I have Vonage and am semi-happy with it. My broadband connection is cable, which isn’t nearly as reliable as the phone company. When my cable goes out, that means I can’t call the cable company to report it! It is rare, but it happens more frequently than with traditional phone service. Also, it means that I sometimes must reboot my cable modem to get my phone back.
If I had a cell phone then it probably wouldn’t be a problem, but the whole point of using Vonage was to reduce my phone bill! For $25 I get unlimited long distance, which is important in Seattle (calling down the street is long distance at .10 a minute!). Traditional phone service would cost $35 just to have a phone line with standard services, and then long distance would be on top of that! Vonage is perfect for those fed up with the phone monopolies.
AND you can look at incoming and outgoing calls on their website IN REAL TIME! As soon as someone calls in or out I can see it, which may or may not be helpful depending on how much of a control freak you are.
Voice quality is really good, though. No one can really tell that I’m calling from the internet. There’s no noticable lag at all (although sometimes I do hear myself repeated in a faint echo).
My bottom line: similar quality and better features for a better price than regular phone service, but not as reliable. Anyone else use VOIP services? What are your experiences?
