Vonage DigitalVoice Service

by Vonage

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007MHMN
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 1, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Early Adopters Pick: January 2003. The world's only end-to-end voice Internet service that uses traditional phones to make and complete calls.

The Vonage DigitalVoice Service package contains everything you need to quickly and easily install a phone line in your home. In a matter of minutes, your Vonage DigitalVoice phone can be up and running, and you can be making and receiving calls over your broadband connection to and from your friends, business associates, and faraway relatives. It's easy: just plug the included phone adapter into your high-speed Internet connection and plug your telephone into the adapter.

Enjoy the conveniences of a standard telephone service with none of the hassles. With Vonage DigitalVoice, you can talk all you want to anywhere in the country for one flat monthly subscription fee. Plus, you can make international calls at a low per-minute rate. Another bonus is that a U.S. call to Canada is treated like a domestic long distance call rather than an international one. Vonage also supports short-form emergency 911 services, where available.

Unlike other Internet telephone service providers, Vonage does not require access numbers, account numbers, or PINs to make a simple phone call. Instead, you just dial your party's phone number on an ordinary telephone keypad. Also, if you purchase DigitalVoice from Amazon.com, the box includes a special URL that lets you register for service without a setup fee, plus you get two months of free calling. Switching your current local phone service to Vonage is a snap. You can even choose any area code you want, subject to availability.

Terms and Conditions
Buying this item signifies agreement to sign up for service with Vonage and to pay a monthly subscription fee after the initial promotional period has ended. For details about how the service works and for complete terms and conditions, visit www.vonage.com. For technical assistance, call 1-866-293-5676.

Product Description

Vonage DigitalVoice Service

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good/decent when working. Poor Support., April 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Vonage DigitalVoice Service (Personal Computers)

I have been using Vonage as my primary phone service for several months now. I also have a strong background in VoIP when I had worked as an Engineer at Nortel Networks on their Carrier and Enterprise VoIP and VoATM solutions. Here is my review so far:

Pros:
1) Low cost long distance, regional, AND international rates. Their rates/overall cost is extremely hard to beat from what I have seen.
2) Gives the customer an additional reason to pay the expense of a broadband connection.
3) Access to voicemail and service features online.

Cons:
1) POOR support of their service. I have had multiple occasions (more than 10 in 2 months) where calls were able to be established (the signaling portion or path of the call was created) however you could not hear anything (the voice path was not established).
2) A power outage can prevent you from making calls.
3) Internet or ISP bandwidth congestion can affect a call (distorted/choppy voice, loss of connection, delay and echoing while talking).
4) Often times when the above problems occur, you must reset all the equipment in order to re-establish a good connection. When this doesn't work, you have to rely on support. I have gone days without service. When the service came back, it didn't appear to be related to Vonage Support fixing anything. In other words, they never checked back to confirm service was restored after any changes/or troubleshooting they performed. They also lacked any useful suggestions on how to prevent similar outages, etc.
5) You should maintain a secondary land line separate from Vonage. This service is not reliable enough to use as your only home phone service. 911 services ARE now available, however if something happens during a power outage, you won't have any phone service to make that 911 call.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Average service for the standard computer user, February 12, 2004

By 

John K (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vonage DigitalVoice Service (Personal Computers)

Vonage provides a means of using your broadband modem as a standard phone. The sound quality is not as great as POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) but through their website, you can change the settings to allow the amount of bandwidth that you want to use which can increase the quality. Do take note that it depends on the speed of your modem. Think in percentages, not speed, when adjusting these settings. Knowing your average upload and download speeds first before you make changes will give you a good idea of what to expect for performance and there are a few sites that will give you a bandwidth test for free.

The instructions included in the manual are very simple and the equipment is easy to set up, however, users with static IP addresses need to take note that you may have some difficulty with P2P and possibly other online services because your computer is assigned a local IP address by the Vonage voice box but your modem still has the IP assigned to you by your broadband company. Also, for those of us that write server side software and web applications where the components rely on communication with each other across a network, it can be a real hassle. Also, I have had call drops and fast busy signals at times. Other erratic behavior from the service includes "tin can" sound quality, even at the highest setting, forwarding not working properly, and voicemail not working properly.

Do not bother contacting Vonage by phone. The hold times are usually in the 20 - 30 minute range and sometimes longer. One time I was on hold for 45 minutes before I got an automated message telling me that they were closed. I think they closed while I was on hold. The email support is not much better. I was having a problem with how the Vonage box was distributing IP addresses and they were not able to help with that. They usually just repeat the instructions that were in your manual. One time I got an email from a "Level II" tech support representative. I don't know if this was supposed to be a more knowledgeable representative, but he only had rudimentary networking skills such as checking the TCP/IP properties, etc. I got so fed up with the equipment that I finally just sat down one night and wrote my own piece of networking software in C++ to fix my IP dilemma. I will say that my system is quite unique and that most users will probably not have this type of difficulty, but it is important to point out that if you do have difficulty other than basic setup issues, you are on your own. Also, their website has problems occasionally that prevent you from getting into your account information. This can be big trouble when you want to check your voicemail online, change an account setting, or forward a number. Their website is slow and hangs often or sometimes just simply returns a "This page cannot be displayed" browser message. This has caused me the most frustration.

In conclusion, Vonage is a company with a very professional image, but a very amateur staff. The idea of broadband voice communication is a boon in times when landline services are drastically increasing prices but if a company wants to pioneer this type of idea to a large client base, they need to beef up their knowledge of system diversity and get their staff some more advanced technical training.

It is one thing to have technology as a supplement to daily life; however, if a company wants to replace a life necessity such as landline phones with a voice over broadband service then they need to have a solid service, reliable backup plan, and knowledgeable staff. I recommend that anyone who decides to use Vonage, HAVE A CELL PHONE AS A BACKUP FOR EMERGENCIES!!! I feel that Vonage has gotten in slightly over their heads in an effort to become an overnight success. They have overlooked the finer details that make modern communication what it is and for that I must give them two stars.

86 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Beware of following things before you jump in.., February 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Vonage DigitalVoice Service (Personal Computers)

First - let me tell you it is a great service, if you can live with the following:
1. You need to keep Cable / DSL modem, a router and a Vonage equipment (ATA) always ON.. so count on some electricity bill.
2. When you call someone, the receipient's caller ID will show "Unkown".
3. You will not be listed in Phone Book / 411.
4. NO 911 service.
5. You always need electricity and your internet connection should always be working.
6. If you have only 128 kbps DSL connection, then while talking on Vonage phone, you are left with only 128-90 = 38 kbps connection for web surfing.. so you cannot do both at the same time.
7. THERE IS A DISCONNECT FEE OF 39.99 WHENEVER YOU DISCONNECT THIS PHONE SERVICE.