Anyone with experience using Vonage for long distance?

[Arkayne]

I'm looking to get a brand new cable installation for the house and am considering killing our land line and using an internet phone provider. I'll be calling the Philippines and the UK regularly and Vonage seems the easiest to use. Do you have any experience using Vonage or a similar phone service?

 

[Marduke]

They are in the middle of several major lawsuits from other companies and legal actions from the government right now. Until all of that is straightened out, they are a company to avoid.

 

[Arkayne]

Crud, well that's no good. Are there other reputable providers?

 

[Radio]

There is quite a bit of turmoil right now in the world of VOIP, Read some of the threads at DSLReports.com as they may offer some insight. I just lost my provider of 3+ years. Sunrocket went belly up and it looks like several others may not be far behind.

 

[BIGIRON]

Quoting a friend who has had Vonage for awhile (I asked cause I'm also considering a change) "...great product, terrible company."

My current two landlines, including inbound 800#, and caller ID, etc are $61 per month. Taxes, fees and such are $31 per month. Gotta be a better way.

 

[Marduke]

Besides ongoing legal battles over several patent infringements, they got into trouble for pushing their own stock to their customers. They would call up customers, and tell them something along the lines of "Since our company is doing so well, you should buy some stock in us", which is VERY illegal to do.

 

[DarkLight]

Been using it over a year no issues......

 

[Marduke]

I don't think you can use your regular phones like with Vonage (maybe there is a converter?), but I have heard some good things with Skype. It's more PC based. The big plus with it, as long as you have an account with them, you can use any computer connected to the net with a microphone (can carry one yourself) to make phone calls.

http://www.skype.com/

 

[prof]

I've been using Packet8 for over a year now. It works quite well. They will either sell you a new phone or send you an adapter box. I use the box--just plug a normal phone (I have the kind where one base unit runs 3 different phones) into it. It took some setup as the first adapter box was bad--they had me reboot and run a bunch of utilities, finally exchanged it for a new one. No problems since then. I do have to reboot it once in a while as my router decides it's been connected for too long (have not been able to convince the router to leave it alone...)

I've been pleased. Voice quality varies, but the price is great, service is great. I would be sure to have a cell phone as backup, just in case.