Is Vonage any good and/or worth it?

[SunnyD]

I know the issues with VoIP - such as no power = no telephone (that's what a UPS is for).

I want some testamonials though.

Is the service quality as good as landline? Better? Worse?
The price points look decent ($25.99/mo for unlimited regional & 500 minutes LD, 3.9 cents per minute above).
What kind of bandwidth hit does it take on the broadband connection?

Any other things I should know about in considering this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[iamme]

Lots of opinions and info here

you could try PMing some people from that thread.

 

[DurocShark]

That stuff looks great... Haven't decided which company to go with. My only issue is the initial costs and I hate using my credit card for stuff like that.

I'm paying a total of $35 or so per month for AT&T local service. Hmmm...

 

[PlatinumGold]

DO not I repeat DO NOT go with Packet8. i've had NOTHING but problems with them. I think the VOIP Router they use isn't as good as the one vonage uses OR their network is just being overworked because their service is NO WHERE near as good as Vonage. I have both RIGHT Now and if i had to do it over again, i wouldn't have gotten packet 8

 

[DurocShark]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
DO not I repeat DO NOT go with Packet8. i've had NOTHING but problems with them. I think the VOIP Router they use isn't as good as the one vonage uses OR their network is just being overworked because their service is NO WHERE near as good as Vonage. I have both RIGHT Now and if i had to do it over again, i wouldn't have gotten packet 8

bummer... The $5.95 plan sounded good since I rarely use my landline. Cellphone pretty much glued to my head.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: DurocShark

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
DO not I repeat DO NOT go with Packet8. i've had NOTHING but problems with them. I think the VOIP Router they use isn't as good as the one vonage uses OR their network is just being overworked because their service is NO WHERE near as good as Vonage. I have both RIGHT Now and if i had to do it over again, i wouldn't have gotten packet 8

bummer... The $5.95 plan sounded good since I rarely use my landline. Cellphone pretty much glued to my head.

you have to remember, i'm paying packet8 $20.00 / month right now. it might be worth $5.95 / month.

 

[Freejack2]

I've had Vonage since January and have been pretty happy with it.
I was paying over $50 a month for my Verizon phone and it didn't have half the features Vonage does.

You do have to dial the area code for ALL calls but anything in your area code usually falls under the unlimited local. A lot of calls that used to be local long distance for me are now free under Vonage.

 

[PlatinumGold]

OK

i just spoke with Packet8 Support and they said that the last couple of days, they had changing servers or something and that's why they were having problems. you guys caught me at a time when packet8 was really causing prolems hence the post.

however, it angers me that they didn't make any attempt to email me regarding this issue BEFORE they did it. they have my email address. 🙁

 

[Ciber]

I've had Vonage for over a year or so... I mainly got it because of the free long distance to canada hehe...

I haven't really had any problems with the service, sounds just like a landline. Bandwidth use is pretty low, less than 128 kbps