(the company's name is a play on their motto "Voice-Over-Net-AGE") is a commercial
Voice Over IP (VoIP)
Network company that provides
Telephone service via a
Broadband connection.
Vonage is known as the "Broadband Phone Company" and has recently marketed itself as "Leading the Internet Phone Revolution." While companies such as
Skype ,
Cablevision , and
Time Warner have more subscribers than Vonage, it was Vonage that has led the Voice over Broadband (VoBB), or Broadband Phone, industry through its aggressive consumer marketing in the US, Canada, UK and other countries globally.
In order to use the service, customers must purchase or use a branded "VoIP
Router " or a phone adapter that connects to their main router or broadband
Modem . In addition, an
Upload speed of 30-90
Kbit/s as well as a reliable/
QoS optimized connection is necessary to make calls without substantial
Lag or jitter.
Vonage was originally based in s throughout the
United States . The company expanded into
Canada in April 2004 and into the
United Kingdom in January 2005.
Subscribers are permitted to choose any number for their primary line in the country the service they subscribe to. Whether it be Vonage US, Canada or UK, subscribers may choose from any
Area Code regardless of their actual residence. Subscribers also have the option of obtaining additional "virtual numbers" for a monthly fee. For example, a subscriber in
Florida may choose a number with
Manhattan area code 646, allowing callers from
New York to be billed only for a local call. In addition, Vonage also offers 'virtual numbers' in
Mexico ,
Canada and throughout
Europe for any and all customers to choose from. This is especially beneficial to businesses with an international client base. While Vonage supports porting a telephone number in the US via the FCC's Local Number Portability
LNP , Vonage does not offer phone numbers in every area code in the United States.
Although only residents of the US, Canada, and the UK may subscribe to Vonage, there are many people around the world who use their accounts with local broadband connections without difficulty. For instance, someone who has a relative in
Australia may order the Vonage package for that relative, and it would work without difficulty.
A frequent criticism of Vonage and other VoIP providers is that, since the physical location of a caller may not correspond to his or her listed phone number, traditional
Emergency Telephone Number service, such as
9-1-1 in the US and Canada, is not available. Vonage provides its own emergency telephone number service, but the service requires subscribers to register their address with the company and is not operative in case of a power failure. For more information, see the 9-1-1 feature dialing link below.
Vonage uses a
Session Initiation Protocol gateway for its software, but it does not extend this feature to Internet dialing (a service available for free in
Google Talk and
Skype , for example).
