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Quick question ? Anybody have anything good or bad to say about Vonage. Are you able to connect to 911. Sound quality etc. Thanks for your input. Tony

I had a customer have a nasty partnership breakup about a year ago when we where getting hurricanes crossing the state every few weeks.

verizon couldnt provide new service for 6 to 8 weeks . we where able to get broadband through the cable company and had vonage overnight their boxs .

5 lines and last time I talked to him he was still happy with it.

vonage gives a free fax line , he was having problems and when I went to the vonage site to try to troubleshoot it I found it was common, there where a lot of complaints about fax issues , he wound up getting a fax line thru verizon.

one thing that was nice is he can log in and do the type of thing we have to call the lec or clec for.

we sat there one night changing hunt groups , setting up c fwd . ect.

no idea as to 911 acsess

personally I have thought about it im a little concerned about porting my main line over in case something where to happen to vonnage .

I added one for to my system for long distance and have had no problems. I like the dashboard which gives you complete control over the features and the way you want them setup.

[This message has been edited by dtmf (edited September 16, 2005).]

I have had "V" since december, and I am happy with it....the best part is the configuration you can customize and not dealing with Verizon anymore.......

Ok, the features and management are great, but does it REALLY work, 24/7? Is the voice quality really there or does it sound like you are talking on a Norstar?

We lose cable TV service more than any other utility and I can't imagine my business relying upon such an unreliable medium to provide phone service. I suppose it's not much worse than losing your T1 or PRI since you essentially lose everything. Still, at least POTS lines can "sort of" work, where digital communications either work or don't.

Most of what I have heard has been bad stuff about V, but if they really DO work at equal or better quality than an LEC's POTS line, then I will consider recommending them.

More comments would be appreciated.

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Ed
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How come there's always enough time to go back and fix it a second time?

I heard of a guy in Pheonix that has a Vonage setup, he called 911 and got a Georgia 911 Dispatcher...

It is bad if you have a computer running on the same connection. The voice quality can drop considerably.

Of course, if it is on a cable connection it will be better than DSL.

[about the norstar part: I have never been on a norstar that had bad audio quality.]

[This message has been edited by topher (edited September 16, 2005).]

Well I would disagree about the cable being better, Your DSL will have better upload which gives you better voice quality. I had cable and swicthed back to DSL and it works much better.

As far as Vonage I haven't heard anything bad about them,but anytime a customer changes carriers,the new carriers tech onsite(if one)should make test calls, 911 being one of them to ensure the 911 call goes to the correct 911 dispatcher.I used to work for a clec and this was sop.If you are the vendor working the cut with the tech from the clec I would always remind him or her to make that 911 test call.

Does Vonage send a tech or is it up to the customer to install this equipment ?? About 911 I've heard some weird things about that.

We've been evaluating Vonage for several months.
1) Vonage quality is good enough that most people would never know they're on VOIP. However it's not as good as a PSTN call.
2) Vonage quality is subject to the quality of your ISP service. Poor connnection = poor quality.
3) Haven't tested 911 but do know that they request your physical address for 911 purposes.
4) You install your own equipment. There's no VAR program--so no on site techs.
5) Equipment is preconfigured with your account info