
I’ve had no problems with it and would recommend it.
One thing you should be aware of when getting VoIP is that you may not be able to call 911 from your phone. This may or may not be important to you, it’s just something to consider.
I do Vonage - the $25 version as I call China on occassion and like to talk forever. Good international rates, plus free long distance for US and Canada. I get my voicemails in my e-mail, did the sign up for 911 so that works, and I like it a lot. I’m not hugely computer savvy, but I hooked up and set up the router myself with no problems.
Its all sorts of good.
My parents have Optimum Voice, I believe. They love the price, saving tons on long distance, but are lukewarm about the sound quality. Definitely double check the 911 access.
My sound quality isn’t prefect, but that’s my fault. I’m running a wireless setup with the Vonage and a wireless phone and there’s a bit of conflict going on. The system worked well out of the box, it wasn’t till I messed with it, that the sound quality dropped.
Basically, the Vonage needs to be the first device and I have it second. I’m pretty sure that once I relocate the various devices, my quality should return.
We were paying $85 a month for our service and are paying $25.00 now. Even if the quality doesn’t return, I would keep using it; it’s not horrible, more of an slight echo.
The second problem is the bandwith sharing. We were bittorrenting some linux distros and my eldest left his Limewire connection open. The phone stopped working…that is, it would ring but lose it’s connection and connect on the third or fourth attempt. Again that was our usage and I don’t think typical of average use; once we stopped one of the machines from uploading, the problem stopped.
I have a question about VoIP, too.
If I take a Vonage phone to another country (which I read on their website is possible but not guaranteed) am I correct in thinking that any calls I make to the US or Canada would be free, but any calls made to the country I am in would be treated like an international call from the States?
Watch that “unlimited” part, especially if you have teenagers or a big mouth. It really isn’t. We were advised that we were using too many minutes on our “unlimited” plan and would be switched over to their more expensive business plan. I considered a Pit thread but I fired the bastids instead and switched to a different service.
Oh, and except for the occasional dropped call and the annoying hesitation on the line that has both parties talking over each other, I like it just fine.
I forgot to add that our new plan, Lingo, has 911 service included.
I had a broadband VOIP connection when I lived in my college dorm last year.
It sucked. Hard.
The initial problems were network problems, and the phones eventually became reliable.
However, if you talk to any “low-talkers” on the phone, you’ll probably have problems. You see, the way the phone works is it only transmits when a certain amount of sound is being sent and when you or the other person is not talking, no information is being sent (whereas on a real phone, you can hear background noise and all that junk, because it’s always transmitting and always receiving.) But the squelch on the system must’ve been set too high, because if a person talked quietly, the sound would cut in and out making the conversation unintelligible. I also found that at peak usage times, the phone would become garbled, again making converstation impossible. This wasn’t limited to calls outside the system, even room-to-room dialing had the same issues.
So in other words. I don’t recommend it.
Of course, I don’t know what service this was on, and it was in a dorm of ~200 college students, all living away from home.
I’ve had vonage for probably around a year now.
The quality (for me) has been exacly the same as a regular phone line and I’ve never been told that I use too many minutes.
I can control every aspect of my phone service from the internet. That means I can see logs of all incoming and outgoing calls and turn call waiting off and on right from my computer.
I also registered my number for 911 service and have used it (it works).
I would suggest that St Ides experience is unique and would not apply to residential VOIP.
A college dorm looking to cut costs on phone calls does not equal what you will get as a private customer.
The quality of my Vonage line is as good as my digital cell phone. Which is pretty damn good. I can also specify how much bandwidth the phone uses: since I don’t use it a lot I’ve got it set to the max, but you can set it to whatever level of quality you want. (Setting it to max just uses up a little more available bandwidth when you are talking; if you can accept a slowdown of downloads when you get a call then this is the setting for you.)
With Vonage you can pick whatever area code you want for your line. If you are away at college and want a local number for all of your friends back home to call, just ask for it. You can get any number that is available for your line.
As for moving: your “number” is attached to your modem. You can take the modem anywhere, plug it into a broadband connection and have a phone line. (Of course you need a normal phone to plug into the modem).
My sister had a Vonage number while she was living in New York. She recently got a job in London and took her Vonage modem with her. I can now call her in London by dialing a New York number (which is free since I’m using Vonage). Total cost for dialing Dallas- London = 0.
Yeah, it’s worth it.