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Review by HomeLvr See Profile

  • Location: Atlanta, Fulton, GA, USA
  • Cost: $21 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Price, Call Quality, Reliability
Everything now, had problem with box, refused to replace
Should have took a second chance on VoIP sooner
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Hey,

Well lets see I dropped Vonage over a year ago because it was just horrible. Mostly because of my internet connection (Adelphia Cable), but those times when my connection was rock solid my connection overseas was not. Since then I dropped Vonage and Adelphia, got Bellsouth and Bellsouth DSL. Well I started to get sick of paying out the rear. My phone bills tripled (probably more). Then up pops the news that AT&T is now offering naked dsl. I said ok lets try VoIP again. I decided to go with my Long Distance provider, Primus' VoIP offering. Primus has been the only cheap international long distance I have never had troubles with in all the years one time or another of using POTS. Lingo has been excellent. I have used it all last night and today like crazy calling everyone. Better than my POTS line which is just amazing. And at last my overseas calls don't have issues as they did with Vonage! Lingo also offers a whole lot of free countries to call. If I use as much minutes as I have with POTS that right there will save me over a $100 by itself. Now that it's free I'll be using it even more! Im not going to budget my European calls.

Honestly Lingo I think is the best choice if you want POTS like service. It comes from a great company, Primus and hands down the best deal. Whenever I hear about free country calling I am worried, but I wasn't this time around since Primus has been around forever offering great international long distance. Quality free international calls to so many countries!

Thank You AT&T for naked DSL!

Thanks to you Lingo! for making the world a smaller place. I don't have to worry about calling internationally (all the ones I call are on the free country list!). Its now second nature to pick up the phone and call thousands of miles away! without a second thought.

One more thing, I rated the ease of installation a 3 because the box came before they registered it on the network. So I think. The way it seems was I hooked it up before their servers actually put my box online. I called tech support (5 minute wait or so) and they got me all setup real quick. Very Courteous. I know they were Indian, but his English and his control of the language was great. I could have sworn he was a car salesman at the local Mercedes Benz dealer.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!! :

Have had problem with Lingo Box, no service for a month. Gave them a month to try and repair it. Still wouldn't allow a new box to be sent out. Canceled my card, canceled service. Good thing I canceled the card too because they tried to charge the card next months service and now send me emails saying I need to pay and if I don't my service may be suspended (should already be! considering I canceled it)

member for 22.2 years, 2075 visits, last login: 10.3 years ago
updated 15.9 years ago


funnydowe
@vsnl.net.in

funnydowe

Anon

Question about occupied bandwidth

hi,
How much bandwidth is occupied by lingo adapter (I am talking about the ADAPTER that is supplied by lingo AND NOT THE ONE PURCHASED AT STORE) when you are on call and how much BANDWIDTH is left for internet connection.

How much bandwidth does the DVG-1402S/L Broadband VoIP Router with Lingo occupies. this is the one that can be directly purchased from Dlink.

Please help so that I can make decision

Review by bluediemond See Profile

  • Location: Pensacola, Escambia, FL, USA
  • Cost: $23 per month
  • Install: about 4 days
Great value and good quality service
horrible tech support and customer support
If you can do it yourself, this is the best value offered. Less than 1/2 the price of my ISP's (Cox) IP phone plan.

Considered a few others but after reading reviews I narrowed it down to Vonage or Lingo. Vonage (at the time) did not offer a local phone number to my area, and they cost $5 a month more.

When I signed up the unlimited phone service was $19.95 a month. That has increased to $23.95 but I'm still very satisfied.

The adapter was not free but is now to new customers. No brand name on the adapter, just a Lingo logo.

Calling tech support was a miserable experience. When they ask you to reboot your computer (not adapter) which is not attached to the adapter in any way, they are obviously not familiar with their own product. Their tech support is obviously outsourced as well as every "tech" I've spoken to sounded like he was from India.

You will probably need to call tech support when you first establish service. I had horrible call clarity and simply calling any number may have resulted in no connection at all. Tech support routed my connection through a more local server in my area and I've had no problems since. (about 2 years)

member for 16 years, 16 visits, last login: 9.7 years ago
updated 16 years ago


Review by pbp776 See Profile

  • Location: Piscataway, Middlesex, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $22 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 210 days
Good price, reliability, voice quality, features, International Rate, referral credit.
Newly increase fees, needs more features like other VOIP has.
Half the price of landline, cheper rate for international calls
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:


I was former Sunrocket user before I sing up for Lingo.
I did lots of research for other VOIP and compare their price and features.
I decided to sign up with Lingo for Talk 365 after Sunrocket when down the drain.
Cost:
Place order on 07/17/07 for $195+ $29.99 Activation Fee and $9.99 S&H fee and $12 other regulatory fee that is total of $247. I was like WOW $47 dollar more than Sunrocket. However, Lingo had a deal that if you stay for more than 90 days you get credit back of 29.99 and 9.99 S&H. I did get the credit back after 90 days.

I received the UTStarcom iAN-02EX ATA adapter in next day later. It was fast because it was shipped form VA and I live in NJ base on the Shipping location label.

Setup:
Optimum Online Modem Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router (with Tomato Firmware) UTStarcom iAN-02EX ATA.
Within a minute I was up with dial tone.
Lingo sends their ATA adapter preconfigured with G729 Codec. At first I didn’t change the Codec to G711 Codec for few days. I wanted to test the quality of the call and it was good like Sunrocket. However, after four days later I changed my codec to G711 because the bandwidth speeds I get from Optimum Online I rather use no compression call than compression.

Port Number:
I didn’t want to loose my number from Sunrocket so I send my LETTER OF AUTHORIZATION with the same day I got my ATA. It took Lingo at least 15 days for Lingo to port my number over to Lingo which I believe their normal process time.

Call Quality:
So far the call quality has been good to excellent. Calls to international cities has been excellent for my wife no problem or break up. There were few times I got echoes which I was able fix it by lowering my phone volume or ask the person on the other side to do the same if they have the option. When there was poor call quality and I have done test by ping the Lingo SIP address and trace the route to see if the latency where high. Some times poor quality can be by ISP routing and some time it can be related to VOIP servers.

Reliability:
I would say reliability of the service is 99% excellent. I don’t have people complaining that I don’t answer my phone or it goes to voicemail. The connection is always there. I don’t have to reboot the ATA, Router or Linksys every day. However, I always recycle my stuff at every 30 days from my Modem to PC. The other 1% you can figure it out nothing is perfect in this world.

Support Person:
I called their Tech Support three times. First time was regarding my port issue as I didn’t want to loose my number. Second time was my ATA would not register with their servers. Reboot didn’t fixed the problem so placed a called to the teach support he had to me move the ATA front of the router so he can remote control the box and he was able to resolved the issue. I moved it back behind the router while he was on the line to see if the problem would not persist and there was no glitch. Last time was when they had a few hours outage a month ago not sure what that outage for but all my incoming calls were breaking up on my side but when I place outgoing call to same number it was good. I place a called to their tech support and he was able fixed the issue. These called were for minor/ major issues but base on the teach support person and time frame I would say my problem were resolved in timely manner.

Referral Credit:
I refer my families and friends to Lingo. Two people signed up and they are happy with the service. Plus, I got both my referral credit. Lingo split the credit out base on your monthly bill instead of Credit back to your Credit card or check. Other members that I refer didn’t sign up with Lingo. I didn’t ask because everyone has their own choice.

There are many other VOIP companies. I would recommend Lingo to anyone who would like to save money and make lots of calls. This review is on my own experience with Lingo. Other may have issue with Lingo with Support, Call Quality and so on with their experiences. For me it has been smooth ride since Sunrocket went down. I had Sunrocket since the company started and it was a smooth ride as well.

Other VOIP I currently have account with:
AT&T CallVantage- I used mainly for Business Line.
VoiceStick – I used mainly for I2bridge feature and cheap rate for international rate.

member for 16.6 years, 692 visits, last login: 7.9 years ago
lodged 16 years ago


Review by ychampaneri

  • Location: Iselin, Middlesex, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $26 per month (12 month contract)
So far it has been good, voice quality good us and international calls
none so far
They give you free trial I think it is worth it .. if not sure don't port the number first try it
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:



After reading so many negative and positve reviews on line about lingo I
figure I post my exp to the list.

My setup
Motorolla cable modem than
Trendnet router
than linksys voip adapter

After musch hesitation I ordered lingo on Sunday 02/10/08 adapter arrived
today 02/14/08 ( they charged $ 14.00 for ups ground which I know would have
been $10
hooked it up waited 10 min like it said in installation picked up the phone
and started calling and needless to say working fine call quality is good...

I will post more as I use my phone day to day.

02/17/08
so it is the weekend I wanted to test call quality to overseas india and uk over the weekend to see how it hold up .. and need less to say so far it is good can not tell diffreance between regualr phone line and lingo. I did not port my number yet just wanted to give lingo a try... I have changed my codec settings to use 60 kpbs for call quality ... keeps you posted


(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 16.1 years ago

Capitalism4
join:2008-02-15
Bloomfield, NJ

Capitalism4

Member

Lingo is still going strong ..signup through voiprebates.org

02/19/08

Lingo is still going strong I checked voice quality at various time morning in the evening and at night still good my call quality has improved after changing the codec to the highest settings also

One more thing I signed-up to lingo through www.voiprebates.org they will send you $40 rebate if you do it that way.

more will be posted as I use the lingo service
Capitalism4

Capitalism4

Member

Received rebate check of $ 40 from voiprebates.org

03/26/2008
First up lingo is still going strong, I had some issues with my ISP and lingo was down. That is the only downside. But we love it call UK unlimited un heard of it. Call quality amazing...

Also I signed up using link through " Voiprebates.org" they claimed to give $40 /rebates..., it is true I just received a check for $ 40 Yesterday..

Oh ya and my number porting from Verizon to Lingo completed in 1 and half week...
Capitalism4

Capitalism4

Member

Lingo still going strong

I like lingo no problem so far it has been several months now, I did have some problem with internet but that's comcass's problem.

I still make free calls to usa uk It rocks my family loves it.

Go for it

Review by JTRockville See Profile

  • Location: Rockville, Montgomery, MD, USA
  • Cost: $26 per month
Outstanding Price, Calling Area, and Website
None so far
I Recommend Lingo to Friends!
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Update: December 18, 2007

Over the years, I've had only one problem with Lingo - my ATA died. After running through a few trouble-shooting steps, they immediately sent a new one. I no longer use the ATA as a pass-through - it hangs off one of my routers and works just fine like that. The problems I originally mentioned (inability to dial toll-free numbers and echo) seem to have disappeared over time.

Over the years, the price has increased from $20 to $26 (including fees). It's still a good value, so I'll keep it.

Original review: November 2004

I've had Lingo for two months now (signed up mid-August 2004), and am pleased with the service.

I had some trouble setting it up at first. I didn't have a free port on my router, so I tried using the ATA's as a passthrough. Unfortunately, the computer connected behind the ATA could no longer browse my home network. I'm sure there's a way to configure the ATA so it will work in this setup, but I gave up and put the ATA in front of my router. It's not an ideal setup since I am no longer "stealth", but it works for now.

Once it was set up, I tried making a few calls, but nothing worked. At the time, Lingo required you to dial 1 before any number. My phone has the caller IQ feature, so it didn't send the "1" through. After turning off caller IQ, everything worked fine. Lingo has since changed the procedure and you no longer need to dial 1 first.

Occasionally I have trouble dialing toll free numbers, or experience pauses after I dial and before the number rings, but these problems seem to be getting less frequent. Call quality is usually good. Occasionally I get complaints about "echo", but hanging up and calling back usually resolves it, and again, it's becoming less frequent. I regularly participate in lengthy voice conference calls, and have not experienced any problems whatsoever during the conferences.

My line number port went fairly smoothly, and was completed in around a month. It required several calls to Lingo, because my temporary number continued to be used as my caller ID. I requested that my ported number be used as my caller ID, and the temporary number be removed. Lingo made the change immediately, but then billed me for having a 2nd number. I'm still trying to get the charge removed from my bill.

Lingo's customer support is somewhat adequate, which is high praise by today's standards (where companies are ranked as "better" or "worse" than others because if "good" or "bad" were the benchmarks, they'd all be indistinguishable as "bad"). On the other hand, Lingo's technical support is better than adequate, and at times has even been good/great.

Given that VoIP is still in its infancy, and relies on power/broadband connection, I wouldn't recommend anyone give up their only landline for VoIP service, even though I've never experienced any VoIP "outages". But I highly recommend Lingo to folks who make lots of long-distance calls or who need a 2nd line.

Lingo's price is outstanding. The local calling area for my plan ($20/mo) includes unlimited calling with no "toll" charges to the entire US, Canada, and Western Europe. Most calling plan features are configurable through the cleanly designed and easy to navigate web interface.

Good job, Lingo!

member for 22.1 years, 2520 visits, last login: 10.2 years ago
updated 16.2 years ago

davelissa
join:2004-10-13
Houston, TX

davelissa

Member

Lingo goes Pingo?

I have mixed feeling about Lingo, which I've used for about two months.

I like the price, and their customer service is excellent.

The issues I've had include call quality, sudden loss of voice mail, loss of the line, and dropped calls.

At installation, I had to change my IP settings to use Lingo; then my computer wouldn't work as a web server like it did before. Then the POP3 didn't work...grrrr...

I'm strongly considering changing providers.

One bit of important consideration; you cannot port your number from VOIP provider to another VOIP provider, only your home telephone line, so don't put your VOIP number on your business cards until you've used it about a month!
hper
join:2004-10-12
Ossining, NY

hper

Member

Re: Lingo goes Pingo?

Please note : IT's CRAP
Forget about the risk you’re taking being an early adopter, it can work in the proper environment, that’s what techies like my self make happen, and we deal with the small issues like rewiring you phone line, dealing with the echo and delayed ham radio like service.

I’ve had their service for a little over a week, after installing and using the product a few days I’ve decided to undo the wiring change I did to my main line and use Lingo as a secondary line, a fax line. Lingo does not support faxing on the 19.99 plan line I had, I was forced to upgrade to the 49.99 plan, however the faq doesn’t say that »www.lingosupport.com/faq_equip.html It’s kind of slimy that they don’t say this up-front. At that point the novelty wore off and it was time to get rid of this toy.

I can fill a page with my tech support/customer service run around, only Trump could help them with a few choice words.

LINGO my vote for most likely reason for the downfall of VOIP.
xrandom
You
join:2001-02-21
MA

xrandom

Member

Re: Lingo goes Pingo?

Dude! This is the third time i've read your opinion about lingo (you copied and pasted word for word from your origional post). We get it. Thanks. I'm happy to report that I've had great service with Lingo just waiting for my port to go through.
davelissa
join:2004-10-13
Houston, TX

davelissa

Member

Re: Lingo goes Pingo?

I too was thinking I've heard that before.

I'm just ordering Packet8. According to some reviews, the call quality is slightly better and more reliable.

Hope so!

Review by myvoiplife See Profile

  • Location: San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 6 days
Worked out of the box and all advertised features worked
Price could be better, but not to bad. More features would be nice.
So far it is working well and I have ported my number to them.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Updated Dec 8 2007

One year later, and still working good. No problems. Glad I switched to them.

Updated November 24:

I have had Lingo for about 6 months now and everything has been working flawlessly. No dropped calls, no service outages. They now provide callerid with name which is nice. Took a bit of work to get my previous VOIP provider to release my numbers and get them ported over, but lingo worked through it with me. I now have my business line ported over as well as my home line. Call quality appears to have increased since I first started with the service. The only problem I have is occasionally when dialing cell phones the ring sound can be distorted, but as soon as it connects the call quality if perfect. I have not had any billing or service problems during this time, so I haven't had enough contact with technical support to raise my review in that area yet. My only wish left would be the ability to use one adapter instead of two for my two lines. This would free up a port on my router. I highly recommend purchasing a QOS capable router if you are going to use VOIP. It will improve your internet connection and VOIP service. I personally use the D-Link which acts as my router/network print server/wireless hub.

June 22:

Short history of VOIP services:

2 Years with Net2Phone. Price was high and service started having 10 second outgoing audio blackouts.

Tried Sunrocket and had a problem with outbound callerid not blocking in San Diego area.

Tried ViaTalk and *82 per call callerid function not working. Long support wait times and a fee policy I was not comfortable with. Felt duped by the DSLREPORTS coupon/2 months free being touted here and not immediately refuted by their representatives. The web site indicated it was valid, but not honored by the company except on 1 year + terms.

Lingo:

I finally switched to Lingo and so far I have not had any problems. There are some features lacking, but all the advertised features have worked so far. Service worked as soon as I plugged it in without any problems. I have only had them a week at this point, but nobody has reported any strange noises/problems when calling me (this has happened with other VOIP services). I did notice that when I call people the ring sounds a little distorted, but once the connection is made I have not heard any quality problems. My Dish Network receiver was able to connect using the Lingo line which many other VOIP services failed at. International calls to Asia have worked without any problems as well. No service dropouts or adapter resets required so far.

I have initiated a LNP request from my Net2Phone service and it appears to be going good so far. I like the fact that I can watch the status on their web site. I will update this report if anything changes, but so far it has all worked as expected.

Updated July 11:

So far so good. No resets of the interface required so far. Audio quality has been good with maybe 1-2 calls where the audio quality was distorted, but not enough to make me hang up and call back. LNP is still in process, due to an issue where the ELOA was not accepted and I had to sign and fax a normal LOA. This may have something to do with Net2Phone not wanting to release the number before my next bill. We shall see what happens here. I would recommend doing a normal LOA right from the start to avoid cutting it close if you decide to port your number to them.

I have called them a couple of times, and the reps have been polite and as helpfull as possible, but seem to have very limited information. More training on procedures etc would probably improve their customer service/tech support greatly. This would give you more of a "I got a definate answer" feeling when you get off the phone. I am however, glad to say that I have not been routed to the usual Indian call center that can't even understand my question much less provide a definitive answer.

member for 17.8 years, 13 visits, last login: 16 years ago
updated 16.3 years ago


Robert1
@intel.com

Robert1

Anon

iTalkkBB is disppointing

My experience with iTalkBB is bad. I used it for about two months (supposedly 1 month free trial and 1 month paid). It is very hard to get through the line with iTalkBB when I call people in China. In that case, I switched to another line provided by Verizon, then I can get through immediately. In many times, iTalkBB connection was just through in single direction, i.e., I could hear my peer, but he could not hear me, or the other way arround. After the disappointed experience for two months, I cancelled my iTalkBB account recently. An extra surprise is that they charge me on that trial month also, which was promised to be a free month. So I paid the two months and that's definitely the last two months I would use with iTalkBB in my life.

Review by tonye5 See Profile

  • Location: Miami, Miami-Dade, FL, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
Inexpensive, free long distance, no surprises on your bill
When I first got it had some garbling, hasn't happened in months
It's everything I expected, it's seamless, friends don't know I'm on VOIP
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I've had Lingo for a couple of years now, and I must admit that I think it's great. When I first installed it, there were some sound quality issues but Lingo regularly updates the firmware on their voip box, and it's been a long time since I've heard any complaints about sound quality. It always works, and there are no tricky billing practices like I was constantly facing with BellSouth.

member for 23.4 years, 175 visits, last login: 12.5 years ago
lodged 16.3 years ago







Review by bigjohn98 See Profile

  • Location: Fort Lauderdale, Broward, FL, USA
  • Cost: $19 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 14 days
part of a big telecom company
hidden charges, tech support could be better, gizmo requires to sit directly on Internet for reliable service
keep looking for something else
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

after I signed up for 195/year + equipment + some other installation/activation charges = $247 they still charge my CC $3.10 for federal tax. I tried to call and argue about:
- no one mentioned to me during the signup process about that
- that tax should be the part of the plan cost (adds $37 annually to the existing plan)

they told me it is out of their hands and they cannot do anything about it. watch out for those! following the same line - they are the masters of fine print! EVERYTHING is hidden in there, they never come clean about what they offer, always gotchas! (I guess it comes from being part of a bigger telecom company)

On several occasions I had to call their 800# support number from my cell phone because calling it from their own LINGO line does not work!!! how silly is that?

tech support seems to be in India, which is Ok IF/WHEN you get a right person to speak to.

I had some issues with my linksys router's firmware (as I found out later), and to troubleshoot the phone issues, they told me the gizmo HAS TO be connected to Internet directly, or to be on DMZ with tons of ports opened. This is what they do to troubleshoot, and it also shows their approach/design for a reliable connections. I'd agree with them if that gizmo was a secure device, at least to a degree. You can HTTP/TELNET to it from the Internet's ANY address.

on the positive side, they have lots of features such as:
+ Automatically forward your incoming calls to a different phone number based on time of day, day of week or caller's phone number.
+ Ring multiple phones at the same time when calls are received.
+ you can adjust what voice codec will be in use - high bandwidth(90kbps) or low bandwidth (30kbps)
... and more, pretty much standard, features.


member for 22.2 years, 131 visits, last login: 4.4 years ago
lodged 16.4 years ago


Review by mcaslan See Profile

  • Location: Baltimore, Baltimore City, MD, USA
  • Cost: $19 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
$19.99 Unlimited Local, LongDistance - US, Canada, Western Europe
Customer Service, ...see below...
We needed to save $600 per year...
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

10/17/2007 - It's been over 3 years now and Lingo has been great. Again if anyone wants a $25 credit when they sign up PM me and I'll get a referral out to you. I am still very happy with their VOIP service which I credit to the fact they are a telecom company. I have also recently signed up for their Unwired service to get lower International rates on my cellphone.

10/17/2006 Two years into Lingo. Lingo launched CallerID with Name! I turned it on and am a happy camper. It also provides the name after the number on email notification of the VoiceMail. It's an excellent implementation of CallerID + Name.

Voice Quality has been consistently getting better. Now there are bad days and awsome days. But my guess is that since most VOIP is gatewayed through Level3 (as with Lingo) and we all have no QOS on our Broadband...service is excellent.

06/17/2006 - I have nothing but excellent to say about the VOIP quality and features. Customer Service for technical has gotten much better but is still mediocre for Billing issues.

This past year we continued with Lingo using a Hawkingtech product called the HBB1 Broadband Booster. »www.hawkingtech.com/prod ··· odID=216 It prioritized VOIP and other traffic like gaming and Video. Linksys and DLink make an equivalent product. I disabled the QOS in the Sveasoft Router.

I have enabled the Enhanced Voice Quality it's the higher bandwitdth encoding for VOIP taking about 90kb. We are using Comcast and the speed enhancements and stability have been complementary to VOIP.

Features like EMail VoiceMail and Simultaneous Ring are fantastic. WHen I have screwed up my router the Simultaneous Ring to cellphone saves the day.

06/22/2005 - Over the past year we have saved close to $900! Now I just need to figure out what I spent that money on...All in all I like Lingo. Primus is doing a very good job providing a consumer grade service at low cost. If you want a refferal for $25 of fthe initial costs let me know I'll email you the intro.

Service has been very reliable for the last month. Prior to that 2 weeks of the ATA can't connect to Lingo VOIP without resetting the router and ATA in a defined order. I traced this lack of reliability to the router firmware change I made (upgraded SVEASOFT Talisman 1.0.3 to 1.0.5) rebuilt the router configured port forwards and all is well again.

Here's a review of a configuration and forum about Linksys software that offers QOS

»www.sveasoft.com/modules ··· ghlight=

03/02/2005 - I still love the service and cost. It has been strange losing Comcast cable every few weeks this winter and losing phone service. There is absolutely nothing one can do to pressure service restoration. You have to be aware VOIP is not POTS and if things fail you have to do the legwork to get things resolved, calling cable company, calling lingo, redirecting calls in the interim or checking your voicemail and use a cell phone.

03/01/2005 - Between December and March I have been calling Lingo Customer Care - Billing Concerns. It's pathetic, these reps have no management solution for resolving billing issues. The fact that at $19.99 what kind of billing issues can really happen?

I had called a UK company using an 0845 number known in the UK as LoCall. However the VOIP companies in their laziness for dialing trees have enabled the numbering range as UK Premium. I had $5 of call charges in Nov, $50 of call charges in December, and $5 in Jan until someone brought to my attention the charges. They had been posted sometime around December. WHat I learned is that Lingo reserves the right to modify the calling plan anytime without notice given to us, it is our responsibility to check the website regularily. They don't even feel they owe us 1 billing cycle.

In the end after countless calls to Customer Support I started tracking down Primus Executives. I was finally credited with 50% of the cal charges up to the date they published the changes by a very helpful person who seemed to care to help. The executives in VA running Primus Lingo are not sharp cookies. They are poor communicators and don't offer their call center any support to resolve genuine issues.

12/26/2004 - Call quality for local Verizon calls has been improving. While heavily compressed the latency has been reduced to an acceptable level. There are times when I am calling home that I forget we now have VOIP. Most of the call quality loss is perceived by the premises using VOIP. In many cases the other part hears perfect voice quality.

It's been an excellent serivce, call quality has been great to most networks, strange though the quality into Verizon is mediocre. AT&T has now been cancelled, my last Verizon bill arrived 0 ballance. The processes are still in development - the old telcos must be such a pain to work with. Lingo is now partnered with DLink, but the original Lingo box rocks as I can plug an emergency line into it.

Wednesday October 27th called to have Lingo change my Calling Line ID to my number that I had ported from Verizon. They had left the temp number active and I did not want to be charged. Support was in Canada and the agent took my details down and the following day I received an emailo to say the work was completed. Sure enough it was correct now. I had to call 1 more time and ask that they modify my Lingo 1st number deleting the temp and making the ported number 1st.

Tuesday September 27th called to get update on Number port - scheduled 9/29

I have also noticed that referrals are now written with a tracking number, prior referrals had no reference and had to be tracked by the user. Note the new 1 month free promotion indicates that we on the 3 month free were pilot users to help iron out the product. The timing has coincided almost exactly with the maturation of the product from release to date. Smart of them to limit the financial drain, work with users to develop their product and to tune things.

Friday September 10th 04 @03:50PM

Began Local Number Porting process by submitting faxed form and copy of my Verizon Bill to 800 fax number listed.

It's been a month since we completed our setup and over the month the value for service has been very good. The initial setup kinks are now resolved. The overall service is meeting my expectation. However, my expectations are very simple - better value telephone service, utilize my broadband connection to better justify its expense, disconnect my Verizon, and AT&T service, save $500 - $600 a year and have a happy wife (with regards to the telephone).

Issues to date:

EDT versus GMT on VoiceMail and EMail notification - Corrected.

GMT on Web Page My Calls - Don't care to pursue this as GMT is OK.

Sometimes the phone doesn't ring and call goes to VoiceMail - Dial tone is present when I check and dial VoiceMail. I use VoiceMail notification via EMail attachment so no big deal.

Phone rings hello hello hello no one there and hang up. Turns out the call doesn't connect until 1 or 2 secs after you pick up the phone. So if you're too quick your family and friends hear you as you hang up the phone. We traced this and now pick up the phone, pause, think of something to say, then greet our callers.

Call quality to UK are amazing call quality 10/10

Call quality Long Distance USA are excellent 9/10

Call quality to 800/866/877/888 numbers are mediocre 7/10

Call quality Local via Verizon is poor 5/10

I use a Sidekick by TMobile and it picks up my EMail VoiceMail notification. What is amazing is when people leave short VoiceMail less than 60secs I can listen to the WAV file attachment on my SIdekick (TMobile limits attachment WAV files to 160Kb). This is a fantastic enhancement to traditional Voice Mail notification. The email has Calling Line ID built in to the Subject Line or file name with Time and Date.

The 'bill' came today. I can hardly call it a bill as it is for $0 as the first 3 months are free. I was amazed at how much our phone is used. The breakdown is Local, InTraState, IntraLata, LongDistance, Toll Free, and Europe. 17 pages of detail!

Tuesday August 10th 04, @05:00PM

In the analysys of VOIP carriers it was important for us to select an exisiting voice player that had expanded their portfolio and offered VOIP. Having struggled through the growth and ultimate failure of dot.com DSL carriers, bandwidth is a service constraint repeatedly during the growth of a carrier. Without adequate capacity service quality will suffer.

AT&T, Verizon, and Lingus (Primus) were considered. WIth calls to the UK as part of our calling pattern Lingo was a no brainer if we were to save money.

My reference from a forum member saved each of us $25 with a credit. Feel free to ask for an email referral if you want a credit, I'll send one out.

I selected to install the ATA 1st between my Router and Comcast Cable Modem. The simple but clear instructions were read and followed producing a perfect 10 minute installation. Dial tone was fabricated, calls were placed and received successfully. I watched the LED's to get a sense of what should be happening. Plugged my analogue phone lime in to the spare line jack and on failure the ATA used POTS. Also, if a call came in on the POTS it rang on the phone plugged into the ATA. What a nice undocumented safety feature.

OK it works, now to break it by placing it behind my firewall. I configured the ATA with a static IP address by obtaining the Username and Password for the basic User account. Your computer needs to be connected to the LAN port of the ATACall 200. Don't forget to save your configuration - I did. Restart (Unplug) the ATACall 200 and web in again to confirm everything remains configured. I configured the ATACall 200 fixed IP address in my router as the DMZ host (select a fixed IP address below your DHCP range).

Everything worked. Phone rang, we could talk.

I encountered a few issues:

1) Voice Mail Slow Delivery - EMailed a trouble ticket. Resolved in 4 days, issue has not arrisen again.

2) Voice Mail wrong Time Zone - EMailed a trouble ticket received an email to clarify a few things within 48 hours, then the issue was handed to Tier 2 receievd a call back 4 days after the initial issue was reported. Clarified examples and reproduced issue for Engineer. issue was resolved 7 days later when some back end procedures and changes were made.

3) VOIP Phone Rings I answer it Hello, Hello, Hello I hate when that happens no one is there Hang Up. The caller hears me say I hate when that happens as I replace the phone On Hook. The solution is to slow down 2 seconds, wait for the click after you answer the ringing phone 1 - 2 secs and then say Hello. It appears that Lingo fabricates Ringing before a call is delivered a second or two later after the phone is answered.

4) Quality varies call by call. No pattern local calls are good, poor, excellent, etc. However, most are excellent and the value of cost to call great.

5) Teach your family memenrs about VOIP and how to reset the Cable Modem, Router, and ATA when it locks up.

All in all I like Lingo. Primus is doing a very good job providing a consumer grade service at low cost. If you want a refferal for $25 of fthe initial costs let me know I'll email you the intro.

Remember how AT&T and Verizon would service you in 2004 and on into the future. Only recently have they become involved in things like DSL and Routers. The complexity of the VOIP setup is humongous.

member for 23.7 years, 2505 visits, last login: 3.6 years ago
updated 16.4 years ago


Review by gfxdave999 See Profile

  • Location: Naperville, Du Page, IL, USA
  • Cost: $25 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 8 days
When it worked it was okay
Sound Quality Issues - Reliablity Issues
AT&T Callvantage FTW
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Value for money:

I got Lingo about a year ago because they seemed to have good reviews at the time.

In the year of service i had the following issues (keep in mind that I am in a configuration where I put the phone router behind my router)

1. Adapter would stop giving dialtone / receiving calls when broadband connection is present.
2. Adapter would after several pick ups of the phone give you dialtone but it was a fake dialtone and went to a busy signal no matter what number you dialed.
3. If there was any kind of dropped packets the voice quality would drop to unusable and would add these lovely screeching noises.
4. They recycled a number to me that belonged to someone who didnt pay their bills and i had a year of harassing phone calls and Lingo refused to give me a new number without a charge.

I have been using at&t callvantage now for a few weeks in the same network configuration and have had zero issues, zero outages, and have had great voice quality even with newsgroup downloads and torrent uploads going in the background.


member for 19.2 years, 15 visits, last login: 14.7 years ago
lodged 16.5 years ago