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This blog is no longer updated.
Since I own the domain name for a couple more years, and the hosting was paid-in-advance, it's still here. But I've moved on to Hawaii, and no longer have the need to publish all the sorts of neat stuff that made up the contents of this website.
If you've linked to me, you are invited to unlink, as your readers will no longer be presented with new content. Thanks, Steve
Advertisement
Monday, September 20, 2004 : Stephen D. Carroll, rokus.net
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First advertisement on the site goes to Vonage.
I pay $15/month for a phone number in NJ - (it's the 201 area code) - but the phone's here in Seoul.
Anybody can call that number and the phone rings here in Seoul. Folks in the north Jersey area can call it for free, elsewhere it costs what ever it costs to call Jersey.
When I first came to the ROK in 1995, you had your choice of AT&T or Sprint, I believe, for phone cards. At 60 or 70 cents per minute, you didn't call home much. Lots of calls to base operators, bouncing you around until someone would give you an off-net line to call home. In 1997, a few "card phones" showed up on base - the closest to my hooch was at the commissary - where you'd pay W10K/50K for a card and you'd see the value ticking away. Much cheaper that AT&T, but pretty inconvenient as well - until I found one in the corner of the Capital Hotel...
Then one day, the internet came to Korea. Well, something like that. A guy at the office showed me DialPad - which was some software program that did internet telephony to other DialPad users or to phones in Korea for free, which had just merged/partnered/sold out/whatever with some company in the States. It came in handy to call back here when we visited the states, but then they went with some sort of pay per call costing model that was ridiculously expensive and I dropped them.
Phone cards now run about 6 or 7 won per minute for the local cards. Not too bad.
One of the customers we routinely dealt with had a VoIP phone, and every time we'd do lunch, he'd mention that he picks up the phone at his house and gets dial tone in Colorado. Yeah yeah. I used to do that to, but software phones, substandard microphones, lag time, choppy calls, blah blah blah.
He showed me how Vonage worked, and I've been hooked. It is the next greatest thing since sliced bread.
Phone quality depends on your internet connection speed. I'm running over regular DSL. It's certainly faster than dial-up, but it's nothing special. Phone availability depends on the persistence of your always-on connection. (If you're offline, though, Vonage will forward a caller to voice mail, record their message, and then email it to you...) All of these configurations can be made through a pretty simple-to-use website they run.
So, what's -not- good about it?
1. Sign up today, your billing cycle starts today.
2. They don't deliver to APO addresses - they ship UPS or Airborne.
3. Doesn't work on USFK networks - the network folks block the ports used for registration.
4. You've got to pay for your network connection as well as this service.
5. Telemarketers who think 4PM is a good time to call. It's 2AM over here. The first time will amuse you, the fifth time won't.
Start up costs was under $75 - I had to pick a state/area code, pay for the configuration of the box, shipping and the first month's fee. I shipped it to a remailer I use (www.ShipItAPO.com - my reference number is 0083 if you sign up), which cost me another $12 to get it here. Folks without APO addresses need to figure out their own remailing system.
DISCLAIMER: By clicking on the "Vonage" link above, or the graphic to the left, you are including my referral code. For including my referral code, you get a free month's service. After you've been a member for three months, I get a free month's service.
UPDATE: Just checked their site to make sure:
$29.95 - Unlimited calls (incoming/outgoing) across the US/Canada.
$24.95 - Unlimited outgoing local calls for your area code, 500 outgoing long distance calls, unlimited incoming calls.
$14.95 - 500 minutes outgoing calls across US/Canada, unlimited incoming calls.
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