I’ve converted my home phone to Vonage and so far, so good. The main motivation was the appropimately $50 per month savings over a similar package from Verizon. Plus, there is something crazy about paying ~$70 per month for the limited bandwidth a phone provides when I already have this huge bandwidth pipe via cable modem. Although I’m also paying for cell service, so maybe the better question is why I’m paying for another phone at all.
Even after reading some hellish stories about Vonage customer support, I still took the plunge and for me it couldn’t have been smoother (the hardest thing was just physically moving my phones around). Some other observations so far:
- Bought a Linksys Phone Adaptor that was completely plug and play with my Linksys router. Came with a $50 rebate on $60 item. And it has several blinking blue LEDs, so you know it's The Future.
- Ported my existing phone number in 9 days, which is far quicker than I thought it would take. In the meantime they give you a virtual phone number.
- Voice quality seems fine. There is sometimes a bit of an echo. I'd say it is between 0 and 5% worse than a usual landline, and better than typical cell quality. The phone adaptor works well even when there is a lot of other traffic on the link.
- Web-based account management is simple to use. I generally hate the web sites of cell and phone providers, but Vonage's is solid. Check voicemail, account history, etc. Setting up 911 service was completed in a few hours.
- Email when you get voicemail. Great for when you are at work or travelling. I don't know why existing phone services don't provide this, or at least I've never had it before.
- I'd rather give money to Vonage than existing phone companies. Hope this helps transform the phone into a more innovative platform.