Skype vs. Vonage: VoIP services explained!
Many of you have probably already heard about VoIP, or voice
over IP. This is a technology that allows you to make telephone
calls using the internet. With VoIP you can save money on your
monthly bill, get inexpensive or even free long distance, plus
get loads of extra services without any additional cost. Unless
you have lots of time to explore the more than 1100
VoIP providers that exists today, you will probably want to
simply decide between two choices: Vonage or Skype.
In the world of VoIP you have two basic options; you can get the
"regular phone replacement with lower monthly phone bills"
option (Vonage) or you can get the "plug a phone into my
computer and it costs me nothing" option (Skype).
If you go for Vonage, everything works pretty much like it works
today with your home phone. The main differences are:
1) Your phone bill is somewhere between 15$ to 25$ a month. 2)
You get inexpensive long distance rates, free if you are talking
to another customer who uses Vonage. 3) You get a bunch of
features included in the price. (VoiceMail, Call Forwarding,
Caller ID, Call Waiting etc..) 4) You have a "box" that sits
between your computer and your internet connection. (This box
will cost you 50$ to 100$)
You will keep your current phone number. You will have 911
service (FCC has mandated that VoIP providers such as Vonage
provide full 911 service by ~September, 2005). You will have a
nice web interface to all your fancy new phone features. You
will get some pretty good customer service. If you want to keep
your regular phone wiring you can do that too, though you will
need to be a bit of a handyman type.
On top of this, you get some nifty extra benefits. For example,
if you travel frequently you can take your "box" with you, plug
it into any internet connection, plug a phone into the box and
it's like you are sitting at home with your telephone!
Finally, Vonage is a reasonably large, aggressive company. This
means they want your business and they are willing to fight for
it. You can expect their prices to be competitive and to remain
competitive. For more information you can go to their web site
www.vonage.com. Don't
forget that you should already have a high speed internet
connection before using Vonage (or Skype).
Now, if you go for the "plug a phone into my computer and it
costs me nothing" option then you want Skype. Skype is free,
Skype is easy to use and Skype works. All you have to do is
download, install and start using it. It is completely painless.
If you are like me, you will start using Skype because you want
to stop paying for long distance. My mother lives in the Czech
Republic. In the Czech Republic it costs a lot of money to call
North America. I told her to get Skype, now she calls me all
time. Good thing Skype has VoiceMail!
After you get used to paying nothing for long distance, you will
begin discovering some of Skype's other options. As of June,
2005 Skype has the following options:
1) You can get Skype Voicemail for ~19$ a year (that is about
~1.50$ per month)
2) You can call almost any phone number on the planet for 2
cents a minute, half of what Vonage charges! (Skype to Skype
calls are free)
3) You can get an incoming phone number for around ~40$ a year
(that is only 3.50$ per month and they throw in voicemail for
free! Remember, unlike Vonage which gives you a phone number
when you agree to pay the 15$-25$ a month, Skype starts you off
for free but will only give you a phone number when you start
paying them 3.50$ a month. I started off using Skype for free
since I was only making Skype to Skype calls at first)
4) You get a bunch of features included for free (conference
calling, Caller ID, Call Waiting ...)
5) There are tons of add-ons (also know as
plug-ins) for Skype, many of them are free. You can get a
Skype Answering machine, you can have Skype integrated into
Microsoft Outlook or you can even start Podcasting with Skype.
6) There are lots of Skype communities. You
can meet people for fun and conversation, you can even meet
people to learn new languages.
7) Last, but not least, Skype has instant messaging and file
sharing.
Once you get going with Skype you will find that it starts to
grow on you. I haven't replaced my regular phone with Skype, but
it has become my second phone line and I use it frequently. At
work I use Skype all the time. Since I'm already sitting at my
computer it is much more convenient to talk with my team members
using Skype than picking up the phone and giving them a call.
However, Skype does not have 911 service, nor would I expect it
to have 911 service until 2007. Skype does not have good
customer service. To be fair, they are growing really fast. They
are getting 150,000 new users everyday, can you imagine trying
to have great customer service when you are getting 150,000 new
users signing up every single day?
Nonetheless, if you are like me you will find that Skype is the
easiest choice to make. I wasn't ready to cancel my home phone
and I wasn't ready to commit to paying a company a monthly fee,
I simply wanted to stop paying for long distance. After that I
got hooked!
If you are interested in Skype, then download Skype for free at
www.skype.com.
Once you have Skype, you can find a Skype phone, add-on
or community at SummitCircle.com. There you will find all
the Skype add-ons (or plug-ins) that you want, you will find
links to dozens of different Skype phones along with reviews and
comments by users and you will find links to all the different
Skype community sites on the web.