 
Mactron
el camino Real
Premium
join:2001-12-16
CM94sv
| Ringing endorsement... "Vonage has consistently been forced to replace 1/3 of their customers each year"
Not a ringing endorsement for their service...
Continued signs of being on the edge.
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If only the Verizon CSRs worked this well.  | |
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NY Tel
Premium
join:2004-04-09
Smithtown, NY
 ·VOIPo
| Re: Ringing endorsement... said by Mactron  :"Vonage has consistently been forced to replace 1/3 of their customers each year"Not a ringing endorsement for their service... Continued signs of being on the edge. It's never easy and it's never clear, who's to navigate and who's to steer - and so you wind up drifting ever near the rocks"...
Dan Fogelberg knew even way back then......
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Love when you can - cry when you have to, be who you must, that's a part of the plan, await your arrival with simple survival and one day we'll all understand... | |
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taar
join:2000-11-21 | The fat lady has been singing for a while....... ....Its time for vonage to take out the ear plugs...... | |
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Smile__
Premium
join:2008-10-10
Baltimore, MD
1 edit | Bye Bye Vonage? I always wondered why Vonage hasn't caught on more in the US.. Great deal on service and easy to use... Oh well!!  | |
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GOLFnSUN
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? A business plan where they don't charge enough for the service to make a profit can only last so long before investors and/or lenders will no longer fund their failures. In the current economic environment, no one(except the government) is willing to invest in a company that looks like it will never make a profit.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk? | |
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Smile__
Premium
join:2008-10-10
Baltimore, MD | Re: Bye Bye Vonage? That's understandable but I was talking about new add subscribers... As you just said service is a low cost... | |
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| | | Austinloop
join:2001-08-19
Austin, TX
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? DoRight1 said: "As you just said service is a low cost..."
I wonder how many people are taking advantage of google, etc., and researching the company before buying into their service and seeing what a precarious financial position that they are in, and lets not forget the SunRocket fiasco.
At least with the cable phone service, you have local technicians to assist in resolving problems with the service.
What do you have with Vonage? | |
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anonchicken
@comcast.net
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? I been using Vonage since 2003 and I can honestly tell you that I never had any problems with them. My cable internet is rock solid when it comes to uptime so that goes the same for Vonage.
It doesn't take much to keep a voip phone service up and running, you just need a reliable internet connection and a router.
I don't see how I could pay $40.00+/month on a phone service when I am paying $19.67. Its the same service as cables voip but cheaper. | |
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CUBS_FAN
Next Year Again..
join:2005-04-28
Chicago, IL
·Comcast
·Vonage
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? I couldn't agree any more. If you have a solid connection your VOIP works like a charm. I have 100% confidence in their services.
Straight from my bill history:
May 29, 2008 Payment. Thank you ($37.11)
Jun 29, 2008 Payment. Thank you ($35.54)
Jul 29, 2008 Payment. Thank you ($35.33)
Aug 29, 2008 Payment. Thank you ($34.08)
Sep 29, 2008 Payment. Thank you ($43.06) | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? said by CUBS_FAN :Sep 29, 2008 Payment. Thank you ($43.06) WOW is that the $24.99/mo plan? looks like they're really cranking up the bullshit fees!
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this company hasn't turned a profit since their inception!
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When I gez aju zavateh na nalechoo more new yonooz tonigh molinigh - Ken Lee | |
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CUBS_FAN
Next Year Again..
join:2005-04-28
Chicago, IL
·Comcast
·Vonage
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? said by dvd536 :said by CUBS_FAN :Sep 29, 2008 Payment. Thank you ($43.06) WOW is that the $24.99/mo plan? looks like they're really cranking up the bullshit fees! - this company hasn't turned a profit since their inception! No, a few international calls is included. The $35 is the normal. I use a pre-paid calling card with a local access number to call international. | |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
1 edit | Re: Bye Bye Vonage? $35 is $4 more than my pots line. Certainly no benefit for me. | |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? It has more to do of Vonage not offering me ANY benefit. No reason to switch to Vonage if my bill will be more.
For folks that use a lot of long distance calling lots can be saved but they have to get enough of these folks and charge enough to make money or they will die. Vonage is not keeping these folks nor are they charging enough to make a profit.
There are plenty of folks like me where there is 0 incentive to switch. | |
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| | | | | | | | | dentman42
join:2001-10-02
Columbus, OH
 ·AT&T Midwest
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? said by CylonRed :It has more to do of Vonage not offering me ANY benefit. No reason to switch to Vonage if my bill will be more. For folks that use a lot of long distance calling lots can be saved but they have to get enough of these folks and charge enough to make money or they will die. Vonage is not keeping these folks nor are they charging enough to make a profit. There are plenty of folks like me where there is 0 incentive to switch. Plus, Vonage doesn't work when the power is out. POTS lines usually do.
My POTS line is around $21 a month after all fees. I never make LD calls, so Vonage would cost MORE, tie up some of my Internet bandwidth, and wouldn't work if the power was out or I had an ISP outage.
(Now if I were to switch to naked DSL and get a monster UPS or backup generator, I could use VOIP when my power is out, provided that DSL is still up. But where's the advantage?) | |
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CUBS_FAN
Next Year Again..
join:2005-04-28
Chicago, IL
·Comcast
·Vonage
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? said by dentman42 :Plus, Vonage doesn't work when the power is out. POTS lines usually do. Whenever I lose power(twice in the past 3 years) my calls automatically route to my cellphone. | |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? Only works when towers have power and the cell phone can be recharged... In SW Ohio we had a protracted power outage (over a week for a lot of folks) and a good number of cell towers ran out of power on day one and took several days to come back up. POTS was up the entire time for the vast majority of the area. | |
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phoneboy3
@shawcable.net
| Well it's NOT the same service but if it works for you that's great. It never worked for me. I have a friend that loves it and doesn't know what he would do without it. So it doesn't work for everyone.
I am still rooting for Vonage because they help keep the telco landscape more competitive. So whether you like them or not they are probably helping to keep your competitors more price and conscious. | |
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CUBS_FAN
Next Year Again..
join:2005-04-28
Chicago, IL
·Comcast
·Vonage
| Re: Bye Bye Vonage? said by phoneboy3 :
So whether you like them or not they are probably helping to keep your competitors more price and conscious.
Funny you said that because Comcast thinks I have AT&T when they keep throwing their Digital Voice ads at me. I agree with them that they may be cheaper than AT&T but its still not any cheaper than Vonage. | |
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jgkolt
Premium
join:2004-02-21
Lakewood, OH
clubs: | Re: Bye Bye Vonage? the telco's dont like competing on price much and will do whatever they can to not compete on price.
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I am trying to get the free ps3, help me out, pm me for details. | |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| If a company can't make money on what it charges then I know lots of folks who will stay away from the same company.
I don't get sucked into buying something where one of 2 things will happen (if not both):
1) They fail if they can't get enough new business (kinda like Social Security)
2) They jack up prices suddenly.
Give me a service at a fair price where the company makes money from the onset rather than suck people in, then try and explain why they have to raise prices. With all of the folks in VOIP - they can't afford to make a profit but they can't stay alive long if they can't make money - a lose - lose proposition.
No way I would even think of trying VOIP in the next 3 years minimum. It might be sooner if I did not have kids but my POTS is far more stable then a VOIP connection and the ILEC is more stable than ANY VOIP provider that can be used over DSL. | |
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Smile__
Premium
join:2008-10-10
Baltimore, MD | Re: Bye Bye Vonage? Go away.. | |
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Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | Die already They're a plague who took the whole "internet phone company" thing to the extreme. Their customer service is far worse than any phone company could have ever thought of being. | |
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Jeffrey
too dark too early
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Vonage
·magicjack.com
| Re: Die already said by Dogfather :They're a plague who took the whole "internet phone company" thing to the extreme. Their customer service is far worse than any phone company could have ever thought of being. I feel like this is a dead horse that we all have beaten time and time again, but while I never called customer service for anything, my service has been rock solid for years, aside from the first month of service back in 2004.
We have 3 Vonage lines here now, and I'd be sad to see them go. It's been one of the better values I've come across, combining price and quality.
As with many comments here on Vonage for years, YMMV.
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"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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| fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| said by Dogfather :They're a plague who took the whole "internet phone company" thing to the extreme. Their customer service is far worse than any phone company could have ever thought of being. Do you have them? Do you have them now? If the answer is no, then why would you care if they live or die?
let me give you a small lesson..
If you left them for a reason right or wrong, HAVING THEM AROUND IS A BENEFIT TO YOU!
If you wish death to all providers you don't like to favor the one you do, what do you think your current provider would do? ... raise your F'ing rates!
Just like those that wish death to cable as they have sat, or the other way around, need to wake up. ANY competition is good as it works in your favor.
Now, for my two-cents.. I hope they survive. I have 2 lines with them. Not a single issue with them either with service or customer service. I think the service I have received has been just fine.
I do hope you get what you want though.. which is higher rates and less options. | |
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rbrugman
join:2002-09-22
Marquette, MI
| Cable Co's I think the reason Vonage is struggling right now is that their offers aren't THAT much better than what you can get from your cable company. I have Charter Telephone, and they were able to give me my first year at $15/month and the second year at $20/month. Although it will probably end with their standard price, it's been cheaper than Vonage. The Cable companies also have one big advantage - they can offer the service without affecting your internet speed. They can also guarantee their service, offer true E-911 service and offer some sort of redundancy.
I have just had no use for Vonage. Great idea, but not quite what the market wants. | |
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phoneboy3
@shawcable.net | Re: Cable Co's If Vonage went away I'll bet the prices would creep up. | |
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Vchat20
Landing is the REAL challenge
join:2003-09-16
Warren, OH
clubs:
| I have to agree wholeheartedly and this is what I have tried to explain numerous times on this very site to various Vonage/copycat fanboys.
By no means I think anyone is claiming that Vonage or any of the other 3rd party over-the-internet VoIP providers suck THEMSELVES.
But I think the bigger fact is that even for some techies such as myself, not to mention average joe-sumer, just want something that works out of the box and that is what the Cable telephone providers give you. The ATA is completely managed by the cable company, the data pipe it runs on is completely managed and maintained by them, phone calls stay within their local cable network thus adding some reliability to the situation.
3rd party VoIP providers require a fairly stable link with low ping times across the internet at large, ample bandwidth for the voice stream which requires some form of QoS to be used nowadays unless you are one who just uses your connection for email and nothing else.
Like I stated, some of us just want something that works and doesn't require fussing with to get it working RELIABLY. Yeah, I can certainly handle setting up a 3rd party VoIP provider and make it work, but do I want to waste my energy? I'd rather pay the slightly extra premium to the cable company and have it all taken care of for me in something that is ultimately much closer to classic POTS service than anyone else can achieve.
--
I swear, some people should have pace-makers installed to free up the resources. Breathing and heart beat taxes their whole system, all of their brain cells wasted on life support.-two bit brains, and the second bit is wasted on parity! ~head_spaz | |
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| Enlightener
join:2006-01-28
Cedar Park, TX
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Vonage Issue I went to Teleblend's website and they said they aren't available in Cedar Park, TX 78613. Austin, TX 78747 said they were.
Huh? Aren't they an internet broadband company? Why would it matter?
It's also not clear from reading their website what kind of TA do you need, where to buy it, and how much it costs. | |
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| | myokitis
join:2004-06-19
Alexandria, VA
| said by Enlightener :I went to Teleblend's website and they said they aren't available in Cedar Park, TX 78613. Austin, TX 78747 said they were. Huh? Aren't they an internet broadband company? Why would it matter? Q: Why does physical location determine if an Over-the-Top VoIP service is avaiable?
A: E-911 service. If VoIP provider doesn't have arrangements to provide E-911 service to a particular area (aka PSAP, Public Service Access Point, I think), then they can't provide service there. | |
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| ed56
join:2008-01-13
Cincinnati, OH
·Vonage
| Actually add the included Vonage European/Canadainternational at $9.95/month, and they are about the same price.
Vonage also has contact book allowing a call toa LD number connected to any number of your choice toll free.
An Vonage talk,allowing you to useyour PC as anotherVonage line, freeof extracharge if you are on the unlimited 24.95 plan. | |
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tivoboy
join:2004-05-10
Menlo Park, CA | not 33% I don't think the 1/3 churn rate is accurate. I was just looking at their quarterly report a few weeks ago looking to buy the stock in the .60$, and it said they lose 3% in that previous quarter. Wouldn't that be 12% a year at most? | |
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DogFace05
join:2005-12-09
Cary, NC
| said by tivoboy :I don't think the 1/3 churn rate is accurate. I was just looking at their quarterly report a few weeks ago looking to buy the stock in the .60$, and it said they lose 3% in that previous quarter. Wouldn't that be 12% a year at most? That 3% you read was the average monthly churn over the quarterly period. The full churn over the quarter was triple that, or 9%, and the total churn over the 12 preceding months was 36.9%, based on the churn reported for each of the quarterly periods. | |
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kelso
join:2007-04-06
Ashburn, VA | Vonage debt bailout Vonage just needs to call the FED and ask for a bailout. | |
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mrchris
We don't miss you Bush
Premium
join:2002-10-01
North Babylon, NY | Re: Vonage debt bailout Psst! Don't give them any ideas! | |
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dcurrey
Premium
join:2004-06-29
·ViaTalk
| Bail out Maybe they should ask for a government bailout. Seems the way business is done in America now. Take out/make massive loans and make poor decisions let the taxpayer pay for it who cares. They should fold not. End of rant.
They could even argue that they folding would leave millions without 911 service. | |
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jmdshort
join:2001-03-02
Cumming, GA
clubs: | Just left... I just left them this past week after almost 5 years.
I enjoyed their service ... but realized that I wasn't using the full allotment on minutes for them or my cellular service... and therefore decided to go with just my iPhone. | |
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massysett
join:2006-01-04
Silver Spring, MD | Good riddance Absolutely rotten customer service. After dealing with poor call quality and their worthless tech support I was happy to start paying $50 a month to Verizon. | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Floral Park, NY
| vonage is doomed when investors look for value.. they don't want to see a history of patent violations that threatened to put them put of business on the books. investors are finally waking up to the fact that wall street may not be a good place for their retirement money after all. alot of nice smarmy people dressed nicely galdly take your money and throw it into the hands of people who ultimately couldn't give a shit for the average 401k schmuck, but to help line the pockets of a few elite ceos instead. there are also political vip members who get their money in and out far, far ahead of the average joe investor, or group of investors... mainly with chinese and arab names, though a few political vips from the south as well are neck deep into it... you can guess why if your head isn't stuck in the sand of your daily lives)
companies without deep pockets and/or white knight investors are doomed to fail in the next 4-10 years. vonage included. if coal mining towns in west virginia can't get funding for projects... (and coal is a cash cow industry).. then vonage is really gonna be hard presed to find some suckers for their junk status bond investments. | |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| Replaced Vonage... I'm one of those "churn" customers. I enjoyed Vonage's service until the Verizon lawsuit. It could have just been my old ATA 186 but something changed after the lawsuit. I thought Vonage had a "work around" so they didn't have to pay royalties. If true, I don't think that work-around worked very well on the ATA 186. Simulring went to heck. My cell phone would ring three times before my home phone would ring. Often, my cell's voice mail would get it after only two rings in the house. It used to be the opposite (cell phone rang after and home voice mail always got the call if not answered.) Combine this with dropped calls, very long calls setup times (sometimes 12 seconds before the dialed number would start ringing) and call waiting that didn't hold the other caller when you switched back. I got tired and when Charter offered me $14.99/month for 12 months, I jumped.
It may be coincidence but I think something changed after the lawsuit and their "work around" solution to avoid royalties. If not, then their service just changed or my service just changed. Perhaps I should have asked them for a new ATA.
I miss the simulring feature becuase Charter's telephone doesn't offer it. It was also nice to change features on-line. If I want to change features with Charter, I have to remember cryptic #xx codes or call customer service. If I call customer service it's a $5.00 charge to change features.
I wish Vonage well but at the end I just felt the quality went down and Charter made me a much cheaper offer. I know Charter's price will go back up but I was also concerned that Vonage may close up shop and I would have trouble porting my number. Of course Charter could go belly up too since their debt is also high. However, they are more stable than Vonage which will probably end up a victim of the poor economy and tight credit markets.
Good luck Vonage. If you stay around, perhaps someday I'll revisit but for now, I'm glad I switched. I was, however, not unhappy with five years of service. I thought it was a good product until the last part. Of course there were days when my Internet connection caused Vonage to be unusable but that wasn't their fault.
I have also read those that think Vonage wasn't charging enough. I disagree. They have no plant (copper/coax) to maintain. I'm actually shocked they are not more competitive on price since without a broadband connection, they are nothing. If they cannot make a profit on $24.99/month for unlimited, then they truly don't have a good business plan. | |
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Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI | Good while it lasted... I've had the service for over a year, without any issues. It would be kinda sad to see them go. I'm about to pull the plug on my Vonage service for AT&T U-verse voice service, since the VOIP phone adapter is built into the U-verse gateway. | |
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nitzan
Premium,VIP
join:2008-02-27 | Vonage Expiration Date? Sounds like the expiration date on Vonage is November 3rd... wonder what will happen to the customers once they go bankrupt..
--
Nitzan Kon, CEO
Future Nine Corporation | |
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no_one
@QWEST.NET
| Re: Vonage Expiration Date? said by nitzan :Sounds like the expiration date on Vonage is November 3rd... wonder what will happen to the customers once they go bankrupt.. Maybe VOIPO will go to the public then with a huge launch. With the threads on here saying they are the next best thing to sliced bread and tons of resellers etc. | |
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| | nitzan
Premium,VIP
join:2008-02-27
·ViaTalk
·Comcast
| Re: Vonage Expiration Date? said by no_one :said by nitzan :Sounds like the expiration date on Vonage is November 3rd... wonder what will happen to the customers once they go bankrupt.. Maybe VOIPO will go to the public then with a huge launch. With the threads on here saying they are the next best thing to sliced bread and tons of resellers etc. Something tells me that's not going to happen...
They took 2+ years to launch.. do you really think they're going to be flexible enough to adjust to hundreds of thousands of new customers overnight? | |
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PaulTT
@verizon.net
| I'm a Vonage Customer Vonage amazes me. They have no way to bundle like the cable voip providers. Yet they seem to have no interest to make their service compelling. I have been a customer for a few years and have expressed to them the need for better features and supporting soft-phones. What the heck else can they offer?
Hey Vonage how about a native iPhone app for Vonage that allows us to use our Vonage phone number. Maybe soft phone support for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android, etc? How about one that works on a Mac? Better call blocking features? Partnerships with Direct TV? Included Visual Voicemail and transcribed mail? Integrated ToDo services? Better small business services.
Staying a decent landline replacement product and not much all as landlines are on the downside makes little sense. All they sell is a service to replace traditional landlines.
They need to differentiate themselves from the other VoIP services or DIE!
I guess I should be running the company as they seem to have NO interest as they watch their ship sink! | |
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Jazma
@pacbell.net | Vonage Bundling is coming soon.....Vonage DSL service by the end of the year. Some sort of cell phone type service the first quarter of 09.
Hope this debt refinancing does not delay or cancel those plans. | |
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anonymous cca
@optonline.net | Re: Vonage vonage first mentioned offering broadband several months ago & is no closer to offering it than they were when the rumors started... as far as the cell phone, don't hold your breath: that date has kept getting pushed back for over a year | |
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ebubman
join:2002-01-17
Enola, PA | happy w/ service 3 year vonage user here; very reasonable rates & reliable service. bub | |
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Jazma
@pacbell.net | finalized Well, in the news this morning Vonage miraculously managed to refi all that debt, so they are safe for awhile.... | |
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ultracooldave
@verizon.net
| magic Jack is the answer! I have been testing 3 magic jacks for 3 months now. while I have not given up on my Vonage line it works very little better although fewer services (with MJ) but for $20 a year unlimited and the cheapest overseas rates I will live with my magic jacks.
My Vonage each month costs what I pay for MJ in a year. I still have a regular line for DSL which I will dump for naked DSL soon.
How much do I have to spend on all of this anyway, as little as possible for me, no more stupid expensive contracts for the cell phones either, all of mine are unlocked now! | |
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| dentman42
join:2001-10-02
Columbus, OH
·AT&T Midwest
| Re: magic Jack is the answer! said by ultracooldave :
I have been testing 3 magic jacks for 3 months now. while I have not given up on my Vonage line it works very little better although fewer services (with MJ) but for $20 a year unlimited and the cheapest overseas rates I will live with my magic jacks.
My Vonage each month costs what I pay for MJ in a year. I still have a regular line for DSL which I will dump for naked DSL soon.
How much do I have to spend on all of this anyway, as little as possible for me, no more stupid expensive contracts for the cell phones either, all of mine are unlocked now!
Magic Jack needs a standalone adapter. Requiring a PC is too limiting for many people. I might consider them as a backup line if they could use a standard PAP. I could probably even get my GF hooked on them, but there's no way if it has to be controlled from a PC. | |
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ultracooldave
@verizon.net
| Re: magic Jack is the answer! You need a pc. 2.0 USB and high speed internet for Magic Jacks. While they are not as reliable as a phone line in an emergency (like an earthquake here in Ca.), I have cell phones for that too not that I would expect them to work as well.
I look forword to going to Australia with my MJ's and laptop, connecting to WIFI and making and receiving free calls to the US. I don't even need a phone with the speaker phone built into the laptop. With my unlocked cell phones I will buy a local sim card so I don't get ripped off there either although I could make a MJ call from my laptop to Australia (in Aust.) and pay the 2 cents a minute. | |
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Vonage Struggling To Sell Its Debt
. Go put a down payment on that house with $48.
from: