Vonage Telephone Service

When Sara and I moved to Russia, we were happy to find two different calling card services that which lowered the cost of calls dramatically for us and for friends and family who wanted to call us. The downside, though, is that placing a call using the calling cards is a bit complex (dial an access number, enter a lengthy passcode, dial a pin number, enter the phone number). Sometimes the quality of the call was not too good either...

We will continue to use calling cards to make international calls... but we found a better solution for staying in touch with people in the USA... it's a service called "Vonage" - it turns your high-speed internet connection into a regular voice phone service as well. Let me tell you more...

We have a moderately high-speed internet xDSL connection in our cottage... we pay per megabyte consumed, and we have no real way of telling how much we consume... but the service is fairly reliable - and while expensive compared to what we would pay in the USA (in Cincinnati, we had a very nice corporate discount with Time Warner and had unlimited consumption and averaged about 1MB bandwidth). Here - we get about 250K, and pay about $100 per month... expensive yes, but a service we need.

Anyways, on our last trip to the USA, we stopped in at a Best Buy and noticed the Linksys Vonage PAP2 equipment was selling for $60, and came with $110 in rebates. So we figured it was worth trying since the cost was basically nothing (other than a few minutes of time to complete and mail rebate forms).

So broadband telephone service is starting to pick up... for those that don't know, if you have a high-speed internet connection, you can add on this broadband phone equipment, and pay $25 per month for unlimited calls anywhere in the United States, including local calls. Better - you can take this device with you - and you maintain the same phone number anywhere in the world with a high-speed connection. So - we picked up the equipment, brought it back to Russia with us... set up a local Scranton phone number... and now have a better connection than the calling cards gave us...

Requirements:

• High-speed internet access - if you use a variant of xDSL - you probably cannot get out of paying a basic phone service bill. If you have cable high-speed - ditch your local telco and get Vonage. Vonage does not work over dial-up.

Recommended:

• I strongly recommend you have a home network developed. Basically - broadband modem to internal router (use wireless if you want, have extra ports), then connect your computer to one port, your Vonage to one port, and other computers if you have them, and you are done.

Postives:

• Equipment size is pretty small (like the size of two compact disc cases - maybe even a bit smaller than that)
• Equipment is cheap to purchase
• Service is priced very nicely - $25 for unlimited USA; $15 for lower tier service
• Quality is very good - you can adjust the call quality if you want, but overall, the service seems good in quality
• Equipment comes with an auto-switching power supply (so works in USA (110v) and Europe (220v)
• You can keep the same phone number anywhere in the world (i.e. we have a local scranton, pennsylvania number, and when you dial 7-digits from another phone in scranton, our phone in our cottage in Russia rings).
• Vonage provides robust services (caller ID, voicemail, *69, conferencing, etc. etc.)
• If you need new phone service when you get into a new house / apartment - you can be activated almost immediately vs. waiting days or weeks for the local telco.
• Works with your existing home telephones (i.e. the cordless / corded phones you already have purchased; you do not need to be tied to the computer).

Negatives

• Your broadband connection should always stay turned on (so be sure you have your local security set up properly)
• 911 emergency service not 100% ironed out - requires you to configure your location when you move the device
• You should probably keep a cell / mobile phone handy as a backup - this is fairly new technology so I would not expect 100% reliability

Overall - I love this service - good quality, great price! Highly recommended. People do not even realize that you are calling from an internet-based phone service - the quality is that good.