I do not have Vonage, but I do have digital phone through Time Warner cable. It is significantly cheaper, and no additional equipment. Just uses your existing phone.
I have no problems w/ quality and so far, no outages.
Generally, Vonage has its own phone jack on the adapter that you will use for your phone. It is not intended to be used with your house phone wiring.
If, however, you wish to use your home phone wiring (which they do not recommend), you must disconnect your home service from the jack outside of your home and then connect the live vonage line into any phone jack.
ping
Ensure you will still have 911 capabilities in your town/neighborhood when you switch to VOIP. Ask the honcho in Dispatch--usually their in the PD building.
I just got it installed. I can't tell the difference between the phone system and Vonage even when I'm online with my laptop. This could vary depending on your internet connection.
Is it really significantly less expensive than standard phone service, or do they hit you with hidden charges?
It is about 50% cheaper. I've got the $14.99 a month plan, unlimited incoming, 500 outgoing minutes. The total cost per month ends up being $16.94. You can click here to calculate actual costs for various plans.
Most importantly, I would like to know where exactly the phone adapter goes. Will I need to relocate my router and cable modem? Right now both of them are far away (upstairs on ground floor) from my telephone interface block (downstairs outside basement wall), if that matters. What are the interfaces on the Vonage adapter? Thanks.
You shouldn't need to relocate anything as long as you have a telephone jack (any jack) located relatively close. They will give you a new phone adaptor/router combo (if you want one).
You can plug the output from the phone jack on the Vonage adaptor into any phone jack PROVIDING that you unhook the incoming lines from your house. In reality this is very easy especially on a newer house. I just basically had to unplug a connection on the block outside my house.
Phone jacks are wired in parallel, so plugging into one is like plugging into all.
I put a duplex phone adaptor into a jack (converts one jack to two) and plugged the vonage adaptor into one and a phone into the other. I've got 4 phones hooked up and they all ring loud and clear with the adaptor.
Did you get Vonage? If so, are you satisified?