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December 20, 2008 08:43 PM

What are the Cons of VOIP (Vonage etc) over a price-gouging long-distance service? (The Pros are obvious! : )

So I'm almost sold on moving to Vonage. I feel AT&T makes too much money out of me as is with the locked-in basic phone coverage tied to my internet services. Is there something about VOIP (Vonage) that is hidden between the lines?
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December 20, 2008 11:16 PM
I've been using Skype In/Out for over a year now and have been very pleased. Some things that come to mind when thinking of drawbacks to services such as these:
- Not 911 compatible.
- Call waiting, in my experience, can be tricky or non-existent.
- Telephone services drop along with power/Internet outages.

Other than that, VOIP services offer exceptional quality and value. I'd say to sign up a month or two before your contract with AT&T expires, to sort of test the waters before you jump into it.

Good luck. ;)
Source(s):
Experience with Skype and Time Warner's Digital Phone services.

Asker's Rating:
• I like your summary the best. Given that I am forced (a terrible arm-twisting agreement by our apartment people) to have a local line, the 911 becomes less of an issue. Just that we save a bunch on long-distance charges. Same goes for outage issues. I think I'm even more confident now.


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December 20, 2008 08:49 PM
The biggest con depends on how reliable your internet service is. Phone service is generally more reliable than internet--but VOIp is totally dependent on your internet and electric service.

There can also be installation issues, depending on where your internet service comes into the house.

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December 20, 2008 09:00 PM
The big con is that you're dependent upon an internet connection AND electricity. If the power goes out and you have an old phone lying around, the phone lines will usually still work. Also, there are sporadically noise artifacts on VoIP, like a slight echo effect.
Source(s):
Experience is my source.


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December 20, 2008 09:10 PM
Vonage only works if your ISP connection is up, so if you get your data service over cable and your cable goes down, you lose phone service as well.

Vonage will not work when the power goes out since it requires a ATA (analog telephone adapter) device to act as the telephone to ethernet adapter. If the ATA loses power, then no phone. You can however connect your ATA to a UPS (uninteruptable power supply), just make sure you also connect your cable modem or DSL modem and any ethernet switch in between to the UPS.

You must register your address with Vonage in order for 911 calls to be routed correctly. If you take your ATA with you on a trip you should not use it to dial 911. Of course, you can't take a land line from the phone company with you on a trip.

I have used vonage for years including 2 years with a US number that I used from Europe. It is a great service and I have never had a major problem with it.

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December 20, 2008 10:03 PM
Only one: your connection to the Net. If your Internet connection has bad quality or your bandwidth is limited then you'll have bad phone service.

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