How Does Vonage Work?

Installation is simple. The Vonage home phone adaptor — the “Vonage Box” — plugs directly into a high-speed internet connection. Vonage customers plug their home phone directly into the Vonage Box and customers can begin to start saving on calls.

The Vonage Home Phone Plan, while inexpensive, does not skimp when it comes to versatility. Even the basic plan offers a great deal for a small investment. Like a landline home phone, the Vonage allows people to make local calls for free. The difference is, “local” has a completely different meaning with respect to the Vonage. Local includes calls all over the US, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

In other words, with the exception of international phone calls, all calls from home are free.

If the basic plan does not offer what a person needs, there are a variety of features a person can select to customize their plan. If a person needs to make or receive international phone calls regularly, they can select a plan that provides a virtual number.

A virtual number allows customers to make and receive international calls and pay local rates — nothing.

There are other features, besides just low rates, Vonage offers that can make life easier with a home phone line as well. Enhanced call forwarding makes keeping track of incoming home phone calls simple. Attach your Vonage number to your Smartphone to receive all your incoming home phone calls and use SimulRing to forward your calls to all your Smartphones.

And, if you aren’t at home, you can also use your Smartphone to listen to your voicemails. Vonage Voicemail Plus sends your voicemails directly to your email and you can then download them as .wav files and listen to them on the go.

For those that need a dedicated fax line at home, there is a Vonage home plan that will suit your needs. And, you can add more than one home phone line to your plan as well as more than one fax.

Toll-Free Plus is a feature that, in conjunction with a dedicated fax line, works very well for a small or home business. Anyone anywhere in the US can call you free of charge.

What Makes Vonage Stand Out?

Vonage is different than many other home phone service providers because, in addition to being convenient while at home and inexpensive — if you already have an internet plan with another provider — Vonage allows you to run your home phone through your smartphone, so your home phone line goes with you when you are out and about.

Additionally, while the Vonage Home Phone plan is designed for residences, it offers a large number of features that are very convenient for a home business. The Vonage Home Phone plan is versatile enough that a person can feel confident running a small business using it as the primary source of inbound and outbound telephone communication.

Common Reviews of Vonage

With respect to the clarity of phone calls and functinality of the tools and services, Vonage gets rave reviews. The few complaints about the Vonage Home Phone plan that lower its overall rating include the fact that the desktop app costs extra and the home phone plan does not have text nor video capabilities, features other VoIP providers do offer.

Something Vonage gets high ratings for having is solid customer support. Most people agree, the customer support staff is polite, helpful and makes a sincere effort to resolve problems.

Is the Vonage for me?

If you are a person on a budget or someone who wants a home phone, but don’t use it as your primary — and you already have internet in your home —Vonage will work well because the service is solid and the price is low. However, the Vonage Home Phone plan is best suited for you if you have a small business that you operate out of your home. The features Vonage offers with the home phone plan are ideal for a small business.

While there are a number of over-the-internet home phone service providers, most do not offer second lines or fax lines, will not allow you to connect your home phone to more than one line and do not offer free international calling.

The Vonage Home Phone plan offers a large number of very versatile features.