Vonage service question

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 11

did Vonage replace your old land line?

If so what is your overall experice been with Vonage.

Would you recommend someone to get rid of their land line and go with just Vonage.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

it really depends on the quality of your internet connection. In my case, with comcast, I've had a positive experience so I went with Vonage instead of SBC. But I also do not make many phone calls roughly 250-300 minutes/month.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:57 pm Post subject:

>>>>did Vonage replace your old land line?

Yes, well, sorta.

I left landlines several years ago when Bell South wanted $75 to move my landline from one city to an adjoining town, into a rented house that was already wired for telephone and had had service previously. Even had dial tone.

I told them I was not willing to pay yet another $75 (I move often) and the woman on the line said "well, what are you going to do? We're the phone company." I hung up and called AT&T Cellular who overnighted me a cell phone at their expense, and the rest, as they say, is history. Saved me a chunk of money, but Vonage was a lot cheaper, so my Vonage line DID replace my Cell phone. Wink

>>>If so what is your overall experice been with Vonage.

Vonage itself - top notch. Never had a serious problem with the phone line. Few issues here and there with caller ID and a few other odds and ends, but nothing serious.

The router they provided, not so great. But I spend a couple months' savings on a real router to put in front of the Vonage router, and Life Is Good. Not ideal, certainly not what I expected to have to do, but I've still saved a large wad of cash.

>>>Would you recommend someone to get rid of their land line and go with just Vonage.

As long as you are willing and able to put up with the compromises of Voip. The biggies are:

E911 is still not fully deployed and requires a lot more setup than 911. I have an old cell phone that can also dial 911 in a pinch, so I have a backup plan.

You need Internet to run your Vonage line, which probably means you need power. SOMETIMES, a landline will work during a power outage (of course, sometimes, your internet connection will be up while your telco connection is toast, too, but the Vonage line is more complex and depends on more bits to be working in your house).

If you can live with that, then Vonage is probably for you. If real 911 and/or separation from your Internet connection is of paramount importance to you (if you have an ISP that provides poor service, etc), then you're probably better off sticking with a landline and spending the extra money.

Posts: 135 · Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:39 pm Post subject:

In my case,Vonage did replace my land line. I was ready to pull the plug anyway because we rarely used it. My Verizon land line was stripped of features except Caller ID and it still ran $45 a month. And that was for a metered rate service for local calls. If I made more than 50 calls a month (never happened) it would start costing extra.

I already had a fast and solid internet connection with Cox. We were already making all of our calls using SprintPCS so the speech quality of Vonage, while not at good as the land line, is as good or better than what we were used to.

I signed up for the 500 minute limited plan. So I am not paying about $17 for a phone service that has more features (call waiting, voicemail, call forwarding, etc) instead of $45... and now we actually use it since long distance is free. My 2yr old son (see left) likes talking on the land line better than the cell phone so he enjoys Vonage for talking to his grandparents.

As others have mentioned, there are trade offs such as reliability issues, being reliant on the cable modem service and the lack of E911 in my area. In the end, my wife and I have the SprintPCS to fall back on. If I had to dial 911 I would probably use the cellphone anyway since I believe they have E911 and in theory they have GPS capability in my phone to locate the source of the call.

For me, the decision was easy... and I am very happy with Vonage.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

I replaced my land line with Vonage and have been very happy overall. However, I would not, in general, recommend this unless you have some sort of backup- such as a cell phone. Of course people's situations vary greatly.

Posts: 26 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 28, 2006 Posts: 26

The portability of Vonage is perhaps the best selling point, in my opinion. Being able to take it on the road with a set fee, having access to voicemail thru a cell phone or blackberry, and the quality is arguably the best of all the VoIPs.

Posts: 435 · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:57 am Post subject:

E911 does not work with cell phones. The cell site (if set up) gives a location within 300 feet of where the call is from (based on received GPS). The exact location would have to come from the caller.

If the cell site is not GPS enabled, then the 9-1-1 agency would receive the location of the cell site.

Hope this makes sense.

Posts: 135 · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:00 pm Post subject:

Really?

http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=330 wrote:

Sprint PCS Network E911-Ready Nationwide
Date Posted: Oct 2, 2002, 9:59 AM
Source: PR Newswire

Sprint PCS announced yesterday that its entire nationwide PCS network is now E911 Phase II compatible. Sprint is the first national carrier to reach this milestone. In order for E911 Phase II service to be operational in individual communities, upgrades still must be made by both local telephone companies and Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), and PSAPs must request a connection to Sprint's E911 system. Sprint is also exploring the possibility of offering opt-in location-based services. Sprint's E911 system is based on handset-based GPS technology. The company has sold over one million GPS-enabled handsets since it was the first carrier to offer one in October 2001.

and

http://www.sprint.com/business/newsletters/articles/e911where_federal01.jsp wrote:

Steve Marzolf, E911 coordinator for the Commonwealth of Virginia, said the vast majority of counties in his state have deployed Phase II E911 technology, and Sprint has been a big part of the reason.

"They have absolutely been a star when it comes to deployment of the handsets," Marzolf said. "They have been very aggressive in getting the handsets out. They have been a very good partner in working with us."

Another reason Virginia has had such success in implementing E911 technology is leadership. To manage the initiative, Virginia formed the Wireless E911 Services Board with the sole purpose of overseeing progress being made in distributing the technology statewide.

I guess it just depends on where you live and who your wireless provider is...

Posts: 435 · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:35 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the info. Maybe SprintPCS will become completely E911 soon in my area. I see the article is from 2002, and here we are in 2006, and the local PSAP in Houston does not receive exact locations.

The E911 that Sprint has in my area is GPS based, but not exact location. (WPH2)

Posts: 135 · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:25 pm Post subject:

I did some research on E911 a little while ago when I was considering giving up the land line. That was when I saw that nearly all of Virginia has implimented Wireless E911 Phase II (as of the end of 2005).

That was the basis for my decision to rely on the cellphone over the Vonage line in an emergency. I mean... If the house is on fire (the topic of a recent thread)... I am not going to call 911 from the Vonage line hoping it gets through before any part of the chain (Cordless phone, Vonage adapter, router, Cable modem) gets burned up... I am going to run out the door with my cellphone... Besides... I can see the front door of the firehouse from my front step. Very Happy