Voice Over IP Wars

[Suhit Gupta]

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/archives/000520.php

"Verizon is jumping into the consumer VoIP services business and is going to offer standalone service in 130 cities, reports The Wall Street Journal. The unlimited long distance and local calling plan dubbed VoiceWing will cost $40 a month, for those who are not customers of Verizon, while Verizon broadband subscribers can pay $34.95 a month for the service."

There are several other players in the market - Vonage, Sprint Canada, Qwest, AT&T, etc. I personally switched from Verizon (regular analog line) to Vonage (VoIP) almost two years ago and have been quite happy with them. So my question is this - what are your thoughts on VoIP?

[Suhit Gupta]

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/archives/000520.php

"Verizon is jumping into the consumer VoIP services business and is going to offer standalone service in 130 cities, reports The Wall Street Journal. The unlimited long distance and local calling plan dubbed VoiceWing will cost $40 a month, for those who are not customers of Verizon, while Verizon broadband subscribers can pay $34.95 a month for the service."

There are several other players in the market - Vonage, Sprint Canada, Qwest, AT&T, etc. I personally switched from Verizon (regular analog line) to Vonage (VoIP) almost two years ago and have been quite happy with them. So my question is this - what are your thoughts on VoIP?

[that_kid]

I've been using vonage for over a year and a half and for me it's the greatest thing. I've had no problems with the service and with having both a home phone and softhone on my ppc I still pay less that I'd ever pay with verizon(pots and their new voip offering).

[tasi]

Does anyone have any experience with Lingo? http://www.lingo.com?

I was thinking of switching, and with LNP keeping my existing phone #, and adding a Universal number in Toronto (I'm in the SF/Bay Area). For $19.99 (+ $5 for the universal number) per month, unlimited calling nation wide, Canadian, and some European countries, this is an amazing deal. For those that don't know, the universal number will let anyone calling that number make local calls to my long distance # (i.e. for me it would be local call's in Toronto would be forwarded to my home in California).

But I e-mailed them a couple of days ago with a few questions, and never received any response yet. So now I'm wondering how good their customer support could be?

Here's what asked, let me know if anyone can answer these questions about Lingo?

1. Do the advanced features have additional charges? In particular Simultaneous Ring?

2. If using Simultaneous ring with a cell phone, what happens if the cell phone voicemail picks up the call? What if you only want the call to go to Lingo voicemail with Simultaneous ring?

3. If I have a fax machine, I would only be able to use it with a business account? Are you planning on enabling this feature for home users anytime? If so, what are the plans?

4. Is it possible to use a IP softphone (i.e. VoIP software), on a PC or PDA to send and receive phone calls, or are we restricted to the gateway provided by Lingo? Are there any plans to enable IP Softphone access in the future?

5. What are the cancellation charges after the 30 day trial?

If you're using or have used Lingo, I'd love to hear your opinions.

T.

[foldedspace]

I think this is pretty cool


http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/s...sp?T1=255+0235

Ideal for people on the move, expatriates who like to call home, students and teachers, and anyone who wants to talk on the phone for FREE*!
Each Yak phone comes with its own unique number so you can connect to the internet anywhere in the world and other Yak phone users will always dial the same number to reach you.

[sundown]

$40 a month? Seems expensive to me. I pay $19.95 a month with Packet8

http://www.packet8.com

I don't know why but every time there is an aritcle about VoIP, almost no one ever mentions Packet 8.