Broadband Phone Services

I am sure you have seen the ever present Vonage TV commercials and probably will always remember their catchy musical slogan.  Vonage is a public VoIP company which provides telephone services via an Internet broadband connection.

Vonage is the granddaddy of the internet phone revolution. They were the first and most well known of the VOIP companies.

Being first has many advantages and many disadvantages. It is hard to be an innovator. You get to fix all the problems you never knew existed and all your competitors have to do is watch and learn.

Vonage has a host of features that make them a great alternative to your land line. But they have a number of issues that have come up in customer reviews.

As you read the features and reviews it is important to keep in mind who produced the information and why.

The feature information comes from Vonage. It is in their best interest to paint a glowing picture of their services. This is to be expected.

The negative reviews come from dissatisfied customers. When you are the first in the market you will have unhappy customers.

So just keep the above in mind.

Features from Vonage

The following is taken directly from the Vonage home page at www.vonage.com

How VoIP Works: Vonage uses the Internet to power your phone

Vonage routes your phone calls over the Internet using Voice over Internet Protocol, rather than telephone lines. But even though your phone uses the Internet, it has nothing to do with your computer. In fact, your computer doesn’t have to be on to use Vonage. The people you call don’t need to have Vonage or the Internet to get your call – just a phone. And when someone calls you, your phone rings as usual.

Setup is easy. Just connect the Vonage adapter to your high-speed Internet and connect your telephone to the adapter.

Requirements to use Vonage Voice over Internet Protocol

• A high-speed Internet connection – broadband, like cable or DSL
• A touchtone phone – any touchtone phone will do.
• A Vonage phone adapter – the device that connects your high-speed Internet to your phone. Learn more about the VoIP phone adapter.

Advantages of using Vonage

• Call around the world for less – choose the Vonage World plan, and you get unlimited Voice over Internet Protocol calling to landlines in more than 60 countries; for countries not included in Vonage World, or under other plans, you get exceptionally low per-minute rates
• Portable – you can take your Vonage adapter with you when you travel.
• Keep your existing number – most numbers can be transferred to Vonage.

Some Dissenting Opinions about Vonage

Opinions about this company vary.  Many reviewers have complained over the years about the quality of the voice service that they received.  They have said there were many dropped calls, poor voice quality and many instances of being unable to make a connection.

Another common complaint was that the prices seemed to be constantly increasing. Although this problem is not uncommon for a product innovator. It is difficult to estimate costs when you are the first one in the market place.

Another common complaint about Vonage is the difficulty in cancelling their service. Apparently Vonage does not have an on-line disconnect request form. You need to use their toll free customer support service. Which has its own issues (see below).

Awkward customer support services seems to be a common complaint against all tech companies. The number of jokes and horror stories of outsourced customer service is legendary. And Vonage is no exception. Thousands of complains from all around the U.S, Canada and U.K, regarding the Vonage support line employees stack up daily on many websites, forums and weblogs . But all you have to do is search for any tech company and you will see countless complaints about their customer support.

So how do you choose? Is Vonage right for you? Are the features just what you need? Are the complaints to much for you to handle.

A smart shopper looks at all the pros and cons of all the available choices and then makes a decision. One thing you know for Vonage has been around for a long time and should be here for the long run.

Choose wisely.