Forums > Specific Focus > Technical Mexico

Jerry@Ajijic

Mar 2, 2006, 7:00 AM

Post #1 of 8 (4070 views)

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Toll free from US

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Hi, I may be a little slow but I just found out that Vonage will now give you (for 4.99 a month) a toll free number from the US. This means that people in the US can call you free of charge for 100 minutes a month. This is different from their Virtual Telephone Numbers" and I think a lot more convenient.

johanson / Moderator

Mar 2, 2006, 3:01 PM

Post #2 of 8 (4050 views)

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Re: [Jerry@Ajijic] Toll free from US

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Hi Jerry: I think the virtual # deal is better than that. As I recollect, you have to choose some location, you know, a # where people can call you. You would logically choose an area code that would allow the most folks to call you for free. You can have additional locations for $4.99 each. You also buy a package like the one for $14.99 that allows you to phone your friends for 500 minutes per month in the US and CA. If I recollect, for $24.99 you get unlimited calls.

Someone will correct me here if I am wrong, but your friends can call you as often and for as long as they want, as long as they phone one of the virtual #s you provide.

To learn more, go to http://www.vonage.com/ and start reading

Papirex

Mar 2, 2006, 4:27 PM

Post #3 of 8 (4042 views)

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Re: [johanson] Toll free from US

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You are right Pete. Unless Vonage has changed their available plans in the last couple of years, a toll free 888 number is an option you may add on to one of their other monthly plans. When I signed on with Vonage a toll free 888 number was not offered by itself.

Anyone in the same area code that you chose in The US may call you toll free; it is a local call for them. We chose a number in Tacoma, Washington for our Primary number. Anyone in the 253 area code may call us toll free, it is a local call for them. The same thing would apply if you chose more than one number in The US at $4.99 per month for each additional number.

We added a toll free 888 number with 100 prepaid minutes per month to our plan because we have family in Napa County, and San Diego California, also in Salt Lake City, and New Hampshire, to name just a few of the family and friends’ locations. They don’t call us frequently and we have never used all of the 100 prepaid minutes. If we ever got close to that limit, I plan to ask the caller to hang up; I would then call them back on my unlimited plan.

As I have said in other posts, we make all of our long distance calls in Mexico using our Vonage phone. Vonage charges a little less than half of the amount per minute that Telmex does. We save enough on our Telmex bill to more than pay for Vonage each month.

Someone that does not make as many long distance calls in Mexico as we do will not save as much, but you will definitely recover part of the cost of using Vonage if you make your Mexican long distance calls using it.

While not perfect all the time, Vonage has been a great benefit to us.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

Jerry@Ajijic

Mar 2, 2006, 6:38 PM

Post #4 of 8 (4028 views)

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Re: [RexC] Toll free from US

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We do have a virtual number for our daughter in Canada but we wanted something in addition where someone could call us from anywhere. Our other daughter moves around and with this she can call us for 100 minutes from anywhere in the US plus we have some other people in the US that we would like to be able to call us from where ever they might be.

Our use is personal but it seems that this would be very good for anyone that does any kind of business in the US.

sfmacaws

Mar 3, 2006, 9:24 AM

Post #5 of 8 (4006 views)

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Re: [Jerry@Ajijic] Toll free from US

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I'm now using NetZero VOIP which works very well with a satellite system, others have more problems with the lag. NetZero gives you a US phone number in any area you want. We chose Denver since Mimi's mother is the only person we know that doesn't have a cell phone with free long distance.

I'm on a 3 month free trial of NetZero right now and phone calls to the US from anywhere, Guatemala right now, are free, as are calls to us from the US. The charge for calls to Mexico is about 4c I think, I haven't used it for that as I use my cell phone within Mexico.

I think most people in the US use their cell phones more than their house phones, if they even have a house phone anymore. I know many people, including myself when we still had a house there, that had gotten rid of the land line since everyone in the household had a cell. I'm happy with this trend, may all the Baby Bell's rot in h*ll. If Carlos Slim didn't own the cell companies too it would be a good thing to happen to Telmex as well. My belief is that people should have phones, not houses.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

Jerry@Ajijic

Mar 3, 2006, 12:42 PM

Post #6 of 8 (3993 views)

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Re: [sfmacaws] Toll free from US

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We have been using Vonage for about 2 years and no problems. As for the cell phones, our daughter in N.C. will be calling us on her cell and using our new Vonage 877 (toll free) number. Our daughter in Canada has a Vonage "virtual telephone number" and can call us from any type of phone, free, as long as the call originates in her home area code.

TlxcalaClaudia

Mar 7, 2006, 3:54 PM

Post #7 of 8 (3950 views)

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Re: [johanson] Toll free from US

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Any suggestions for this scenario (never used vonage before):

We will have a house in Apizaco, but for the 1st year we are in Mexico, we will stay in an apt. supplied to me and my family by my employer in Pachuca.
Utilities already connected in the apt (phone too). I guess vonage is the phone service provider I can use in my home...but has anyone gotten a virtual number to their cell? I need vonage service in the apt. in order to get the virtual # is my guess?
Cingular has an international plan of which I already use on my cell phone, but can't beat free calls if with vonage.

Claudine

Papirex

Mar 8, 2006, 9:09 AM

Post #8 of 8 (3919 views)

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Re: [TlxcalaClaudia] Toll free from US

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Claudine, You cannot get a virtual phone number for a cell phone with Vonage. Vonage is a VoIP service. Vonage and most of the other good VoIP phone services require a broadband Internet connection to work. You can buy a “Soft phone” it is a virtual phone from Vonage as an option to your account for US$9.99 additional per month, to load into a laptop and take it with you when you travel, but you will need to find a broadband connection for the laptop to use it.

Here is the link to learn more about Vonage: http://www.vonage.com/index.php?refer_id=27400178

I do not recommend that you try to use Telmex’s Prodigy Infinitim broadband service. Read my post on this forum titled “Breaking a rule here.” If you click on the link in it, on the page that comes up there is another link in the first sentence in the first paragraph. Click on it and a news report comes up about the problems people have been having when trying to use Prodigy Infinitim with a VoIP service.

I use Vonage with a cable broadband Internet connection. Not perfect all the time, but darn good. You will need to find out what types of broadband Internet services are available where you will be living in Mexico.

If you decide to use Vonage, I would recommend that you sign up with them before you leave The US. You will need a credit card issued in the US to pay the monthly service fee. Canadians need a Canadian issued credit card, etc.

Vonage will send you an adapter at no charge. It is small, about the size of a Discman player. You can take the adapter anywhere in the world that has broadband Internet service and use it. Getting it while you are still in The US will save you the hassle of having it sent to you down here.

Vonage would not be a good choice as your only telephone service in Mexico. Every call you make in Mexico will be a long distance call through The US, even if you are just calling the house next door. There will be an extra charge on your monthly bill for those calls.

Good luck, Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

(This post was edited by RexC on Mar 8, 2006, 9:13 AM)