Ken Yarmosh is a product strategist who helps organizations, businesses, VCs, and technology developers maximize their Internet and mobile investments.

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Goodbye Vonage, Hello Gizmo Project Area 775

About a week ago, I cancelled Vonage. I like the features but hated the service. I constantly had calls dropped, sometimes randomly heard other conversations, and generally had at least 2-3 issues with it per week. That’s a lot considering I don’t use a landline that often.

In an ideal world, I’d like to get a cell phone that could work with two lines, one for my personal number and the other for my business. But from what I can see, the technology is just not there yet.

I’ve now signed up for Gizmo Project’s Area 775 number. I’m a Basic customer, which means I pay $ 3.95 / month to get things like dual ring (to my cell and PC), a local number (703), and call screening (can listen to callers leave messages in real time and then decide to answer). Dual ring is a great selling point for me because I often am out and about.

After some testing, there seems to be some issues that need to be sorted out but the quality of calls seem great. My main issues thus far: 1) The 775 number is showing up when I place a call to someone (instead of the 703 local number I upgraded to). If someone attempts to call me back at that number (via Caller ID), the number is not in service. 2) I submitted a request regarding this issue over a week ago yet no one has replied back to me.

One of my big qualms about Vonage (aside from quality of service) was that they never replied to any of my inquiries. CallWave (the company that powers this Gizmo service) is not off to a good start. Hope they respond soon.

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Posted on April 17, 2006

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About Ken Yarmosh

Hi. I'm your host Ken Yarmosh, a mobile impresario, O'Reilly author, and entrepreneur based in the DC area. I've been writing here since 2005 with a focus on startups, product strategy, mobile, and more generally, digital technology's impact on business, life, and culture.
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