07-10-2005, 05:15 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Vonage Plans to Enter the Australian Market
"U.S. Internet telephone company Vonage plans to launch its cut-price call technology in Australia, delivering Telstra (TLS) a new competitive threat as it prepares for its full privatization, The Australian Financial Review reports Thursday. Vonage has won more than 500,000 customers in the U.S. by undercutting giants such as AT&T Corp. (T) and aims to do the same thing in Australia. Vonage has hired an executive search firm to assemble a group of operations, finance and marketing executives to launch the company in Australia in the coming months, the newspaper says, without citing any sources. Vonage wouldn't comment on its plan, but its entrance is expected to shake up the market and push down the price of calls, the report says."
Australian residents will soon be able to join the hundreds of thousands of people in the US, UK and Canada using the Vonage service. With a Wi-Fi equipped Pocket PC and a Vonage SoftPhone account, you'll soon be able to tell Telstra a thing or two about cheap rates. ;-)
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07-10-2005, 06:10 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,725
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Hey, if anyone wants to sign up for Vonage, please let me know. We've had it for about 6 months here as our primary landline phone, and it's been great! I can send you a referal link that gives me 2 months free, and you 1 month free, so we all benefit.  I haven't tried the softphone yet, but I'd assume it's just as good. 
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07-10-2005, 08:17 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 35
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Vonage in Australia
I've had Vonage for nearly a year for my residential service and have been very happy with it. Their customer service ain't great, but then again, I don't need it very often. The main problem is that it takes forever to reach a support person, but once you get one, they're always very savvy.
I use a Linksys Wireless router with 2 phone ports and have better line quality than when I was with the monopoly local phone carrier, Verizon. You do need to ensure that you have AT LEAST 256kb of bandwidth UPSTREAM. Anything less and you're apt to experience dropped packets.
Last week, I spent nearly 2.5 hours on calls to Australia making arrangements for an upcoming vacation. I had to assure the people I was dealing with that they had plenty of time, as the call was only costing me 4 cents/minute, US funds. I'm not sure I understand why, but calls to mobile numbers are 15 cents/minute, US funds. Nonetheless, Vonage is an excellent service and a very good deal.
FYI, the cost for unlimited nationwide calling in the US is $24.99/month, but for some reason, Canadians have to pay considerably more to get the same thing. Hopefully, Oz will get a better deal.
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07-10-2005, 09:29 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 185
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OK, they have 500,000 customers in the States out of a population of 280 million. If they achieve the same market penetration down here with a population of 20 million that would make a staggering 20,833 customers 8O How will they please finance this and who will be paying for it?
They should rather invest some money in a market analisys then hiring expensive staff that cannot make the market bigger than it is. Even Amazon understood that the Australian market is too small :idea:
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07-10-2005, 09:52 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 10
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it would be nice to have some more compitition to telstra *KILLIE TELSTRA*
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07-10-2005, 02:48 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,041
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I'm cancelling my Vonage account for several reasons:
1) Cost Savings. Overall, I haven't saved much money by using them for my landline. Because I signed up as a business, they wouldn't let me go to the cheaper residential plan. Even though I was only using a fraction of the minutes alloted to me.
2) Customer Service. I didn't have a problem reaching them, but their responses to my inquiries were very frustrating. When I sent them eMails, they sent me some generic response that didn't answer my questions.
3) Company Attitude. Going back to #1, they should've seen my account usage and given me the cheaper residential account. I'd been a subscriber for a couple of years at least. If a company is this rigid, it's a bad sign for long term viability.
I personally don't see Vonage becoming a real player in the Telecom business. It's all about cell phones.
Also, I'm going with Skype for business landline service for the near term. I hope they come out with some services that make them more attractive to business customers.
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07-10-2005, 02:49 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 35
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Market analysis
Vonage's decision to enter Australia is likely driven by the comparatively large percentage of homes/businesses that have broadband. Although there are 300 million people in the US, only a small percentage of those home have broadband, which is a prerequisite for having a VoIP service.
In terms of infrastructure, it will cost Vonage relatively little to set up service in Australia. It will leverage their existing infrastructure for North America and the UK (where service is also offered). The main addition, I assume, would be a few more outsourced help desk persons in Bangalore or elsewhere in India.
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07-10-2005, 03:00 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 35
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Skype for use as a landline?
Rick, you stated ",,, Also, I'm going with Skype for business landline service for the near term. I hope they come out with some services that make them more attractive to business customers.,,"
How has your experience with Skype been? I've considered switching to them, but haven't done so as I work from home and make a lot of conference calls on toll-free numbers. I have the $24.99/month unlimited use plan but could probably get away with the more limited $14.99 plan, because Vonage doesn't count toll-free calls against your minutes used. My impression is that Skype would cost me more than Vonage...
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07-10-2005, 03:06 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 29
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question about multiple phones using vonage
quick question about vonage...i have a cable modem hooked up to a wireless router. if i get vonage is there a way to have a phone upstairs as well as in the basement? if the vonage unit is in the basement and i have a phone hooked up to it, i would like a corded phone as well upstairs from voange as well
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07-10-2005, 03:21 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 412
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I've had vonage for about 4 months now. The voice quality is ok. Some days it's fine; other days it is like talking on a submarine with a mask on.
I signed up for it as an experiment, with hopes of replacing a second line in our home. It worked out OK, so I logged in to 1) switch our old number over to the Vonage line, and 2) downgrade our plan from the unlimited minutes to 500, since this is just a backup line.
I was shocked to find out that changes to our account cost $12.95 each. So I paid almost $25 to formally make this our second line. What extreme cojones do they have to charge to change a value in a database?
Also, they don't seem to have the features I REALLY need. Sure, they have nifty call forwarding, free North American long distance, but do they offer number blocking for all those annoying spam faxes? No. Do they offer blocking of private callers? No. Do they allow blocking of a list of 10 or so annoying callers? No. Pretty much the offer what Skype offers, with the added annoyance of figuring out where to put the router and how to get the service accross all the phones in the house. Pretty much we've resorted to purchasing a extendable handset set system.
So for us, the new Rogers VOIP (hey, they say it isnt' VOIP, but it is) that just started here in Toronto is in the same price range, doesn't include long distance ($20/month for free North American calls), but has all the features to let me live in peace is probably going to be our solution. At least we'll try it.
K
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