Tired of your phone service? It may be time to try Vonage
Aside from being a simple product review, this post is actually a tesimonial to the benefits of using a VoIP (voice over internet protocal) phone system. At first I was skeptical. After all, if I already have my computers networked through a single broadband line, how good could the phone quality be if I steal even more bandwidth? Then, of course comes the logical question: How good can the service be at such a discounted price compared to a traditional phone?
Perhaps I should start from the begining, like why I decided to even try it in the first place. Quite simply, my business needed stand alone phone and fax lines, and the local phone providers just wanted an extraordinary amount of money plus a commitment for at least a year but for purposes of this post, I am only going to speak of the benefit for residential users. So, as I was browsing the Sunday ads one weekend, I saw an offer for a free Vonage phone converter after rebate, so I figured “why not”. It is simply a little box that connects a standard phone to your network router so it isn’t going to take up a tremendous amount of space. In fact, Vonage even makes specially designed phones that connect directly to the network. I got home, researched the pricing plans and features and discovered that it was quite a bit cheaper than any regional phone company and much more comprehensive as well.
For starters, you are able to bring your current landline phone number with you. That means no need to worry about calling all of your banks, credit cards, friends, family, etc. to inform them of the change. In addition, Vonage provides all of the same features that are available from local carriers such as call waiting, caller id, voicemail, call forwarding, etc. but the difference is that all of these features are included. This is especially beneficial for those who are frugal and do not believe in paying for these “extra” services, since they are all standard. The quality of calls is comparable to that of standard landline services, although if you have an unreliable internet service provider, you may have issues.
The thing that I am perhaps most intrigued by is a service that is available that converts your voicemail to text and sends you an e-mail transcript of the message. Not only does this help by automatically notifying you of a message, it saves the time and hassle of calling into the service and dealing with menus: all you do is open the automated e-mail and you can see the message right there. There is an additional charge of $.25 per message, and of course the transcribed message does come across incorrectly if the person talks too fast or not clearly, but Vonage also waives the fee if the message cannot be transcribed, which is a sign that they are moving in the right direction to get this service working optimally.
What’s more, they even have an annual pre-pay plan which enables you to save 20% on the total bill for the year. That is the equivalent of almost 2 1/2 months for free just by paying up front. I doubt that any regional residential providers will be willing to match the service/cost benefits, much less discount their service by 20%.
All in all, I have had the service for almost a year now, and I have no qualms whatsoever. The clarity is like that of a true landline phone, and at a fraction of the cost for all of the features I am receiving. Plus, it doesn’t even affect my bandwith negatively which was something that I read quite often in the early reviews of the service.
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