Vonage Broadband Phone Service Vs. Verizon's Freedom Essentials
Old School Vs Next Generation
Vonage, a broadband Internet phone company, is threatening to change the landscape of home phone service for many people. Having used both, I must say that I am a fan of what Vonage offers. In my opinion, Vonage is a far superior option in a great many ways.
Let's begin with price. Verizon's current best offer for a package that features unlimited long distance is $39.95, a very competitive rate. Meanwhile, Vonage offers phone service including unlimited long distance for just $24.95, a savings of exactly $15. In addition, that savings gap is increased when you factor in the additional taxes and fees associated with phone service that every analog service has to charge. Vonage, since it is offered through the Internet, happens to circumvent most of those charges. Moreover, Verizon's $39.95 offer comes with only a small handful of features, including caller ID, call waiting and voice mail. On the other hand, Vonage's $24.95 comes with practically every feature you can think of. Truthfully, I do not even use them all, or even use them that often, but I enjoy having the option.
Even things that are similar between Vonage and Verizon are not the same. Take voice mail for instance. With Verizon, the voice mail is fairly standard. Remote access, the whole nine yards. With Vonage, however, they added a couple of pluses that help make it even better. For example, Vonage's voice mail can be accessed via the Internet, at which point you can then email the voice message to yourself for safekeeping and/or future listening. It comes in handy if you are on the move.
The only real negative involving Vonage's service is something that is native to all broadband phone services: if the Internet goes down, so does your phone. This is something that cannot really be avoided; only endured. On the plus side, Vonage does have an automatic call forwarding service available in the event of an Internet service connection loss. This might reduce the possibility of missing important phone calls. Another service they offer that I have not taken advantage of yet is the capability of hardwiring the phone into your home's existing wiring for just under $100. This has the advantage of allowing you to use any jack in the home with your Vonage service, as opposed to requiring a cordless phone to move away from the modem. I am not sure, however, if this might also reduce the chance of service loss.
Meanwhile, Verizon's service was fine, but their customer service was not. I cannot count how many times I dealt with ignorant people whenever I called into Verizon. It actually got to the point where I just expected to be treated badly but as long as I eventually got my question answered, I stopped caring. Meanwhile, Vonage's representatives were quick, professional and courteous. The difference was practically night and day.
In the end, the only real drawback is that Vonage requires a functioning high-speed Internet connection to work. Even still, Vonage is a very high quality yet cost effective option. The money you saved by switching from Verizon to Vonage could pay for a backup cell phone in case of those outages.
Published by Sean Watts
I love great storytelling in all forms and mediums, no matter if it is truth or fiction. I look forward to practicing my craft on Associated Content while also meeting fellow writers in the community. View profile
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- Vonage offers more features than Verizon for less money
- Vonage requires an broadband Internet connection to work
- As far as service quality there is no difference between Vonage and Verizon
9 Comments
Post a CommentSean, you sure seem to have an affinity to Vonage. Seems a little suspicious, as you have compared it to more than one phone service. You must get around...
sorry about the three messages didn't know i was limited i just strolled in here and left a comment that was too big not knowing there was a limit and then it got lined from newest to oldest post so plz read my bottom post first and work your way up, again i am sorry
expected but I wanted to break it down for people to understand and I have no hatred for verizon or other phone companies I'm just trying to help people understand that vonage is not bad at all its great and for some people that do have a problem with vonage working its most likely caused by your latency(latency can be looked up on your favorite search engine if you don't know what it is) from your broadband connection and the only people that can fix that is your broadband provider.
internet not your computer because just because your computer has a problem doesn't mean your internet does and most of these days internet if fairly reliable its been 3 years since i had an outage and at that time the phones were down as well. I loved the service I was getting from verizon but vonage for me is cheaper I get the same dial tone and better service. Verizon, att and other phone companies will be changing to fiber optic lines or as verizon calls it fios which my brother already has in Temecula California. Fios is great and I can't wait to get it, you can watch tv surf the internet at over 15mbs at a fraction of the cost but he no longer has a phone line it is a voip just like vonage and if power goes out you have no phone unless you add a battery backup to your internet and voip box which if you have power outages you can get a small backup battery which will power both of those devices for at least 8 hours for about $50 or days for about $100.
I wrote a lot more than I
I live in Los Angeles and can get internet from dsl or cable, fiber in my is yet to be avail. if you get minimum speed broadband lets say $20 which can be cheaper depending on where or who you get it from and add that to vonage $24.99 a month it comes out to about $45. i had one phone line from verizon and it cost me $50 and it didn't even have all the features from vonage. vonage is not for everybody but it is for most people once they understand how it works. if you already have an internet service like most people i know do, its an addon of $25 a month minus your existing line if you already have it and i'm not just talking about verizon all of the bells/att are in the same suit. i have a cell phone and in case my internet goes down i have all calls fowarded to it which has yet to happen. the best question for all is ask yourself is, if you can save money and if you are worried about losing service ask your self when was the last time your internet went down and i do mean your inter
Do you have the same problem with Verizon like you do with most cell phones? Not all cell phones will work every where. I live in an area where its not a good idea to rely on a cell phone. I have broadband internet connection because dial up sucks. So Vonage was a good option.
Does Vonage include broadband internet service? Unless you get broadband for free or have an existing reason for using it, your comparison of Vonage's phone price to Verizon's freedom essentials is dishonest. At present (3/28/2007) I have Verizon with its base (784 kbps) dsl ($18/month). For the calling I do nationwide long distance Verizon's ~$40/month + tax is a good deal. For the occasional overseas call to East Africa phone cards are more than adequate.
Many rural areas still don't have high speed service avail. from Verizon and in most of these areas there is broadband. I think most people today are ditching the dial-up service for cable so for thousands of people like myself Vonage and similar services are a no brainer.
You can't compare the price of Verizon's phone service with that of Vonage unless you add "+the price of an broadband connection" after Vonage's fee.