Vonage and Skype

I need to start using more communication tools on the internet. Yesterday I researched Vonage and downloaded Skype. Given how much I use my mobile phone, I don’t think I need to spend so much on my home phone system. Vonage is much cheaper than my current phone provider – only $30 a month – which includes unlimited calling in the US. It’s got neat features like virtual numbers, so multiple numbers in different area codes all point to the same phone. And while it provides unlimited US calling, the phone doesn’t have to be in the US. So if my brother-in-law in Germany got it, he could call all his family in the US for free. A teammate has it, and said it works pretty well. Anyone else out there using it? If I got it, I’d like to use it with the existing phone wiring in the house. My cable box has to dial up to download program listings. I think it would be funny to use an analog model over the broadband connection.

As for Skype, lots of people have blogged that, so I won’t bother to here, except to point out that Skype 1.0 is now available (released today). Feel free to skype me, though it doesn’t appear to work through the corporate firewall.

Update: I should have realized, but there are other choices in the internet telephone business. Lingo caught my eye – only $20 a month for unlimited calling to the US, Canada and Western Europe (which includes Germany where my afore-mentioned brother-in-law lives). Anyone on Lingo? Also, I’m not sure why, but you can only call landlines in Europe as part of the unlimited calling plan. I also noticed that calling mobile phones in Europe on Vonage is more expensive. Why is that?

This entry was posted by DevHawk on July 27, 2004.

Comments:

I have been using for a week or so now and it has worked great. See: http://scottwater.com/blog/archive/2004/07/21/12689.aspx If you need a referral, let me know :) -Scott
This comment was posted by Scott@NOSPAM_Tripleasp.net (Scott Watermasysk) on July 27, 2004 at 12:09 PM.
I'm afraid Vonage will be short-lived (at least in the US). I think the FCC has been waiting for something like this to come along so they can start to regulate the Internet. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. I used to think that they'd step in as soon as Netmeeting and CU-SeeMe was released, but I guess they weren't functional enough.
This comment was posted by Michael Earls on July 27, 2004 at 3:43 PM.
I've been using Vonage for a month. I don't make a lot of calls, and so I use the $15 a month deal. What a bargain compared to my old phone company! And the extra features (voicemail by email, free Caller ID) are great.
This comment was posted by John on July 27, 2004 at 4:09 PM.
I signed up for Vonage this weekend, installed it in 5 minutes, and its working great. I expect I'll lower my cost with a bunch more features, and I'll use them. So far, so good - neither party sending nor receiving has been able to tell any difference from POTS yet. I may try the softphone feature next... its an extra $9 a month, but its worth a look at least. Chris
This comment was posted by Chris Church on August 02, 2004 at 8:13 PM.
We have several vonage lines and they work great. I also have used the softphone alot while traveling - it especially worked great my last trip to canada The virtual numbers and the ability to have fowarding rules are great - I often have my soft phone number ring both the softphone and my cell at the same time - you can answer either.
This comment was posted by David Yack on August 06, 2004 at 11:45 PM.

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