Is Vonage Right For Her?

Posts: 51 · Full Forum Member Joined: Oct 26, 2008 Posts: 51

One of my family members has a Verizon Freedom package. It should be about $40/month, but with taxes it is around $60/month. She doesn't have Internet so if she were to get Vonage she would need to order Internet.

The Internet costs $9.99 a month for the first 6 months and then $19.99 a month. It has speeds up to 1 Mbps download and 384 Kbps upload.

Do you think it is worth her getting Vonage?

Posts: 433 · Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:27 pm Post subject:

Is this an elderly person you are inquiring about? I suspect so since they don't have internet service now. I would shy away from doing it if it was for my Grandma for example. They just don't seem to have the capacity and patience to learn and understand something different. As much as Vonage markets their service as a replacement for POTS, in my opinion it is not. Taxes for the unlimited plan will push that to $30 a month and then $20 more for internet comes to a savings of only $10 a month. However, if it's for someone who will also use the internet service for more than just Vonage, then it may be worth it. I guess you have to decide if you think it's worth the hassle for that person to save $10 a month. Are you a Vonage customer?

Also, don't forget that Vonage will only work with one phone or phone system unless you have the ability to connect it to the home wiring. That can be fairly difficult for someone who doesn't have any experience doing communications wiring. If this person is used to having their phones in the places they are now, this is something to consider.

Posts: 51 · Full Forum Member Joined: Oct 26, 2008 Posts: 51

She would be getting Internet just for Vonage and I don't think she'd like that she can only use one phone or will need another phone system in order to have phones throughout the house. I think she should stay where she is for now.

Thanks for the reply. Smile

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

I concur with tglea that it would be a bad choice. keep verizon or tweak the plan with verizon. what exactly is the freedom plan. it seems too expensive. i'd look at her phone records and see if you can get the $10 savings simply by switching to another plan.

Posts: 51 · Full Forum Member Joined: Oct 26, 2008 Posts: 51

Thank you. I plan on calling Verizon to see what I can do. The taxes is what really hurts her.

Posts: 227 · Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject:

pvvoip wrote:

...The taxes is what really hurts her.

Isn't that true for all of us?

If she were to order Vonage service with professional installation, the installer would take care of activating her house wiring. But I agree with the original advice: if she doesn't need Internet for any other purpose, the savings with Vonage will probably be insignificant.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:19 pm Post subject:

And I will ring in with the majority. Vonage's residential unlimited plan plus the ISP charges would end up being around $55/mo (give or take) once all the discounts end. This is a great deal if she would also like to use the Internet, but if she doesn't want or need Internet service in and of itself, then she is better off with Verizon, simply due to the fact that POTS service is virtually "always on" and there is very little downtime except in extreme circumstances such was weather emergencies.

Does she need the "Freedom" plan from Verizon, though? It is a good idea to go through the monthly phone bills and determine how many minutes are being used and how the service is being used. For example, if you are using less than 500 minutes a month in total calling, and all of the calls are within the United States, Verizon may have a better plan to address that.

Or, alternately, Vonage's $15/500 min/mo plan plus an ISP plan would be more thrifty, a savings of $180/year over her current plan. This is what moved me from BellSouth's basic residential service with NO long distance plan and a very limited local area calling plan plus dial-up Internet service. I was able to upgrade to basic broadband, get a full-featured phone service for a lower price.

Posts: 51 · Full Forum Member Joined: Oct 26, 2008 Posts: 51

I'm probably going to switch her to Comcast Digital Voice. It will be a total of about $61 for both the phone and television. That is about $30 each. Of course, I would rather her have Vonage, but she does not need the Internet for any other reason except for Vonage.

Thanks for all of the replies.

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 16, 2007 Posts: 25

CDV is almost equivalent to Vonage when it concerns adjusting from POTS.

Posts: 433 · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 12:32 am Post subject:

So comcast uses a cable modem and Voip adapter all in one unit? So you just simply plug your phone into a phone jack on the back of the modem? If so, I hope the original poster reads this because you are right by pointing out the same issues when it comes to home wiring and such. I always lived in a Cox area until I moved to Mexico. They do it a lot different. They place the Voip adapter on the outside of your house and tie it into your existing home wiring so people really don't know they are using a completely different technology to place phone calls.