Verizon's VoIP Service, Voicewing Shutting Down 3/31/09

[DMZ]

Got a letter today from Verizon letting me know that Voicewing, the Verizon equivalent of Vonage, is shutting down March 31, 2009.  Attempts to find out my options from Voicewing customer support or FiOS customer support left me holding my you know what in my hand.

As I already have FiOS TV and internet, I'm interested in converting to the new FiOS Digital Phone service which is supposed to have all the on-line control features you get with Voicewing and all the other VoIP services out there, but that service isn't out yet.

If nothing happens soon on Verizon's behalf, I'll consider going with magicjack, www.magicjack.com

[xboarder]

Just got the letter too and received a dork of a customer service representative.  No explanation of what was going on; no explanation of possible options.  Thanks to your post, I went to Magic Jack's website.  Interesting concept.  I actually went for it and the 5 year plan.  $47 for the initial purch and first year.  Yes, that is true-year of local/long distance.  I also went for the bonus of $60 total for the next 4 years.  Vonage, which is respectibly cheap, is at $25/month.  It would take only 4 months to reach the combined cost of 5 years with Magicjack.

Here is the kicker - Let's say you are traveling.  Take the USB device with you.  Plug it in to your laptop.  Unplug the hotel phone from the wall and into your magicjack.  Voila-free hotel phone service (unless you are outside the US).  Pretty **bleep** cool!!

I'll post another comment when I get it and try it for a few weeks.

[Hockedude5]

I know that many people I have spoken with have transferred to other VoIP providers as they have become accustom to the lower prices and comparable quality of traditional telephone companies. TeleBlend offers a great product with good features. They're customer service was pretty poor a while back I heard but it seems since I signed up even that that things have improved considerably. They even implemented a live chat feature recently that I found pretty nice. That way I don't have to sit on hold and deal with reps to get a simple questions answered. I pay 15.95/month. Works great for me. If anyone out there is still looking for an alternative now that Verizon has screwed us I'd check them out.

[DMZ]

Found a great alternative to Voicewing and Vonage... www.phonepower.com

No contract, $9.95/month for the 1st 3 months then $22.95/month thereafter.  No charge for the adapter, just $14.95 shippping.

Superior customer service, superior features to Voicewing, customer and tech support agents who speak and understand English based in California, NOT India or the Phillippenes.

Had them for 3 weeks now and haven't looked back.