Taking a page from Skype's book, Vonage announced the V-Phone: a USB stick that holds Vonage software allowing users to make Vonage calls from any broadband PC. This is pretty interesting news for Vonage users, since it lets people take their calls on the road pretty much anywhere.
Imagine having your home Vonage phone with you when you travel to Germany for the World Cup—your wife can reach you at any time. Well, that's probably a bad example, but you get the idea.
Jeffrey Citron defends Vonage, announces new V-Phone USB device [Tech Effect]













Comments
I can get calls anywhere I want already with my cell phone. And I don't have to find a PC with a broadband connection to use it.
Yes, Geisrud, but what kind of roaming charges do you have to pay if you are in Germany and you call someone in the US? This is for the "travelling salesmen" type and helps get around the roaming/long distance charges that some cell plans can rack up. It's also helpful in those "damn I can't get a signal in my hotel room, but look, I have an internet connection!" type situations. Only problem I have with it is that this is most likely a "softphone" account. Vonage charges you extra for a softphone account. I still don't understand (and Vonage has refused to elucidate me) as to why it costs EXTRA to make a call on your computer...an actual IP utilizing device...over VoIP?
What you get
256mb Thumb Drive w/ USB sound device
Headset that comes in a spiffy white color
Breakdown
The software autoruns on a CDFS partition on the drive (just like the U3 launcher). It's pretty simple and works as well as the Vonage service does.
The spiffy looking headset has a horrible mic, so your first purchase after the thumb drive will be a new headset. If you decide to cancel the service there is no simple way to remove the CDFS partition (U3's utility does not work), which means the Vonage launchpad will continue to load well after you have dropped the service.
3 days ago, when I went to cancel my service, I went through 20 minutes of "please wait" after the 10 minutes of "initial wait" and my clear and concise statement of "I want to cancel my service and yes I am sure."
I recommend you research Vonage before you switching to them as your VoIP solution.
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