Vonage v. Bellsouth
// November 29th, 2004 // 5 Comments » // tagged: Technology
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.
After doing the happy dance with him :dance: - we got down to business. We're signed up for installation sometime during the first of December. Since our house is already wired - and all we need is for them to run the cable into our attic - we get higher priority! Woohoo! Bring on the high-speed internet and digital cable. Good bye Satellite and 24K dialup! :bounce:
Our Satellite TV reception has never been great - our house is in the woods, with really tall trees - and even with the satellite on the highest part of the roof, it still doesn't get good reception. So we're excited about switching our TV over the cable as well. (The only negative about switching over to cable is losing the dual-tuner tivo. I loved that!!!)
We're still sorting out our tivo options though. Currently, we have the dual-tuner DirecTV tivo in the living room and a Series 2 Tivo and separate receiver in our bedroom. We're thinking of getting the new 