Vonage calls to Thailand from U.S.

[rsn 135]

Does anyone use Vonage to make calls to Thailand from the U.S. They have a "call Asia" plan that includes Thailand land and mobile phones, and I was wondering if anyone has firsthand experience with this and can comment on the quality.

[rsn 135]

I tried this out and already reached a conclusion. In case anyone is interested, I'll go on.

I would recommend avoiding Vonage. This was actually my second attempt at dealing with them (1st time a couple years ago). They continue to advertise and sell services that they cannot reliably provide. Furthermore, they have a lot of strange rules and policies. Clearly, they have invested a lot of time in selling their products, but very little time developing, supporting, and improving them. I purchased the "Call Asia Plan" and my first attempts to call Asia failed. I received an automated message from their system that all lines were busy and I should call again later. Since I have been dealing with VoIP for about a year now and have knowledge of the technology, I suspect that the route they have picked (to Thailand in this case) is through a VERY unreliable provider. Likely one that cannot support the traffic that they are responsible for. This goes back to my frustration with them selling things they can't support.

Anyway, there are better options out there for calling Thailand. I just wanted to give this one a shot in case it ironed out some of the annoying but tolerable issues I've seen with my current method. FYI, I spend about 4000 minutes a month calling Thailand, and I'm only paying about $20 or so/month on average (sometimes less). I juggle 3 different VoIP providers, and the call quality is generally decent, but there is a noticeable lag in communications sometimes, and there are times when one service doesn't work and I have to switch to one of the other 2. I am able to place calls over the internet using a regular phone connected to a VoIP box (called an ATA) or from my computer, or even using my cell phone with all 3 services. The services are: voipdiscount.com, poivy.com, and future-nine.com. If anyone wants me to elaborate further, I'd be happy to help. By the way, selecting these three services came after going through many, many, MANY other providers (both VoIP and otherwise) and I found these three to be the highest quality AND the cheapest.

[ThaitoUSA 15]

I've been using VOIPDiscount for about 2 months. I am quite happy with the service. I may renew it one more time, between now and when my fiancée arrives. That would allow her to make calls home during the first two months here, in case she gets a little homesick.

[rsn 135]

I've been using VOIPDiscount for about 2 months. I am quite happy with the service. I may renew it one more time, between now and when my fiancée arrives. That would allow her to make calls home during the first two months here, in case she gets a little homesick.

Poivy.com and VoIPDiscount.com are pretty much the same service. They are extensions of the same template. Similar variations exist elsewhere (there's at least 10 others like this with different rules). They are part of a parent VoIP company called Betamax (based in Germany). Poivy and VoIPDiscount specifically are slightly different in that they have subtle variations in the template policy. For example, VoIPDiscount allows "free calls" to Thai mobile & landline phones, but Poivy does not allow "free calls" to Thai landline phones for some strange reason. Also, the per-minute charges once you have exceeded the allowed acceptable minutes in a 1-week period are different in some cases, I think it's 3 euro-cents/minute for poivy vs. 1 euro-cent for voipdiscount or something like that. I use both because I usually exceed 300 minutes per week to Thailand, and each service starts charging you per-minute if you go over 300 minutes per week, even if you have freedays left.

Generally, I'm pretty happy with these services, and I'm ok with tracking my minutes and switching between services mid-week in order to take full advantage of my freedays. I've been using both since about October of '08. The call quality seems pretty good, I can connect to my fiancee in Thailand on the first try most of the time, but they do seem to have outages. Lately, I've seen outages in the early morning around 7am or so (central time) where I've had to switch to future-nine.com. Still, I can't complain given the fact that the service is very much usuable and pretty inexpensive as well. I think it's important to have a backup though, as I have found out.

Edited March 13, 2009 by rsn

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

i've been using vonage for the last 15 months and havent any problems with it.

[CaMhae 7]

Does anyone use Vonage to make calls to Thailand from the U.S. They have a "call Asia" plan that includes Thailand land and mobile phones, and I was wondering if anyone has firsthand experience with this and can comment on the quality.

Ive been using vonage phone for 1 yr and 8 months and i really like it...clear sounds and alot cheaper than using phone cards....

[ding 1]

I went through several calling card companies with mixed performance. I tried Skype-in and Skype-out, which sucked audibly.

Vonage is the ticket. Very clear most of the time. When not, I suspect it's at the Thai end of the line. I've posted about this as a hot tip before because I thought it was a very useful tip if you want to hear your partner and save big bucks too.

Also, I went online and printed out all our call records and hi-lighted the calls to her. This is great evidence of a valid relationship.

Good luck.

Edited March 14, 2009 by ding

[ThaitoUSA 15]

The service, VIOP Discount, that rsn and I spoke of costs about $14 for four months of calls. There is a limit of 300 minutes per week, but that is fine for us. $3.50 a month? How could any other service beat that? And as far as quality, we haven't had any problems.

[rsn 135]

I went through several calling card companies with mixed performance. I tried Skype-in and Skype-out, which sucked audibly.

Vonage is the ticket. Very clear most of the time. When not, I suspect it's at the Thai end of the line. I've posted about this as a hot tip before because I thought it was a very useful tip if you want to hear your partner and save big bucks too.

Also, I went online and printed out all our call records and hi-lighted the calls to her. This is great evidence of a valid relationship.

Good luck.

Even the worst companies manage to satisfy some of their customers. This is my second go-around with Vonage, and they are most definitely a worse-than-average VoIP provider. Among their problems include a sales staff that is poorly trained, a support/troubleshooting process that is incredibly inefficient, especially when dealing with international calling. Furthermore, the call quality of domestic calls using other providers I have dealt with that charge substantially less are as good as or better than Vonage, based on my own personal experience. The motto "you get what you pay for" is not always true, and VoIP is a good example of that. As far as I'm concerned, taking a some time to research the options out there and learning a little bit about VoIP can potentially net you substantial savings without sacrificing call quality.

On the other hand, i'll fully admit that I probably need to get a life though ;-) Also, researching other options in this realm is definitely not a trivial task, so if you find something that you are happy with, I guess there is little reason to look elsewhere.

Edited March 16, 2009 by rsn

[daboyz 36]

I've been using Vonage to call Thailand for over a year. Works fine for me.

[rsn 135]

I've been using Vonage to call Thailand for over a year. Works fine for me.

I suppose even if Vonage did work well for me, it's more than I'm willing to pay at this time ($40+/month vs. about $15). Also, there are some features offered by other, cheaper providers (such as the ability to use your account as a calling card) that Vonage does not offer. I would only use the international dialing from Vonage anyway (no interest in using it for domestic dialing at this time) and I personally prefer the pay-as-you go model for VoIP as well, at least in this scenario. The call Asia plan is only $10/month, but you still have to pay the $25/month for domestic dialing, whether you use it or not.

Edited March 16, 2009 by rsn

[ThaitoUSA 15]

Is Vonage's Asia plan unlimited talk time per month?

Edited March 16, 2009 by ThaitoUSA

[rsn 135]

Is Vonage's Asia plan unlimited talk time per month?

According to one operator I talked to it is, but as with most "unlimited" claims by VoIP services, there is probably some point at which they charge you for calls after so many minutes. It's probably spelled out in their fair usage policy, if they have one and if you can find it.

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

Is Vonage's Asia plan unlimited talk time per month?

yes it is................period

[rsn 135]

Is Vonage's Asia plan unlimited talk time per month?

yes it is................period

You apparently didn't read over the terms of service carefully.

5.4 Inconsistent with Normal Use.

If you use the service or the device in a way that is inconsistent with the normal use for your service or plan, you will be required, at Vonage's sole discretion, to pay the rates for the service or plan that would apply to the way you used the service or device, or terminate the plan. For example, if you subscribe to one of our residential service plans, and you are notified that your usage is inconsistent with normal residential use, you may thereafter be required to pay our higher rates for commercial service for all periods in which your use of our service or the device was inconsistent with normal residential use. More than 5,000 minutes per line per month for unlimited residential calling and more than 10,000 minutes per line per month for unlimited small business calling will not be considered normal use. The creation or use of related multiple accounts or excessive residential lines to circumvent these levels shall also be considered inconsistent with normal use. Usage over these levels or other inconsistent use will result, in Vonage's sole discretion, in immediate mandatory transfer to another appropriate plan, suspension or termination of service. You acknowledge that if your service is terminated under this provision, you are subject to all applicable termination charges.

While your normal user probably won't go over 5000 minutes a month, still, their "unlimited" policy is not in fact unlimited.

Edited March 20, 2009 by rsn