I've had Vonage (VoIP) for several years and have always been very satisfied with them. Yes, you do need high speed internet, but even with paying more for that than dial up, I'm still saving a lot more money than when I used the regular old local phone company.

For the record, NO, I can't rely on my cell. Reception is very shaky. The last time I went into Verizon they looked on their coverage map and told me I lived right on the outskirts of a "dead zone" regardless of carrier. People come to my house and are shocked to discover their cells don't work very well! So I really do need a regular phone.

Yes, when my power/internet goes out, my phone goes out. But it goes out far less often than when I had traditional phone service.

There's a lot of talk about their 911 system, but I've never had an issue with Vonage's 911. I do have difficulty with my own area's 911 because my area code, phone prefix (first 3 numbers) and mailing address are all not only for a different town than I actually live in, but also a different county. (My town doesn't have a post office). So I get sent to one call center, bounced to a second, yet EVERY TIME the first town's emergency service responds. It's quite odd, but as long as they show up, I don't care who it is!

Anyway, I'm getting off topic here.

I recently had my first "issue" with Vonage. On Monday, I noticed I couldn't call my son's school. I called a bunch of times, finally grabbed my cell and walked around the end of the driveway until I picked enough of a signal to make a call. I went back in and tried the number on my home phone again and it still didn't work. I kept getting a message that said "all lines are busy. Please try your call again later O106."

I didn't think much of it, until I had to call the school again on Friday. Same problem. Used my cell again, got through. Later on I tried to call work, same recording. Hmmm. Finally, at dinnertime, hubby decided to call for Chinese, and that number didn't work either. All three numbers started with the same area code and prefix. Ok, something's going on here!

I used Vonage's system to report the problem at 11:20 this morning. I figured it would take a couple of days to get it straightened out.

I nearly fell over when I checked my email a few minutes after 1pm to discover an email from Vonage, letting me know that the problem had been corrected. The email encouraged me to try one of the numbers I couldn't call earlier to make sure it was ok. I did, and was quite pleased when the school phone started ringing and I got through to their automated system!

I have no idea what the problem was, but I am very happy that it was fixed in less than two hours.