Travel Technology - VoIP -- traveling with, staying home with, etc.

I figured I'd start a fresh thread about VoIP.

I mentioned in the previous thread on VONage that I purchased a Voiceglo service on Stimpy's suggestion.

So now I have this little box that plugs into the cable modem. I have made a lot of calls with it and it is quite satisfactory. It is nowhere near the quality of my regular landlines and I probably will not get rid of those lines after all.

But I am thinking that I might purchase a USB handset and use the line when traveling. I could fire up the laptop and make calls wherever there is wifi or at the hotel if they have "broadband" in the room.

Is anyone else doing this?

I thought you got a USB phone for free when signing up? Plugging that little phone into your laptop does sound like a great way to avoid huge costs when traveling. Especially when you go to places like London or Frankfurt.

As for quality, it should be better than your normal phone so there is a problem somewhere. I'm sure that VoiceGlo doesn't want you to have bad quality since it's one of their key selling points. However as they are just starting now, I'm sure that they are working night and day and are behind the 8-ball when it comes to customer service. Keep bugging them and eventually they should be able to isolate your problem.

While on the topic of VoIP, I just got the first edition of VON Magazine, Jeff Pulvers VoIP magazine, very worthwhile reading material, www.vonmag.com (http://www.vonmag.com) .

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by stimpy:
I thought you got a USB phone for free when signing up? Plugging that little phone into your laptop does sound like a great way to avoid huge costs when traveling. Especially when you go to places like London or Frankfurt.

As for quality, it should be better than your normal phone so there is a problem somewhere. I'm sure that VoiceGlo doesn't want you to have bad quality since it's one of their key selling points. However as they are just starting now, I'm sure that they are working night and day and are behind the 8-ball when it comes to customer service. Keep bugging them and eventually they should be able to isolate your problem.</font>

I did not get the free USB handset. I opted for the subsidized box that plugs into the router directly and does not require a computer. This way I can plug the extensions into the line and everyone can access that line.

I will continue reporting on quality and so forth.

I concur with Scottc, as I've been a VON Alumni since Jeff started it all about 6 years ago. Jeff is leading the call for preventing legacy telephony regulation on IP sessions.

The quality of service on my Voiceglo phone has dramatically worsened. I cannot make calls with it without the people I'm calling complaining. I emailed the company and if it is not resolved I am cancelling.

I am currently in Sydney Australia with my Vonage phone. It is working perfectly, my connections are virtually indistinguishable from a land line.

It is hooked up to the hotel high speed internet through my router, which allows me to use both my laptop and Vonage at the same time without getting double billed by the hotel.

What a great thing having a hometown phone number this far away from home. Saving me tons of money, and keeping me in touch.

They have recently given customers the ability to choose how much bandwidth to use, and I just set mine for the max.