For those of you looking into Vonage, let’s take a look at what exactly this product entails, what it can provide, and what might not work well with it.

To use the service, customers must purchase or use a Vonage-branded VoIP router or phone adapter that connects to their primary router or broadband modem. In addition, you’ll need an upload speed between 90 and 200 kbps, as well as a reliable QoS-optimized connection to make calls without significant delays or jitter.

Vonage will require some sort of contract, so make sure this service benefits you the way you think it will. Most Vonage deals come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, but be warned, Vonage will require customers to cancel service by calling a toll-free number. Customers have described excessive wait times, in some cases exceeding 30 minutes. In a 12-month period, the Better Business Bureau received more than 3,000 customer complaints. The majority of complaints were service-related, closely followed by billing and reimbursement issues.

Although Vonage markets its service as having no long-term contracts or commitments, customers are charged a $39.99 fee to cancel within two years of starting service. A refund recovery fee is also charged if the account is canceled after the 30-day money-back guarantee, but before 180 days of service. Canceling customers are also responsible for the cost of return shipping to Vonage.

All of this can be a worst case scenario, so let’s take a look at the service itself. First of all, VoIP services, which is what Vonage is, will depend on a consistent broadband ISP connection and the compatibility of the VoIP equipment with the ISP’s modem. This alone makes Vonage incompatible with satellite Internet providers, dedicated fax lines, most home alarm systems, and TiVo.

You might be thinking at this point, magicJack may be a better option. magicJack is a computer peripheral that, in combination with telephone service from magicJack’s related company YMAX, provides Internet-based telephone service to the United States. magicJack is a USB device that contains both the software needed to make Internet-based phone calls over a customer-provided high-speed Internet connection, and the electronics called Subscriber Line Interface, or SLIC, which supports conventional landline phones. , which can be connected directly to the device .

In January 2008, PC Magazine reviewed magicJack and rated it Very Good and gave it an Editor’s Choice award. But, in February 2009, after receiving dozens of complaints about its compatibility with the device, PC Magazine re-reviewed the product and lowered its rating from Very Good to Good.

The main customer complaints were related to the advertisements displayed by the product and a policy that allows YMAX to analyze numbers called by subscribers. YMAX then investigates these numbers and the annoying ads you are forced to live with are targeted and made more relevant to YMAX’s findings in the research done on the numbers going in and out of your magicJack.

If you find that to be a driver, until November 2007, magicJack did not provide an uninstall method in either the software or documentation that came with the product. Removing the software from Windows required a registry hack. You can now uninstall the product on Windows, but it requires a download from magicjack.com. There is currently no such mechanism for Mac users.

For me, I’ll take my chances with good old-fashioned phone service or cell phone service.