Vonage enters the UK

fatherdougalmag

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/73042/vonage-dials-into-uk.html

Cabaal

The Register also covers this http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/20/vonage_voip_uk/

It should be fun to see how the market goes from here,

causal

Some interesting points in The Register article:

The tenner, paid up front by rolling credit-card billing, gives you free calls to other Vonage users and to landlines in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

UK+ROI! I'm curious how they're organising/financing the ROI part. Presumably they still have to pay for ROI terminated calls. Do they just have a deal worked with eircom drectly; or is it via BT. Most importantly -what are the likely reciprocal arrangements likely in the future
Eircom already offer business VoIP and other telco's have their own plans and schedules (as per a recent paper article on the 'First Tuesday' meeting on VoIP in Dublin)

From http://www.vonage.co.uk/intrates.php#I
"Ireland (Cellular & Premium) 35387, 35386, 35385, 35384, 35383, 3538 £0.15" - that's about €0.25; calling Irish mobiles still sucks :mad:

The catch is the need for not only a broadband connection - cable packages are supported as well as phone-based ADSL links - but you need a phone adaptor too.

Hardly a 'catch' that VoIP requires a decent IP connection :rolleyes:
Good to see this is not solely bundled with xDSL packages.
Presumably they're just handing out a sip server address with username/password - your IP connection is your own choice

Emergency 999 calls are guaranteed

How the heck can they claim that!! They don't. It seems to be an error in the aricle, coz Vonage state otherwise:
http://www.vonage.co.uk/features.php?feature=911

Vonage today launched a Linksys-made router with RJ-11 jacks for the handsets and Ethernet connections for modems and computers

RJ-11 - not the proprietary BT style UK - good, hopefully the BT style jack will eventually be phased out.

Citron said he was not concerned that telcos' ISP divisions will start to cap or even block VoIP traffic in a bid to protect their revenues as Mexico's Telmex appears to have done. Telmex ADSL subscribers can't even access the Skype website, he said.

"Such actions are already illegal in the US," he told The Register, "and we think the regulator would look on them very unfavourably in the UK."

Hate that Mexico!! Won't happen here thankfully

Take a peek at the Vonage UK website - does the style look familiar


causal

Cabaal

causal wrote:

RJ-11 - not the proprietary BT style UK - good, hopefully the BT style jack will eventually be phased out.

I hope so, why the hell do BT use it anyway?
Why the hell do they have to be different

causal

Apparently it was an attempt to stop their customers buying cheaper generic phones (with RJ-11); and they could only by the BT style ones :rolleyes:

causal

Cabaal

What a waste of money that was...

Anyway while we're posting up links to stories, slashdot.org had a article some weeks back "Getting Started with VoIP Devices" its worth a read.

paulm17781

BT phones are RJ11 on the phone end and the other thing on the socket end. I assume this was made like this from the old days when phones had the wire built in. There is no point in it now.

WillieFlynn

Vontage's telephone adaptors are locked to them and can't be ised with any other provider. So even though the linksys phone adaptor says it has two phone ports you will only be able to use one of them.

I ran into this problem when I bought an ATA in a shop when on holidays in the US. Only to find it was locked to vontage (no where on the box did it say it was locked to them), luckly the shop took it back and gave me a refund.

Vontage has had UK phone numbers in the UK for some time now, however untill now they forced you go also get a US number and would only supply to US addresses. In the US they spend lots on advertising..... so it can be harder for some of the smaller operators to compete for business.

Willie.

Cabaal

WillieFlynn wrote:

In the US they spend lots on advertising..... so it can be harder for some of the smaller operators to compete for business.
Willie.

Yeah I've really noticed that at work (coming from a USA IP) when I view theregister.co.uk its full of nothing but vonage adverts