Review by NGOwner 
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 8 years, 2446 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Leawood,Johnson,KS
 $26 per month (12 month contract)
 about 10 days
 "Inexpensive, all you can eat plans include Europe, smooth porting"
 "Used to be two items, now they're eliminated. No Downside!"
 "Ready for Prime Time"
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Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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Update 06/29/07:
Now Lingo doesn't even make the GBU list here. Oh well. We're still sailing along happily with Lingo. It is so cool to take the gizmo with us on vacation and have our number with us while we're on vacation. And being able to stay in touch with the inlaws overseas without having to pay LD charges is just awesome.
Our bill nowadays is $26.43. The earliest bill I can see online is from January 14, 2006, or about 18 months ago. That was $22.09. That's a 20% increase over 18 months, half of that increase can be attributable to the increase in rate from $19.95 to $21.95.
Interestingly enough, "Taxes" now represent 20% of my total bill. Universal Services $1.50; Regulatory Recovery Fee $1.99; and Emergency Services Fee $0.99; Total taxes are $4.48 per month.
In the final analysis though, at $26.43 per month Lingo is still the least expensive phone service around for our usage profile.
Update 09/19/06:
I am at a loss to explain why Lingo is the bottom of the barrel here at DSLReports. I'm flummoxed, flabbergasted even. I am wondering if I am the exception, or the rule. I can't speak highly enough of Lingo. There's no one out there that offers the features calling plans and price that Lingo does. At least not for me.
I've called Lingo twice recently.
The first time was when I changed my billing credit card. This new card dings me with a foreign service fee when used with Lingo because Lingo bills out of the UK. I was on hold for no more than five minutes. Got the credit for the fee applied my account immediately. Three times now. Now I don't even call up. I just send an email to support, and they take care of it within a few days. AWESOME!
The second time was to talk with a support rep about CallerID with Name. Waited about five minutes that time, too. He told me they were working on it and would put me on a list of priority recipients. Several days later, I received an email referencing that priority list, and that I should look for activation within a few days. Well a week did go by, then I got my CallerID with Name. How awesome is that!?!?
As far as everything else is concerned:
Call quality has been great.
Uptime has been phenomenal. Intermittant gizmo lockup seems to be resolved.
Cost savings have been significant.
Customer service has been responsive and available/accessible (see above).
Technical Support has been responsive and available/accessible (see above).
What more do you guys want?
[NG]Owner
Update 04/03/06:
Well it happened. Lingo went down for a bit last month. And it wasn't my gizmo, it was Lingo. And 30 minutes later it was back up. No big deal. Fell back to PCS for calls we needed to make.
The only other thing I've noticed is that the gizmo will lock up on me taking phone service down with it. Oddly, the Internet seems to work fine during those time (I've got the gizmo acting as my network's DHCP server, no extra router). Phone gets dial tone, but we can't call out (just dead air after dialing) and incoming calls just get ringing (no bounce to VM). A cold boot of the gizmo solves things. Happens maybe once every three weeks to once a month.
So if Lingo can solve that, and the no CallerID with name (which should be out in Q3/4 this year if I can believe CS) I'll have absolutely nothing to complain about. I'm still tickled about the service. And I'm so glad I got in before they shut Kansas down due to e911 regulations. I'm grandfathered!
[NG]Owner
Update: 11/10/05:
The experience with Lingo just continues to improve. It's been several weeks since the initial review, below.
The Universal Number turned out to be a non-issue. It was removed much sooner than indicated below.
Call quality has improved to excellent. Our family really no longer has the concern that the call will be garbled when we make a call or pick one up. And drops seem to be a thing of the past. They just don't occur anymore.
Flat rate dialing is a welcome improvement, and makes budgeting that much easier. Never have to worry about a $50 swing in phone costs. The max swing I've seen is about $3, and that's only if we have to call cell phones abroad.
I've increased the Value for Money rating because I just don't see any other alternative out there that compares.
I'm just tickled. Can't say it any other way.
[NG]Owner
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Original Review: 09/23/05
My family and I did the VoIP thing in baby steps. Initially we had SBC for our Local Service and Sprint for our LD. In January of 2005 we ordered Lingo. Box arrived and was installed within 10 days. No issues with setup. Originally we used Lingo exclusively for LD and International (Germany) calls. No inbound at all. A dedicated phone was hooked up to the adapter, and that phone was used for all such calls. Phone call quality was acceptable. Occasional dropouts, and/or garbled voice did occur, but they were by far the exception, not the rule.
Moved to a new home in May of this year, took both our POTS line and our Lingo with us. In July we made the decision to port our POTS number (which we’ve had for over 8 years) to the Lingo service. Port went very smoothly, and was completed in about 10 days also. Rewired the adapter into the distribution block and disconnected the POTS line at the NID outside the house. Canceled the Universal Number from Lingo within days of the port. Also took the cable router out of the picture, and connected the adapter directly behind the cable modem, e.g., the adapter is now handling all routing and DHCP functions in our house (two computers, one laptop, wireless G access point, Xbox, Tivo).
We’ve now been living with Lingo as our primary telecommunications provider for two months. These are the things we’ve noticed:
1) Lingo takes several months to stop billing for their universal number once canceled. It’s only $5 a month, but it’s annoying.
2) There have been several instances of “We can hear them, but they can’t hear us” since we’ve switched. We do not recall this having been an issue earlier.
3) Voicemail and calling features are awesome. We didn’t even know that two of our phones had message waiting indicator lights. And the Lingo service makes use of them!
4) Call quality is generally quite good, though it “seems” that the first five seconds of the call is sub par. This may have to do with the next point.
5) With POTS, we became very accustomed to knowing who was calling before we picked up. CallerID with Name was wonderful in that regard. Now those we call and those who call us are only prefaced with a number, no name. We wonder if Lingo will ever get CallerID with Name for inbound calls. We truly miss that feature.
6) There is now always the thought in the back of our minds (sometimes large, sometimes muted) when calling or being called … Will there be a problem with this call? Will we get disconnected? Will they hear us? Will our voices be garbled? Will they know we’re using VoIP? Never had that problem with POTS. It always worked.
At the present moment, the additional feautures, plus the monthly cost savings (anywhere from $16 - $90 per month combined Local/LD, depending on our calling pattern that month) outweigh the glitches.
[NG]Owner
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