ieee1394
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Washington
 ·TowerStream
| reply to ogar
Re: VOIP Vontage Questions
Pretty much what everyone else has said.
I have had Vonage since May and am satisfied with the product for what it is. It isn't an exact replacement for a POTS line but it is easy enough to get used to that and to have backups in place where necessary.
Like Cam, I have the unlimited regional calling plan, which is all I need. I too was sold on the waived LD fees to Canada.
The point about VOIP being as reliable as your Internet connection is not to be taken lightly. When I first got the service I had a Starpower/RCN broadband connection in D.C. that provided me with extremely low latency, something like 1.5Mbps down and 700kbps up, and incredible reliability. Vonage was excellent especially since I could use the "normal" compression setting (which is no compression). I now have broadband from Adelphia with a connection that's supposed to be capped at 3Mbps down and 128kbps up but am lucky to get 1Mbps down on a good day, have had a lot of latency issues lately (over 500ms), and the service goes down all together on a far too regular basis. With that said, Vonage hasn't been as good but my ISP is totally to blame for that. Also, I would definitely emphasize having a cell phone as a backup and also put your VOIP gear (ATA, router, cable/dsl modem) on a UPS.
Finally, wiring your whole house for use with Vonage can be tricky. You can get around all problems (usually) by just getting a cordless phone system that lets you add multiple handsets. Keep that in mind in case you run into trouble.
Finally, finally, remember that broadband phone services are still very new and there will be a lot of advancements to the services and the technology over the next couple of years. |
