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Vonage vs Skype - Call Quality etc On paper Vonage has everything: After you sign up they give you a regular landline number in the US or UK etc, and they send you a box which plugs into an Ethernet socket on your router, and into which you plug your standard telephone. Once you have done that you can make and receive calls in exactly the same way as on a normal phone. The only difference is that instead of paying your local telephone company rip off international rates etc you get really low call charges, lower than Skype for example. Also, if you move home, or even go on a foreign vacation, you can just plug the box in at your new location and carry on as usual. There is no fluffing around with computers and USB sockets, the phone box plugs right into your router. Vonage also has lots of cool technical options - eg you can set it up so that incoming calls ring simultaneous on your Vonage number and your cell phone. The monthly credit card billing is painless and if there is a problem you can call customer services or technical support and speak to someone for free. Skype, on the other hand, requires you purchase credit in advance and if you use it a lot you run up against monthly limits. In fact Skype billing options don't just suck, they are a nightmare. Also, you need a computer to run Skype, and the USB Skype telephone box is a right royal pain in the ass. I tend to use Skype on my iPhone these days, but the lack of multitasking means your iPhone will not ring on incoming calls unless the app is running in the foreground. So Vonage is the ultimate product, and it should blow Skype away - but there is a terrible catch. The Vonage box is not as sophisticated as your computer and the compression algorithm is hopeless. As a result you need at least 256kbps download and 256kbps upload for Vonage to work well. Forget the Vonage bandwidth settings, which look as if you need much less, the reality is very different. Unless you have a fast internet connection Vonage does not work. That's a big shame because Vonage especially appeals to people who live in dodgy countries with slow internet connections and horribly expensive phone companies. In fact, even with a fast connection, the sound quality is often not that good. On top of that I have had many problems with Vonage loosing the connection to my box, and with Vonage being usable to dial certain international numbers. The service is so poor I notice customer support do not even use Vonage to call thier customers back!
How depressing that someone
designed the perfect product but the technology department let them
down. And how depressing that a mega company like Skype can not see the
merit in their idea. Life sucks! If anyone knows of a Vonage service
that really works let me know! |