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Vonage is the oldest voip provider in the Internet telephony services, being into this business since last three years is enriched in its services and has earned its reputation in the target market. Enhancing it’s services by being into the iterative loop since last three years now provides it’s customers with the assets of features, wide-ranging coverage, and strong support combine to make it a good Internet phone voip provider.

After registering with Vonage, you'll receive a setup wrap up that includes a Linksys RT31P2 router/telephone adapter, an installation-and-troubleshooting guide, a user guide, and a card showing how to configure your voicemail. VOIP Instructions provided varies from simple plug-and-play installation, which normally works for most of the broadband providers, to more-detailed installation plans. The Linksys RT31P2 unit is a three-port Ethernet router that features Quality of Service (QoS) that balances the voice and data traffic on your network. After making the connections and getting the dial tone, you'll need to locate your account information to set up your account, that you can trace on the sheet that ships with the phone adapter and includes an account number, a phone number, virtual phone number(s) if applicable, and a username and passwords for the Vonage site and for voicemail. It also supports virtual numbers.

This voIP provider has monthly rate plans ranging form $14.99 or $24.99 for residential customers and $39.99 or $49.99 for businesses which are a bit on the higher side as compared to those of competitors, such as Packet8, but Vonage excels in the features provided and offers services like transferring your existing phone number to your Vonage account. You need not be an engineer to understand the set-up, it is very simple your traditional phone traditional phone can quickly get up and running. Vonage's easily activated and inexpensive fax capabilities allures to businesses. It is the general tendency of using the VoIP provider as a secondary line or for saving money on especially expensive long-distance calls, but Vonage offers clear call after clear call, bring about a suitable replacement for your primary phone line. No matter which plan you choose, Vonage offers international long distance at extremely reasonable rates: 3 cents per minute to most of Japan and much of Europe, 7 or 8 cents per minute to Mexico, and from 9 to 18 cents per minute to the Caribbean.

With any of the Vonage account user gets the following free services of: voicemail, caller ID, call forwarding and call transfer, call waiting, three-way calling, repeat dialing, call return, international call block, and call hunt (the call rings on another phone if you're talking on the called number). You can choose from a wide variety of area codes, with coverage in most of the United States. To date, only Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, West Virginia, and Wyoming have no available area codes in the Vonage system. Vonage phone numbers are also available in Canada's five most populated provinces: Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Albert, and British Columbia.Vonage also permits you to transfer your current number if you are a cable Internet subscriber. It normally takes two or three weeks for the transfer to go through (closer to three weeks in our tests); in the meantime, Vonage (voip) provides you with a temporary number so that you can make calls on the Vonage service right away.

Is Vonage the right VOIP provider for you?

Vonage has a support for 911 dialing service, for this you need to provide your physical address so that the 911 calls can be directed to the correct service location. Most of the VoIP services, such as Packet8, do not offer support for 911 calls. And like all VoIP providers, if your Internet connection goes down or the power goes out, you drop the use of your phone, which isn't the case with a POTS line. Instead in any such occurrence of power loss or your Internet service going out, Vonage will forward the call to your cell phone or any number you specify beforehand. Vonage has a support for virtual phone numbers as well, which are the secondary numbers from any available area code for your primary Vonage line. Customers can avail a dedicated fax line for only $9.99 per month. For $9.99 per month, you can opt for one of two softphones, which give you a phonelike interface on your PC, that Vonage offers. If you are traveling a great deal, the softphones will let you make calls on your laptop (with a headset) without running up the minutes on your cell phone.

User can keep himself abreast of the calling details by managing his account by logging in at Vonage's Web site. The default/home screen, called the Dashboard, displays a list of the most recent incoming and outgoing calls, provides service announcements, and offers links to configuration screens. The billing screen allows you to isolate activity information phone number, including virtual numbers, and offers a billing history for each number. Vonage lets you switch to a new plan at any time. The plans that are available to you appear on your account Dashboard. You can change them by clicking on 'Change Your Rate Plan' under Billing.

Vonage offers detailed and descriptive FAQs on the Web site, also it offers e-mail answers for installation and technical support, customer service, and billing, as well as a toll-free, 24/7 Vonage help phone or fax line.

With Vonage, incoming calls are never counted against your minutes on any plan. You never pay a fee for Outgoing toll free or Vonage to Vonage calls, and Incoming calls are always free with Vonage. The only exception to this rule applies if you have a Toll Free Plus number on your account. Incoming calls to your Vonage Toll Free Plus number are charged after you have exceeded your monthly minutes. Vonage provides with the clarity of the audio equaled that of analog call quality, which is certainly, comparable to that provided by AT&T CallVantage. Though there is some faint background noise noticed, but it is rare and does not impact the ability to make and receive calls.

Generally if broadband connections do not have enough upstream throughput to support both voice and data packets simultaneously, then in the event of significant upstream traffic from PC might adversely affect the audio-quality but this is not the case with Vonage as Vonage's Linksys device is designed specifically to avoid them. If you would rather give priority to your data packets and you're willing to live with sub par voice quality, you can manually change the QoS settings for the Linksys TA/router. Also you can adjust the level of bandwidth used for voice traffic at Vonage's Web site with its Bandwidth Saver feature.

Certainly Vonage, being of the oldest provider in the VoIP market it enjoys the privilege of its brand name and yes it do provides its customers with the whole gamut of enriched services.