The downsides I've read so far are:

1) the LOUSY customer service from both Vonage and Primus. God help you if you have a problem, especially with your bill.
2) Both offer a voice mail to e-mail feature, but Primus wants you to use some proprietary software to play the audio file back. Vonage will use whatever you want (like Windows Media Player)
3) Primus has a weak web portal to administer your account. But they do have an impressive online user forum.
4) Vonage seems to be having trouble with caller ID right now. They only display the number, not the name (despite claiming that they do in their marketing literature)
5) You are at the mercy of the internet. It goes down or is really busy, your calls will suffer. Though from all the testimonials I've read, that is very rare.
6) The power goes out, you loose your cable modem, router, phone adaptor, etc...
7) If you have a lot of phones in your house, you may need a power booster to provide enough juice to run them all. This may not be a problem if the phone has an external power supply. You'd have to read further on this.
8) Got a house alarm that uses the phone? You may have to do a little wiring to get it running.
9) You need a good internet broadband connection into your house. Shaw's Lite service is borderline. Shaw's regular and high speed cable is good. So is Telus DSL.
10) Word is Primus may switch hardware here real soon. They are providing a D-Link router with built in VoIP. Vonage just gives you a very small adaptor that you plug into an existing router. I wouldn't be surprised if Primus follows Vonage and does the same. I personally like Vonage's hardware solution; I already have a router, and I'm picky about my routers (though you can always disable the Primus router and just use it like an adaptor).
11) there's the whole 911 issue. Vonage seems to be working that problem out. Not sure about Primus.
12) Transferring your number over (Local Number Portability, LNP for short) from Telus can take up to 3 weeks!
13) it does cut into your bandwidth. That's not a problem on downloading, but most upload speeds (even Shaw's fastest home connect) suck. Guys who do lots of file sharing could have problems.

A lot of those problems I listed above I'm sure are growing pains. Given time, Vonage and Primus will be extremely competitive. I think Telus is in big trouble, especially since they are regulated and none of these startup VoIP companies are.

Some of the pluses though...
1) Free LD calling in NA
2) Take your router/adaptor anywhere in the world and have your local number work right there.
3) All calling features are provided for free (like CallID, three way, call forwarding, etc)
4) The call features seem WAY more advanced than Telus's features.
5) get emails when a voicemail message is sent.
6) You can administer all your features from a website (unlike Telus where you mostly need someone on the other end to create a work ticket and wait for it to be completed - in the age of computers, what the hell is that!?!?)
6) dude, there are tons more... and these services are cheap!

 

About Shaw. From a black box point of view, they look and operate pretty much the same as Vonage and Primus, but behind the scenes they are a little different. Shaw runs their VoIP on a separate network from their home broadband, just like the digital cable is run on a separate network (that line Shaw pulls into your house can carry a HUGE amount of bandwidth). So, Shaw's service won't in any way effect your internet. But, it also means that you have to be on a Shaw broadband network for it to work. You can't pack your Shaw VoIP adaptor to Europe and expect it to work (a Vonage or Primus adaptor would work). Some people have slammed Shaw for their voice quality too.

 

This is my MAIN beef about Telus at the moment. I'd hate to jump from one frying pan into another. Maybe Telus' customer service has been in the sewer due to their labour problems, but then, that's not my problem to have to resolve. I'm the one who gets the backlash from it. The employer and the employees will lose from this.

From what I've been reading so far, it seems only Primus offers a smart ring feature. Vonage will sell you another FAX line. I can't figure out if either will allow lots of extension phones. I can work around the FAX thing but I don't want to lose all my extensions.

Power outages shouldn't be an issue as both my wife and I still have cellphones.

I've been relatively happy with the Shaw service of late. If they provide the answers I need for my questions, I may just go that route.

I've got email enquiries to both Primus and Shaw. Waiting for answers.

 

When you say extensions, do you mean like phones plugged into phone jacks all over your house?

There's ways to get deal with that. You can plug your VoIP adaptor into the wall like a phone, and it'll power up your whole house. You have to make sure that the line from Telus is disconnected to your house network. And you probably would have to run a line booster to power the whole house. The VoIP adaptors aren't very powerful. Check this out from Michigan Telephone about wiring your house for VoIP:

http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html

Or, you can always get one of those phone kits that has something like 4 wireless handsets all networked to one base station (this is how I'm dealing with phones in my house; hell I've got so many hand sets, there's one not even being used).

Chris.

 

Yep, that's it. I have a phone in almost every room.

 

I've been with Shaw digital for about 3 weeks ago and I like it. Free LD in NA was the selling point for me. Only problem is, to make LD calls to other countries you have to use there rates and buy calling cards from them. The rates they have are pretty high for me at least.

 

Just got an answer from Shaw. It seems that my FAX line will be gone but I could buy a second line (not gonna happen). Also, their system attaches to the house and will support as many extension phones as I like (without need to boost).

I rarely, if ever call LD outside of Canada or the US. If it should ever happen, I will compare Shaw's rates to the Telus Mobility rates.

 

At the apartment we have been staying at lately (till our new condo is ready) they have the Shaw digital service. Overall it seems fine to me...clear line and yes free LD in NA. The one thing that I think surprised me the most is the huge ugly black box that gets mounted to the wall for your phone line. Hopefully you have a piece of furniture to hide it because it's pretty ugly to have to look at all the time.

 

over here in T.O. we have Primus's VOIP which is trying to take a bite out of Bell Canada. We made the change, and service was lousy. We switched back to good ole' copper lines as voip was "crackling" and often drop calls, the person was heard as an "echo" and basically over all the conversations were made unpleasant due to the imperfections of the technology.. i find voip quite not there yet, but i'm sure in a few years..

just my $.02

 

Mike, very interesting about the huge black box. Mine will be installed in the garage where the phones line comes in and get split up to the various jacks in the house. (They said this was possible.)

Simon, I've eliminated Primus because they can't do all my extensions without extra cost boxes all over the house. Vonage looked interesting but it didn't appear to have any advantages over the Shaw system, so I decided to just go with Shaw. I'm awaiting a call from them to confirm an appointment date.

One more curiosity:
We know that long distance is free all over NA, BUT what happens if I'm away and call collect? Will I get hosed?