Given the upcoming holiday, I decided to do a light post about my favorite phone service. As we all know, there are plenty of heavy-hitters in the VoIP marketplace: Vonage, Skype, Google Voice, Magic Jack, Jupiter Jack, etc. But Vonage (VG) is the best of them based on my own subjective opinion. Here’s why.
First off, Vonage is different from its competitors because you do not need a PC to utilize it. Basically, you connect the Vonage box to a digital modem (either DSL or Cable), and then you unplug your regular phone from the wall and instead plug it in to the Vonage box.
The service costs $25 a month, for which you get Caller ID, voicemail, three-way calling, free calls to land-line phones and cell phones within the United States AND free calls to sixty other countries’ land-line phones. A few of those countries (including Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and Thailand) allow you to call cellular phones for free, too.
As I mentioned, you need a Vonage box to use the system. The box is where Vonage pulls itself ahead of its competitors. You see, when you travel, you can take your Vonage and your telephone with you. Just plug it in to any live Internet connection while you travel. The Vonage service is not bound by geographic barriers because, well, neither is the Internet. So, say you’re visiting your in-laws for a week: bring along your box, plug it in to their DSL/Cable modem, and viola! You’ve brought your phone number with you on your trip.
(It is possible to forward your Vonage calls to your cell phone, too.)
So, not only can you take your phone number with you while you’re out of town or out of the country, but you can use Vonage with any Internet connection anywhere. And the quality is pretty outstanding — I’ve used Skype, too, and Vonage is much better than that — so I’m not trading value and portability for phone calls that sound like they’re being made from a barrel at the bottom of Niagara Falls.
Vonage has even revolutionized voicemail. It sends you your voicemail messages as email attachments, which is fairly standard for phone services, but it goes the extra mile by transcribing your voicemail and including that text in the body of that email message. This way, I can easily read my voicemails from my smartphone, wherever I am!
I’m in love with Vonage. I love that you don’t need a PC to use it. I love the quality and I love that it only costs $25/month. I love that I can read my voicemails in an email message.
In fact, the only problem with Vonage is the same problem that exists with all VoIP formats: if the power goes out, you’re out of luck.
Any other suggestions for a VoIP service that is better than Vonage?
DISCUSSION
Mike Nov, 25 2009
I will have to try Vonage. For now I use Jajah.com which is an excellent way for paying only for the calls that you make. I even use Jajah from my cell phone, which I am pretty sure you can not do using Vonage.
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guy Nov, 25 2009
8x8 inc
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Michael Z Nov, 25 2009
Hi Odysseas, Michael with Vonage here - thanks for taking the time out to blog about us! Glad to hear you’re happy with the service.
We thought your readers might be interested in a new offer we have available to help customers save as they gear up for Black Friday. When users sign up for Vonage World before Thanksgiving, we are offering a free month of phone service (http://www.vonageworld.com/). Thanks again!
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Guilermeh Nov, 25 2009
VONAGE, SKYPE, all good, but expensive when it commes to make international calls, I have done a big research on this, NYMGO.com is the cheapest, and very straight forward in what they sell.
At least %65 cheaper than SKYPE and Vonage.
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Rosemary Nov, 25 2009
What's cheaper than FREE? For a flat fee of $25 a month, make unlimited phone calls in the US and to over 60 countries. No need to have a landline anymore. Forward calls to your cell phones. No need to sit at your PC to call. Phones work throughout your house as usual. Go Vonage!
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Darren Nov, 25 2009
I purchased a aps battery backup which provides me at least 24 hours back up power which works great with vonage !!
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T Nov, 25 2009
Its great that you can use vonage with your cell phone too (Blackberry and iphone)
and soon you will be able to use the vonage world plan on your cell phone 1 Response
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Odysseas Papadimitriou Nov, 25 2009
How do you do that?
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Chris Nov, 25 2009
I am a Vonage user too...& its simply GREAT!!! you have an option in Vonage which is - Network availability number. So, if the power goes out or your internet goes down, all calls will be forwarded to your cell phone.
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Jane Nov, 25 2009
Skype is actually cheaper than Vonage if you are not a power user and I do not mind bringing my PC around + I can do video conference. Can you do video with Vonage?
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n Nov, 25 2009
Allvoi is what i use cause you can use it from any cell phone for just 1.99 a month and they have plans from 4.99 a month
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CP Nov, 29 2009
I think you are missing a point here. You commented that you don't have to take your PC if you use Vonage. I would rather travel with my laptop and be able to do video conferencing as Jane ommented while you have to lug around your Vonage unit and Phone to get Voice for $25 a month.
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dude Dec, 2 2009
wat ever
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saeedahmed Dec, 6 2009
I am looking to get majick jack on one motnth trial to use it to call middle east.how can I get that? 1 Response
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Dano Dec, 9 2009
just go to Magicjack.com and order it
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P.N.John Dec, 10 2009
Try Spokn,the VOIP offering from Geodesic ltd. Mumbai- www.spokn.com
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Thompson Jems Jun, 3 2010
Specialized in the acquisition and resale of all major brands of
Telecommunications equipment including Altigen, AT&T, Cisco, Comdial, Executone, Inter-tel, Isotec, Iwatsu, Lucent / Avaya, Meridian, Mitel, NEC, Niksuko, Nortel-Meridian, Nortel-Norstar, Northern Telecom, Panasonic, Partner, Siemens, Telrad, Tie, Toshiba, Vodavi, etc.
http://www.btxchange.com/internet-phone.htm
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