July 12, 2005

By Daniel Connor

Welcome to today's edition of the Vonage VoIP Forum Digest.

Today, we have lots of news for and about Vonage users. We'll read a revealing interview with Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron, and in a separate piece of news, find out which worthy cause Vonage is sponsoring next. We'll review a new book about VoIP in which Vonage is prominently mentioned. We'll also review new a Vonage VoIP Forum thread in which Forum members solved another Member's voice mail access issues, as well as a thread with some pointed advice for a Forum Member who had been considering buying two Vonage adapters.

In The Headlines

Vonage To Sponsor the Jerry Lewis MDA Telthon

Every Labor Day since 1966, comedic entertainer Jerry Lewis has hosted his telethon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This is a worthy group formed to fund research intended to conquer this dreaded disease. Who among us has not been moved by the innocent children suffering from muscular dystrophy who Jerry has shown on his telethon all these years?

Vonage will be the National Sponsor of the Telethon's 16th hour- Labor Day from Noon to1:10 p.m. Eastern Time. For every customer who signs up for Vonage service via http://www.vonage.com/mda from now thru Sept.30, Vonage will donate $30 to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Vonage CEO Interviewed In Leading Magazine

Inc. magazine is a leading monthly publication that highlights innovative and growing companies. The new issue features an interview with Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron.

In the interview, Citron talks about when you can expect a Vonage-branded Wi-Fi phone.

"The initial delay with the Wi-Fi phone came from maintaining good battery life," Citron tells Inc.'s Brian Clark. "Our goal is to make sure your talk time is comparable to what you would get with a cell phone or a home cordless phone. Now, we think we’ve got that one licked. Once the field trials are perfect, we’re going to go live with the product."

In the interview, Citron also talks about why being an entrepreneur is a lot like being a parent, how he started Vonage, the marketing and technical challenges he's faced building the brand and its services, as well as what lies ahead in terms of how Vonage will compete against all those big cable and phone companies that already offer - or plan to offer - VoIP services.

I'm betting you're interested in reading this interview. OK- here's the link.

New Book Spotlights Vonage's Call Savings

A new book called "Talk Is Cheap" by James Gaskin tells you all you ever wanted to know about Voice Over IP- what it is, how it works, and what VoIP services are available for you to choose from. There's plenty of information about Vonage, including the fact that with services such as Vonage, you're likely to save even more money per month over traditional phone services than just the difference in monthly subscription fees.

Even if you are a Vonage subscriber- and if you are here you probably are - you'll find this book useful to send to those of your friends who haven't gotten on board yet. And no, you don't have to buy and then send them the book. Just send them a link. The book's publisher, O'Reilly, has made Chapter 3 of "Talk Is Cheap" available on line for free. We like the title of the chapter- "Free Internet Phone Features You're Paying For Now." Here's the link.

On The Vonage VoIP Forum

Earlier today, Vonage VoIP Forum member arcking kicked off a new thread which he named Extra adapter for traveling. In his thread-launching post, arcking asks if it is possible to have two adapters to use for traveling- one at your main residence and the other at your hotel. To that post, Forum member scerruti proposed that arcking get a Vonage softphone account instead. Arcking wrote back, stating his preference to sign up for a second line at the start of the trip and then discontinue service at the end of the trip. Scerruti as well as Vonage representative rcb116 gave some numbers and expressed their opinion that because of Vonage's termination fees, arcking's idea would wind up costing him money, not saving him money. To that, arcking made what we might call a "see the light" post. "Yeah that would be pretty pointless," he wrote. "I didn't realize you needed a new voice plan for each line - I thought they shared the minutes."

On a new Vonage VoIP Forum thread entitled Voice Mail Access problems, new Vonage VoIP Forum member bigfootxv asks why he needs to call his 11-digit Vonage number to reach his Vonage voice mail when, as the instructions say, you just need to "simply dial 123." Veteran Forum Member and previous Vonage VoIP Forum Member of the Week paul248 responds: "There's a hidden setting in the voicemail called 'Prompt for mailbox number.' Go into your voicemail, and hit 9 to go to setup, then hit 9 again to toggle the prompt on and off." Bigfootxv took paul248's advice, and wrote back: "Thanks for the info, it worked." He ended his "thank you" post with a smiley Emoticon- which made us smile as well.

And by the way, if you want to add an Emoticon to your Vonage VoIP Forum post, click on an Emoticon in the Message Body section of the Post a Reply page. We have dozens of Emoticons to choose from!

That's what's hot about Vonage today. Check with us Wednesday morning for the next edition of the Vonage VoIP Forum Digest!!