I have been on the Vonage web site. Sounds like a good deal. Anybody use it? How good is the sound? Can i get rid of the dial tone charges from SBC?
Anything else you could tell me would be appreciated.

Thanks
Dale

If you need a reliable phone, stick with a land line or at least a cell.  Cell plans are pretty damn reasonable.  Net based phones lag and often fall to half duplex operation.  You can Google for Vonage and see all the horror stories about downtime and lag and quality and billing issues.  It pretty much goes on and on.  Just get a good cell plan if you wann blow off the CLEC.
If it's a hatred for Bell, they own the Cingular network.  So if your out to screw the man9Whoever it is in your book) your going to need to do a little research to figure out what CLEC owns what cell company.  But don't go to a net based phone and screw yourself just to screw the man!

Booshmaster, I ahve a cell phone. This would be for my business. I have 2 lines and three numbers. I get raped on the line charges, They are 3 times the cost of the time. Thanks anyway. Not trying to screw the man but if I did that would be a bonus!

Quoted: If you need a reliable phone, stick with a land line or at least a cell.  Cell plans are pretty damn reasonable.  Net based phones lag and often fall to half duplex operation.

You say this authoritatively - you've had voip service and this was the result?

I use vonage, and it's as good as the cell phone it replaced. No POTS here.

Quoted: Booshmaster, I ahve a cell phone. This would be for my business. I have 2 lines and three numbers. I get raped on the line charges, They are 3 times the cost of the time. Thanks anyway. Not trying to screw the man but if I did that would be a bonus!

Hmmm  I especially would not risk my business on Vonage.

Quoted: Quoted: Booshmaster, I ahve a cell phone. This would be for my business. I have 2 lines and three numbers. I get raped on the line charges, They are 3 times the cost of the time. Thanks anyway. Not trying to screw the man but if I did that would be a bonus! Hmmm  I especially would not risk my business on Vonage.

Gasp yeah its kind of like risking your business by relying on internet use. OMG DONT DO IT! I dont have Vonage but i have the TWC version of it. I have had 0 problems with it and its alot cheaper.

Agcsy, can I get rid of SBC? Do I need their dial tone? That would save me about $130 per month. Not to mention the app. $30 for the calls I make. What is TWC?

Thanks
Dale

My company will release their VoIP offering late Q4 of this year.  I've spent the better part of 3 months visiting the manufacturers and designing our architecture.  These phones have some uncontrollable varialbes that can affect QoS.  The biggest one is the quality of your broadband connection; what your throughput is, your flutter, and how many hops between you and the trunk gateway they connect you to (they use trunk gateways instead of true next gen phone switches).  Depending on the Codec standard Vonage has you running on, your audio quality should meet that of a cell phone with a good signal.  

Some things that differ between a VoIP phone and a land line phone:

e911: since this a phone that has it's ;ast mile routed through the internet cloud, there is no way to trace a call to a location.  You can register an address with your provider, but read the T's and C's.  Vonage makes NO committment for 911 response.

CALEA: this may be a bonus to some of you.  There is no way for a traditional phone tap to be set up on a VoIP call.  the audio is sent via IP packets, there is no actual call to listen in on.

Directory assistance: always third party if available.  Not a deal buster, but should be aware of this deviation from the norm.  

I've tried to water this down to a point it is understandable and hits the issues most consumers are concerned about.  If you want any more info, feel free to email me.  I'd be happy to answer your questions.



Edited to add: don't rely on Vonage for your business, we'll be bundling a dedicated T1 for voice and data utilizing our VoIP services.  No issues with the last mile stuff.

OK, can any of you guys tell me if I can dump SBC?

You can still trace IP packets so long as you've got good logging. Encrypted voice would be kinda interesting, though. The Man could still do traffic analysis, but not eavesdrop on the contents of the call.

Quoted: You can still trace IP packets so long as you've got good logging. Encrypted voice would be kinda interesting, though. The Man could still do traffic analysis, but not eavesdrop on the contents of the call.

Yeah, they'll get destination dialed and duration of call but can't actively listen in.  Oh, and if the whole IP packet warehousing is actually going on at the ABC agecies, then they have all the packets to reassemble the call, it would just take awhile to do so.  CALEA is a standard telco compaies have to adhere to so the agencies can basically just "plug in".  They can't do that with VoIP.  If they really wanted you though, they'd just have to park themselves in the datacenter that had the switch in it. there's always a way.....

Quoted: OK, can any of you guys tell me if I can dump SBC?

I'd keep one land line as a backup.  But there's no contract so getting a couple IP lines to try out isn't a bad risk.  Vonage has had some uptime and billing issues though, but so does most telco carriers.

If you want me to give you a call on an IP phone email me.  I have one on my desk right now.

I use Vonage, and it has been reliable for me. As long as you have a good, reliable broadband connection, you should have no issues. It is hard to beat the price, I am saving about $50 a month over other local service. Time Warner also offers this service in my area, but their prices aren't competitive at all.

I am happy with Vonage, I especially like having my viocemail messages sent to my e-mail address.

So, with these you could dump your land line all together but still keep your regular phone #? Can you still surf at teh same time?

S.O.

Quoted: So, with these you could dump your land line all together but still keep your regular phone #? Can you still surf at teh same time? S.O.

Yes. Yes.

Quoted: Quoted: So, with these you could dump your land line all together but still keep your regular phone #? Can you still surf at teh same time? S.O. Yes. Yes.

Not only that, but this will work from any broadband connection anywhere in the world.  Imagine having to go over seas for a few months, but still having your local number ring in your hotel room (if it has internet access) with no added costs to your family calling you, its still a local call if it was before.

Quoted: Not only that, but this will work from any broadband connection anywhere in the world.  Imagine having to go over seas for a few months, but still having your local number ring in your hotel room (if it has internet access) with no added costs to your family calling you, its still a local call if it was before.

The features I like the most are the ability to check my voicemail from any web-enabled location (just log on and play the voicemail back in the browser) and the roaming. There are cordless phones that are voip-enabled; configure them once and carry it with you. If you're on a hotspot, it works like a cell phone - no need to carry anything with you. I suggest you buy one from Metrix or TelephonyWare.

I've had vonage and I've found that Packet8 is much more reliable, is a bit better priced for the residential plans, and they don't mind giving you a telephone number from outside your calling area. I used it when I did contract work away from my family for extended periods of time so that they wouldn't have to call long distance to chat.

UpstateNYer

Quoted: I've had vonage and I've found that Packet8 is much more reliable, is a bit better priced for the residential plans, and they don't mind giving you a telephone number from outside your calling area. I used it when I did contract work away from my family for extended periods of time so that they wouldn't have to call long distance to chat. UpstateNYer

I'm not here to pimp vonage, but they also allow you to pick a number anywhere you like. You may also add numbers in other NPA to allow this functionality; I know someone who lives in Arizona who has vonage numbers in Florida and New Jersey as well as Arizona for exactly this purpose.

I live in 208 and have a number in 425 as well as a toll-free number.

Quoted: Quoted: I've had vonage and I've found that Packet8 is much more reliable, is a bit better priced for the residential plans, and they don't mind giving you a telephone number from outside your calling area. I used it when I did contract work away from my family for extended periods of time so that they wouldn't have to call long distance to chat. UpstateNYer I'm not here to pimp vonage, but they also allow you to pick a number anywhere you like. You may also add numbers in other NPA to allow this functionality; I know someone who lives in Arizona who has vonage numbers in Florida and New Jersey as well as Arizona for exactly this purpose. I live in 208 and have a number in 425 as well as a toll-free number.

Yes, this is a standard feature.  It's available due to how the inbound cals come into the VoIP enabled switch.  Remeber though, that most VoIP providers give you free unlimited outbound US and Canada calling.  Your specific NPA NXX should match those that call you the most, so that party doesn't get hit with toll charges.  One of the features that I see people leveraging is the find me feature, Basically you log into your web portal for your number, tell them you want to call a party from your phone list, then tell it that you want it to originate from your cell phone or any othe 10 digit number you wish.  The origination number will ring first, then as soon as you answer the line, it will ring the destination number, essentially doing a three way call and drop.  Call has now originated from your VoIP number, so it's part of your bundled free minutes, and you don't have to lug around your AID, or get a pricely WIFI enabled VoIP phone.  You just need a browser from any computer and a dial tone with inbound calling functionality.  

The Telecom industry is going to experience a similar revolution as what happened to the music industry whem MP3's and file sharing came about.  10 years from now, there will just be one IP based communication cloud.  The TDM colud will go the way of the telegraph network.