 Review by Gandalf1315 
UPDATED: 191 days ago
member for 7.5 years, 2439 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Indianapolis,Marion,IN
 $27 per month
 "Price, features, mobility"
 "Not as solid as traditional phone line, Tech Support is AVG at best."
 "Vonage (VOIP in general) is a great option for consumers."
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I have been using Vonage now for just over 6 months and I love it. I have had a couple of expected hiccups with the service, but all in all I have been real pleased.
One thing I think people need to take into consideration before getting any VOIP service is the fact that this is a relatively new technology. At least in the sense of it being used on a very large scale. We are more or less beta testers. There are going to be plenty of bumps in the road. If you are not prepared or willing to deal with these bumps I would suggest you either not get VOIP at all or use it in conjunction with a POTS line or a cell phone.
Other things to consider is the quality of your broadband provider and 911 service. If your ISP is not reliable then getting VOIP will be very frustrating. Also, if your ISP only offers 128k uploads your call quality while using the net may suffer with Vonage which uses 90k. It has a 30k (low bandwidth) option but the sound sucks to be honest. Vonage offers a 911 service, but there have been issues reported that the service is not 100% reliable.
I personally have Vonage's $26 package. That package includes unlimited local calling and 500 minutes of long distance a month to anywhere in the US or Canada. Other features include Free 3 Way Calling, Free Call Hunt, Free Personalized Voicemail, Free Call Forwarding, Free Call Transfer, Free Call Waiting, Free Caller ID, Free Caller ID Block (*67), Free Repeat Dialing, Free Call Return (*69), Free Vonage to Vonage calls (if your family on the other side of the country has Vonage as well as you, it does not count against your long distance minutes) and Free International Call Block.
Your voice mail can be checked via the phone, online using your personal "Dashboard" or through email.
The "Dashboard" is a personal control panel that all Vonage users have. It shows every call placed and received for the past week, real time billing and minutes usage, real time account management, voicemail access, and features control.
One of the other optional ($5 a month extra) features that I really like is the "Virtual Numbers". Here is how this works. I live in Indiana but I have lots of family in Raliegh, North Carolina. I get a "Virtual Number" with a Raliegh area code. Now when my family in Raliegh calls me they call the "Virtual Number" and it rings into my primary Vonage number in Indiana, but it is a local call for them so there is no long distance charges. This would also work great for parents who have kids away at college. They can call home as much as they want and it only costs you $5 a month no mater how often they call.
I just think this technology is great and wanted to share my experiences with you all. I have dropped my POTS (SBC) line completely. I have Vonage and a cell phone. Between Vonage and the cell phone I pay $62 a month. My bill was over $100 a month before I switched from SBC to Vonage The Baby Bells SHOULD be scared.
Bottom line: Vonage is the perfect compliment for a tradtional phone line or a wireless phone. For some people it is also a viable alternative to them as well.
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