How many Canadian Vonagers are out there?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 24, 2005 Posts: 4

I like to think I'm one of the very few, am I right to beleive so?

Posts: 22 · Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:42 pm Post subject: Vonage Canada User

I'm a Vonage Canada user since April 2004!

RiZed

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 24, 2005 Posts: 4

are you one of the first? i didnt know it existed then!

Posts: 22

Vonage Canada was launches on the April,12 2004.

Local area code for Montréal was lauches 2 day after.

RiZEd

Posts: 6 · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 9:46 pm Post subject: New Member

I just signed up this week...waiting for adapter.

Was very curious to see how this will turn out.

Can anyone tell me their experience so far with Vonage.

Have any of you dumped their land line completely and only use Vonage?

Posts: 336 · Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:24 am Post subject: Another Vonage Canada Customer

I had read lots about Vonage in the US, and when it came to Canada I did not subscribe to it right away. I waited to see what other folks were saying about it. That, combined with my frustrations with Bell and their outrageous prices, prompted me to drop service with Bell, and switch to Vonage. I joined Vonage Canada in July 2004. I live in Gatineau, Quebec, which is in the Ottawa region.

I have been extremely pleased with the quality and have had only a few minor problems with my voicemail service. When the new voicemail server was installed, that all cleared up. I have not experienced any problems since. I have been trying to convince some friends to sign up too, so that they can enjoy the features and the long distance deal.

Some of the things I love about Vonage:
- I'm originally from Halifax. My family and old friends still live there. I subscribe to the virtual number which allows them to call me whenever they like - free of charge to them, and only $7.99 per month for me.

- I love the internet call log. That's a wonderful feature. The ability to change my phone settings over the internet is also awesome.

- The phone quality I experience is high. I cannot tell the difference between a Vonage call, and a POTS call. In fact, Vonage seems to be louder and clearer. I think that may depend on your high speed internet provider. I'm with Videotron - a Quebec company. They have one of the best high speed internet systems. It's always up, and very reliable. Remember if the internet goes down, so does your phone service. This is something to consider along with whether or not you have another phone to use should something happen to your internet connection.

- When I travel to Halifax in the summer for a visit, I can use the Vonage Call Forward feature to transfer my Vonage line to my Mom's telephone. This is long distance, however since I have the unlimited long distance plan, it is toll free and I can continue to receive my local phone calls while I'm away. This is such an fantastic option that Vonage has provided. Thank you Vonage for being a company who gives your customers a lot of value for their dollar.

- I'm a feature creature. Very Happy

Vonage is the perfect solution for me because they offer so many valuable features for one great price. I cannot wait to see what additional features will be provided in the future.

Some of the things I would like to see changed are:
- Number porting. It would be great to have the option to keep your original phone number as opposed to getting a brand new one.

- I have the Motorola adapter which only provides 1 computer port. It would be nice to have a phone adapter that had at least 2 computer ports so that I would not need an additional router to hook up both of my computers. I think Vonage now gives out adapters with 2 ports, but I was too early for that model.

- 911 service is still not working in Canada. I have placed sticky labels on all of my phones with the numbers to the ambulance, fire and police. It would be best to have 911 working. I still have a cell phone, but it is usually in my coat downstairs. If something were to happen while I was in bed, it would be best to have the phone by my bed work with 911.

- *72 is the code that Canadian telephone systems use for Call Forwarding. This does not work with Vonage. Call Forwarding is only available through the internet. I would imagine that programming *72 and *73 (to deactivate CF) would be fairly easy to implement on the phone as well as leaving it on the internet as an option.

- Call Privacy is a feature offered by Bell Canada that intercepts blocked calls. The caller is instructed to press the pound # key to automatically unblock their number and let the call go through. It would be great if Vonage had this feature. Also, the Call Privacy feature comes with *60 to block unwanted calls, and *11 to setup blocked number calls that you always want to receive. Adding a number (or numbers) to *11 will always display the number on your phone when the phone rings, even though the number is blocked. You can add up to 12 numbers with the *11 and *60 features. That's really the biggest feature that I miss.

- Directory listing would be nice, even if offered at a low fee.

- A 1-800 Canadian server would be nice too (although this is low on the priority list). Most toll free numbers can be reached by dialing the number directly. Often when I dial a toll free Canadian number, I receive a recording stating that the call cannot be completed. It was explained to me by Vonage that it is because the toll free calls are routed through the US, and if the company I'm calling does not provide 1-800 incoming from the US service, I won't get through. Vonage tech support said a Canadian Server will eventually be installed to address this issue.

Well, I sure went on and on, but this has been my experience with Vonage. So long as Vonage continues to provide great service with great prices, I would never switch to another telephone company. I'm sure the items on my wish list will be addressed. I realize that Vonage Canada is new and that over time, things will be changed for the better. Wink

Posts: 6 · Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:12 am Post subject:

Thank you very much for the reply....

It was a very honest and informative post.

I too, have videotron high speed...the service is very reliable.

I am thinking about about using it for my business as well, but will try it out at the house for now.

I don't know at what point I will use the feature options, but thanks for the comments.

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 26, 2004 Posts: 91

I signed up in May 2004. For a "new" service... Vonage has had relatively few hiccups. Since May, I think I only lost service 2 or 3 times... And these service outages have never been longer than 1 hour. Since November, I don't think my service has gone out.

Not bad for a new service... I'm pretty happy with Vonage Smile

Posts: 508 · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:44 pm Post subject:

I just signed up a month ago, haven't had any problems, a couple times the service went out, but I thin that was due to some settings I tried changing on my routers, and I have my Vonage router installed after my original router, cuz it is in another apartment, dont' want my Vonage phone service in that apt too.. lol..

My wife is from Columbia, SC, so now with our virtual number, her family can call her for free, and we can call them too.. we only got the 500 min plan, cuz if we want to talk long to someone, we can have them call us back.. I love all the features you get for free.. my bill is only $32/mo, if I had bell I'd be paying more than that, have no features, have a crappy phone number that is LD to so many places, and also have to pay LD to call SC and they'd have to pay LD to call us.. Vonage is the way to go..

Posts: 336 · Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:38 pm Post subject:

I totally agree. Vonage is the way to go. You just can't beat their prices. Even though sometimes there are some problems. My phone service has never actually gone down since I've been with them. Some of my features have stopped working, but that is not a major problem for me. A major problem would be no phone service.