5 Great Reasons to get Vonage- “Leading the internet phone revolution”

Thinking about getting a VOIP service? Here is my review of Vonage. Enjoy!


1) Best price on the best deal that I know of. For $24.99 (USD) a month you get their most expensive plan that they have to offer to residential customers. But that’s not all. You get unlimited calls to anywhere in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, that’s no long distance charges. You also get voice mail, call waiting, caller ID w/name, 3-way calling, call forwarding, area code selection (for when you first sign up), call transfer, call return, and the list just keeps going! And that is all included in the $24.99. And another cool thing that they have to offer is that you can check your incoming/outgoing calls and check your voicemail online. You are able to log into your account and check who has been calling your house as well as who family member are calling. And you are able to download an mp3 file to play a voicemail message on a media player of choice on any computer around the world. So if no one is home, and you’re stuck at work, you can just log in and download the small mp3 file to listen to the message.

2) First two months are free! Well, the first month is free. But since you “know” me, you can just shoot me your email address in the comment section below and I can forward you an invite to Vonage. Giving you the first 2 months free, instead of the just the first month. Last time I sent an invite to someone they got a check in the mail to deposit into their bank account, not a credit and not a stupid Visa gift check card like Cingular Wireless started doing. This “2 months free” deal is part of a referral program that has been going on since the beginning of the company. So if you choose to sign up for yourself, pass the good word on to some of your friends.

3) 2 out of 3 of the phone adapters are free, with the 3rd (the wireless one) at $4.99 (all after mail-in-rebates). I got the Motorola one, not wireless, for free when I first signed up. They didn’t have the 2 Linksys ones around when I was looking to sign on with Vonage. So I have mine set up so the cable modem goes to my wireless router and then from the wireless router to the PC and the Motorola phone adapter for Vonage.

4) 2 words baby: WiFi phone. Sure WiFi isn’t really a word, but there is a space between the “i” and the “p”, so it’s kind of like there are 2 words. Vonage, along with a few other companies, recently rolled out their version of a WiFi phone. This is just like carrying around your regular cordless phone at home, only it is the size of a small cell phone and you can go anywhere in the world (as long as there is a wireless network near buy)with it and it would still be just like using your regular cordless phone at home. And I think that this is dam cool. So for just $79.99, after MIR, you can get the UTStarcom F1000 WiFi Phone added to your account for no additional monthly charge. The Vonage site says that this phone can be used on “open WiFi hotspots quickly and easily, as well as various secure hotspots.”

5) You get to say “F**k off Verizon!” It felt great getting rid of that dam $60 phone bill from Verizon! And now you can say the same thing to Verizon, or any other provider for your home phone company. And for the final “kick in the crotch” to that phone company, you can bring your existing phone number with you! No need to tell anyone of your new home phone number because you changed providers!

And now, before anyone can start the nay saying, there are a few cons about the service. But before I get into them, I just want to say that I am extremely happy with my service and will change only when Broadband over Power lines comes to town. That being said, I can really only think of 2 bad things that some people may have a problem with. The first major thing is the 911 service. There was a big deal because when Voice-Over IP came to town about sharing the 911 service between the big phone companies and the VOIP companies. So the VOIP companies had to make up their own 911 service. Normally when you call 911, the people that answer your call are able to trace exactly where you are calling from. They are able to get information from your call such as the number you are calling from and the address that it is at. But now, if you get VOIP, you have to fill out a form with your phone number, name and address of the phone number. So this way, when you dial 911, they see what number you are calling from and I guess some sort of form “pops” up in front of the operator with all of your information on it. So they just read that off to whoever to dispatch whoever to you. I don’t have a problem with this, but I haven’t tested it out so I really can’t give an accurate position about it. Perhaps someone can leave some comments on the subject in the comments below.

And the other con about the service is that you have to have cable modem service in order to take advantage of the great deal that Vonage has to offer. As much as I loved getting away from Verizon for my home phone line provider, I would also love to get rid of Comcast as my cable provider. But no matter who I go to for TV service, I will still be stuck with Comcast because I need the cable line going to the Vonage phone adapter. Any help on this subject will be WELL appreciated.

And that is my review on Vonage, the voice-over-internet-protocol internet phone service. If you can get around the 911 thing and don’t mind Comcast much, then I would say go for it. It feels great to just call my mom from New Jersey to New York for free. They also have great rates on calls made outside of the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. Feel free to check out what else they might have to offer your individual needs if I have not made a clear enough case. And then slap your email in a comment and I’ll shoot you an invite to their service.