Lingo.com
 

For all us Brits that call the Uk 10 times a day (to our Mums), this is certainly worth while

My friend has this system, and the quality is excellent, and one can call 911 unlike Broadvoice

It also works with home security systems,

Unlimited calls to the UK and Europe (cant remember which part) is fab, my bill is usually $200 a month, so tomorrow I shall be subscribing

$20 a month, a talk-aholics dream LOL

www.lingo.com

Happy chatting

PD

Re: Lingo.com
 

Hey, I'm planning on switching to Lingo sometime this month. Just make sure you have some type of ethernet port available in your computer. There's also a referral program. If someone refers you to Lingo (you have to provide that person with your name and email address), both of you will get $25 credited to your accounts after you've been with the service for 3 months.

Re: Lingo.com
 

There's a decent thread I think about big blue?? anyway, going bust, and other voip services...people have put referals up there I think, if you want to check it out...

Re: Lingo.com
 

nope, it's big zoo...opps...

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...5&page=1&pp=15


if there weren't referals in that, it's somewhere else :)

Re: Lingo.com
 

Yes, my friend told me about that $25 thing

The quality is really good

With Broadvoice, if the weather is bad, you loose the connection to Ireland/Scotland LOL

My main concern was 911 and we have to have a service that works with our alarm company

So far so good

Fingers crossed, going to subscribed tomorrow

PD

Re: Lingo.com
 

I get bellsouth unlimited calls to uk for $40... saves messing around with voip

i could probably save a few bucks...

Re: Lingo.com
 

The only thing that's pissed me off with Lingo so far is the porting over of our old number -- after 20 business days no action. Rest of the service is fine, no problems whatsoever.

If anybody wants action from Lingo's polite but totally ineffectual customer service, PM me for contact info. I couldn't be bothered waiting so I decided to prod the bigwigs and -- surprise, surprise -- the port is happening next week!

Re: Lingo.com
 

I've recently sugscribed to Lingo, I've just had an email from them telling me they cant transfer my telephone number. So I am going to keep SBC which I only pay $13 for a basic line, so that people can call me from England and keep Lingo to make all of my outgoing calls on. The added advantage is I can give my Lingo number to work contacts and that way if my Lingo phone rings I will know if its friend or foe.

Call quality. Making US calls is great however I have made a couple of UK calls that sounded great to me but they could hardly hear me. So I'm keeping an open mind. I was spending $20 a month on phone cards anyway and the call quality could be bad too so I'm in the same position with Lingo.

Re: Lingo.com
 

For those of you who have already signed up with Lingo, do any of you have Windows XP profesional and has it interefered with the service at all? And when does your billing cycle start - the day you sign up or the day you actually connect?

Re: Lingo.com
 

Nope -- but it depends on your set up. To start, put Lingo's ATA straight after the modem and before your router/gateway and let it handle QOS. Anything else, and you'll be experimenting hard to get a good setup -- the most important factor will be your router/gateway's support for QOS.


I understand your confusion as I read on other VoIP forums it was from date of sign up. However, they actually billed me from the date of first activation for the second charge (the first charge was on the date of order for activation, etc).

Re: Lingo.com
 

I use AT&T for Long Distance. $24 a month gets me unlimited calling to England.

Re: Lingo.com
 

Be extremely careful of Lingo!

For some inexplicable reason their rate to mobile phones in the UK is more than 50% more expensive than all other VOIP providers. This seems quite strange as their rates to all other countries are very competitive with all other providers... all except this one particular case... calls to mobiles in the UK! For example, calls to mobiles in the UK cost twice as much as calls to mobiles in France. Notwithstanding, the quality and reliability of their service is very good.

I have written them attempting to ascertain the reason for the apparent anomaly with the price of calls to mobiles in the UK but never received any response. Very strange!

Re: Lingo.com
 

It's the mobile operators inthe UK that hike the price up...why not just ring mates on a landline anyway?

Re: Lingo.com
 

They do, but NikkiD certainly has a point -- I'd never noticed before as I rarely ring cell phones in any European country.

If you compare rates to UK cell phones in c/min:
Lingo = 42
Vonage = 28
Packet8 = 28
AT&T = 27

Another EU contry I call regularly (unfortunately too far east for the free rate), rates for cell phone in c/min :
Lingo = 26
Vonage = 26
Packet 8 = 30
AT&T = 22

Seems Lingo is around 50% overpriced to UK cell phones.

Re: Lingo.com
 

We signed up last month and have had great service. Infact so much so we got rid of BellSouth last week - Now that was a pleasant and very satisfying phone call :D

Our monthly phone bill has gone from $120 pm (average) to $30pm (average). My father lives in Spain and has a radio phone which apparently is classed as a mobile since it uses a mobile prefix hence the extra $10 or so pm, but still 75% saving so im happy. And ANY reason not to give Bellsouth money is good in my book. And since I already pay for the 3MB internet why not use some of it?

Bye Bye traditional, overpriced and annoying Telco's

Re: Lingo.com
 

I'm with OneSuite.com and never called a cellphone number in the UK but their rates p/min to a UK cellphone are 19 cents p/min.

See-
http://www.onesuite.com/rates.asp
and click on the link for calls originating from the US.

I've been using OneSuite.com for over two years now and am very satisfied with the quality of the line and their rates.




NC Penguin

Re: Lingo.com
 

Nice rates. But if you have cable broadband, ditching your local telco and going VoIP is really a no-brainer. The $20/month Lingo option is cheaper than the basic service from our local telco. And in addition, you get all the bells and whistles, free intrastate, interstate LD, free Canada and Western Europe non-cell.

Our combined bill with the local telco and the cheapest LD provider for our particular call destinations used to be around $90/month in total; with VoIP it's more like $40. That's $600/year!

As far as I know, there's no reason why you couldn't use the OneSuite service through your VoIP line if you suddenly had to make calls that were expensive on your provider's plan.

Re: Lingo.com
 

I need to keep my landline for incoming calls from the UK mostly.




NC Penguin

Re: Lingo.com
 

:confused: :confused: :confused:
When mama calls, it rings on your normal phone when using VoIP. You can even usually keep the same number.

Alternatively, you can even add a London number to your home phone system with VoIP -- mater calls a London number but it rings at your des res in NC. Costs you around for $5-$10/month extra for this though -- no extra for calls.

Re: Lingo.com
 

Bloody amazing. I followed your instructions, talked with the higher-ups. She asked me to re-fax my LNP form (of course, I'm sure that didn't mean they lost my last one). :rolleyes:

Faxed it this morning. Within 8 hours I get an email saying "Done - your number will be ported on March 4". You're a miracle-worker!

Re: Lingo.com
 

Bell South unlimited for $40/month?! I'm being raped by Southwestern Bell, who claim to have no international unlimited dialling. I have to stay with them for local service until my in-laws move out, but after that they are sooooo gone after "forgetting" to put a frequent international calling plan on my line when I switched from AT&T in order to accommodate the rellies (who need their number ported from one local exchange to another and say that SWB is the only one who can do this).

I so hate phone bills, they eat me alive. 10-10-220 is decent to landlines but I need to check mobile rates.

Re: Lingo.com
 

Earlier in this thread I said that the call quality wasnt great with my Lingo service, I've just found the problem...my phone. As I had two lines into the house my husband got a phone from work so we could try out the Lingo service but the phone must have been faulty. I switched to my old phone and the line is great.

The only disapointing thing is that Lingo were unable to get SBC to agree to give me my phone number. So I'm faced with contacting everyone with a change of number...oh well I suppose the call will be free!

As my phone already has an answer machine can I switch off the Lingo answering service?

Re: Lingo.com
 

I’ve signed up to Lingo and the service seems ok at present. One word of caution though is that we ported our SBC number over to Lingo. SBC read this as we didn’t want their line or DSL, which you need of course to be able to use Lingo in the first place. We had no phone line or DSL for over a week while the mess was sorted out. If possible just tell everyone your Lingo number and don’t bother with porting your old number.

Re: Lingo.com
 

You would have to check with the telecommunications commission in your state, but landline numbers here in the US are now supposed to be portable between providers. Of course, sometimes the local carrier can come up with "technical" reasons as to why this is "impossible" but I would call SBC yourself to enquire (you were previously a customer so they should be able to answer your question very specifically to your satisfaction).

Re: Lingo.com
 

Or you could get your internet via your cable co then you wont need a land line at all.

Re: Lingo.com
 

Caveat: without a landline 911 cannot determine the location you're calling from, so if you have children or elderly or a security system that could be problematic. Your setup must be able to pass through Caller ID information.

Re: Lingo.com
 

Not strictly true!

See: http://www.lingosupport.com/faq_emer...e_over_ip.html

Many other vendors have similar solutions.

Re: Lingo.com
 

I have been thinking about VoIP for a while, but 2 things bither me. The first is it seem complicated to rig up more than 1 phone. The second is that it is not secure. It is very easy for dodgy people to intercept, record palyback and save every call you make. Yes, your phone can be tapped, but that requires somebody to physically do it. When everything is digital, anyone can do it from there house to anywhere in the world. No matter what the companies tell you, none of them are encrypting the data. I still have some thinking and figures to work out!

Re: Lingo.com
 

We pay for the London number - its great. My Mum and most friends are on phone deals where they get free calls in the UK at certain times- using the London number, they can call me for free! Jeeze I shudder to think how much I've spent on phoning UK during the last 13 years :scared: Wish they'd had this years ago- didn't even have the internet when we came out here.

I kept my land line- cut down to basic service- for the security system and Direct TV.

Re: Lingo.com
 

Rigging up your whole house after you've got rid of the local telco is a doddle -- five minute job, no wiring required, that's all!

Security is an issue, but then again how many folks use unsecured cordless phones at home? Also, how many calls through cheap LD providers are routed over the Internet anyway?

Re: Lingo.com
 

Bumping this up as we signed up a few days ago. It's been a firkin nightmare. The buggering thing hardly ever works and getting through to customer service has been hellish. I have to wait over 20 mins using cell phone as the flaming VOIP just doesn't work reliably.

Re: Lingo.com
 

I don't call the UK that much, so I use a combination of voice chat on Yahoo Messenger and an Internet telephone service provider called Gossiptel. I pay by the minute for Gossiptel and have no monthly rental. It's cheaper than Lingo for me as I don't spend the $20 a month, but I reckon it must be close. A 0870 UK number is free with Gossiptel and I have a US Washington number through IPKall ringing through to the same phone. All works like a charm, only sounds crap if I don't stop downloading my Britney Spears albums whilst I talk :D

Lingo sounds like very good value, if they had better marketing they would blow Vonage out of the water.

Re: Lingo.com
 

I'm sorry to hear you have had problems with Lingo. Although I haven't had to deal with customer service, I have had some hiccups of my own with the service. But I don't think that was the fault of Lingo. When our cable company upgraded to 4 MBPS the cable went wonky and we could only bring up every other page we tried to look at online...which also meant that getting through on the lingo line was a crap shoot. I was feeling so frustrated with not being able to get through when I wanted to, I was actually contemplating getting a very basic landline.

Whatever the problem was...it seems to have cleared itself up and our lingo line (and internet service) works fine now...for the most part...and as long as the cats don't turn off the power to the phone like this morning. lol

I hope you are able to get things worked out. I can imagine how frustrated you must feel.

Re: Lingo.com
 

The cable dude was out yesterday to check it. It's not a prob at my end. When I make a call I only ever get the busy tone instead of a ring tone. It rings on the end of the person I'm calling but I can't tell they've picked up.