unlimited FREE internatonal calls

Posts: 409 · Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:00 am Post subject:

My vote is No. Rarely would I make an international call. I love the Vonage rates, beats my old lanline rates by far!!! I don't think it would be cost effective for Vonage as some customers might go nutzo on international calls... in the long run raising rates for all.

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 24

Two reasons I can think of. One: Customer demand. There is huge exchange of communications both ways between Canafda and the US. Two: The telephone systems are highly integrated.
and essentially comprise a single system. It costs the telco no more for a domestic call than a for "long distance" call to Canada.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 16, 2005 Posts: 3

My international bill is more than my monthly Vonage bill.

Posts: 4 · Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:12 pm Post subject: unlimited FREE internatonal calls

This is a report on my two Voip services, and a question about phone hardware at the end.

I am overseas (Vienna, Budapest) for extended periods. Before I left the US, I set up both VoicePulse.com and Lingo.com phone service. I set up the former long before I left (about 3.5 years ago), when it was one of about three or four players to consider. I chose it because the reviews seemed to indicate that it was the most reliable. The deciding factor was that I could not get through to Vonage when I tried to call customer service. I couldn't get through to VoicePulse either, but that was because they didn't have a customer service number. This was a bad choice to make, but I went with the unknown instead of the definite bad (since then, VoicePulse has a customer service number). In retrospect (my plan is around $15 + tax for NY area unlimited + 200 mins/month) the service has been consistently there. I rarely have to contact them, but when I do, over the internet, the turnaround time has been about 1 business day (no response weekends, if I remember right).

Subsequently, I signed up for Lingo.com (about 2 years ago) when I learned about its unlimited calls to US/Canada + Western European landlines for about $20 + tax. The service is not as good in quality as VoicePulse and in fact there have been numerous technical glitches (though none for about the last 9 months). As a result, I have kept my VoicePulse service - this extra price I am willing to pay since at least one service is always on (that service being VoicePulse). If I couldn't get through to someone via the other line in the US, it would be a real problem fixing up the Lingo.com service.

The technical support is decent if you reach Tier 3 technical support, but you have to get passed from the basic technical support which is hit and miss. There have been some good, and a lot of clueless techs. Customer support is THE WORST of any company I can think of. Those people have bald facedly lied to me to the extent that I had to dispute charges with my credit card company after Lingo had promised to refund money they owed me. They also claimed that they have no way to get ahold of managers, and that they (customer service) rely on being called by managers to review cases. From what I could make out, it was policy to say these kinds of things.

In conclusion, I've been very happy with the quality/price from VoicePulse. Lingo has a nice (international calls to wester EU countries included) offering on paper, but you have to put up with a more difficult configuration, potential outages, and dismal customer service. Depending on your situation, this may be worth it for you. If you are considering new Voip service and travel is a significant part of the consideration, be sure to find out about the size of the hardware required (in addition to the phone) and the ease with which you can install it (ie. Suppose you are visiting a person with a single cable modem but no router - what then?).

Finally, a question: Is there currently on the market a phone which also acts as a 1 port router? That is to say: I want to carry a single piece of hardware when traveling. Therefore, I should have a phone that I can plug into a router. However, if there is no router available, then my phone should act as a router where one (LAN) port is for the phone itself and the other (LAN) port is for anything else. That way I could always splice the phone in.

And if I may dream about the phone, it should be one of the handset types (to minimize volume) which includes caller id (with memory) and speakerphone.

Csaba Gabor from Vienna