Does Vonage Work With WiFi?

By Amrita Chuasiriporn

If you’ve wanted to combine the value of Vonage with the convenience of Wi-Fi access, your wait is over. The good news is that you can use Vonage with Wi-Fi, but only in specific ways. Vonage also offers a mobile phone application with which you to turn any phone capable of running the app into a voice over Internet protocol-enabled mobile phone.

Vonage and Wi-Fi

As of December 2011, Vonage offers both home and mobile service to customers in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Vonage is a VoIP telephone service, which means it uses your existing broadband Internet connection to place and receive telephone calls. When you sign up, you receive a Vonage phone adapter that you must plug in to your existing Internet connection and your existing home telephone. Vonage allows you to use any type of home telephone you want -- including cordless models. Additionally, Vonage sells a mobile phone, the UTStarcom F1000 WiFi phone, that lets you use your Vonage Home telephone service anywhere you can find a Wi-Fi connection. This includes mobile hotspots, like those offered by some coffee shops, restaurants and recreational facilities, as well as at home, if you have a wireless router for your Internet connection.

Vonage Mobile Service

Vonage Mobile is a separate service from Vonage Home, but it’s offered by the same company. As of December 2011, apps are available for iPhone and Android phones that let you use Vonage Mobile to place international calls. Like the Vonage-specific mobile phone for Vonage Home service, the Vonage Mobile apps rely on any available Wi-Fi signal wherever you’re trying to place or receive calls.

Considerations

If you’re relying on Wi-Fi to use Vonage, your phone calls will only be as strong as your available Wi-Fi signal. Before committing to using Vonage over Wi-Fi as your main means of communication, test the Wi-Fi signal where you’ll most commonly be using the phone. Use other Wi-Fi devices, such as your laptop or cell phone to test signal strength. Test the speed of your broadband Internet connection if you plan to use Vonage home service as well. Use a free service to see you how well your current broadband connection is performing.

Warning

Having an existing Vonage home account does not mean you automatically have a Vonage mobile account. You need to set up a separate account to use Vonage mobile. This doesn’t apply if you’re using the purpose-built mobile phone that Vonage sells. Be aware that if Internet service becomes unavailable for any reason, you won’t be able to make or receive calls via any type of Vonage phone.

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