Vonage: Landline To Go

Vonage, “the broadband phone company”, is all over the web these days. All over the news, too, when last week it had suffered its first outage (in 18 months of operation). I, however, felt confident enough about the Internet broadband thingy - and perhaps I just wanted to get even with the big telcos. So I walked out of in Radio Shack with my Vonage box (US$ 30, awaiting a rebate). After some head scratching - the manual was written for novices, and my system is anything but - the box hooked up nicely between my DSL modem and my PC. Now I have a dirt-cheap, ultra-flexible telephone line. The monthly rates are very competitive, the tech breakthrough is interesting, the quality is not bad (and adjustable), the warm fuzzy feeling of evading telco overcharge is there - but let’s look at the bottom line and what it offers to freelancers.

Vonage is about flexibility. First, they’ll give you any area code you choose. Anyone can have a 415 office number, for example, regardless of where you live. Or even multiple numbers pointing to the same phone.

Another nice touch is that you can accept any and all calls in your Vonage box at home or office, or, if you travel to your WorkClub office, you can receive your messages and calls in your PC. That, incidentally, is subject to an extra charge by Vonage. We are not in zero-paid land anymore.

One message transfer option is by voicemail – messages left on your Vonage voicemail will be sent to your email box as attachments or as links. But the other feature is even better – you can install phone software on your PC, and your PC will actually ring every time someone calls your number, and you’ll be able to get that call (assuming you’re on WorkClub’s Wi-Fi at the moment). Would that be very convenient? I’ll have to try that some day. Meanwhile, I’m happy with voicemail arriving in my email and allowing me to get right back to the caller. Or not – it’s the ultimate in space-age call screening.

Vonage also offers access to your call database. That’s very convenient for locating when, exactly, was that call your business partner refers to. And there are a number of other features you’ll find mentioned in their site. After some weeks with the service, I actually needed that, when I was billed $30 for international calls - thrice what I was supposed to pay that month. That amounted to a dent in the new, fresh image. But the pricing is still right, and even at three times the advertised rates, Vonage still is way, way cheaper compared to the exorbitant rates of regular telephone companies. In fact, it's cheaper than some prepaid calling cards!

If you really are going to get that Vonage thing, my advice is to maintain your regular telephone company contract for awhile. But if you do want to try Vonage, send me (eamin - at - ecustomerResearch - dot - com) your email address and they’ll email you an e-coupon for free month, which is up to $40 value.

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