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Damien McGivern

Changing telephone provider to Vonage

Recently I moved to using vonage [1] for my landline and I have to say I’m very impressed.
 
After an initial problem with the courier I received my preconfigured linksys RT31P2 [2], which is a broadband router with 2 phone ports. All I had to do was plug the RT31P2 into my existing wireless router and plug the phone into the RT31P2. I was strangely disappointed that I didn't have to configure my new toy but after logging into the built-in web based admin panel I found that i could configure all sorts but had no need to. You configure the phone settings via the vonage website which of course is obvious as it and IP base phone system but kind of makes you wonder what could happen if someone one other than myself got access to it - something like change my call diversion to a premium number set the wait time to zero seconds and then call me. I've emailed the support about this suggesting that they send and email, txt or an automated call when ever you update your call diversion so that you know.
 
The call sound quality is very good; I had originally thought it would be a noticeable decline in quality but no. So I get free calls within the UK and down south and there are some great extras that all come under the £7.99 p/m line rental. I especially like the ability to have me voicemail emailed to me and the ability to see my call costs updated after each call rather than waiting for the bill every month/quarter. The only downside was that I couldn’t transfer my existing landline number. Also in the event of either my broadband connection failing or a vonage outage all my calls get rerouted to my mobile, hopefully I'll never have to use this "feature".

I’d kept my original line just encase I found vonage’s service to be really bad but I’ve now decided to move permanently :)
 
[1] http://vonage.co.uk/
[2] linksys RT31P2: broadband router with 2 phone ports
 

Published Apr 08 2006, 09:36 by Damien McGivern
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Comments

 

Damien McGivern said:

Hi David,

yes vonage did get back to me with

"We thank you for your valued business suggestion and we pride ourselves on being responsive to customer feedback and ideas.  Your idea has been forwarded on to Vonage UK Development Team for review.

As you can appreciate, we get a considerable number of suggestions such as this some of which we develop, others we file and re-visit when and if the idea falls with our strategy. "

Unfortunately I've been experiencing allot of problems with my vonage recently and it can't be a bandwidth issue as I've a 10Mb/s connection. I've contacted support about it and in a mind to cancel the service if the issues aren't resolved.


Damien
May 15, 2006 3:43
 

jimd said:

Most of my business calls are to the USA so I'm using Skype which now has free calls to US phone numbers.  I've just bought a cordless skype phone also (waiting for delivery) so I don't have to be chained to my PC during US business hours.
Anyone else using Skype?
May 17, 2006 4:06
 

Damien McGivern said:

I accidentally deleted David's post when deleting spam comments, sorry David.
May 17, 2006 8:18
 

Damien McGivern said:

I too use skype, mostly when I'm either ringing abroad or abroad ringing home. I noticed the other day that they were offering free calls to the US and Canada, pity there isn't as much competition in the UK & Europe that drives prices down to this level.
May 17, 2006 8:21

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About Damien McGivern

Hi I’m currently the Solutions Architect at Aurion Ltd who specialise in E-Learning solutions, which is based in Belfast. I’m a founding member of NIMTUG and am currently its group coordinator as well as a member or the Irish Microsoft Community Council. I specialised in ASP.Net and MS SQL Server.
NIMTUG 2004-2008