Sound and service

Guest

Could anyone give me information about sound quality if I change to Vonage? Also, how's the service? Any hidden costs or problems?

Posts: 220 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Aug 19, 2003 Posts: 220

For our family, it was a no brainer. Our Bell bill was running $130 for phone with unlimted LD and a fax line with 30 mins LD. Now it's $49.33 for phone and fax. We literally cut the cord with the phone company 10/14/03. Haven't regretted it one bit.

Is it perfect? Nope. If your Internet connection isn't a stable one with good up/down speeds, it could influence your decision. Wouldn't use it as my only phone service if we didn't have cell phones (we have three in the house). If you're not much of a computer geek, you may be frustrated with sometimes having to tweak your system, experiment with routers and phones.

As for sound, again, a lot of things can affect it. If you have a good phone, a good connection and a good setup, it will sound just like your POTS (plain old telephone service). Most of the time around here you can't tell a difference. You have to get used to dialing the area code for all numbers (programmable phones are good to have around).

It's fun to be cutting edge, but occasionally you bleed. If you can't handle any downtime or any inconsistency, you will want to keep your POTS and just use your Vonage to cut LD charges, probably.

Good luck in your decision!

Posts: 433 · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:55 pm Post subject:

Quality is great, and I found depends on your ISP to give the bandwith. It has always worked for me, and I have had it since September 2003.

There were a few problems with voicemail a few weeks ago, but that was due to a change in the system. Seems to work great now.

The only negative for some, is that you cannot accept collect telephone calls, and you must dial slowly (at least for me) when dialing into another coimputer such as your bank.

In short, I recommend Vonage.

Posts: 41 · Full Forum Member Joined: 1064934432 Posts: 41

My experience with Vonage has been very good. I bought the equipment they recommended, set it up, and have experienced very few problems. The problems I did experience were mostly due to line connection and splitting issues inside my house. Occasionally I hear myself echo when I am talking and once in a while the person I call will not be able to hear me. These problems do not occur often enough to make me want to go back to getting "violated" by my local phone company.

We also keep a cell phone handy in case we lose service (I set up my Vonage account to automatically forward to my cell phone in case of network service loss).

In short, if you absolutely have to have an active phone line at all times, I would not recomment Vonage, but if you can put up with an occasional glitch I recommend it completely. I'm saving a bunch over what my local telco was charging and there are no hidden fees, etc. My bill is the same every month and I like it that way!

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 06, 2004 Posts: 2

I would like for it to work but I find that when calling someone I can hear them fine but I sound like a robot to them. My down is 3.3 and up is 240.
No problems with dl or uploading when i'm not using the phone i have it dl and up loading fine so it can't be the line. Not really sure what the problem is.