Maritime Quality

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 23, 2009 Posts: 1

I recently cancelled my Vonage service after almost 3 years. When I first signed up I was moving from Rogers home phone. At the time, Rogers had very limited LD options so Vonage was a big savings.

For the first few months quality was not good. After a few months it seemed to correct itself and was good up until a few months ago. I had actually convinced several people to sign up for the service.

In the last few months I have noticed a definite degradation of quality. It is not uncommon to pick up the phone and get loud static instead of dial tone. We also started noticing calls getting disconnected in the middle of a conversation. We would try calling the person back a few times and end up having to use our cell phone instead.

Initially I thought it was just us but asked a few firends in all three Maritime provinces and they were experiencing similar issues. They too were thinking of switching off Vonage as well. Like other posters, our wives started giving us severe grief. I am not sure if there is a capacity issue but I would suggest they resolve it ASAP.

I looked in to Rogers and they were offering a local and 500 minute LD plan for $31 plus tax. I am also getting free VM and an online tool to manage my phone settings over the internet. So lo and behold, after almost 3 years, I am now back with Rogers and bid adieu to Vonage. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the 5 hour battery backup on the Rogers phone adapter.

Posts: 227 · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:15 pm Post subject: Re: Maritime Quality

cogsy wrote:

It is not uncommon to pick up the phone and get loud static instead of dial tone.

The Vonage dial tone is produced by the ATA itself, and is not sent over the network. If you got static and noise when you were expecting dial tone, the trouble is not in the Vonage network. It is either in your ATA (the "Vonage Device") or in your telephone or in the wiring between your telephone and the ATA.

Plug a known-good telephone directly into the ATA's phone jack. If you get static, you have a defective ATA. If not, and if you still get static when plugged in where you normally use it, then you have a wiring problem. Either way, these are routine repair issues.

When the dial tone is clean, then see if you are still experiencing impaired transmission during conversation. If so, then you have a network problem.

Yes, I know, you've already give up on Vonage. But perhaps my response will help another reader of this thread.