I just orderd this majic phone - www.magicjack.com . Im not quite sure what the difference is vs Vonage. but $40USD for one year, I guess it's worth a try. they have been running ALOT of commercials , I dont see how they are making money on this thing . oh well Im going to give it a try. ( Im back in Texas)
I love my majic jack, much better then Vonage for my use anyway. I mostly use it only when I go to Cancun. The things about MJ over vonage I like #1. Price - $40 1st year and $20 per year afterwards #2 You can use any regular phone as it uses a regular rj32 jack )one end of MJ is usb and other end is female rj32 regular phone line jack #3 You do not need a router like vonage, simply plus MJ into your laptop anywhere as long as you have high speed internet access #4 MJ is about the size of a car remote Before I had internet access running to our condo I used to go to starbucks at Forum By the Sea and use MJ there. People used to sit and stare at me because I was on a regular telephone sitting at starbucks
Susan yes you can use a regular phone with vonage, but the phone must be plugged into the vonage router. not exactly a handy device to lug around in a laptop bag compared to MJ which is the size of a car remote IE MJ is very portable and can be taken anywhere, vonage is not as portable and would be a hassle to travel with
Yup RJ11 jack sorry, I guess RJ32 is ethernet? but yes a regular phone jack put it this way my $40 investment in this device fully paid for itelf on my 1st trip To Cancun
RJ45 is ethernet. RJ32 is a very rare bird used on some ADSL modems. Think of how much simpler it would be if everything used the same jack. But then people would be plugging phones into ethernet, ethrnet into modems, electric shavers into computers. Argh!
OK.. so to be clear about the MagicJack... you can call ANY real phone with these things.. cell phones, land lines, etc... for free? or its only to other MagicJack users....? & From Mexico to the States is no problem...? If so, it does seem like a good deal, too good really, as it doesn't make business sense if they are connecting you to other phone systems without a charge... do they charge the recipients of the call perhaps? I looked into this a while back, but their website seemed to aviod any direct "You can call to real phones" type statements when I looked... which made me think it might only work among other MagicJack users.. for the free calls...
EDIT: Just found the answer to part of the question... So, I am assuming they make the bulk of their profit on the "incoming" calls to their devices.. and the MagicJack to magicJack calls are free, as its just like using messenger to chat with voice... It also seems they make money via ad sales.. which lead me to wonder if they monitor the calls "data mining" and resale the users personal info based on the nature of their calls...
I never paid for any outgoing calls or incoming calls. You get a USA tel # and no matter where in the world you are if you have internet access you can call anywhere in the USA free and anyone from USA can call your neumber free. You can call any landline or cell # and no unlike skype you are not limited to other MJ users. International calls are not free, so if you are in Mexico MJ still thinks you are in the USA and calling USA is free but not Mexico. there is some ads on the MJ screen which appears on your monitor, I usually have MJ program minimized and never notice the specific ads
