Might be making the switch to Vonage.

[SlickVic78]

Hello PCTech,

I agree with you - no company is perfect. You are always going to see reviews of bad service, bad customer service, but then again, there are millions of people out their using their services and are quite happy with them that haven't posted reviews.

They both offer the same services, but like you said, Vonage has been around a little longer - so they may have worked out most of the kinks in their system. So if I have to pay the extra 5 bucks a month, so be it. Packet8 requires a year contract, and if you cancel, you owe them $60 bucks. I'd rather go month to month anways...

I also see that Packet8 has been encountering problems porting over numbers to their system... I've only heard good things with Vonage - where it takes them about 10 days to port your number...

[EDIT] - I also read that Packet8 only accepts credit card payments... What payments does Vonage accept? Do they bill you and then you have the option to cut them a check, or charge your credit card?

[EDIT2] - Just found out the answer to my own question... They only accpet credit card payments as well...

Please continue to post info you find. Of course, I'll do the same!

Thanks!
-SlickVic78

[Firefox]

Hey Guys I have been using Vonage nearing a Year, ( I was the First when they entered the retail store market; I got mine from Circuit city with 2 months free, no activation fee and a $50 MIR. My whole phone home network is on Vonage, all the Jacks in my house are vonage jacks. So all the rooms in my house with a Jack have phones that ring when a call comes in. I disconeccted my copper wires from the Local phone, and use the old jacks in the house from the phone company I.e there old phone network. I think that we have about 8-9 phones that ring when a call comes in. I have my phone adapter & Cable modem on a UPS for power outages. I have ditched going with a back up local telco line we have two cell phone lines instead ( and car adapters for cable & power outages)

I have gotton to talk with vonage Customer service several times. I am pleased. The MIR took a little time to get and I ran into a hitch but I got credits equal to the MIR as welll as the MIR finally.

There is also LINGO as a VOIP company. I am unfamilar with them.

In nine months of use, I have only had a few hiccups with the system, at first I had to reset the power on my phone adapter once a week ( although I have'nt had to do in quite some time)

With 2 price drops since going with vonage. It is a refreshing change.

The other thing I love is the incoming and out going phone log, (we have to track calls with our bussiness) Although sometimes I have had trouble logging on to the website.

The biggest difference I have seen, is that vonage has there act together they are the biggest and the Oldest.

AS for AT&T
I have Sworn off anything with the Intials AT&T & ME (enough is enough ) Bad wireless, bad cable, bad High speed, bad long distance, just plain BAD SERVICE, last spring 30 -45 minutes waits for wireless customer no-service rep.

The other decsion point is we do a lot of international calling, There plan to HK, UK, OZ, Phillippines, etc, is the cheapest among the VOIPs. .03 -.05 per minute. Lingo has Asia free call plan but is $80 and Cell calls are not includeded.

Comcast has been working on a VOIP system and has rolled it out in 4 markets. I know that when they bought out AT&T that they highly recommend cable or you got a $10 surcharge for high speed. ( BTW we spend $9.80 for the basic cable no biggie be cause we get clear stations we live in a valley, and about 20 other channels) We were at almost $115 for high speed & phone service before switching to vonage not including long distance and the junk charges that get wrapped into all those plans.
Now around $75 per month. Anyways I think that it only a matter of time before comcast does like the Telco with DSL you gotta have there phone service .

[SlickVic78]

Hey Firefox,

Thanks for your review - very helpful. I am still leaning towards Vonage. I guess I can deal without the Anonymous Call Blocking. It is a nice feature though, and it would be nice if they could implement it being that Packet8 offers it.

I am still hesitant about going with Packet8, and I really dunno why. They offers the same features and then some over Vonage, and is a bit cheaper, but they are new and I know of no one who is actually using their service. I don't even think their hardware is all that good in comparison to Vonage that give you a LinkSys adapter.

Another neat feature that Vonage offers is that you can take your adapter anywhere and use your service. So if I were to be away for a few days, I can take the adapter with me and never really miss a call... That is pretty sweet.

-SlickVic78

[PCTech]

Do you take any other method of payment besides a credit card?

Currently Vonage only accepts Credit Cards with a United States Billing Address as a form of Payment. Vonage will also accept debit cards with a Visa or Master Card logo. All debit cards must have a credit verification number on the card.

The above info was taken from the following website

http://www.vonage.com/help_knowledgeBase_article.php?article=363&categor y=197

[SlickVic78]

Thanks PCTech, I ended up answering my own question about the payment methods... I ended up editting my previous post before you posted.

One feature that I see that Packet8 offers that I cannot find on Vonage's website is Anonymous Call Blocking. This is something I currently have that I really like. I hate when I do not know who is calling me. I am not sure if this is available with Vonage. But I do like Vonage's Bandwidth saver feature....

-SlickVic78

[war59312]

Well I have decided to go with Vonage then. hehe

Well just one question, how much download and upload bandwith do you say it takes? Like 100KBps down? and 10KB up or what?

[Firefox]

I think the max for prem sound quality us 90 Kbps, normal is just 30Kbps. Never really noticed it affecting UL/DL speeds that much.

[SlickVic78]

Hey Firefox,

I have been looking over Vonage's site for information and am not sure if a feature is included in their plan... Anonymous Call Rejection. Do you happen to know if this is an available feature?

Thanks,
-SlickVic78

[war59312]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firefox

I think the max for prem sound quality us 90 Kbps, normal is just 30Kbps. Never really noticed it affecting UL/DL speeds that much.

Is that upload requried?

Is that 90 kilobytes per sec. or 90 kilobits per. sec?

God I hope its not upload and kilobytes per. sec. requried or I am screwed.

Since i only have 512kbps up...thats around 60 kilobytes per sec. max upload speed....

Pretty such my download speed is fine @ 6mbps thats around 750 kilobytes per. sec average. Though suppose to be getting 8mbps next week. Free upgrade. hehe

[Firefox]

Not yet. It is the only feature that I miss as well.