I Love VONAGE!

I'm such a geek. I just set up my new number in California two weeks before I move there and I can check my voicemail messages online, forward calls to my cell phone, everything imaginable. Unlimited nationwide calling once I get the equipment and move... all for $25 a month.

Traditional telephone companies, for me at least, are now a thing of the past!

:bounce:

DSL is way cheaper here than cable modem.

You have to set up a router with Vonage, right? How is the qualityof the iP phone?

it says that you can't tell the difference.

I was able to setup cable tv (with all the movie channels) AND broadband with the same company out there for around $100 a month. MUCH lower than what I have paid in the past for phone and DSL with the same company. Currently I have cable modem and a normal phone, and the combined cost is over $150, add the satellite service I currently have that has basically the same stations, and I'm paying $250 a month for it all, whereas I will be paying only $125 when I move. I'm totally psyched.

(Add to that that the average utilities bill in the house I'll be moving into is less than a third of what I am paying now... this is a good day.)

Just 2/3 the price of SBC + ATT basic service, plus FREE long distance in the U.S. and Canada. You also get many of the services that the phone company charges extra for, like caller ID, voice mail, and so on.

Yes, they send you a router. You can take the router with you anytime you travel and if you have broad band access, you can use your VoIP phone service there just as if you were still at home. Admittedly, I've never used this service, and might never use it, but I'm sure it's a big deal for some people.

And don't you LOVE that you can be on the phone and listen to voicemails online that come in while you're on the phone? This is going to be great for me... I spend hours a day in conference calls.

...and it's absolutely great. I'm terrified the SBC's of the world will figure out a way to piss all over it-- they must be very worried.

It is so funny!

get an economy-level phone line for $14.99 and a second line for my fax for $9.99.

That's about half of what Qwest is charging me.

and you can choose any area code they service.

is getting the Vonage and then calling yourself 25 times so you can read and listen to your messages :evilgrin:

:P

I only had one "tinny" phone call but that might have been something else. The prices are good and features galore. I highly recommend it unless you are totally computer-phobic and have no help.

It's so cheap cheap cheap cheap cheap!!!!

in the wake of having gotten a $50 phone bill from Qwest for basic services with no long distance calls. (I think they raised my long distance access fees because I never use my land line for long distance unless I'm faxing to Japan).

Anyway, here's what I have to say to Qwest, which has been a pain in both Portland and Minneapolis!

:P

:)

Which is also very cool.

The price of cable modem internet service (on edit: DUH, couldn't remember the word broadband) + Vonage is still less than what I'd pay for one land line.

Screw that, LOL.

I had never heard of Vonage, but I went to their web site. I almost signed up, until I got to the part about credit card information. I don't know the verification number, because I cut up my credit card, though the account is still open. I'm not sure if it's active, since I never called to activate my new card when it came.

I guess if I really want to do this, I need to call my card issuer and get a new card first.

:silly:

and give them some other private info such as mother's maiden name or some other piece of info to verify it's you and they will either give you that number or assign a new one to your account

although that sounds a wee bit scary - too much information can be too easily obtained over the phone. I can just call up and say, "Hey, what's the super-secret part of my cc." On the other hand, I was contemplating putting my cc number and verification number out on the internets, which is at least as bad.

All in all, I think I like be a luddite - buying things in person with cash. As a side benefit, that's about the only time I ever see people in real life, so it satisfies my very minor need for human contact too.
Or exacerbates my desire to see even less of them. :D

Hmm, now I'll have to rethink this whole Vonage thing from the beginning.

have a lovely weekend :hi:

That's all I needed when I was single.

Nowdays I have:

• Basic phone service, because sometimes you really do call 911, and your friends and relatives like to know they can call you at home.
  
• High speed DSL. My work requires it, and pays for it.
  
• Basic, basic cable. Before we got cable, my kids thought there were only five television channels, none of them interesting. Their classmates thought they were weird. I remember some of our houseguests would stay up late at night crazy "channelsurfing" through five channels, over and over again, as if it would somehow change.
  
• A Virgin Wireless cell phone. Only my wife and kids know the number. It's $6.67 a month or $5.00 a month if you have the right coupons and don't really use it.
  

Sometimes I miss the old days when nobody could call me, and I had to be sitting my ass down in front of some University of California terminal to be on the internet.

I hate my phones, I hate my mailbox, and I hate my television.

But the internet is not so bad, even when I'm working. As a geek Vonage sounds cool, but I'm not a likely customer.