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Vonage Review: VoIP |
| Visit Vonage Website | |
| Included calling to 60+ countries w/ Vonage World, great quality, no set-up fees, no contracts | |
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[Editor's Note: Vonage has set up an exclusive 800 number where NextAdvisor.com visitors can speak to a Vonage representative to ask questions and order by phone. If you'd rather order by phone than online or just have more questions, please call 1-800-910-8108. ]
The Vonage World plan helps put Vonage a notch above other VoIP providers. Vonage World includes unlimited1 calling to anywhere in the U.S. and more than 60 other countries (see list at the bottom of this review). Vonage World also has some unique and useful features that help separate it further from the VoIP pack. With the current promotional price of $9.99 for your first three months, then $25.99 per month afterwards* (plus fees and taxes), we think it's priced very reasonably for what you get. This special introductory pricing only lasts until January 31 so order before then to take advantage. We ordered Vonage ourselves as part of our testing of residential VoIP providers. Vonage's welcome package comes in a very Apple-esque box, which unfolds to reveal your Vonage adapter, ethernet cable, power supply, and two guides, one of which is designed to get you up and running quickly. It really does, too; we had no problems with the installation. All the ports on the adapter are color-coded and labeled. The adapter itself is pretty neat. It's a little retro; its black body with orange stripe make it look like it came from the '80s, but it's far and away better than the adapters offered by other companies. After a frustrating experience with a competitor's adapter, it was nice to see the Vonage adapter tell us exactly what it was doing during setup. Once it's powered on, little LCD icons tell you if there's a phone, Internet, or computer connection. It also provides access to important network information, should you need to diagnose any problems. We had no real complaints about Vonage call quality. Everything was pretty clear. When tested with the same phone against the analog line, neither we nor our callers could distinguish any big difference. VoIP in general may sound a bit colder than a normal landline, but in an age of cell phones, we doubt anyone will really notice. From a customer service standpoint, Vonage is okay. When you call the billing line, there's a voice-recognition system to get you to the appropriate place. It can be a bit of a maze. The support itself is outsourced and a bit scripted but generally helpful. The Vonage World plan adds some incredibly useful and cool new voicemail features that further cement its position as the VoIP leader. Users of Apple's iPhone will immediately understand the huge benefits of Vonage Visual Voicemail. Rather than having to call up a number and listen to each voicemail individually, users can simply log into their Vonage account and see who called, when, and the length of the message. This can be an incredible time saver for heavy voicemail users. Its other extremely useful feature is free text transcription of all your voicemails. You can have the text (and, of course, the audio) of any new voicemail emailed to you as soon as it arrives. This service is particularly good for highly mobile people and enables you to get your voicemails in places you normally couldn't. While the transcriptions aren't always perfect, they almost always give you a clear understanding of the message. Despite the inclusion of calls to more than 60 countries and its nice voicemail features, Vonage World still comes in at a reasonable price of $25.99 a month (plus fees and taxes). Vonage is currently running a promotion with the first three months discounted to $9.99 a month* (promotion expires 1/31/12). The service includes free activation, a free V-Portal adapter and free shipping when you order online. You should get your welcome package in 4-5 business days after ordering. With the addition of the free international calling, we believe Vonage World will now save many people not just hundreds but thousands of dollars a year compared to traditional phone service. Also, Vonage is the only VoIP provider we recommend that does not require you to use a credit card; you can pay from your checking account instead. While we've focused our review on Vonage World as we think it is the best value of all the plans the company offers, Vonage has a wide range of other plans to suit individual needs. Just check the Vonage site to see if another plan might be a better fit for you. Vonage recently changed all its plans to bill month-to-month with no annual contracts. We think this is a great change and should make people very comfortable trying Vonage. There are no additional cancellation fees or rebate recovery fees that other VoIP providers charge. If you decide you don't like Vonage for any reason, you can just cancel and not get stuck paying anything more than the current month's bill. Below is the full alphabetical list of countries included in Vonage World. The ** indicates that calls to mobile phones are also included: Andorra Argentina Australia Austria Bahrain Belgium Brazil Brunei** Bulgaria Canada** Chile China** Colombia Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Guadeloupe Guam** Hong Kong** Hungary Iceland India** Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel (non-Paltel) Italy Japan Latvia Luxembourg Macau** Malaysia** Malta Mexico Monaco Netherlands New Zealand Norway Panama Peru Poland Portugal Puerto Rico** Romania Russia Saipan** San Marino** Singapore** Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand** Turkey U.S. Virgin Islands** United Kingdom Venezuela Zambia Disclaimer: Excludes certain call types such as calls to non-geographic and premium numbers. Calls to cell phones may be included depending on destination (they're included if they have a ** in our list). Subject to change. 1Unlimited calling and other services for all residential plans are based on normal residential use by single-family household members. A combination of factors are used to determine abnormal use, including the number of unique numbers called, international calls forwarded, minutes used, and other factors. These are subject to our Reasonable Use Policy and Terms of Service. HIGH SPEED INTERNET REQUIRED. *LIMITED-TIME OFFER, VALID FOR NEW LINES ONLY. RATES EXCLUDE INTERNET SERVICE, SURCHARGES, FEES, AND TAXES. As a subscriber to Vonage service, you agree to be bound by the Terms of Service. See www.vonage.com/tos for details. Alarms, TTY and other systems may not be compatible. Vonage 911 service operates differently than traditional 911. See www.vonage.com/911 for details.
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| Plans: | World1: $9.99 first 3 mos., then $25.99/mo* (+ fees & taxes) |
| Setup Fees: | Free activation, adapter & S&H for online orders |
| $ Back Guarantee & Cancel Policy: | All plans month-to month; no cancel or rebate fees |
| Promotions: | $9.99 (+ fees & taxes) for first 3 months of Vonage World, free activation & adapter |
| Countries Included: | Over 60 - see review for full list |
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