Anyone other than Patrick using Vonage for their phone service? We're going to be switching from Bellsouth to Vonage as soon as our Comcast connection is turned on. It's an amazing service ... Voice-Over-IP phone service! Here's a comparison of our current bill ... and what our new bill will be.
Bellsouth .... $60
» Complete Choice Plan - $29
(Call Waiting, Caller ID, 3-Way Calling, Call-Forwarding)
» Federal Universal Service Charge - $.61
» Mileage - Zone - $1.00
» Emergency 911 Service - $1.15
» FCC Authorized Charge for Network Access - $6.50
» Equipment Maintenance Plan - $4.75
» Inside Wire Maintenance Service Plan - $5.50
» Credit for subscribing to above ($2.80)
» Federal Excise Tax - $1.11
» State/Local TN Tax - $3.55
» And let's not forget our long-distance carrier. Our AT&T monthly bill is approximately $9. (We have to have a long-distance carrier in order to call Steve's family in England; We call my family on our cell phones - that have unlimited long distance calls included)
» So - our monthly phone services bill is always at least $60 a month (depending on how many times we call England!).
Vonage .... $22
» Basic 500 Plan - $14.99
(Voicemail Plus, Caller ID with Name, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, 3-Way Calling, In-Network Calling, Traveling with Vonage, Area Code Selection, Call Transfer, Click-2-Call, Call Return (*69), Caller ID Block (*67), Repeat Dialing, International Call Block, Ring Lists, Call Hunt; Includes 500 anytime minutes; each minute after that is 3.9 cents a minute;)
» Federal Excise Tax - $.45
» Regulatory Recovery Fee - $1.50
» International Calling Rate to England - 3 cents a minute
» We're adding another feature to our vonage account called a Virtual Number. Basically - we'll have ANOTHER phone number, in my parents/grandparents/siblings area code. So they can call us for free. And that's only another $5 a month. Which brings our total Vonage phone bill up to a whopping $22.
That's a $38 savings ... and you're getting even more features. (Vonage will EMAIL your voicemails to you ... you can have your phone forwarded to another number if you're going out of town ... I can call other vonage customers for free ... you can use vonage on your computer or laptop ... and much much more!)
I love Vonage.
If you've got broadband internet connection, you should definitely CHECK IT OUT.
Very cool! Technology is definitely getting cheaper. I would so jump all over this, but I have DSL, so I can't ditch my home phone line. (can't get cable modem, and my DSL service is actually better than what Comcast offers here) I saved the link, though. I'll have to check it out if I can ever get rid of the land line.
We have Vonage, we got it when we moved from Fresno CA, to a suburb of Sacramento and found out that we couldn't have unlimted long distance from ATT for 30 a month anymore. We love Vonage, but we have had a couple things happen, but it's totally livable. Sometimes the caller ID doesn't work, just rings and rings and rings. Sometimes you can't delete messages..but it all comes out all right in the end. We have saved since moving here in Septemeber about $200 in long distance...that's a lot of starbucks let me tell you!@
i want to try it so bad but i wanted someone else to guinea pig it first..lol make sure you post about how great it (hopefully) is!
OMG! I remember when we went from dial-up to cable internet. HEAVEN! :heartbeat:
I heard about it back in May when the unlimited minutes' service was $35/mo. It was already less than my traditional phone line! By the time I signed up in June, the price for the same plan dropped to $30/mo. Now they're at $25/mo. They claim that the more people that sign up, the more they'll make and they can pass the savings onto us by lowering the monthly bill. :laugh:
As for problems, yes, I've had a few, but they are indeed minor. I've had no dropped calls, but if the call is choppy or poor quality on occasion, I simply hang up and call back. The second time usually works. :crazy:
For other issues such as caller ID failing (which only happened once), their tech support recommends unplugging the equipment, waiting 30 seconds, and then plugging it back it and letting it restart. I had to do this every now and then during the first few months, but I haven't had to touch it lately. :headphone:
Finally, they offer referral bonuses. The best way to get it is to get referred by someone who already has it; that way, the referrer gets two free months and the new guy gets one free month; otherwise, no one gets any free months. The cost ends up being roughly the same both ways if you sit down and figure it out. :pi:
Good luck! :dance: