Voip Comparison - Would you sign up with a company that sells VoIP service?

Would you sign up with a company that sells VoIP service?

Industry experts predict that by the end of 2007 that 20% of the population will be using VoIP phone service instead of traditional phone service.

Public Comments

I will sign up for that service. It will save lot of money.
Our family signed up with SunRocket. http://www.sunrocket.com/features/voicemail/ It is cheaper than other VOIP's, even had a no contract version, and was loaded with features, including call forwarding and caller notification. Turned out we use these features more than we thought we would for several reasons. We can have the calls forward from one phone to the other until the call finds us even when we are out of town. Sadly, it also works when for whatever reason the Gizmo isn't functioning. (They call their modem a Gizmo, cute, huh?) When it doesn't work we have the calls forwarded to either our cells or the landline. Yes, I would recommend it, especially if you have family overseas and spread across the map as we have. At this moment we are considering going cellular and VOIP only, but the landline has come in handy. Especially when the Gizmo drops one party's side of the conversation. During the day, when the internet is being used by heavy users, sometimes this happens. The first Gizmo over-heated and left a spot on our rug, but SunRocket replaced it with another one, which never had a problem until yesterday. It dropped me from the conversation. Had to call back on the landline. And I was just about to cancel the landline phone too. As soon as the dropped packet problem is solved we will be VOIP and cellular only. It will save us over $20/month, and we don't use the phone that much. We pay almost $30 for basic with AT & T and we lose service for at least a day every 2 months with A T & T on the landline. For the price and options we get a whole lot more with the VOIP. We have called family in England, Cananda, Mexico, and Argentina with their sevice with no problems. We only have problems with our domestic calls during heavy use times of the day. We think it is our internet providers' fault, but it could be our AP modem, guess I need to check on that. As for 20 % using the service, that would depend on how many have broadband service, because you need to have a good broadband service to use VOIP. The figure sounds realistic to me though. If you are going to sign up for it, check out contract details. One company had no fees to sign up, but you had to pay quite a bit to cancel ... ever. I was amazed at the disconnect charges associated with a lot of the VOIP services. Some family members swear by Skype. http://www.skype.com/?utm_source=google/US/search&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=brandus/usbrande&utm_term=skype/exact&utm_content=644617924&cm_mmc=google/search-_-brandus/usbrande-_-skype/exact-_-US/644617924 I believe it has no contracts and is even cheaper than Sun Rocket. But the set-up can be more confusing. With AT & T buying back the Bells and adding a horrendous amount of fees to the bill, it would behoove anyone to check out other options.
I have Vonage, love it, great for miilitary families being that we move often we keep the same number anywhere we go and the number is always local to our families back home. Also on my hubbies last leave we took the router and were able to use our phone there. Will never go back to overcharging traditional phone service. I have had Vonage for 1 year
I also have my VoIP phones for 1 year now, I will never go back..
There are pro's and con's to using any system. VOIP is great for a few things, generally you can travel with the gateway. The price is usually cheaper and as long as you have your high speed connection, not a problem. Downside, you lose you ISP, you lose the dial tone. Also, depending on where you are, depends on the type of 911 svc you have. Whether it's 'Basic' or "Enhanced". Basic meaning you need to give you name, nbr etc to the 3rd party call centre that is handling the 911 emergency response. Versus the 'enhanced' of your info populating automatically into their system. As well as your only line is from where you have your gateway unless you can hardwire it to all your walljacks.