Why Vonage is Just a Fad
Grok Headline matches for Why Vonage is Just a Fad
Texas Vonage suit: here's what Vonage is
'guilty' of
Texas Vonage suit: here's what Vonage is
'guilty' of
03/23/2005 02:29 AMZDNet Mar 23 2005 6:18AM GMT
Broadband Surf Report: Vonage and more
Vonage
Broadband Surf Report: Vonage and more
Vonage
03/30/2005 04:55 PMBlog: Our daily look at telecom news around the Web:
Vonage
defends manually activated 911 calling--eWeek
...
Vonage
Vonage
07/28/2004 03:08 PMStart-up finds talk is cheap with Vonage: I've heard a lot about
Vonage and seen their ads, but I
was never able to pin down exactly what they did. Turns it its
commercial Skype with
hardware.
Its service is simple. Vonage sends customers an Internet phone
box, which looks like a small cable TV box. The box plugs into most
high-speed Internet connections. Almost any telephone plugs into the
box.
The phone works like any other phone, but Vonage is routing the
calls over the Web. (If the person on the other end of the line is not
a Vonage user, the call will hop onto a regular phone line for the
very last leg of its journey.)
This is the future.
Cl
ick here to comment on this entry
Vonage arrives
Vonage arrives
03/06/2004 01:59 AMMy Vonage phone arrive yesterday afternoon. I followed the simple
instructions for plugging it into my cable modem and now I'm making
calls to anywhere in the US or Canada - 500 minutes/month for $15. So
far, the sonic quality has been as good as a "real" phone. Yep, them
Voice over IP bits can hold their own. And the plain ol' telephone
company, the one with the network that's too smart for it's own good,
ought to be worried....
New: Vonage SoftPhone for Mac OS X
New: Vonage SoftPhone for Mac OS X
06/28/2004 09:54 AMVonage released a Mac OS X version of its SoftPhone software for use
with its Voice Over IP telephone service.
Vonage reviewed
Vonage reviewed
03/13/2003 10:24 AMRaffi Krikorian's review of Vonage's Voice-over-IP phone-service is a
great, info-civilian-oriented overview of the best way to secede from
your phone company.
The Edison, New Jersey based company gives you one Cisco ATA186 and a
phone number in an area code of your choosing (I had a little piece of
northern New Jersey in my living room). You have a choice of two
different levels of service to go along with this box: for
$25.99/month you get unlimited local/regional calling (where
local/regional is defined by the area code you choose for your phone
number) and 500 minutes of free US long distance, and for $39.99/month
you get unlimited long distance. And you also get international rates
that rivals most common calling cards. The only problem is that the
service only delivers one ATA186, and that specific model is required
to use the service -- no other SIP compatible devices are supported
yet. If you want to use more than one phone with the box, you will
either have to rig up a network of telephone splitters and wires; or
you can do what some have done and hack your house to plug the Cisco
box into your house's in wall telephone network.
Link
Discuss
Vonage Now Available in Canada
Vonage Now Available in Canada
04/12/2004 03:37 PMTechfocus Apr 12 2004 8:10PM GMT
Vonage goes to Canada
Vonage goes to Canada
04/13/2004 04:52 AMBell tolls for telcos
Vonage, 2nd try for IP telephony
Vonage, 2nd try for IP telephony
12/17/2004 06:36 PMLast summer I switched to lingo.com, an IP phone service that
proved to be cheap but
unreliable. Starting last week Lingo failed altogether and
their tech support folks (available only by phone, which is kind of
irksome) failed to call back, so I ordered Vonage, which is the same
$25/month but does not include Western Europe in its unlimited calling
region and has higher international rates.
Here's how Vonage has worked...
- Vonage sends you a brand-new Linksys broadband router with
included IP phone jacks and three Ethernet jacks; if you were relying
on your old router for 802.11b or to use as an 8-port hub you may have
to buy some new networking gear
- the customer service Web site is very slow and about 25% of the
time page requests produce an error page with a "try again later"
instruction
- tech support is available through a form on their Web site; this
form asks for your name, phone number, account number, etc., even
though you've already logged in and it should have all of his info as
part of your account profile
- tech support via phone results in a "we're experiencing an
unsually high volume of calls; try again later"; customer service
(billing, etc.) can be reached after a 15-minute wait in queue
- they say that they never received my FAXed letter of authorization
to transfer my old number from Lingo and want it refaxed
- when set to simultaneously ring my cell phone Vonage does ring the
cell but I can't hear callers (they can hear me though)
They say that it will take two months for them to transfer the
phone number from Lingo, so I'll have to pay $25/month to Lingo for
forwarding until that happens.
[Update: I believe that I unfairly maligned Vonage in regards
to not being able to hear callers on calls simultaneously rung to my
cell phone. It turns out that it is my PalmOne Treo flaking out
on the very day that I installed Vonage! This makes Treo #10
that has failed, I think. It lasted about two months, just like
the others. Anyone have a suggestion for a GSM phone that will
do a calendar and contacts sync with Microsoft Outlook?]
[Dec 3 Update: When voicemail is pending, the Vonage system
fails to change the dial tone. A second try to reach technical
support (at 1:30 pm Eastern time) resulted in the same "we're too busy
to talk to anyone" recording. The voice quality of calls is
somewhat low, with some constant static.]
Vonage: Strike One
Vonage: Strike One
08/06/2004 03:25 PMI was scheduled for a phone call with a VIP today, and when he got on
the line (my office Vonage phone), it was unusable, multi-second
delays on each voice round-trip. Damnably, I didn’t have my
cellphone with me, so we had to reschedule. I called up Vonage, had
to punch through two levels of slow menu (could be worse I suppose) to
get to the tech support queue where I waited for five minutes
listening to vasty echoing silence to talk to someone who put me on
the tech support queue (“I thought this was tech support?” “No,
I’m a general-purpose service representative.”) Which picked up
after only a minute or two, and he made a vague attempt to blame my
ISP and said he’d sent a couple of downloads to the phone that
should address the problem. So, if it’s a known problem with a
known fix, why don’t I already have it? I don’t have to do this
kind of thing for either my land-lines or mobile. All in all, I’ve
been fairly happy with Vonage so far, but much more of this could sour
the relationship quickly.
Vonage-Click2Call-0.10
Vonage-Click2Call-0.10
09/21/2004 07:05 PMVonage goes wireless
Vonage goes wireless
12/18/2003 11:57 AMGetting the scoop once again, Om Malik reveals that Vonage is working
on software that would let you use their broadband Voice over IP
telephone...
NY Wants To Regulate Vonage
NY Wants To Regulate Vonage
05/20/2004 01:09 AMAdd New York to the list of greedy states along with California,
Florida and Minnesota that want to get as much money out of VoIP
providers as possible by declaring them phone companies. New York has
become the latest state
to
declare Vonage a phone company that they can now regulate. This
is a backwards step that is likely to slow down the acceptance of
VoIP. While it may mean that the NY state government can suck a few
extra taxes out of people, it will mean slower adoption, which means
slower economic growth. Even worse, they're doing this while the FCC
has made it clear that they're still reviewing this issue and had told
states to leave VoIP providers alone while they come up with a
position at the federal level. This is merely a short-term grab at
extra tax revenue.
Vonage Goes Portable
Vonage Goes Portable
12/18/2003 03:38 PMOm Malik breaks the news that Vonage will soon have laptop and
PDA-based software client for its service: It's not news that Vonage
has tens of thousands of subscribers, nor that they offer a
high-quality, full-featured hardware-based broadband voice-over-IP
service that allows you to map multiple incoming real phone numbers to
your virtual line. It also not news that you can get high-quality
software VoIP clients; I'm personally enamored of Xten's suite, which
work with Windows, Mac OS X, LindowsOS, and Linux. They're beautiful
and come in free and paid flavors, including a multi-line conference
version. The Xten clients can interface with any standard SIP (Session
Initiation Protocol) server, and many of the VoIP providers who offer
long-distance over the Internet use standard SIP gateways. But getting
from Xten outbound to the VoIP provider is a pain: I had to have the
CEO of Xten provide me the details for a couple of VoIP services;
those details aren't on the VoIP long-distance service sites. Then
there's the question of inbound service. Even though you can use Xten
as the default client with Addaline.com, it's unclear whether you can
receive inbound calls via their service. Most of the VoIP in software
is focused on making calls to the PSTN and receiving calls from other
folks using services like Free World Dial-up, which provides you with
a free non-PSTN VoIP number and SIP gateway. Om's scoop is certainly
that Vonage is going to package the software and PSTN offering into a
no-configuration package that will be as easy to use as their hardware
service. Vonage's hardware solution is pretty simple: open the box,
plug it in, wait a minute. You're done. Voice mail calls can be
alerted via email, and other features can be enabled through the Web
site's dashboard for your account. Because Vonage works over
broadband, a Pocket PC or a laptop equipped with their soft client in
turn connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot or access point means free phone
service everywhere -- it's another incentive to lower cell phone plans
(for roaming purposes) and increase the number of hot spot locations.
I'm a recent Vonage convert. I use my cell phone as my office and
roaming line, and although I'd switched to a $130/month plan from
Cingular because of their rollover minutes, I had $250 and $450 bills
in September and October during particularly intense work periods.
Yes, that's...
Vonage softphone
Vonage softphone
12/19/2003 04:58 PMHave been trying out the Vonage softphone with some success. My Laptop
(IBM T40), like most, has built in speakers...
Vonage Offers Wi-Fi Phone
Vonage Offers Wi-Fi Phone
01/04/2005 12:45 AM Engadget slips the news that Vonage ships its F-1000 Wi-Fi handset:
The handset will work over hotspot networks allowing Vonage customers
to use their service while roaming. Boingo and Vonage had a deal in
place to test out VoIP over Wi-Fi hotspots, but it's unclear here in
the late evening how that ties together. Also, Vonage's site doesn't
yet list the announcement, so we don't know if they've partnered with
various networks to ease authentication. Authentication, or providing
credentials that let you use a given hotspot network--whether a paid
login or a WPA encryption key or handling 802.1X, even--is the biggest
stopping block in allowing VoIP over hotspot to work. A technology
like EAP-SIM, which would use a GSM SIM module to authenticate, might
be one method of logging in. But it requires every hotspot or hotspot
network that wants to allow this sort of connection to build the
back-end to handle it....
Vonage Drops Price
Vonage Drops Price
05/17/2004 02:56 PMVonage sends word that they've dropped their Residential Unlimited
Plan from $34.99 to $29.99 per month. Seriously, that's it. Jesus
wept, etc. Move along. Read [Vonage]...
Notes and Tips: Vonage
Notes and Tips: Vonage
06/02/2004 10:32 AMHarris Upham shares his initial experience with Internet phone calls
from his Mac.
Notes and Tips: Vonage on Mac OS X
Notes and Tips: Vonage on Mac OS X
06/01/2004 10:45 AMVonage apparently has voice-over-IP software for Mac OS X.
Vonage to Introduce Wi-Fi Phone
Vonage to Introduce Wi-Fi Phone
01/04/2005 03:18 PMBroadband telephone company Vonage is expected to announce plans
Tuesday for a Wi-Fi phone that could make calls through a customer's
wireless home network or at wireless hotspots, USA Today reported
Tuesday. Vonage says it would work like a cell phone, but would not
cost the subscriber any additional fees to use the service.
Vonage Goes VoWiFi -- How Big Is The
Market?
Vonage Goes VoWiFi -- How Big Is The
Market?
01/04/2005 06:57 AMVonage is about to pick up quite a bit of press coverage for their
unveiling of "plans" to offer a WiFi phone that
will work with their service. It wasn't a secret that they were
working on such a plan, and it sounds like this isn't so much a launch
as it is a confirmation that they plan to launch it at some point
(giving them an extra chance at getting some publicity). The phone,
expected to cost about $100, will let subscribers use their Vonage
VoIP accounts from WiFi hotspots, but there are a bunch of questions.
While this does appear to be one of the first widely marketed attempts
at consumer VoWiFi, it's still not clear there's really that much
demand for this type of solution. Most people savvy enough to want
one of these will already have a mobile phone. While it's true that
VoIP won't eat up minutes the way cellular plans do, most cellular
plans offer such large buckets of minutes and free long distance,
making them effectively flat-rate as well. Even if the calls are
international, things like
VoIP
bridges offer a reasonable solution for a mobile phone user who
wants to make cheap international calls. Furthermore, it requires
people to carry
yet another device -- and, in this case, one
that probably has a fairly short battery life, considering the rate at
which WiFi consumes power. It's also unclear how the phone manages to
log onto fee-based or subscription-based WiFi hotspots, without which
the phones usefulness could be diminished even further. Also, it's
doubtful that these phones can handle handoff between different access
points without dropping a call, which forces you to be somewhat
stationary when using the phones. The whole thing is a bit
reminiscent of the old
Rabbit
Phones in the UK. Yes, there are some people who will find it
useful, but it's likely to be a fairly small number. I could see it
being useful for some people who just want to use it in their homes,
but don't want to go through the trouble of wiring a phone up to an
adapter that's across the home. Also, it
would be easier than
bringing along the adapter for someone who travels frequently to
places with WiFi. However, it would seem that if anything along the
lines of a VoWiFi solution would make sense, it would be much more
likely to be something merged with a mobile phone so you would just
carry around a single device. That means either having the carriers
offer it (and that's not likely any time soon -- or with much
enthusiasm if they ever get around to it, as they have no desire to
eat away at their own minute plans) or letting people install a
softphone on a smartphone that has WiFi.
Vonage to take VoIP on the road
Vonage to take VoIP on the road
01/04/2005 05:51 PMZDNet Jan 4 2005 7:13PM GMT
States gang up on Vonage
States gang up on Vonage
04/11/2005 05:46 PMZDNet Apr 11 2005 9:50PM GMT
Vonage, SBC Fight Over 911 Calls
Vonage, SBC Fight Over 911 Calls
03/30/2005 11:08 PMVonage is in a bit of hot water over its
E911
efforts lately -- though, it seems to mostly be a political ploy.
However, now comes the news that Vonage approached SBC last month
about
running a
private trial of an E911 service that would require SBC to give
Vonage access to some routers and databases. SBC refused, pointing
out that if they work privately with Vonage, there are a hundred other
VoIP providers who will want to work privately with them also. They
would prefer to come up with standards across the board that everyone
can use -- which makes a lot more sense. While Vonage's request was a
bit silly, it does show they know how important the VoIP-911 issue is
becoming.
Update: Of course, some are
claiming this means VoIP E911 service
will be held up -- which is ridiculous. This is only about delaying
E911 for
Vonage's proprietary method of doing E911. In this
case, SBC is right. There should be a standard way, across the board
for VoIP providers to do E911 and connect with the telcos.
Vonage expands UK service
Vonage expands UK service
03/23/2005 12:46 PMBut gets into hot water with the state of Texas
Vonage Wins Another Round—for Now
Vonage Wins Another Round—for Now
07/01/2004 01:53 PMNew York State has been enjoined from regulating the VOIP service
provider for the remainder of 2004.
Vonage hangs up on some callers
Vonage hangs up on some callers
08/12/2004 02:40 PMVoIP company suffers "delays," the second glitch in two weeks. Those
affected are told to reboot their adaptors.
Vonage SoftPhone for OS X coming
Vonage SoftPhone for OS X coming
06/18/2004 02:14 PMVonage is expected to release the final version of its SoftPhone
client for Mac OS X next week, according to VoIP Daily...
Vonage VOIP Phone to Run Over Wi-Fi
Networks
Vonage VOIP Phone to Run Over Wi-Fi
Networks
08/30/2004 06:31 AMSmall businesses mapping out WLAN strategies will soon have another
alternative to consider.
Vonage VoIP Stops Working
Vonage VoIP Stops Working
08/02/2004 03:18 PMOne of the few remaining hurdles for most users concerning any plan to
ditch a traditional landline and go completely VoIP is the reliability
of the service. If your power goes out: no VoIP. If your broadband
connection goes down: no VoIP. Now, Vonage, the leader of the
independent VoIP providers just convinced a bunch of people to hold
off a little longer by
having
their own internal problems, so that many users couldn't make
outgoing phone calls for an hour and a half this morning. There are
plenty worse things in the world that could happen, but people are
used to being able to pick up their phone and dial without having to
worry about whether or not a dialtone exists.
Update: Turns out
Vonage wasn't the only VoIP provider having problems. Over in Hong
Kong, two independent VoIP providers are
accusing broadband provider PCCW of disrupting their
VoIP connections on purpose -- to keep people using PCCW's
landlines. It seems unlikely that the same thing happened with
Vonage, but it does raise that issue of
network
neutrality again.
Vonage: Dial 311 for city info
Vonage: Dial 311 for city info
08/18/2004 06:40 PMSubscribers of the company's Net phone service can get information on
park locations, public transit, and so on.
Vonage Says It's Ready for Fight Over
VoIP
Vonage Says It's Ready for Fight Over
VoIP
12/30/2004 04:55 PMInternet News Dec 30 2004 8:02PM GMT
Vonage to Produce a WiFi Phone
Vonage to Produce a WiFi Phone
01/04/2005 03:26 PMVonage to offer wireless phones
Vonage to offer wireless phones
01/04/2005 08:59 PMVonage Holdingson Tuesday announced it has partnered with two
companies to offer wireless telephone handsets for its VOIP (voice
over Internet Protocol) service.
Minnnesota to appeal FCC Vonage ruling
Minnnesota to appeal FCC Vonage ruling
01/06/2005 05:41 PMWASHINGTON - The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) plans to
appeal a November decision by the U.S. Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) prohibiting states from regulating VOIP (voice over
Internet Protocol) services, such as those offered by Vonage Holdings.
Dial with Vonage from the OS X Address
book
Dial with Vonage from the OS X Address
book
03/14/2005 06:18 PMThis is great. With a simple Apple Script I can now make my phone ring
and when I pick it up it calls the number I clicked on in the Address
Book. This will at least tide me over until they come out with regular
phones with bluetooth. AdressBook AppleScript Plugin via Mac OS X
Hints API info from Vonage....
Texas sues Vonage over 911 problem
Texas sues Vonage over 911 problem
03/22/2005 04:51 PMZDNet Mar 22 2005 6:50PM GMT
Texas sues Vonage over 911 service
Texas sues Vonage over 911 service
03/30/2005 06:53 AMPlus: Nortel's latest losses; BellSouth adds Centrex enhancements
Vonage may route 911 call to Congress,
FCC
Vonage may route 911 call to Congress,
FCC
03/30/2005 09:02 PMThe Net phone provider considers asking for help solving problems
with SBC over subscriber access to the 911 emergency call network.
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Why Vonage is Just a Fad
