digiblur
Got Sipura?
Premium
join:2002-06-03
Louisiana
| Jeez..charges
Look at all of those charges...jeez... VoicePulse was immunue until Jan'07. But at least its only a small fee and not like Vonage.
The local cable co's and telco's are worse yet....and they can't even keep their dial tones running!
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FWD#64466(6PM-11PM GMT-5)
»[Sipura] Make your Sipura Speak! - GetSipura Guide
And now for the PAP2-NA and unlocked PAP2's. |
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Rick
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-06
Waterbury, CT
clubs: 
| Maybe the stock market has this call wrong..
adding almost a million customers a year seems pretty impressive to me, and for everything that a telco like AT&T seems to lose, Vonage seems to be gaining.
I also can't help but to wonder whether ultimately the cable co's are helping this company. They're introducing everyone to this service, selling them on their introductory triple play packages, but what happens when the real cable co. prices start to kick in?
Do people then say, we love voip..but now see we can get a much better deal elsewhere?
I've been a vonage customer for quite a while now and find their service to be outstanding. The savings I realize versus my traditional telco pots/ld line I had before single handedly now pays for my cable connection each month. I could never see any benefit in going with a more expensive cable co..and in my case..comcast service.
Nor do I see the lesser expensive voip alternatives as being very viable alternatives.
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic! |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
|  Losing $'s on every customer; but making it up in volume
Their stock price dropped because it is costing them too much to garner subscribers. And they still have a high churn rate(though slightly better) because many of their customers are deadbeats.
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My BLOG
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elios
join:2005-11-15
Springfield, MO | reply to Rick
Re: Maybe the stock market has this call wrong..
well im sticking with Skype
works great and i just got a hardware skype phone and full year payed up front for less then 3 months any were else |
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Kiwi
Premium
join:2003-05-26
USA
·Comcast
 ·Aristotle Internet
| Vonage still stands.
But not much thanks to those screaming idiots that blew the concept away, with 911.
»Re: Called 911
That post sums a lot of things up. Vonage is still doing well around my house, but the cost is most definitely creeping up to a point where I might end up switching to cell only use; if it gets worse.
Cheers |
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Rick
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-06
Waterbury, CT
clubs:
| While cell is great for mobile use I could never use it as a landline replacement entirely. I have yet to have a cell service where I didn't experience dropped calls and for me, that's just too aggravating when trying to carry on a longer conversation with someone.
My Vonage service on the other hand has been as reliable as my pots line ever was except now I have the added benefit of all these features and unlimited long distance.
I easily save 70.00 a month with vonage versus my old telco pots/ld package, and while the prices have gone up a bit namely for things like 911 related things..It's still well worth it.
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic! |
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Kiwi
Premium
join:2003-05-26
USA
·Comcast
·Aristotle Internet
| said by Rick  :While cell is great for mobile use I could never use it as a landline replacement entirely. I have yet to have a cell service where I didn't experience dropped calls and for me, that's just too aggravating when trying to carry on a longer conversation with someone. My Vonage service on the other hand has been as reliable as my pots line ever was except now I have the added benefit of all these features and unlimited long distance. I easily save 70.00 a month with vonage versus my old telco pots/ld package, and while the prices have gone up a bit namely for things like 911 related things..It's still well worth it. I agree with you, the concern is the concept got lost in BS. There are most definitely times when requiring a service that a VoIP or POTS is required, or a serious headache ensues. I ended up with Vonage because I didn't use a phone much, been really happy with it until the fools got on board and drove the price up. It's still reasonably priced, but I don't see it lasting into the third quarter. This time it's not the 911 freaks, but cable. Perhaps after the introduction prices wear off cable, people will realize this was yet another gimmick. Cable VoIP is not cheap. |
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tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Floral Park, NY
| No 9/11 parachutes left..
shareholders want profitability,, and the long term success of the company be damned... that kind of short sightedness costs companies dearly in subscriber base.. and a VOIP dot com startup can least afford to start doing things that SCREWS THE CONSUMER... not when there are cablecos and telcos that can buy and sell a VONAGE 50 times over and still have cash left to buy everyone in America a Happy meal! |
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kyramilan
join:2006-11-26
Pensacola, FL
| reply to Rick
Re: Maybe the stock market has this call wrong..
said by Rick :adding almost a million customers a year seems pretty impressive to me, and for everything that a telco like AT&T seems to lose, Vonage seems to be gaining. And, when they go Bankrupt, will that be impressive too? I don't think AT&T going bankrupt is in the cards any, any time soon. |
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Rick
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-06
Waterbury, CT
clubs:
| reply to Kiwi
Re: Vonage still stands.
As I suggested above, I think what might very well happen is the cable co's sign up a lot of people because of their marketing power and triple play specials, but then wind up losing a good portion to the likes of Vonage due to their own greed. These cable co's just love to raise prices and do so seemingly without any fear of the consequences.
While many dsl packages are 15 to 25.00 per month..comcast simply doesn't budge off their 43 to 53.00 per month prices. I predict this will hold true to voip with them as well. For 99.00 per month, they're now signing up the newbies with triple play..but it won't last.
And, when people start getting 50.00 per month voip bills instead..they'll go looking for alternatives.
This is really a very good position for vonage to be in.
It's the cable co's doing the hard sell..using their money and legitimizing the service..and Vonage gets to be the lower cost provider to reap the benefits.
Vonage certainly won't win all the business..but they don't have to. If they keep growing by these kinds of numbers..almost a million net new customers the last year alone..it won't be long until they're in the black.
What many don't realize is that they could already be there if it weren't for their huge advertising spending.
That alone is keeping them from being profitable today.
But, it's necessary in this early phase of their business to get their name out there.
I certainly wouldn't write them off just yet with this kind of growth. While their prices are going up somewhat, in many respects it's probably necessary that they are.
If they're going to be a legitimate replacement for pots, people want 911 service with it. If they didn't have that, the telcos would use that against them.
I also think that vonage might very well become a take over candidate at these prices. Keep in mind that ebay bought skype..and did so at 4 times the market value that vonage is now trading at. I'd have to think that they see vonage as attractive at these prices the stock has fallen to.
There's going to be consolidation in this industry just like in the cable industry. And ebay might very well be the one who makes it happen.
Anyways.it should be interesting. 
Good luck with your service.
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic! |
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Pz_
join:2001-03-31
Brownsburg, IN
clubs:
| reply to elios
Re: Maybe the stock market has this call wrong..
I too dropped Vonage in favor of Skype. I just don't really use the phone all that much. My PC is on all the time anyway, plus I can use my cell bluetooth headset. Works great.
Nothing against Vonage, I loved them while I was on board, it just doesn't look good for them right now.
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SierraRob
join:2007-01-10
Prather, CA
·Unwired Broadband ..
1 edit | Don't forget the potential liabilities
Let's not even mention how they allow their company van to be recklessly driven through the walls of buildings, or how they throw dangerously huge boxes at peoples' heads, causing them to ignore their clueless girlfriend who's about to become shark bait (hoo ha ha!). That company is RIPE for a personal injury lawsuit. |
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gajs
@comcast.net | reply to TKJunkMail
Re: Losing $'s on every customer; but making it up in volume
churn rate are not related to people that do not pay. that is named charge offs.
churn rate are the amount of people who cancel their services mostly to go to another competitor. |
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kyramilan
join:2006-11-26
Pensacola, FL
| reply to Rick
Re: Vonage still stands.
Vonage is primarily aimed at Geeks. People that want quality and local tech support get a real phone or Cable's VOIP.
Vonage is facing massive lawsuits so exactly who would be stupid enough to buy them?
If Vonage would spend money on QUALITY not those stupid 30 minute infomercials at 3 am in the morning, they might not have outages. |
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Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI
·Comcast
| said by kyramilan :Vonage is primarily aimed at Geeks. People that want quality and local tech support get a real phone or Cable's VOIP. Quite right. VoIP is a toy (except service offered directly from the cable company) and can't be relied upon in a disaster. If you want true long term reliability during an extended power outage then the only option is POTS.
Personally I don't think POTS is all that expensive for the level of reliability it provides, especially for 911 service. I could never see myself getting rid of it just to save a few bucks.
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We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company.
-- Ernestine |
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tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Floral Park, NY | reply to SierraRob
Re: Don't forget the potential liabilities
I'd like just ONE other voip company to air a commercial throwing a VONAGE bill at someone's attached with a brick... labeled surcharges, taxes, and fees! Then tout their all inclusive bill.. |
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mr anon
@il.us
| I thought they were ok until...
I spoke to my friend who has vonage and how they are messing him over.
Basically his USB key device died, it wouldn't seem to be his fault as its always in and no other device died during that period or before after. They wouldn't believe it because the memory part still worked. They sent him instruction after instruction to reload the device but basically the hidden side of the drive would load the program on the viewable side, and it was probably the hidden side that was broken, no given way to completely 100% reload all code on the device.
So they said the next option was to get a new device, they charged him for that. That works but he can't register the dang blasted thing for some error with the registry site. On top of that if he wants support besides a few basic things he has to... CALL! Which he can't do since his phone doesn't work, you can't even call vonage's own 800 number less the device is activated!
Now what about using a soft phone, since basically the usb device runs software and you plug a mic into it. Well they charge you for that.
Point blank it sounds like they may be ok but until you have a problem and you meet the substandard support. |
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Kiwi
Premium
join:2003-05-26
USA
·Comcast
·Aristotle Internet
| reply to Jim Gurd
Re: Vonage still stands.
said by Jim Gurd :said by kyramilan :Vonage is primarily aimed at Geeks. People that want quality and local tech support get a real phone or Cable's VOIP. Quite right. VoIP is a toy (except service offered directly from the cable company) and can't be relied upon in a disaster. If you want true long term reliability during an extended power outage then the only option is POTS. Personally I don't think POTS is all that expensive for the level of reliability it provides, especially for 911 service. I could never see myself getting rid of it just to save a few bucks. Sorry, but its that larger BS idiots, base waiting for this:
VoIP is NOT a toy It's a service. The problem is that people have decided that VoIP Should be a a POTS service
If only we could go back, to basics..... It's relevant that most people these days have no idea, what VoIP is or was; or it's intended function. We still see the idiots that don't have a single isolated clue of how this service was intended, in the beginning; I really hope some have enough IT experience to review the basics!\
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Kiwi
Premium
join:2003-05-26
USA | Scary, No one can challenge the basic concept...Lol
This thread was a 'Thrill" really! Lol |
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