Providing competent Internet phone and landline service since its establishment in 2001, Vonage has proven over the years that a variety of helpful features, wide coverage and a strong, reliable customer support makes a great combination for success. Although Vonage’s monthly plans of $25.99(residential rates) and $49.99(business rates) cost a little more than those from other providers, it is compensated with several useful features; like enabling customers to transfer an existing phone number to their new account with Vonage. This particular service appeals to customers who would like to maintain their current number for business purposes. Also helpful for customers with businesses is Vonage’s affordable and easy to activate fax services. While Internet phone services are mostly used as secondary phone lines in order to save money on costly long distance calls, Vonage is an ideal replacement for a customers’ primary phone because of its clear call after clear call feature.

Products and Features

Upon signing up, customers will receive a complete set up package which includes the new Vonage V-Portal adapter, a user’s guide, a guide to voicemail configuration and an instruction manual for installing and troubleshooting. The Ethernet router that comes with the package has a QoS (Quality of Service) feature that automatically balances both data and voice traffic on the subscriber’s personal network. The entire set up takes no more than ten minutes and users can hear a dial tone within a few seconds of plugging the unit into an electrical outlet, connecting it to the modem and plugging the modem into the phone. After hearing a dial tone, customers can start setting up their personal account by putting in the assigned username and password for the voicemail and Vonage account, their assigned account number and their phone number (virtual phone numbers too, if there would be any). All this information is provided by Vonage and can be found on the information sheet that comes with the adapter. Set up is easy from here onwards and customers can quickly configure the VoIP according to their preferences. Any trouble with the configuration can be resolved by logging into the Vonage Web site. Equally impressive is the 911 dialing service that can be easily set up by providing a physical address so that the emergency call can be quickly directed to the nearest service location. Giving out an address may not be the usual thing to do when it comes to signing up for a 911 dialing service but a lot of parents who leave children at home with a babysitter are more comfortable knowing that any 911 emergency call would be efficiently and quickly forwarded to the proper authorities. Lastly, in cases when Internet connection becomes unavailable or if a power interruption should occur, Vonage automatically forwards all calls to either the cell phone or any number that the customers provide when they sign up. When it comes to account management, subscribers can log in anytime to Vonage’s Web site and be able to access call and billing history, as well as get updated service announcements and activity information. For customers who have virtual numbers set up, it is also possible to segregate call activity and billing information for each number.

Another great benefit of subscribing to Vonage is customers can choose to be notified through email when a voicemail message comes in. This ensures the subscribers that they wouldn’t miss any important voicemail messages and would be able to give a call back if necessary. This is a point of interest for customers who are often doing business over the phone and rely on voicemail a lot. This can be done by simply configuring Vonage to send an email notification which includes the caller’s phone number obtained from the caller ID service. Or, if customers prefer to listen to their voicemail messages from another computer, they can have the company convert voicemail messages into audio WAV files that can be attached to the email notifications sent to them. Another feature that several customers find to be very helpful and cost efficient is virtual numbers. For less than five dollars a month, customers can add a virtual number, meaning, a number that has a different area code that relatives, friends or business clients can call to avoid long distance call charges. Calls made to virtual numbers would be forwarded to the Vonage subscriber’s actual phone number without additional charges. There is also the option of signing up for a toll free number for again, less than five dollars a month. As for people who do a lot of traveling, Vonage has a soft phone feature that allows customers to have a phone-like interface on their PC. So even if customers spend a lot of time on the road, they can still make calls via laptop or notebook which would save them a lot of money on cell phone charges. Another option is by using the Vonage phone adapter to connect to their Vonage accounts, as the adapter is compatible to any type of broadband connection. This benefits customers who shuttle from one hotel to another during business trips.

Plans

Vonage’s residential service plan gives customers unlimited calls anywhere in the U.S. and in Canada for $25.99 per month (Premium Unlimited Plan); and 500 minutes of calls to Canadian and U.S. numbers for $17.99 a month; any excess would cost 3.9 cents/minute. Vonage to Vonage calls wouldn’t be added on to the free 500 minutes per month. There is a $29.99 activation fee as well as a $9.95 shipping charge for the phone adapter and router; plus federal fees and taxes.

Business service plans on the other hand costs $49.99 or $39.99 every month. The first rate includes unlimited calls within The U.S. as well as to Canada and Puerto Rico; the second offers 1500 free minutes and charges 3.9 cents for every exceeding minute. Both plans also include a free activation of a fax line (includes free 500 fax minutes/month) which is a $9.99 value for residential plans (residential fax lines include free 250 fax minutes/month). When it comes to overseas calls, Vonage offers one of the most reasonable per-minute international call rates. An example is the 3-8 cents per minute charge for calls made to Japan, Europe and Mexico. All Vonage plans and accounts are inclusive of the following call services and features: Caller ID, Voicemail, Call transfer, Call forwarding, Call waiting, three way calling, call return, repeat dialling, call block and international call block. In addition, customers can choose from a wide array of area codes that are available for Vonage subscribers. For residential and business plan subscribers that have existing cable Internet, customers have the option of transferring their existing phone numbers over to Vonage. Again, this helps a lot of new Vonage subscribers that have businesses, to maintain their existing numbers. Customers would only need to fax a letter of authorization to Vonage and the company would take care of the rest. Phone number transfers usually take a maximum of three weeks to get done and while in the process, Vonage provides its customers with a temporary phone number so they can start using the service right away.

Sound and Equipment Quality

As far as call quality goes, Vonage’s VoIP service gives audio clarity that equals the audio produced when making analogue calls. There may be the faint hiss in the background which is present in every VoIP service; however this does not affect how customers make and receive calls. The Vonage V-Portal is specially designed for direct connection into the customer’s broadband modem; any other peripherals or network device are plugged into the Vonage V-Portal. Performance wise, this is considered to be a very smart move as it improves the quality of audio even if the bandwidth becomes overly saturated. Another thing is that the Vonage V-Portal is specifically designed to avoid a diminished VoIP service performance which happens for most home and small business Internet connections that do not have the capability to support simultaneous voice and data uploads or downloads. This is made possible by diminishing the speed of Internet performance while the subscriber is on a VoIP call. For customers who would like to make the performance of their data packets a priority over call clarity, they can manually adjust the settings on the Ethernet router as well as adjusting the level of bandwidth to be used during VoIP calls.

Customer Service and Support

For concerns and questions regarding billing and additional services, Vonage customers can go to the company Web site and browse through the several FAQs and review details that are posted and updated regularly. Concerns and questions are attended to quickly and helpful answers are given to each inquiry that deals with installation, changing or switching phone numbers over to Vonage, activation of the free fax service, etc.

Overall Value

All in all, Vonage offers a wide variety of helpful features and services that are designed to make customers’ lives and business transactions easier. With clear call quality and data upload and download, Vonage makes it very easy to replace your traditional phone line with an Internet phone service that offers a lot more convenience and will save you a lot of money in the long run.