Need advice! What's better? Vonage or Gizmo?

[wakemewhenitsover]

I've tried to get SkypIn, but it's impossible, there's something wrong with their system.

[Eurobabe]

1. Vonage, been with them since 3/23/03

That's 3 years of great service! No issues. Great call quality, no line echo. (Only when my cable modem goes down, which is very infrequently)

PM me if you want more info. 48%er

[Nickster]

2. I've got Vonage and love it. Customer Service is dodgy at best though

so you better be somewhat technically proficient so you can help yourself. By Gizmo, do you mean SunRocket, or is Gizmo a new company that I missed?

[wakemewhenitsover]

10. I heard it's like Skype, but haven't tried it

[liberal N proud]

3. We are using Vonage and very happy

Not familiar with Gizmo.

We have two accounts on Vonage, one for home and our kid in college has Vonage. Anytime we have had a problem they worked with us to correct it.

It was a beautiful day when we could tell the phone company to go to hell.

[BeachBuckeye]

4. Vonage!

Customer service isn't so bad if you can get their U.S.A number. The Vonage phone system is fabulous.

[wakemewhenitsover]

11. Do you have their USA number? Where are they based?

[Critters2]

5. Keep in mind

Many of these systems have no connection to your local 911 system. My dad was thinking of doing this, and I told him not to. I said that, if money were the issue, I'd pay the difference between this and regular SBC phone service. I don't want him to be hunting up the fire dept number while his house is burning down around him.

[Nickster]

6. Take a look at their website about that. It depends on your area, but

you will most likely have a connection to the right 911. It sounded to me like only the most rural areas might have an issue, where the call gets routed to a central service rather than local.

[OhioNerd]

9. That's factually incorrect

What IS true is that you have to register your phone.

You log into your account and follow the appropriate 911 links; whereupon you enter your address information. At that point it can take as much as 48 hours to take effect, although it's always been much faster for me. Once it takes effect, when you dial 911 your phone call is routed to the correct dispatch station.

You are of course dependant on your broadband connection staying up. However, if someone knocks down the phone pole with a car, knocking out your cable broadband, then your phone is going out too, because it's on the same pole. Of course, if there's a blackout, your VT wont work.

If that's an issue, and you don't have a cell phone as a back-up, then you may want to keep a land-line.

Keep in mind that some people use Vonage (for instance) with DSL. That may seem silly, but if you get the most basic phone service possible, with no long distance and you tend to make a lot of long distance calls, then it's worthwhile.

[Nickster]

15. Not to mention all of the desperate "take us back" offers that you'll get

after you quit the phone company. You should be able to get a real cheap second land-line and probably still save money by switching to VOIP.

[Atman]

17. BWHAHA! So true!

We gave up on land lines a little over a year ago. Cell only. So we regularly get mail begging, pleading and bribing us to give them another chance.

But here's the trouble with going cell-only (which I supposed could also happen with land lines, but I didn't notice it until afterwards)...one day, while on the way to the mountains snowboarding, I realized I had left my cell phone in my car, back where I transferred to my friend's car. "No problem. You can just call home from the mountain," my buddy assured me. But then it hit me...I didn't know anyone's phone number! My son has his own cell, my wife has her own cell, and they're all on speed-dial, by name only. Even my wife's office is listed by its name, not number. I knew my mom's, but I couldn't tell her any numbers to call! It was bizarre! I felt totally disconnected from the world! So when I got home, the first thing I did was copy all the most important contact numbers down on paper, and stash the list in my snowboard bag.

[Atman]

16. Get him a cheap cell phone with no service.

Just keep it in the charger all the time. It'll be like a Medic-Alert gadget...cell phones are required by law to be able to make 911 calls, even if there is no service agreement.

Hell, I have so many old cell phones, I could send him one!

[napi21]

7. Have you ckecked into Sun Rocket?

https://www.sunrocket.com/sign_up/signup.do?tcd=ROSx92f

I love it, and you can get a deal on everything for $199/yr with no addon charges.

[Nickster]

8. That's what I was assuming when Gizmo was mentioned. Isn't that the name

they give the VOIP device? I think you get 3 free months when you pay for the year upfront too. My co-worker got setup with them and loves it. Had some initial setup problems, I guess it takes 10 days to get it to make a call outbound? It also took them forever to port his phone number over. With Vonage, my number was ported in less than a week.

[wakemewhenitsover]

12. What does "ported" mean? Any idea why SkypeIn doesn't work?

[Nickster]

13. Ported is when they transfer your existing phone number over to the new

service. So it's ported from the local service to the VOIP service and then all your calls go through VOIP.

[Avalux]

14. I've been using Vonage for a couple of years now -

haven't had any problems, been very happy with the service. :hi:

[rocktivity]

18. Vonage has worked fine

They hooked me up 911-wise, and when the cable goes out, they kick my messages over to my cell phone. You should definitely have a backup number, and a cell phone doesn't have to be a monthly expense if you get it from a place like Tracfone, which offers pay-as-you-go minutes.

:headbang:
rocknation

[wakemewhenitsover]

19. Thanks for the tip!