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Vonage I am using Vonage in the 520 area code, near Nogales. My cable provider is Mediacom.
I am using Vonage in the 520 area code, near Nogales. My cable provider is Mediacom. In the first couple of weeks, I did have a couple of significant problems with the internet side of things, but I don't think this was Vonage's fault. It did bring home to me though that you probably shouldn't be considering Voip unless you not only have a high-speed connection, but a *good* one. Mine is good, I think, but something went temporarily amiss.
I don't have any information for you about switching entirely from Qwest to Vonage. Vonage does not offer any numbers which are local to me, and I will absolutely not give up my trusty old number where people know they can reach me, and which is printed on my cards, and so forth. So: I use Vonage for all outgoing calls, and use Qwest on a separate phone for all incoming calls, as I have always done. Since Qwest can't be bothered to offer voice mail in my area, if I am not home I have Qwest calls forwarded to a cell phone that I use for emergencies, which happens to have voice mail as well. I can't have calls forwarded to my new Vonage account because Vonage doesn't offer a prefix which is local to my Qwest Landline, and so periodic forwarding of inbound Qwest to Vonage would result in unacceptable long distance charges.
Although I cannot switch away from Qwest entirely, I have gotten rid of all features including long distance and kept only a couple of essentials (caller ID, a type of call forwarding). The net effect, I hope, will be to reduce my Qwest bill from something like $66 per month (including long distance) to about $20 per month. I am still waiting for that first Qwest reduced bill to see what sort of penny-ante nickel-and-dime BS they will try.
So, theoretically, I have used Vonage in the 520 area code to reduce my overall monthly landline bills from about $66 per month to about $48 per month.
Now, although I am still a novice with only one experience, there are a couple of things I have been telling my friends, both in and outside of the 520 area code.
First, force yourself to read through forums like this. Not just the good parts, and not just the bad parts, but really get a sense of all the things that can go both right and wrong.
Once you do that, I think you'll understand when I say that, for me, it has been a blessing that I did not get rid of my Qwest line entirely to start with. The reason? I put a very high financial value on my time, my peace of mind, and my communications with friends, family and associates, and, from reading what has been said in this forum, I think it could have been courting disaster to just jump quickly in the water and count on Vonage to provide me with all my phone needs in a completely and totally reliable fashion.
It's not that they're bad people. But they are *not* as reliable yet as the regular old phone company. I say this as someone who has thoroughly enjoyed reducing the amount I can send to Qwest every month, and who may well fully get rid of them in a few months or years. But for now, I am glad that instead of doing a full switch, I have taken this "step by step", slowly and in a relaxed way, without cutting off my access to my reliable old phone. That has helped me avoid one of these horror-story experiences that we read about here or there, in this forum.
Down here, Packet8 does offer local prefixes, and they are about $5.20 cheaper per month, so I may switch to them within a few weeks or months. The idea would be not to abandon Qwest immediately, but at least then I could have incoming Qwest calls forwarded directly to my new Voip line and voice mail.
There are other nuances to this thing that would take more than one post to discuss (Vonage claims they are not capable of putting your name on your caller id for your outbound calls for example, but only your number).
My opinion is (obviously) fallible, and I hope to read other responses you may get from 520.
In answer to a question that I've had, and you may have, I have not yet found an unlimited-time deal to Mexico the way that there is one to USA and Canada. You would think that there could theoretically be such a thing, but for now, you just have to shop around and go through the per-minute BS. I don't think that Vonage is the absolute best, but I don't think they're the worst to Mexico.
If I had it to do over again, I would buy the Vonage box at a retail store, but I'm funny like that. I just like to have clear title to a piece of equipment that I'm going to try to incorporate into my setup. But, I haven't seen any horror stories about the return or cutting-off-service process.
Lastly for now, for whatever reason, it would appear that my setup doesn't work that well unless I keep it turned on full-time. I calculate, with the two phones and two or three computer router type things, this costs me roughly an extra $1 per month.
Best of luck. Let us know how it goes. Try to do it, but in a way that won't mess you up...
PS: If you're near Tucson, another low-priced around-town telephony option is Cricket, but that's a whole 'nuther set of considerations, including any health concerns you may have about radiation from cell telephony.
Read The Full Thread: Anybody in area code 520???
• I'm considering switching from Qwest to Vonage. I'd like to hear from anyone using
• Hi GZ:
It is kind of late at night and you asked some very detailed questions.
• 1. highly likely. one test is tftp tftp.vonage.net get test from a command prompt.
2.
• Thanks for the info. I'd still like to hear from someone in my area code that is actually
• I doubt qwest is the problem, seeing as how they're mandated to support lnp and
• Thanks to jsloa. Good info.
I will give credit to COX, their service has been
• there are a ton of posts about retail vs vonage sending it. search for them if you're
• Just be careful. I'd say "one month at least" but each of us has a different phone
• PS:
I didn't do an exact count, but it sure seemed to take awhile for the unit
jlsoaz posted "I am using Vonage in the 520 area code, near Nogales. My cable provider is Mediacom." on 02/12/2005 |
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