eric rochow : social media handyman

Its been on the to do list for a while, but I finally signed up for a Vonage VOIP phone line. My thinking is to first try this on my apartment landline, which is rarely used.

I signed up online, and it was quite simple. I am switching over my phone number to Vonage as well, and this entailed some additional online forms, plus you need to have your phone bill handy to get the account number from which you are switching.

The vonage adapter showed up the next day, even though i picked the cheapest shipping option (DHL). True to form, i didn’t bother with instructions, and just plugged the unit into a hub and a phone into the vonage box.

It worked right away. Until my phone number is switched over, they provide a temporary number that rings the phone.

I had told a friend of mine about my switching to Vonage and he went on about how several of his friends had had many problems with Vonage. I attributed this to growing pains on the part of Vonage, with so many people switching. A bit like what happened at AOL years ago when they had a surge of subscribers and not enough modems to receive calls.

I called this friend yesterday from the Vonage phone, and after a few minutes, I asked him “OK, which phone am i calling from the Verizon line, or the Vonage line?” he said it was the Verizon line.

maybe I changed his mind.

What appeals to me is all the optoins offered, like call forwarding, plus the fact that you can plug in the Vonage box into any ethernet hub in the world and your phone will ring when people dial the same old local number. If your internet connection goes down, your calls are routed to another phone number you provide, in my case, my cell phone.

Some are reluctant to switch because of earlier issues with 911 calls. I believe most of these issues have been resolved. when you call 911 from your vonage line, the 911 office gets your caller ID information.

Verizon is losing 1,000 customers a day to everyone offering VOIP: cable companies, Vonage, etc. I can see why.

On the Vonage site I also see they are offering WiFi Vonage phones. Find a hotspot, sit down and dial away. Not good news for hard wired phone companies.

I will post an update about how and when the phone number switch happens