anyone else tried the VOIP usb phones ?

[Gecko]

i just bought a voip usb phone  (no not skype)  works out heaps cheaper  , a call to any capital city in australia is a flat 10 cents rate  and 29cents a minute to celol/mobile phones  , works out  about  3.9 cents a minute to call the usa  canada  ireland  italy  its close on same price   they even give you your own pc phone #   calls from  and to those numbers are free  ,  works even if u have dial up  best with broadband but still clear on dial up ,  i pay 30$ a month +7 bucks  for cnd = calling number display   thats b4  i even make any calls  , then broadband  on top of that  :o, they sure do know how to rob us blind here in australia ,   
at  least i'll cut down on payin my ph company for local and long distance calls  from now on . :-X

[nanners]

I have Vonage phone and I love it..with taxes etc..27.24 a month. unlimited calls. overseas is like 3 cents a min or something..Haven't had a problem with it what so ever,,Have had it bout a yr now..

[Gecko]

does that one run through ur pc   or  ur   ethernet connection modem ?    mine  has its own sound card and  win xp  picks it up as an audio  device 
main thing they save us money   O0

[BoJangles]

 spb.gif Guess you haveta be a big phone user for it to pay off.  Seems to me, unless you connect to internet via cable, that you have to have phone company phone to have internet.  Now I'm going to add twenty something a month to have internet phone with cheaper rates?  I don't make twenty something a month in phone calls on regular phone, so can't see any reason to switch.  What am I missing here?  spb.gif

[PogoCrazyMomma]

I have a cable internet connection, also use aol through it, and I have aol internet phone which for me does save money. no more verizon in this house I have no phone from them the only home phone is the internet one. I pay less than twenty a month for my plan which is only local calling, but covers the two area codes that I make 98% of my calls Way better than the phone company which I was paying double for.  I have free long distance on my cell phone so I don't need to use the house phone for that. internet phones are good for some and not others. I talk alot locally so it works better than the phone company for me as between the cable tv and cable internet I already pay 110, then add two cell phones for about $150 combined(we have a lot of minutes and I'd rather pay more and not go over than pay for a cheaper plan then go over and pay out the butt) it didn't add up for me to add a home phone for almost another 50 bucks a month so I got their internet phone and pay less than twenty. I really couldn't afford that much more as we are on a budget. They do have good rates for long distance but where I get it free on cell, I haven't used the internet phone for that.   But everyones needs are different so it may not work for all.  Big draw back to the internet phone I have, is if we lose power, we have no 911, but not a biggie as we have the cells.

[nanners]

Vonage runs through pc.. my Verizon was around 40 before any calls and was extra for call waiting and caller ID..so with Vonage all is included in the 27 a month and I don't have to hurry through a call cause the time is adding up. Talk as long as I want..that includes Puerto Rico and Canada I also have my calls forwarded to cell when I'm not home to answer.

[nightperson]

ihave never heard till know

[hades]

i have vonage too. i love it only $27 a month i save a lot  ;D

[RC]

I don't think Vonage actually runs through the pc, when Gecko asked, "does that one run through ur pc or ur ethernet connection modem?", those are 2 different things. Vonage does work through a broadband internet connection, but it doesn't have to be used through one's computer, only the internet connection.. the computer does not have to be on to use the service. 

Has anyone heard of, or uses, another one of those companies called SunRocket? It's pretty much the same thing as Vonage, just not as widely known I don't think. But it can actually come at a cheaper price. Where Vonage could be $25 or so per month, SunRocket has a plan where you pay one year up front for $199, which only averages out to about $16.58 per month, and that's the bottom line price you pay all the time, $199, no taxes or any other charges on top of that that get added on to your bill (unless you make a large number of overseas calls). I signed up with them back at the start of December, and everything is just as it's advertised and works fine, except for one thing that is taking a really long amount of time to complete- and that is the transfer of our original home number over to the SunRocket service. We have a special number that they give us to use the phones with, but still have our regular number on the land line and still have to pay that phone bill until it gets switched. This was a big problem point here, and I've had numerous calls and emails to them, and they've finally said they will credit us 2 months worth since it has taken so long.. but it's still not getting done any quicker. 3 months and counting. If that one thing can get done, it'd be perfect. They normally say it takes up to 30 business days to complete, which is roughly about a month and a half of calendar days, so it's already been twice that long with no end in sight yet. Wondering if anyone else uses this service, or one like it, and has had any kind of similar problem.  :-\

[nanners]

You are right RC...you only need hi speed internet for Vonage,,sry if I mislead anyone..
I have not heard about SunRocket..but it does sound good.. I think i'd be calling the BBB or something..thats not right to take that long..credit or not.. >:D..Do you get to keep your same phone number with SunRocket? We had to get a new one with Vonage as we live in the country and keeping ours was not available..
Good Luck RC Hope you get hooked up soon.  :)

[Gecko]

i know what some ppl are meaning   because  i have to pay line rental still  cause i have adsl  , i have a cable modem from when i was connected  via cable from another telco ,  problem here in au is  i havent actualy found a company  that  supplys me or anyone with a phone #  and most of there plans (the ones u use a converter so u can use ur normal home phone via voip  and ur connection) are  still way to expensive  best i found was 27 a mnth after outlay of 150 bucks for converter (voip box)  they gave u up to 100  bucks of  free calls to mobiles or anyphones  anywhere in the world  but after u used ur 100 bucks free call cap  then u get charged like a wounded bull

sorry 4  long post ,  now cheapest ive found around all that was  using my usb phone to make outgoing calls  incomming calls  go to normal phone  , im not sure what they call themselfs in the states but if u have a look here  its only 5.95 aud a month  , btw our local calls are aprox 25 cents a pop  ,   http://www.freshtel.net/   i dont usualy recomend any companys but i also like this one cause u can make free  calls to other users of there software and u get ur own online ph # for people to call u (only from pc to pc  is free and u cant call there ph# from home phones) 
well maybe one day when theres more voip,s in australia and calls go down or are free  i'll change over and reconnect cable
btw if no urls /links allowed pls delete the link ty homer or oscar or mayhem ,.

[RC]

You are right RC...you only need hi speed internet for Vonage,,sry if I mislead anyone..
I have not heard about SunRocket..but it does sound good.. I think i'd be calling the BBB or something..thats not right to take that long..credit or not.. >:D..Do you get to keep your same phone number with SunRocket? We had to get a new one with Vonage as we live in the country and keeping ours was not available..
Good Luck RC Hope you get hooked up soon.  :)

There is the option to keep your number, if it can get transferred (and some areas or numbers can't be transferred, but they can tell you that before the process even starts if it can't). We have the extra number that they gave us, which technically, if we wanted to, we could make that our new number and just forget about the transfer of the old one.. but then you think about all the things that are connected to the number that you've had your whole life.. and how many things you'd have to go through to alert people of the change, not just family and friends, but it's in a lot of places.. and that's just too much hassle to dump a number I've had literally the entire span of my lifetime. So, will just have to wait it out and hope they get things together and figure it out soon.

[nanners]

It sure is a hassle to change numbers..there are still people that say..Hey did you change your number, your not in the book anymore..lol.. but it was worth it and I get no telemarket calls at all anymore.. :D

[Gecko]

i'm hoping soon we will be able to take our own numbers to voip   ,  the voip avalability isnt to well known in au  , i found it through this  on air tv gadgets segment

Freshtel stick phone
A few weeks ago Charles talked about making cheap phone calls over the Internet and we had a huge response.

An Australian company has taken this idea further and made it extremely portable by creating the Stick Phone. This is a tiny unit that plugs into the USB port of any computer with an Internet connection and voila, you can call the world.

Pre-loaded onto the Stick Phone is all the software necessary to make and receive calls and it has sound processing hardware built in.

Because all the software and audio capabilities are contained in one unit, you don't need to install anything on the host PC. This is handy when using a PC that is 'locked-down', such as those in Internet cafes that prevent users installing their own software.

Just plug in the Stick Phone, hook up the mic/headset combo (similar to a mobile phone hands-free) and you're ready to make calls.

You can make free calls between Stick Phones and all users get a free voicemail account, so people can call your dedicated number and leave a message.

You can make calls to, and receive them from, any number in the world with a Stick Phone by purchasing a cash account.

You can store phone numbers on the Stick Phone and there is room on the device to store digital photos, documents, music files, etc.

For more information, visit the Freshtel website: www.freshtel.net
::)

[SaintHiρρo]

Not that it's really important but Vonage misleads it's potential customers (and current ones) with it's ads. It's NOT unlimited call as you're only allowed 4999 mins per month. No typical person make that many phone calls but they keep advertising unlimited and if you have a DVR and read all those little fine print when you pause, they make no mention of this. Wonder if I can sue but you the only way to find this out is to call Vonage and asked them. They will tell you this over the phone but only when asked.

[hades]

if you have the premium plan for $24.99 there is no unlimited minutes because we always go way above the 4999 minutes each month and the bill is always the same.just the cheaper plan has restrictions.

[bobby]

how does 911 work on those?

[hades]

you have to register you address for 911 and it takes like two minutes

[bobby]

thanks :)

[hades]

welcome  :P