Looking for a new phone service... VoIP possibly?

[MGM]

My parents are getting fed up with the amount they're paying for the phone bill, so they're looking for a new company/service. I had heard of VoIP before and decided to look into it.

The prices are decent and it has all the features I want, but I'm not sure which company to go with. So far I'm deciding over Vonage and EarthLink... which do you suggest? Or if neither, which company do you suggest?

A few questions as well...

1. Is it a good idea to jump into voip right now or should I wait?
2. I realize that voip works over the internet, so if my internet went down will the phone service be affected?
3. What about speeds? I dont want to notice lag while talking on the phone :p Will downloads or uploads affect it?
4. Is there anything else I should look out for if I do join up for voip?

MGM out

[BamaStangGuy]

Vonage just because they have that damn commercial music that won't get out of my head

[Quillz]

I would assume that if you have problems connecting to the Internet, you'll have problems connecting to your phone service.

[Reeve of Shinra]

Lots of good info on this over at dslreports.com
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/voip

How important is home service? VOIP still has issues with 911 routing and if you have a home alarm system you may need to take extra steps to get it to work.

If your net goes down, you phone goes down. Earthlink has, in select areas, a product called line powered voice. Without getting into the technical aspects of it, it looks more reliable than regular voip.

voip does effect your upload/download and vice versa.

[KingSpade]

VoIP is nice, if you have a broadband provider with few problems. If your provider goes down, so does your phone, so that is one thing to keep in mind. I have charter communications as an ISP and I'd never sign to VoIP again with all the crap I had to deal with using their service, needless to say, the only other local provider is Comcast but they are 1-2 cities away.

[MGM]

Alright thanks for the info guys.

MGM out

[Wayne Luke]

I tried Vonage. The router they sent me couldn't be recognized on their network and I couldn't get a dial-tone. After spending over 3.5 hours on hold, getting disconnected and being told that there was nothing they could do, I cancelled the service and sent back the hardware. Currently I have a chargeback with my bank pending because they wanted to charge me a $41 disconnection fee even though I had the hardware less than 24 hours and had signed up for the service 2 days before that.

If they had been able to provide service and give me a dial-tone then I might use them. As it is now, they outsource their service to people who can't do anything but follow as script and the extent of service is reboot the modem, reboot the router, reboot the PC.

Even though it is more expensive, I will have to stick with the traditional phone company for all three of my current lines for the forseeable future.