Vonage Plans to Enter the Australian Market

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://au.biz.yahoo.com/050706/18/58uk.html' target='_blank'>http://au.biz.yahoo.com/050706/18/58uk.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"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&amp;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."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050710-Vonage.gif" /><br /><br />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. ;-)

[OSUKid7]

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. :D I haven't tried the softphone yet, but I'd assume it's just as good. :)

[btorbik]

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.

[farnold]

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:

[altermind]

it would be nice to have some more compitition to telstra *KILLIE TELSTRA*

[ricksfiona]

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.

[btorbik]

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.

[btorbik]

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...

[EddieH28]

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

[karen]

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

[OSUKid7]

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
If you own a home, there should be a grey box outside your house where the telcom lines get divided between you and the telephone company. If you simply open the customer side of this and disconnect the lines, and then plug your Vonage box into any RJ-11 port in your home, all of your home jacks will be magically powered with Vonage. Obviously search for more detailed directions if you go this way, but that's what I have done and it works great. :)

[that_kid]

I've had vonage for over 2 years and I haven't had any problems with it at all. I also have a softphone account which I use on my ppc's and other phone adapter. While the cost saving is great, I barely use it as my cell phone plan has more minutes in it than I can use but as more and more countries come aboard It would be better for my to use my Vonage accounts. I already use the new local calls to Puerto Rico :D

[btorbik]

"EddieH28" asked "... is there a way to have a phone upstairs as well as in the basement? ..."

The answer depends upon the age of your home. If it's newer, there will be a "DEMARC" box near the front of your home where the cable and monopoly phone company lines come into your house. You need to carefully disconnect the incoming telco line and ensure that there isn't any signal or other interference on your line. Just for good measure, I had a former PacTel guy check out my lines. For $50, it was a deal.

I'm using a Linksys Wireless router with 2 x phone ports, connected to my cable modem. I've run a good quality phone cable from the Linksys adapter to the phone jack immediately beside my desk, and I was able to use all of the existing phones in my house, no worries. If you have any other questions, call Vonage's Help Desk in NJ and they'll tell you how to do it.

I haven't used many of the other features - I don't need Call forwarding or Call Waiting, but the really cool feature is being able to get my voice mail on line. As I travel from California back to NJ frequently, this is a very handy feature. I also use the free long distance extensively to call friends back East and in Canada.

I've compared the price I'm paying for Vonage with Verizon's "Value" (not!) bundle, and whereas (including all of the ripoff fees and taxes the Federal Gov't and California tacked onto my Verizon bill) Verizon would have cost me $65-70/month, I'm paying Vonage $27.40/month, including the Federal line charge and excise tax. It's an excellent value, and the quality has been pretty consistent. I have Time-Warner (Roadrunner) cable with a consistent 3.5-5.0 Mbps downstream and 375-500 kb upstream, and the infrastructure in my part of Huntington Beach is all fibre, so connectivity is great and the service is very reliable. Best of all, I got to dump Verizon!

[jgrnt1]

btorbik,

I believe the reason for the difference in price between calling an Australian land line and a mobile number is the Australian pricing policy for cell phones. Unlike in the US, Australians pay only when making calls on their cell phones (if my Australian mum-in-law is correct). Incoming calls are free, so we pay the mobile charges when we call from here.

I don't know how this works within Australia (I may have to ask mum-in-law). Can anyone from Australia tell me how it works? If you call a mobile number from an Australian land line, does the landline get billed for it?

Getting back to Vonage, I've had it for over a year and love it. I pay less than $25/month for services which were costing me over $40/month from the phone company, and they didn't include long distance. The call quality is great.

[Brad Adrian]

I've never tried Vonage, because I'm unsure about how it will fit my specific needs. Can somebody who's familiar with Vonage give me a brief profile of the most "typical" or "successful" user?

[Darius Wey]

Incoming calls are free, so we pay the mobile charges when we call from here.

That's correct. Outgoing calls and messages are paid for. Any incoming calls and messages are not charged.

I don't know how this works within Australia (I may have to ask mum-in-law). Can anyone from Australia tell me how it works? If you call a mobile number from an Australian land line, does the landline get billed for it?

Yes. The landline gets billed for it. The mobile user incurs no charges, since (as above), incoming calls and messages aren't charged for the mobile user.

[btorbik]

Brad Adrian wrote: "... I've never tried Vonage, because I'm unsure about how it will fit my specific needs. Can somebody who's familiar with Vonage give me a brief profile of the most "typical" or "successful" user?..."

Anyone who is tired of being ripped off by the monopoly local phone company in your area will appreciate Vonage, or for that matter, any other VoIP service. If you don't think you'll use all the features of the "unlimited" plans that are offered, try a more limited plan for a few months to see how many minutes you use.

Warning: some plans offered by cable companies, e.g., Time Warner, are ripoffs. They charge you $39.95/month for "unlimited" service, and offer you "free voicemail" for a year if you take their bate. Check the features, etc. of the plans you consider. There are several reliable, reputable providers, including Vonage, ATT Callvantage, Packet 8 and others. Do a Google search to get user comments on each. They're all apt to have some naysayers, but again, it's what works for you that counts.

[ADBrown]

I've compared the price I'm paying for Vonage with Verizon's "Value" (not!) bundle, and whereas (including all of the ripoff fees and taxes the Federal Gov't and California tacked onto my Verizon bill)

Little known fact that Verizon doesn't want you to know--many of those "taxes" are nothing of the sort. They're fees that Verizon charges you for the service they provide in, you know, obeying the law. Take for instance the famous "Regulatory Recovery Fee"--no such thing. It's not government mandated, recommended, or even suggested: it's just an extra price that service providers decided they want you to pay, so that they don't have to dip into their profit in order to provide services like E911. It and other fees like it are essentially a rate hike that the providers slip in under the wire by pretending like it's government-required, so they don't have to list it in the advertising, and their profit margin gets a very healthy bump.

How healthy? Verizon brags about having 136 million access line equivalents, and 36 million wireless subscribers. If they only list $1.50 in bogus fees per line, that's roughly an extra $250 million a month, or $3 billion a year. What do you know? Crime really does pay.

[Raphael Salgado]

I quit using Vonage after 4 months due to a couple of reasons, one particularly being their attitude on customer service. I suppose you really do get what you pay for.

My wife was having consistent difficulty in long-distance calls to and from Israel, with cheap international long distance being one of the selling points to go to Vonage. I emailed tech support with all my information (persons and numbers I'm calling, start time and duration, and my account information). Initially, Vonage got on the phone with my wife's relatives in Israel to diagnose the problem, but obviously couldn't understand some of them to find out what they were or weren't hearing. But, then Vonage's tech support then started circling my email with all the other technical support requests who were having similar issues with Israel and the Middle East. All of a sudden, everyone with these issues were getting CC'ed with everyone else's email, and I was getting everyone's personal information while everyone was getting mine! Completely unnecessary and unprofessional, and ultimately was never resolved.

Literally, I live down the street from the headquarters of Vonage, right in Edison, New Jersey. After four months of alleged "bandwidth" issues on their Vonage network, I decided to cancel service. I attempted to drop off the unit locally, and was refused at their front door. "You have to mail it in," they said. "But, I live right here, you want me to pay for certified shipping for something I'm doing right now?" Their answer? "The post office is right next door."

Of course, before I canceled, they were in the process of expanding and thought they could use some good customer service and technical support reps. So, I applied for a position. Their alleged "second level" support was offering a full-time position for $13 an hour, and it required going to some sort of weird, active in-house education in order to maintain or build your background and expertise for possible raises and promotions.

I'm with Optimum Online now, but even with their own service and lines, I'm getting choppy conversations across all conversations. I just don't think VoIP is ready yet, so it's no wonder why Verizon still overcharges. I got a letter from Verizon offering me a chance to go back, with no discounts or incentives, of course. :?