Has anyone consider magicJack as a serious competitor for VOIP ? It costs just $20/year. Yes, it is 20/yr and not a typo.

It is less than What Vonage charges per month for its unlimited calling plan.

Magic Jack allows me unlimited calling anywhere in US and Canada for one full year.

I would suggest that Rudraksh either has a vested interest or he has failed to read the many online postings of the multiplicity of problems encountered by frustrated purchasers of magicJack.

Vonage was the first company to introduce to concept of VoIP calls but they took long time to get the mobile users where there is already Truphone, Vopium or Nimbuzz sort of big competitors exist in this market.

Vonage Companion-- a softphone which you can already use on a PC in wifi or EVDO to emulate your home phone service, would be a killer mobile app. Companion lets you take your home number on the road without affecting the service at home. Incoming calls ring in both places (first to pick up takes the call), and both the mobile and home user can chat at the same time on separate calls.

Vonage = Minimum of $20/mo (with taxes). I like Vonage, but I don't see how they are going to compete with Skype unless they lower their prices or offer some new hardware/services that are really compelling.

There is growing competition for ‘over the top’ VoIP services in the mobile space, whether Vonage, Google Voice or even Skype. While each has a different spin, one consistent benefit sited by consumers is low-cost international calling. Mobile operators must respond but the question is how?

The days of trying to block VoIP, at least via Wi-Fi, are over. Mobile operators could simply lower the price of calls to the rest of the world, but there are some other ‘smart’ alternatives to managing this threat.

One is to create ‘home zone’ service areas, through Wi-Fi access points (e.g T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi calling) or through femtocells (e.g. Sprint’s Airave) where users get a discounted rate specifically for international when attached to the access point. This approach targets locations where over the top competition is fiercest, at home or in the office.

Another option is to develop their own VoIP app. This is similar to the calling card phenomenon from the last century. Rather than just reselling discounted minutes to calling card companies, the major incumbents developed their own calling card brands. Subscribers still paid international calling rates for direct dial calls, but those willing to dial extra digits before their call, could get sizeable discounts.

Consumers are willing to download a VoIP app to their smart phone, but today the incumbent mobile operators don’t offer this alternative. I believe we will begin to see operators developing their own mobile VoIP apps , which lets them supply consumers with discounted international calling, while protecting their core mobile subscriber base.

I have used Vonage for 3 years and I love the service, I certainly have appreciated the savings , and the value of having control over my phone service via the IP protocal.

Air rave is crap and it blocks other cell phones in its area from making or receiving calls.

Vonage has provided excellent service for the past 4 years. Never had problems and I can use my phone wherever I can plug into a network.

Now I use Google voice with my vonage and mobile line.

I Love Vonage. I have used it for years and had no problem and now they have the "World Plan" where for same $24.99 they have 60 countries included from earlier 5 (Ireland, France, UK, Spain & Italy) and many of them are cell and land lines. can't beat that.