Vonage Making VoIP For Dummies?

from the easy-as-possible dept

Fri, Jan 9th 2004 12:51pm — Mike Masnick

For years, VoIP systems were slow to catch on for two very big reasons: (1) the quality really wasn't that great and (2) they were a pain to set up. The quality issue has pretty much gone away, and Vonage should get some credit for creating a popular solution that solves the second problem. Setting up a Vonage line is painfully easy, and makes many people think it's just an alternative phone line - rather than having them think about the fact that it's actually VoIP. Now, they're going one step further. They've teamed up with TI to build a single chip that will basically include Vonage's software features - making it much easier for companies to build hardware that will act as a Vonage phone. While, on the face of it, this may seem like a boring technology partnership, Om Malik points out that this is another step in the "Vonage Everywhere strategy, where they expand the possibilities of where and how you use the Vonage system. This is, indeed, big news. In fact, one of my issues with Vonage was that, in making it seem exactly like a standard phone system, they were actually losing some of the advantages that VoIP provided them. This partnership suggests that the "looks like a phone, acts like a phone" strategy got them out into the market, but they know they now need to take that and expand it beyond what traditional phones can do.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

5 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Test, 9 Jan 2004 @ 1:31pm

Vonage phone
'Vonage phone' is misleading. Vonage works with any phone.

This agreement makes it easier to make VOIP boxes.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Paul D, 31 Jan 2004 @ 8:33am

Vonage - NOT
Undfortunately, Vonage does not live up to it reputation as easy to connect. In fact, as a system engineer, my experience was quite the opposite. I can only imagine the frustrating experience of someone who is not in the IT field. I have a simple firewalled home PC network that should have taken all of 10 minutes to set up the service. Half a day later, I still cannot get a dial tone. I tried everything in the installation book and even some alternative MAC configurations. Nothing. To add insult. I sent the "customer service" department four emails over a weeks time. Not one reply. I tried to contact the tech department three times, only to be left on hold for over thirty minutes each time with, still, no reply. When I called customer service and finally spoke with a human (after a twenty minute hold) I was transferred to an unnamed department and hung up on. As an alternetive to sky high POTS service I was expecting much more. Vonage has a long way to go.....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
JP, 10 Feb 2004 @ 8:19pm

Re: Vonage - NOT
Paul,
What firewall are you running? I am using a netgear router/firewall w/ 802.11g - a Toshiba cable modem and literally spent 5 minutes and i was up and running. You do have the Vonage box sitting outside of the firewall don't you? I have set up three of these boxes in three diff. network environments, cable, dsl, with.without a router and have yet to run into any real problems. The only issue so far is Tivo cannot dial out as Vonage said it could. The dedicated fax line - hookup is supposed to fix that. We'll see!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ines saftic, 11 Feb 2004 @ 4:21pm

vonage customer service
I have tried tog et their service now for few months. when I signed up there was no mention of me having to wait for the trasnfer of my number. Meanwhile I am still waiting for the trasfer and beeing charged on my credit card for service I neve used. I regret ever dealing with them.
I think the way they get customers without informing them of all the things they have to deal with AFTER they take your credit card number is horrible. their service is dishonest and awful.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ross craig, 24 Mar 2007 @ 6:35am

Vonage Works Great
Not sure what you guys are doing wrong. I am running Vonage and also a wireless router and not having any problems.

took it out of the box and had instant service. I never transfered my phone number.

The one thing that isn't possible for me, is to have a local number.

vonage offers vaccess numbers which are local numbers for family and friends to call me with out long distance charges. You can take the adapter with you on the road and make call for free from hotel rooms.
[ link to this | view in thread ]