trparky
Bite My Shiny Metal Ass
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
clubs:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| Counting down the days...
Counting down the days until the death of Vonage.
I mean, come on... anybody who thought that after the cable companies realized that doing phone as well was a lucrative thing Vonage would survive was a fool.
I saw it coming.
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Tom |
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supergirl
join:2007-03-20
Pensacola, FL
 ·Cox VOIP
·Skype
 ·Cox HSI
 ·AT&T Southeast
·magicjack.com
| said by trparky  :Counting down the days until the death of Vonage. I mean, come on... anybody who thought that after the cable companies realized that doing phone as well was a lucrative thing Vonage would survive was a fool. I saw it coming. The Cable outfits do it better. No set-up, no hassles. Really, most just line a POTS line. Internet-based VOIP's days are over. Mostly. Even the Telcos are going VOIP. With caps, non-techies are going to say, "No thank you, I don't want to pay extra to use you."
I know I see a lot less Vonage commercials today. And, their rep of being harder to cancel than AOL, is also hurting new converts.
Simply put, Indie VOIP is for the tech-minded crowd not the mainstream. A lot of them are cell only anyway.
--
Saving the world keeps me busy. However, I find Earth very primitive from my home planet of Krypton.
-Supergirl |
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Jeffrey
Merry Christmas
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FIOS
·Vonage
·magicjack.com
| said by supergirl :said by trparky :Counting down the days until the death of Vonage. I mean, come on... anybody who thought that after the cable companies realized that doing phone as well was a lucrative thing Vonage would survive was a fool. I saw it coming. The Cable outfits do it better. No set-up, no hassles. I don't think that statement is a fair one to make. I purchased Vonage in 2004, then 2 more lines in early 2005. Ten minutes to setup, very little hassle. (What hassle I did experience was my own fault.)
Cablevision required (still requires?) a home visit to setup Optimum Voice.
I've been a tremendously happy Vonage customer for over 4 years, and I hope they continue to remain in business. The value I have received from their product has been excellent.
Many of the people who cancel don't realize that if your Internet connection is crappy, then your call quality will suffer. A friend of mine had this problem, but didn't want to hear it.
--
"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy." - George Carlin
[my ramblings] |
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knightmb
Everybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN
·AT&T DSL Service
| said by Jeffrey :I don't think that statement is a fair one to make. I purchased Vonage in 2004, then 2 more lines in early 2005. Ten minutes to setup, very little hassle. (What hassle I did experience was my own fault.) Cablevision required (still requires?) a home visit to setup Optimum Voice. I've been a tremendously happy Vonage customer for over 4 years, and I hope they continue to remain in business. The value I have received from their product has been excellent. Many of the people who cancel don't realize that if your Internet connection is crappy, then your call quality will suffer. A friend of mine had this problem, but didn't want to hear it. I have to agree, Vonage has been rock solid for half a decade for me. I have 6 lines with Vonage, half of which are fax lines. I've converted all of my friends and family (who have broadband) to Vonage as well. None of them have any issues because you need a stable ISP first, then someone who knows the difference between QoS and Traffic Shaping to get a proper setup so that normal PC Internet activity doesn't mess with the calls. I do all of it for them and they are amazed at how cheap it is. They get every service possible that the phone company offers and unlimited calling to this part of the planet plus a few foreign countries just for the heck of it. The phone company just can't compare at $24.99 a month. The cable company phone service just can't compare for price or stability either.
If you have a descent ISP and some understanding of how the technology really works, you won't have any problems with the service. Can probably be said for many other VoIP companies as well.
--
Fight NebuAD and the like:
Click Here to pollute their data |
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CO_Chris
Premium
join:2001-08-28
Broomfield, CO | reply to Jeffrey
I had Vonjunk when i had earthstinks cable in TX and man they are byfar the worst . All I can say is Thanks to TWC in Houston and Comcast here in Colorado for the great service they have.. |
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nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to supergirl
I'm wondering how much of the problems that people must be having (I assume people leave because of some issue) are related to their internet connection and NOT to the vonage service itself.
if you have a crappy connection, you will have crappy vonage service.
btw, I have a pretty good connection and I rarely have problems with vonage. |
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st7860
join:2004-05-13
San Francisco, CA | reply to trparky
if vonage charged decent prices to BEGIN with instead of offering their best plans (such as $15/mo for unlimited north american calls) only to people who cancel, then they wouldn't be in such bad shape. |
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Cheese
Premium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
clubs:
1 edit | reply to knightmb
said by knightmb :said by Jeffrey :I don't think that statement is a fair one to make. I purchased Vonage in 2004, then 2 more lines in early 2005. Ten minutes to setup, very little hassle. (What hassle I did experience was my own fault.) Cablevision required (still requires?) a home visit to setup Optimum Voice. I've been a tremendously happy Vonage customer for over 4 years, and I hope they continue to remain in business. The value I have received from their product has been excellent. Many of the people who cancel don't realize that if your Internet connection is crappy, then your call quality will suffer. A friend of mine had this problem, but didn't want to hear it. I have to agree, Vonage has been rock solid for half a decade for me. I have 6 lines with Vonage, half of which are fax lines. I've converted all of my friends and family (who have broadband) to Vonage as well. None of them have any issues because you need a stable ISP first, then someone who knows the difference between QoS and Traffic Shaping to get a proper setup so that normal PC Internet activity doesn't mess with the calls. I do all of it for them and they are amazed at how cheap it is. They get every service possible that the phone company offers and unlimited calling to this part of the planet plus a few foreign countries just for the heck of it. The phone company just can't compare at $24.99 a month. The cable company phone service just can't compare for price or stability either. If you have a descent ISP and some understanding of how the technology really works, you won't have any problems with the service. Can probably be said for many other VoIP companies as well. My CDV is 24.95 a month, and ROCK solid, I am pretty sure that if the power goes out, your Vonage box is out too, or if your internet is out, same. CDV has a battery for up to 10 hours, does Vonage do that? |
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dnoyeB
Ferrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI
| reply to supergirl
I disagree. Only advantage cable has is they own the network. So if there is a problem, there is no one else to blame or rely on. Thats a big point.
But they do not do it "better." Vonage is as rock solid as my internet connection. Plus Vonage is $25/month. Comcast is $33/month and thats the sale price...
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dnoyeB
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. " Ecclesiastes 9:16
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NwkEWR
Spare Me the Socialist B.S.
Premium
join:2002-04-10
Newark, NJ
·AT&T Yahoo
·Vonage
·Optimum Online
| reply to Cheese
Cheese, tell me that you are being facetious, please do tell me that, otherwise I may need to mention the name of a technological wonder that no one has ever heard of before, it goes by the acronym of UPS, and no, it has nothing to do with United Parcel Service.
--
BEWARE: "We can't expect the American people to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism." - Nikita Khrushchev - |
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supergirl
join:2007-03-20
Pensacola, FL
·Cox VOIP
·Skype
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southeast
·magicjack.com
| reply to Jeffrey
said by Jeffrey :said by supergirl :said by trparky :Counting down the days until the death of Vonage. I mean, come on... anybody who thought that after the cable companies realized that doing phone as well was a lucrative thing Vonage would survive was a fool. I saw it coming. The Cable outfits do it better. No set-up, no hassles. I don't think that statement is a fair one to make. I purchased Vonage in 2004, then 2 more lines in early 2005. Ten minutes to setup, very little hassle. (What hassle I did experience was my own fault.) Cablevision required (still requires?) a home visit to setup Optimum Voice. I've been a tremendously happy Vonage customer for over 4 years, and I hope they continue to remain in business. The value I have received from their product has been excellent. Many of the people who cancel don't realize that if your Internet connection is crappy, then your call quality will suffer. A friend of mine had this problem, but didn't want to hear it. You made my point. Simple setup WITHOUT tech knowledge.
If you have 256kbps up, anyone can use Vonage. But, people with 15/1 and 20/5 and such that can't, something is wrong with Vonage. However, people pay for convenience not sitting at the computer for 4 hours trying to make it work or figure out why it doesn't. I call Cox, they fix it.
And, you have FIOS. If it doesn't work on that well, it doesn't work well anywhere.
--
Saving the world keeps me busy. However, I find Earth very primitive from my home planet of Krypton.
-Supergirl |
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BillRoland
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL
clubs:
·Cox HSI
| reply to Cheese
said by Cheese :said by knightmb :said by Jeffrey :I don't think that statement is a fair one to make. I purchased Vonage in 2004, then 2 more lines in early 2005. Ten minutes to setup, very little hassle. (What hassle I did experience was my own fault.) Cablevision required (still requires?) a home visit to setup Optimum Voice. I've been a tremendously happy Vonage customer for over 4 years, and I hope they continue to remain in business. The value I have received from their product has been excellent. Many of the people who cancel don't realize that if your Internet connection is crappy, then your call quality will suffer. A friend of mine had this problem, but didn't want to hear it. I have to agree, Vonage has been rock solid for half a decade for me. I have 6 lines with Vonage, half of which are fax lines. I've converted all of my friends and family (who have broadband) to Vonage as well. None of them have any issues because you need a stable ISP first, then someone who knows the difference between QoS and Traffic Shaping to get a proper setup so that normal PC Internet activity doesn't mess with the calls. I do all of it for them and they are amazed at how cheap it is. They get every service possible that the phone company offers and unlimited calling to this part of the planet plus a few foreign countries just for the heck of it. The phone company just can't compare at $24.99 a month. The cable company phone service just can't compare for price or stability either. If you have a descent ISP and some understanding of how the technology really works, you won't have any problems with the service. Can probably be said for many other VoIP companies as well. My CDV is 24.95 a month, and ROCK solid, I am pretty sure that if the power goes out, your Vonage box is out too, or if your internet is out, same. CDV has a battery for up to 8 hours, does Vonage do that? I recently got Cox Digital Phone service and I have to agree, for $29 a month I get unlimited local and long distance calling, every call feature I can think of, voice mail, unlisted number, a battery backed up e-MTA, and QoS over the HFC network thanks to PacketCable. It may be a couple of bucks more a month, but Vonage just can't compete. I simply NEVER have any problems.
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"Don't steal. The government hates competition." |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA | reply to Cheese
Oh yeah, CDV is great!
Does not rely on internet, Vonage does. |
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Cheese
Premium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
clubs:
1 edit | reply to NwkEWR
said by NwkEWR :Cheese, tell me that you are being facetious, please do tell me that, otherwise I may need to mention the name of a technological wonder that no one has ever heard of before, it goes by the acronym of UPS, and no, it has nothing to do with United Parcel Service. And tell me how long that UPS is going to run if any type of PC is plugged in? Not 10 hours! |
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nitzan
Premium,VIP
join:2008-02-27
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| While we're comparing apples to oranges, how long would your PC last on your cable box's battery?
We're not talking about a PC here so it is irrelevant. We're talking about how long would your Analog Telephone Adapter, router, and cable/DSL modem run on a typical UPS. Answer: long enough for the power to come back. If you need your cable co to supply the battery for you that's up to you, but you can most definitely easily do-it-yourself.
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation |
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Cheese
Premium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
clubs:
| said by nitzan :While we're comparing apples to oranges, how long would your PC last on your cable box's battery? We're not talking about a PC here so it is irrelevant. We're talking about how long would your Analog Telephone Adapter, router, and cable/DSL modem run on a typical UPS. Answer: long enough for the power to come back. If you need your cable co to supply the battery for you that's up to you, but you can most definitely easily do-it-yourself. My PC would last probably less than 10 min on my 1500 UPS with my hardware and no, I don't need the cable company to supply anything, and the average user isn't going to just hook up those items to a UPS, they will also have a PC hooked up. |
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s13
join:2007-12-06
USA
| reply to Cheese
said by Cheese :And tell me how long that UPS is going to run if any type of PC is plugged in? Not 10 hours! That's why you run it off a dedicated UPS. You can pick up a small UPS for under $40 that will run a cable modem for hours... cheap security. |
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s13
join:2007-12-06
USA
| reply to nitzan
said by nitzan :If you need your cable co to supply the battery for you that's up to you, but you can most definitely easily do-it-yourself. Don't know if it's just for business or what, but Cablevision supplied us with a purpose-built (proprietary cable) APC UPS when we switched to Optimum Voice a few months ago. Don't know the specs but the installer said it should last 15 hours in an outage... while I doubt that number, I'm sure it'll be good for several hours. |
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Cheese
Premium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
clubs:
1 edit | reply to s13
said by s13 :said by Cheese :And tell me how long that UPS is going to run if any type of PC is plugged in? Not 10 hours! That's why you run it off a dedicated UPS. You can pick up a small UPS for under $40 that will run a cable modem for hours... cheap security. Again, the AVERAGE user is not going to purchase a UPS strictly for using it to power a phone adapter/cable modem. |
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s13
join:2007-12-06
USA
| said by Cheese :Again, the AVERAGE user is not going to purchase a UPS strictly for using it to power a phone adapter. Anyone with a semblance of a clue will. UPS technology has been around for long enough and is commonplace enough that all but the most clueless users know of them and their benefits. Couple that with fears of losing phone service in a power outage and most will make the simple connection that VoIP + UPS = success. |
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