When I read articles like this one, I have to laugh. Have these guys ever tried to get phone service from an incumbent? It’s like trying to negotiate a mortgage for your home. Hmm, no.. that was easier actually.
Recently I moved my family across town and when I found out that my cable Internet connection was already installed, well.. I was a happy guy.
911 is fully functional now via Vonage but trying to explain that to my wife holding a 2 month old baby is not so easy. So I gave in and decided to call the local incumbent for a landline, let the saga begin.
The local telephone company is on strike, locked out actually. Super, now I get to hop from department to department (they have a few) and talk to various supervisors about my wife’s request for a landline I do not need.
Finally after an hour on hold and explaining myself away a few times I get a girl who is willing to help. She tells me that she has absolutely no idea when the line will be installed nor can she refund or discount the install fee when the line actually does get installed.
Nice service guys.
She then goes on to tell me that the best she can do is send me a cellular phone which I would have to pay for or forward the number we wanted to another line. HA! Excellent. So I explain this to my wife and it’s apparent she wants the number from the phone company because it’s easier to remember. Ugh. Now I get to pay for a line fee from the incumbent just to have it forwarded to my Vonage line! Makes no sense to me. If I had it my way I would cancel the landline altogether.
When I first moved in I had Vonage phone service as soon as my Internet was installed, if the cable company were smart they would strategically partner with Vonage and get a piece of that revenue. Now imagine if I had Internet from the Telco as well. No land line, no DSL. No DSL, no Vonage.
Being an advocate of IP communications I of course use Vonage in my home but I never thought that it would be the only connection I could get.
More on Vonage..
Rich Tehrani on the Vonage IPO
