Have had the "Lingo" VoIP (Telephone over high speed internet) service for 5 months now and it is ace! Never lose calls and the call quality is excellent. Best thing is unlimited calls to the UK for only $19.99 a month!!!!!

Just thought i'd share the good news!

www.lingo.com

Thanks for the link - I just dumped my AT&T CallVantage for Lingo!!

I got Lingo just before the Christmas Holiday. After a few minor problems with the set up, I can say that it works very well and the quality is great. The best thing is that I was able to get a London Number, so my folks only have to make a local call.

I took the plunge last week and am waiting for my set-up package.

Consumer Reports did an article on internet/VOIP phone service this month. They recommended against it unless you have a very high phone bill - and then they recommend you keep your regular phone service for emergency calls. I don't understand their recommendation - I pay over $25 just for local calls, and then use LD call cards for international (bit of a pain to punch in all those serial numbers). Paying a flat $20 for Lingo (free unlimited to US/Canada/Europe) just seems a no-brainer to me. And I've never had to make an emergency call in my life, so the odds of that being a problem are pretty low (besides, Lingo has a system for emergency calls).

I do. They're speaking to average joe, but most on this board ain't actually average joe, are they? How many Americans have ever made an international call? (except of course customer service on a 1-800!)

Also, many do not have the technical expertise to set it up, even though it's a breeze.

Lingo sounds excellent, as soon as we move out of our apartment and into our house where we can get a decent cable provider (as opposed to this cheap apartment crap), we'll be signing straight up.

Yup - another satisfied Lingo user here. I used to have my second phone line on SBC, but after re-organising my home office, there was no suitable phone point near my desk. I got Lingo as an experiment - I could always just cancel it and run an extension.

I have to say, I've almost forgotten it's there! It's running through a wifi bridge to my cable/wifi router. I use it ALL the time (I work from home about 80% of the time) and have never had any real problems.

Anyone considering Lingo should post to this thread - if an existing Lingo subscriber refers you, you both get $25 off your bill.

Cheers,

Pat

Hubby is calling Lingo this afternoon, I sent him the link and he says it sounds pretty good and you've all given great reviews on it.

I am currently with Sprint long distance now, have ben for years, they've been good to me. I've had weekend unlimited calling to the UK and it cost me 30 bucks a month and I know I got more than my moeys worth, as I've been known to be on the phone nearly the whole weekend

But it would be nice to call England and other places any day of the week for 19.99...

Am a tad confused about saying that someone recommended it though and they and you get 25 bucks off their bill....if it only costs 19.99 in the first place, surely the company would end up paying you? Or am I just being really dim here....

There's a $29.95 activation fee - see the additional charges section at the bottom of this page. The $19.95 is a monthly fee - the $25 credit is a one-off.

Cheers,

Pat

Thanks Pat...I was just being dim then...I didn't read all the page, made hubby check it out...

He didn't ring them this afternoon, got busy watching his football, but I'll get him on the blower soon.

I received my Lingo package today..yey! Hopefully will not have a problem hooking it up- looks pretty easy actually. I got the $19.95 unlimited, deal plus $10 for an international number...got a London number...so my Mum and friends who have special phone deals(free calls after a certain hour) over there can call me FREE!! Now I'm off to phone Verizon to downgrade my service with them to the cheapest programme. I have to keep the line, unfortunately, open because our security system and DirectTV use it.

I asked superpat to recommend Lingo to me, so we should each get $25 credit

Don't hold your breath...i've done that loads over the past few months and haven't got a penny. Their refunds department work about as fast as the USCIS!

It says in the small print that the people you recommend have to sign up and stay a subscriber for 91 days before you get your credit- they also have to be in good standing. Like mail ins...you have to wait months.

Anyway, I hooked it up last night..it was a breeze and worked great. I had a small hitch today when I started phoning friends in UK- I could hear them really well, they could not hear me..said my voice was fragmented. Just before I phoned tech support I remembered I was seeding some TV programmes on uknova...closed those out and tried the phone again, worked great. Sooo if any of you thinking of getting Lingo download from uknova- don't dl/upload when you want to use the phone. Apart from that, it works really well- I had a great afternoon phoning all my friends And me mum (and some friends too) is chuffed that she can phone me on the London number for free after 6pm every night and all weekends.

out of interest - what bandwidth do you have at home?

I'm getting
3.21 Mb/s Download
379 kb/s Upload

Not sure what I should be getting, would have to contact my service provider to find out I guess.