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Review by curro 
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 5.1 years, 786 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Seabrook,Harris,TX
 $25 per month (month by month)
 about 7 days
 "Reliability and quality of voice are above average. E911 works!"
 "Not full power caller id (but I am not complaining)"
 "Good value if you make international calls (especially to W. Europe)"
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Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I have been looking at VOIP for a while and I was going to give Broadvoice a try until I learned about Lingo through BBR and their three-month offer with unlimited calling to W. Europe for $39.90 ($29.95 activation+$9.95 shipping). It caught my attention their international plan because I noticed that on the average I already spend around $10/month to call Spain so I could see spending $15 a month for 500 minutes to US, Canada and W. Europe. Besides, their rates to other countries I was interested were pretty good too. I placed the order through a very helpful customer care representative in Virginia (Irina) and after I got the equipment the installation was a breeze following their instructions. I have to say that the voice quality is pretty good (as good as POTS on many instances) and the reliability is average with some improvement in the last week. I'd say average because at the beginning there were dropped calls when calling Europe and some incoming calls did not go through. Being new to VOIP I am impressed of the technology and I expect it to improve significantly in the upcoming two or three years. Oh by the way, the same customer representative who I ordered from gave me a courtesy call back to ask how is my service. Very nice indeed!
In general I like their web portal but there are some issues:
* There are a number of bogus calls shown in the log that although do not generate further costs to me they should be removed from their system.
* Every time I want to access various sections of "Manage Features" I need to reset my password. This is quite a nuisance. I haven't had a chance to call tech support on this so I cannot rate them yet.
I have not have a chance to test the caller ID yet but hopefully soon. I also like the fact that I can store up to eight numbers in their speed dial system.
Overall I am excited to try this technology and so far I intend to keep it especially if they continue improving their reliability and web interface. At this moment I do not see Lingo VOIP as a replacement of a traditional phone line or cellular service (which we have). I hope I can post an update later this year about Lingo VOIP.
Thanks for reading ... curro
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UPDATE 7/8/05: Well it has been over a year with Lingo and my overall impression is favorable with some comments. Lingo reliability is not A but more like a B+ because on the average you have to reboot the ATA once a month and also sometimes functions like 3-way calling do not work. Also so far I have not be able to do a call transfer (I have the original ATA made by Azatel). I call the first party then I press flash and get a dial tone, then I call the 2nd part and press flash again (so far so good). Everybody can talk to each other but when I hang up the other two parties get disconnected and this is gainst what Lingo says in their website.
At $22 a month with the international plan (we have family in Spain, Romania, Canada and other parts of the world) I am willing to put up with some occasional glitches. I am going to stick with Lingo for the time being. We have cell phone service for backup purposes.
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UPDATE 7/3/06: I have been with Lingo two years and I still believe they are a good value provided you use the international calls to Western Europe. I just tested their 911 service and it works as promised (E911). I have also referred Lingo to several friends/family with 80% retention. The down side is Lingo's customer service. Recently Lingo decided to turn off 'Selective Call Forwarding' to everybody without notifying the customers (Lingo claims fraud from some subscribers). Off course I was very upset about this and it took over three weeks to get this feature back for me! So if you are with Lingo and need customer/tech service it might take a while. On the other hand if everything works then just keep talking on the phone because the bill won't change much ($25 with all the fees) unless you call international numbers outside Western Europe/Canada.
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UPDATE 6/27/07: 'Knock on wood' the reliability is good for me after three years and Lingo futures are above average in my view. The caller id does not always show the name, especially when it comes to cellular calls (then again maybe this is expected). I have referred a couple of more folks and so far they have stayed with Lingo. I will continue to give them my business as long as they offer the current value or better.
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