 Review by JTRockville 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 2479 visits, last login: 11 days ago
 Rockville,Montgomery,MD
 $26 per month
 "Outstanding Price, Calling Area, and Website"
 "None so far"
 "I Recommend Lingo to Friends!"
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(ratings above consensus)
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Update: December 18, 2007
Over the years, I've had only one problem with Lingo - my ATA died. After running through a few trouble-shooting steps, they immediately sent a new one. I no longer use the ATA as a pass-through - it hangs off one of my routers and works just fine like that. The problems I originally mentioned (inability to dial toll-free numbers and echo) seem to have disappeared over time.
Over the years, the price has increased from $20 to $26 (including fees). It's still a good value, so I'll keep it.
Original review: November 2004
I've had Lingo for two months now (signed up mid-August 2004), and am pleased with the service.
I had some trouble setting it up at first. I didn't have a free port on my router, so I tried using the ATA's as a passthrough. Unfortunately, the computer connected behind the ATA could no longer browse my home network. I'm sure there's a way to configure the ATA so it will work in this setup, but I gave up and put the ATA in front of my router. It's not an ideal setup since I am no longer "stealth", but it works for now.
Once it was set up, I tried making a few calls, but nothing worked. At the time, Lingo required you to dial 1 before any number. My phone has the caller IQ feature, so it didn't send the "1" through. After turning off caller IQ, everything worked fine. Lingo has since changed the procedure and you no longer need to dial 1 first.
Occasionally I have trouble dialing toll free numbers, or experience pauses after I dial and before the number rings, but these problems seem to be getting less frequent. Call quality is usually good. Occasionally I get complaints about "echo", but hanging up and calling back usually resolves it, and again, it's becoming less frequent. I regularly participate in lengthy voice conference calls, and have not experienced any problems whatsoever during the conferences.
My line number port went fairly smoothly, and was completed in around a month. It required several calls to Lingo, because my temporary number continued to be used as my caller ID. I requested that my ported number be used as my caller ID, and the temporary number be removed. Lingo made the change immediately, but then billed me for having a 2nd number. I'm still trying to get the charge removed from my bill.
Lingo's customer support is somewhat adequate, which is high praise by today's standards (where companies are ranked as "better" or "worse" than others because if "good" or "bad" were the benchmarks, they'd all be indistinguishable as "bad"). On the other hand, Lingo's technical support is better than adequate, and at times has even been good/great.
Given that VoIP is still in its infancy, and relies on power/broadband connection, I wouldn't recommend anyone give up their only landline for VoIP service, even though I've never experienced any VoIP "outages". But I highly recommend Lingo to folks who make lots of long-distance calls or who need a 2nd line.
Lingo's price is outstanding. The local calling area for my plan ($20/mo) includes unlimited calling with no "toll" charges to the entire US, Canada, and Western Europe. Most calling plan features are configurable through the cleanly designed and easy to navigate web interface.
Good job, Lingo!
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