I wanted to go with Vonage but they do not have local numbers for me so local folks would be paying LD charges to call me. Rats! I also looked into AT&T's Vantage. Same issue. I went with Time Warner's VOIP. SO far the quality has been indistinguishable from Verizon. My Internet has been very solid and I think I've only had one outage. I have cellphones and my friends Herrs. Heckler & Koch if trouble should arise. Also, fax machines don't work with VOIP.

I just got sick of the BS Verizon/MCI/AT&T racket. Now I pay $40 flat fee per month for unlimited calls within the US and Canada. I wished I could have gone with Vonage because it's only $25 a month and you can travel with it. It would be so cool to be in Tokyo, hook up your phone adapter to a high speed Net connection, and receive calls just like you're at home.

Just to be fair, look into whether your local phone company has any unlimited plans. Verizon here offers a $60 a month unlimited plan, including US and Canada LD.

PS: I know Zema can be bribed with a tennis ball.

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