When I read Jeff Nolan's post about Sling, it immediately reminded me of how I feel about my new Vonage service.
I am not a Sling customer but I imagine it works the same say as Vonage -- you get a box (the one I got from Vonage is a Cisco Linksys box), plug it into a high-speed network with Internet access, plug a regular device (phone, or TV perhaps?) into the other end, and voila! You're doing it your way.
My Vonage service costs USD 55 per month with unlimited calling within the U.S. and Canada, plus an unlimited 800 (toll-free) number. I can take the Linksys box anywhere in the world (right now it's sitting on my desk in Thailand, plugged into my ADSL service at home) and call anyone in the U.S. or Canada for free (after paying my monthly fee, of course). Plus my customers, mom, dad, kids and business colleagues in the U.S. or Canada can call me and talk as long as they want, again for free.
I might add that the quality of sound is better than regular land lines, both over here and in California.
From what I've read, Vonage isn't earth-shattering technology -- but the ability to call people halfway around the world as if they were right next door (and get around the obscenely high international direct dialing and roaming tariffs that many countries impose) has profoundly changed my perspective. I don't feel that I'm doing business "internationally" anymore; I'm just doing regular business wherever I need to be.
Here are a few tips about Vonage:
- The power supply that comes with the Linksys box only has 120-volt (i.e. North American) input, so it doesn't work anywhere else. I discovered this when I plugged it in here in Thailand and immediately fried the transformer. You'll need to buy a universal AC/DC adaptor that supports 100-230 volt input and 12-volt output at up to 1,200 mA. I found one at the shopping center next door to my house for 380 Thai Baht (about USD 10).
- You can't get Vonage service in Thailand; it's illegal to sell the service (no suprise here, Thailand is one of those countries with obscenely high IDD tariffs). But it's not illegal to use it. Vonage will only ship the Linksys box to U.S. or Canadian addresses, so you'll have to pick one up on your next trip to the U.S.
- One great benefit of using Vonage outside the U.S. is that you can dial toll-free (800/866/877/888) numbers -- an impossibility in most countries when placing IDD calls. You'd be amazed how many U.S. companies only have toll-free numbers and don't realize you can't call them from overseas. Northwest Airlines and the United States Postal Service are two examples.
- When you use Vonage, you always follow U.S. dialing rules no matter where you are. In Thailand, for example, one of the IDD access codes is "001" so to call someone in the U.S. you have to dial something like "00113105551212". With Vonage, you simply dial "13105551212". If you are placing a Vonage call to a different country (say, if I call China from anywhere in the world) then I use the U.S. IDD prefix "011". So if I'm in Thailand and I'm calling China, I'd dial "011861055551212" instead of "001861055551212".
- Incidentally, Vonage rates for international calls are about 50% cheaper than the least-expensive rates I've found in the U.S. To call Thailand, for example, costs USD .12 per minute with Vonage and USD .23 per minute with the cheapest international calling plan I could find in the U.S.
- You can use the Linksys box in a hotel but you might get charged for high-speed internet use. This could get kind of expensive if the hotel charges a flat daily rate and you make a 1-minute call. Also (I haven't tried this yet, but I will) you probably need an ethernet switch in order to use the phone and your computer at the same time.
- Remember, you might think I'm right next door but when you call me at noon, it's the middle of the bloody night here!
Link: Sling closes financing round (by Jeff Nolan, January 27th, 2006)
"Sling ... not only changes the way you watch television but gives you the ability to take television with you ... It's liberating in a weird kind of way... almost like I'm 'sticking it to the man'."
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