Vonage to resell Covad DSL, call it Vonage Broadband

After a good bit of hand-shaking and check-writing to close out last year, Vonage has managed to remain out of the press for the majority of 2008. Now, however, the firm is sneaking back out from its cocoon in order to announce a partnership with Covad Communications. In essence, it seems that Vonage has inked an agreement to resell broadband packages using Covad's nationwide DSL network. Jeffrey Citron, Chairman, Chief Strategist, and Interim CEO even went so far as to say that the newly coined Vonage Broadband would enable the firm to "respond to the demand it hears from customers who prefer the Vonage brand." Really? You've got folks who prefer the Vonage brand? Maybe we missed the comeback.

[roro2210 @ May 8th 2008 11:43AM]

vonage broadband??? serious?
Great! Now i can get a voip and broadband provider who both give me: Bad customer support, shocking reliability and even worse hardware!!!

[cmajewski @ May 8th 2008 12:31PM]

At least they won't throttle down your VoIP traffic to get you to
subscribe to their VoIP offering...yes, I am talking to you Comcast,
Rogers...etc...

[epi117 @ May 8th 2008 11:47AM]

love vonage have been using it for years, my wife calls overseas alot and nothing beats the price.

[muddyh2o @ May 8th 2008 12:04PM]

broadvoice handily beats the price.

fool.

[ManoloDF @ May 8th 2008 1:33PM]

Not true, look at the international rates, Vonage beats the price FOOL

Example: Mexico City Vonage 1c/min, Broadvoice 3c/min

[FrankTheCrank @ May 8th 2008 3:03PM]

I've got to agree with epi.

I've had Vonage now for over 4 years. It works pretty damn good. Not as reliable as a Verizon copper POTS line, but it's easily 1/3 to 1/2 the price.

Rarely does it go down, and when it does, it's usually a reboot away from being fine.

In the 4 years I've had it, I've only needed to call them maybe three times total.

[Fred @ May 8th 2008 11:47AM]

Better names:
VONAD
CONAGE
ADAGE
COVONAGEAD
COVAGE???

[feklwetwer @ May 8th 2008 11:54AM]

Gonads?

[Cawley @ May 8th 2008 12:14PM]

I think that the obvious melding of 'Vonage' and 'Broadband,' is ... 'Bondage'. I could swear that already means something, though..

[cj @ May 8th 2008 12:08PM]

Vonage does ROCK, I been using it for 4 yaers now and no one has a better service! Not sure what you naysayers are bitchin about.

[Neoprimal @ May 8th 2008 12:43PM]

It's different in different areas, obviously and depends highly on your net' connection - again, obviously. But some people don't understand that.

I've heard of people hating it and people loving it. Maybe this isn't logical thinking, but I assume that if you have a great net' connection your service should be fine. There's tech. nothing to bitch about.

I use Lingo, was perfect on my comcast cable net in Va. Sucks on my att dsl in Fl. I can't bitch though, seeing that I've experienced perfect service, obviously it's att to blame. This deal may work out better or worse for Vonage, depending entirely on Covads willingness to troubleshoot connection issues.

[roro2210 @ May 8th 2008 1:46PM]

Have to agree vonage in US is good, In the UK however its a different story, overcharge, equipment breaks down regularly.

[derspiess42 @ May 8th 2008 12:12PM]

Vonage = good
DSL = bleh

[Iridium @ May 8th 2008 12:20PM]

I'd trade in my $40 garbage Cox cable broadband in a second for decent DSL that doesn't require me to pay for a phone landline. My cable service is unreliable, crashes all the time, and isn't worth $40 for the 1/4 of advertised speed I get.

A 768 DSL connection is better than most cable broadband in a high population area. With no competition almost everyone is using the same pipe. Problem is AT&T forces you to have phone service to get DSL so the end cost is the same for Cable internet and Vonage.

[tartis99 @ May 8th 2008 12:56PM]

I traded in my Comcast for a Dry Loop DSL connection from AT&T. No phone service required. I use Vonage and it works just great.

[Marcus @ May 8th 2008 1:08PM]

I was under the impression that you could get naked DSL from AT&T now...

[Holden_MeGroyn @ May 8th 2008 1:40PM]

Errr, say what.... I live in NYC (8+ million people) and have cable @10Mb and it beats the pants of whatever 768 DSL you're obviously smoking.
I hate DSL with a passion especially in NYC (yeah VZW and MCI, MCI is the worst). Always used to drop at important times (she-male pR0n, Halo, Skype sessions and so on) and weirdly just before it starts raining.

With cable, i never knew gb's of "stuff" ( :) ) could be had in minutes..he he

[David @ May 8th 2008 12:28PM]

I have been using Vonage for almost 8 months now and it has been solid as a rock. No complaints from me yet.
Hopefully their management has pulled the head out of their arses and decided to run a real company!

[muddyh2o @ May 8th 2008 12:33PM]

i wonder if covad will implement QoS for the Vonage service

[Jeff Lewis @ May 8th 2008 1:07PM]

I replaced my landline with Vonage. Have had no complaints at all. I get a lot of features for not much money, and I especially love getting my phone messages emailed to me as audio files, and the ability to move my 'landline' anywhere I have an internet connection. Very handy when I'm travelling.

[John Cihak @ May 8th 2008 1:11PM]

I've used Vonage for 4 years now and love it. I cannot remember the last time I lost service. $240/year (including all taxes and fees) for unlimited and all the features. :o)

[Anthony Gentile @ May 8th 2008 1:27PM]

I have had Vonage for about 2 years and I love it!

[Dean Winters @ May 8th 2008 1:52PM]

I have had vonage for 6 months now, not a single problem here. i love it.

[Matt E. @ May 8th 2008 1:59PM]

I, for one, welcome this. Makes it easier for me to kick Comcast to the curb, whilst I patiently wait for FiOS to rollout in the Chicago area...if ever.

[Joe @ May 8th 2008 3:30PM]

This is actually quite important as it would allow Vonage to ensure better QoS for it's customers that are also riding on it's network. One the major selling points for Speakeasy's voice services for some time now.

[Wellard @ May 8th 2008 5:54PM]

Had a Vonage service here in the UK for two years now. It's been pretty good, but when my DSL plays up, it aint so great. When the Internet is down it redirects all incomming calls to my BT line. Vonage is handy for the wife since she calls her family and friends in Canada all the time.

[BowserUSC @ May 8th 2008 6:17PM]

Ha, my family had Covad years ago when I was very young. It was so cool at that point since everyone was on dial-up.

[snowwy66 @ May 8th 2008 9:07PM]

for all of you that think vonage can't be beat. MAGICJACK

[cesar dlg @ May 9th 2008 10:03AM]

i've had vonage for about 4 years...i've never had a problem...been real pleased with it. why the hate?

[villainy @ May 9th 2008 11:14PM]

OK, now I have no problem with Vonage... Covad on the other hand is a complete train wreck and has been for years. I work for an ISP that once resold Covad DSL services for a short period of time until it became obvious they are not concerned with service or customers, only money.
Covad, bought out by Platinum Equity in 2007 has almost no actual employees. EVERYTHING is outsourced, from tech support, "customer service", billing, EVERYTHING. While I imagine this could be done well, in Covad's case it seems that there is a completely separate outsourced company handling each division. This means that nobody you speak to will ever, EVER, have all of the information you need. After sitting on hold for 30+ minutes you will have the joy of deciphering "Jim"'s powerful lack of comfort speaking english, dealing with his utter incompetence with regards to anything technical, and outright rudeness should you ever attempt to disprove the information from the script he is reading. Heaven forbid you request to escalate, you will be promised a call from an engineer that invariably never comes.
On a mildly technical note. The first two hops out of your connection will be reserved addresses (192.168.x.x) and their magical routing will immediately cause any traceroutes to fail. While this won't matter much to non-technical people it seriously hinders any troubleshooting attempts and leaves the customer with very little to go on, allowing Covad to blame your computers or any other equipment you may have running on their connection. I literally dealt with this yesterday May 8th 2008 working with one of the last remaining Covad lines we provide.
Good luck Vonage, you've somehow managed to ally yourselves with a company who is already easily worse to customers than Verizon or Comcast. I don't see good things coming.