Stanaphone?

[renderman]

Anyone played with Stanaphone yet? http://www.stanaphone.com/

It's a free VoIP service, competitor to skype. However this one gives you a real world phone number so you can recieve calls from POTS phones and mobiles.

It's got the usual cheap rates to POTS phones in different countries, but I'm curious if anyones played with it yet?

Makes ideal sense for me since it gives me a US phone number and can cut down on LD to friends south of the border.

[Twigman]

It looks ok, but skype is much bigger, and with skypein and skypeout you can get your own number etc...

As far as I can tell you get more with skype and its cheaper. But still its nice to see there are competitors out there and its hopeful not going to be a VoIP monopoly by skype.

[klepto]

Looks like this thread says it all: http://forum.stanaphone.com/viewtopic.php?t=944

[octalpus]

Vonage is reliable, customer service is awesome, and after adding up the costs of skypein and skypeout, it looks like I'm getting more for about as much, if not less. I've used Skype a few times to talk to people in other countries, but since I get unlimited calls to US and Canada, I use my Vonage for almost everything. I can't see paying for any of the other services in their ala carte style pricing when I get a much better package and I just don't know enough people who are willing to use a software phone just to have an unreliable conversation.

[murakami]

Vonage is reliable, customer service is awesome, and after adding up the costs of skypein and skypeout, it looks like I'm getting more for about as much, if not less. I've used Skype a few times to talk to people in other countries, but since I get unlimited calls to US and Canada, I use my Vonage for almost everything. I can't see paying for any of the other services in their ala carte style pricing when I get a much better package and I just don't know enough people who are willing to use a software phone just to have an unreliable conversation.

I've had vonage for 2 years. I've taken it overseas for business trips, and moved to another state without a single hitch. It just works. Nothing better than telling Verizon to go f themselves.

[astcell]

I've had vonage for 2 years. I've taken it overseas for business trips, and moved to another state without a single hitch. It just works. Nothing better than telling Verizon to go f themselves.

You're screwed if you need to call 911.

[[Syntax]]

Yeah, I was reading a news story about that on my cellphone the other day.
Major lawsuit against them for not informing consumers they have no 911 access.. Some girl in Houston had to run to the neighbors house to dial 911 after burglers shot her parents.

Can you dial 0? and ask them to dial 911?

[astcell]

Can you dial 0? and ask them to dial 911?

Sure, then you get the New Dehli PD.

[octalpus]

You're screwed if you need to call 911.

As long as you activate 911 dialing for your number (a matter of clicking a button and verifying your address), dialing 911 will route you to a Public Service Access Point. It's not quite the same as an emergency operator, but it will still connect to someone who can help and get emergency response dispatched to you.

From the Vonage FAQ's:

How is this different from dialing 911 on a regular landline?

Vonage routes your call to the Public Service Answering Point (PSAP), which provides emergency services in your area. The appropriate PSAP is determined by the physical address you supplied when you configured 911 on your web account. Therefore, if we do not have the correct address, your call cannot be routed to the corresponding PSAP for your area. Another difference between Vonage 911 Dialing service and traditional 911 service is that the Vonage call will be routed to the PSAP's general access line, which is different from the 911 Emergency Response Center. You will need to state the nature of your emergency promptly and clearly, including your location and telephone number, as PSAP personnel will not have this information at hand. PSAP personnel can help you effectively and will take necessary steps to provide you with the appropriate assistance, such as dispatching police, an ambulance and/or a fire truck.

Behind the scenes, the call will go to your local Public Service Answering Point immediately, if you have provided your address by configuring 911 on your web account. If you have not configured 911 on your web account, you won't be able to dial 911 at all.

*Note - Customers in Rhode Island who activate dialing 911 will receive an emergency calling service similar to E-911, which utilizes the E-911 call routing system and automatically displays your address and the number you're calling from on the dispatchers terminal. This E-911 solution is only available to customers in Rhode Island who have activated dialing 911. Vonage is working aggressively to provide this solution in additional states before the end of 2005.

[converge]

=====
bottoms up y'all
=====


No.

First, I do not understand why something of a billing nature was sent
to second tier technical support (recovery.team). I never asked for
technical support.

On March 15th, 2005 I submitted my cancellation of the service
effective immediate. Immediately after submission I removed myself
from the Vonage network to guarantee that there would be no further
usage than the final call I made on March 14th. I received
confirmation of my cancellation, effective 03/15, from the Vonage
site. I was never sent another confirmation by email or any other
medium.

On March 18th, 2005 I received an email communication from Vonage
(billing@vonage.com) notifying me that my credit card had
automatically been charged for another month of service. I responded
IMMEDIATELY to the message stating that I had already cancelled
service and requesting that the charge be reversed. Several hours
later on the 18th, I was sent an AUTOMATED message giving a
database-driven response to the complaint I sent about Vonage's
billing tactics. I received NO communication from Vonage's billing
team.

On the evening of March 22nd, the posted transaction of $16.94
appeared on my credit statement with no reversal and no response from
Vonage. I contacted the bank's credit services department, explained
the situation, and was given an immediate credit in full for Vonage's
erroneous charging.

Now, April 3rd, 19 days after cancellation, I am receiving a phone
call and email requesting that I call and speak to a recovery team
before my account can be cancelled? No. My account IS cancelled. I
do not wish to speak further to any Vonage representatives. I do not
wish to ever use Vonage's services again. I do not wish to hear any
special offers or enticements. CANCELLED.

Any and all further attempts to bill me for your unwanted service will
be denied. Any further communication from Vonage will be kept in a
paper trail lending to harassment from Vonage, Inc. Good day.

== John Krinkle
jkrinkle@lostboxen.net



On Apr 3, 2005 3:54 PM, Vonage DigitalVoice Customer Care <recovery.team@vonage.com> wrote:
> Dear John:
>
> We value your business greatly and would like to address any concerns
> you may have regarding our service. We tried to contact you today at
> 0:00pm at 1.503.000.0000 and left a voice message since no one was
> available.
> We are sorry to hear that you wish to cancel your account. To cancel
> your account and provide you with all of the important cancellation
> information, we need to verbally verify the owner of the account. This
> is done to protect you from having another person terminate your
> service without your knowledge.
> Please provide us with the best time and telephone number to contact
> you and we will call you back for assistance as soon as possible. Or,
> if you prefer please contact us at the number below during business
> hours. We look forward to helping you.
> Monday-Friday from 8:30AM to 12:00 AM Eastern Time
> Saturday from 10:00AM to 8:00 PM Eastern Time
> 1-800-860-5491
>
> Regards,
> Mohammad Shoaib
> Tier-II Tech Support
>

[TheCotMan]

No....

Sucky customer service.
Reminds me of Hotel with bar soap problem
(replace Maid with Vonage and S. Berman with Vonage customer.)

We looked at IP phones at our site, but realized the issue of emergency service was significant. When electricity is cut to a neighborhood with down powerlines, there is still a very good chance for POTS phones to work. Couple 911 service issues with a need to contact people in a catastrophy (fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, hurricane) where emergency services would be needed but power may be out, and you have a portential legal problem for a business when someone who needs medical help can't get word out.

[murakami]

We looked at IP phones at our site, but realized the issue of emergency service was significant. When electricity is cut to a neighborhood with down powerlines, there is still a very good chance for POTS phones to work. Couple 911 service issues with a need to contact people in a catastrophy (fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, hurricane) where emergency services would be needed but power may be out, and you have a portential legal problem for a business when someone who needs medical help can't get word out.

That's assuming the POTS can handle the load in a catastrophy. I remember otherwise on 9/11.

[Voltage Spike]

That's assuming the POTS can handle the load in a catastrophy. I remember otherwise on 9/11.

POTS has federal requirements on uptime even in extreme circumstances. (I'm sure you can find them if you so desire.) You are unlikely to get the same level of assurance with any other service you purchase. However...

The telephone companies are obligated to provide 911 service to a connected line whether that line has service or not. There shouldn't be any reason you couldn't have office phones that you try to keep up in an emergency, and a "red phone" connected to POTS just in case.

Also note that Manhattan may be a bad example of good telephone system due to its age and population density. The mobile phones certainly went out, but the requirements on them are not as strict.

[TheCotMan]

(See? This is what I get for not addressing everything in a post. ;-)

That's assuming the POTS can handle the load in a catastrophy. I remember otherwise on 9/11.

This is true.Capacity for PSTN is an issue partly because QoS and "dedicated switches" even though much of it is not really a circuit in the conventional EE sense anymore. If everyone tried to pick up the phone in a major city, it is likely the phone system would be broken in that city for most people-- if not for power, then for who actually weren't able to get a dialtone first if there was power to the system.

Presently, there are more 9's of uptime associated with the PSTN than there are for VoIP solutions. In choosing between the two, we went with the more reliable.

There is no question that VoIP can be cheaper, but we can't justify the cost savings at our site when we looked at the history of our LAN uptime (router upgrades, switch replacement, infrastructure upgrades, building maintenance requiring power shutdown due to continuous construction at our site, periodically being "slashdotted", etc.) Even with a PBX that has voicemail software software that runs on Windows NT, our PBX with PSTN is much more reliable than our LAN and the Internet, and our customers have a QoS that is proven when they use their POTS and non-VoIP digital phones.

For residential consumers, it may be a steal, but for a business, it depends on what their customers will tolerate and the reliability of their old phone system vs a VoIP solution.

[alklloyd]

That's assuming the POTS can handle the load in a catastrophy. I remember otherwise on 9/11.

Or a catastrophe.

Al