http://tryvonage.com/

I know it's been around for a little while but I just saw a TV commercial today that sounded interesting.

No new phone equipment to buy.

Vonage supplies a broadband adapter that your existing touchtone phone plugs into.

Unlimited calls to U.S., Canada, or Puerto Rico for $24.99/month.

Choose your own area code so friends or family can save on their own bills rather than pay long distance charges when they call you.

Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, Voicemail, and other features are included for the $24.99 pricing.

I have not fully read Vonage's Terms of Service agreement and there are some caveats like 9-1-1 need special arrangements or equipment to utilize emergency calls.

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"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

Josh I believe has something like this setup, so we can talk from Korea over the phone. He should be able to answer some questions when he wakes up.

 

I'm using Broadvoice, and it works great! It costs me around $22/mo, and lets me talk all I want from Korea, and I have a Maryland number so people can call me

I don't know about 9-1-1 coverage though.

 

The FCC still is working on the 911 stuff...

 

Vonage will only offer their service in areas that have compatible 911 systems. Sacramento is upgraded, this allows the 911 system to be able to talk with the vonage system and tell where you are calling from. There is no extra cost for this, it is one of the things that IMO makes Vonage stand out from other VOIPs, many don’t require you to be compatible or they charge you extra for it. Plus it is based off of what address you give them, so you can have a 530 area code, yet 911 will see your Sacramento address.

411 costs a butt load, I used it once and it was $1, and the chick couldn’t even help me, she told me there was no Rancho Cordova Police...............umm yeah.......then she couldn’t find Sac Sheriff.

The only issues we have had with it has been related to Comcast. They are doing a lot of construction out in our area, so when Comcast runs slow the phone can too. The one thing that has helped has been the gaming router Scotty got. It can designate priority packets, so we have the phone set to the top priority. I have no clue what that means, but Scotty said it was cool.

You can also add extra lines for only $15 a month. So if you have a lot of family in a different state, where vonage is available, you can get a second line for that area code for cheap.

So far we have been very happy. The 911 issues was the biggest thing for us, with the baby coming. I wanted a land phone but I hate SBC with a passion. We looked into AT&T’s service and one other one, but the 911 features were not as good and cost extra. I would rather work with a company that recognizes social responsibility in their products.

Opps.....this is Jen, I didnt realize Scotty was logged in on this computer.

 

Whew, I was worried that Scott was referring to himself in the third person... and he was calling himself "Scotty".

 

Hehe, I was thinking the same thing.

 

Thank you everyone for your replies.

That pretty much answers all of the questions I had so once I read over Vonage's Terms of Service agreement thoroughly, I'll be ready to try them out. Comcast has been pretty reliable where I am.

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush