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Reader Question: Is Vonage better than my cable company's phone service?
Posted by Joe on June 12th, 2008
We are borrowing the following reader question from Jim Rossman at the Dallas News since it is a question that we also receive frequently. Jim's reader writes:
Q: I'm having an argument with my neighbor. We both have cable TV and Internet, and our cable company is offering telephone service now. My neighbor is going to sign up for it. He says I should, too, but I have Vonage, and I tried to tell him it's the same thing.
He says the cable company's offering is better. Who's right?
A: Jim's answer is essentially that Vonage probably offers consumers a better deal because it has better rate plans than cable. The cable phone service, on the other hand, offers the simplicity of being able to call your local cable company to set up your phone line and deal with any technical issues. From Jim's perspective, Vonage is a more complex set up process than the cable company's phone service.
We strongly agree with Jim that Vonage makes more fiscal sense as it will save most users hundreds of dollars per year versus standard telephone or most cable phone services. We do respectfully disagree on Jim's take on the complexity of setting up Vonage phone service.
Most Vonage subscribers find the set-up to be extremely simple, as we did when we initially reviewed the service. Additionally, Vonage has invested heavily in customer support and product development to make the set up and maintenance of a Vonage VoIP connection even simpler than it already is.
We are obviously strong proponents of VoIP in general, but we encourage all of our readers to form their own opinion by reading Jim's excellent analysis of Vonage versus cable telephone service. You can also learn more about Vonage or VoIP in general by visiting our Internet telephone service provider comparison and reviews.
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6 Responses to “Reader Question: Is Vonage better than my cable company's phone service?”
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June 17th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Here is something you guys should check out. You say that you can save what, hundreds of dollars a year with VOIP? I have just been informed recently and now using what's called "Magic Jack" which I believe is a VOIP telephone service and works the same way asthe others on a high speed internet line.
As far as I can tell it is head & shoulders above any VOIP service out there! Why? Because it only costs $20.00 a Year. Thats right $20.00 ayear not $200. So you can concievably save over a thousand dollars a year using this service. You get this price per year by paying $49.95 for the Magic Jack and then pay an additional $49.95 for an additional 4 more years of service.
As far as I can tell its lines are as clear as a bell and have had no problems in the time that I have been using it.
I would love to hear what you have to say about this service once you have checked it out
June 17th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Hi William,
Thanks for stopping by and for the comment.
We have come across Magic Jack and are planning to post a review on the product soon. You will be able to find the full review on our VoIP service comparison at http://www.nextadvisor.com/voip_services/index.php
Thanks again,
Joe
June 29th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Hi William,
I have Magic Jack and I agree it does a very good job, and it's $19.95 per year, but the quality is not as good as Vonage, and Vonage offers more for the $24.99 a month. I have used Vonage for over 2 years and it is just the BEST PHONE Service I have ever used and I'm 58 year old. I use my Magic Jack when the kids come home with the grands they use the Vonage phone to call all the friends around the USA, so Magic Jack is my GREAT BACK-UP. The other problem is Magic Jack does not have my area code as of yet so people wishing to call my on MJ have to pay long distance a bummer to be sure. But William your right MJ is very good at what it does.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Hi Andy,
Thank you very much for the insight into your experience with both Magic Jack and Vonage. We get frequent inquiries from readers about Magic Jack and it is great to get an educated opinion from someone with experience with both Magic Jack and a more traditional VoIP service like Vonage.
Thanks again,
Joe Fahrner
NexAdvisor.com
June 30th, 2008 at 7:10 am
[...] Thanks for visiting the NextAdvisor Daily blog. You may want to subscribe to our RSS feed.A recent commenter on our blog provided an excellent comparison of Vonage and Magic Jack, two popular VoIP services. We thought we would call out the comment in a separate post since we receive frequent inquiries from our readers about our opinion on Magic Jack. I have Magic Jack and I agree it does a very good job, and it's $19.95 per year, but the quality is not as good as Vonage, and Vonage offers more for the $24.99 a month. I have used Vonage for over 2 years and it is just the BEST PHONE Service I have ever used and I'm 58 year old. [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
MAGIC JACK ID JOKE– VOICE QUILITY ID POOR. CUSTOMER SERVICE A WASTE, YOUR CALLER WILL GET MYSTOUS LOUD BEEPS, YOU WILL GET ECHOES WHEN YOU RECIEVE CALLS———————