An Honest Review of Lingo, "The Talk of Broadband" Lingo is establishing itself as a VoIP service in the same spaceas its competitors AT&T, Verizone, and Vonage. Despite toughcompetition, Lingo has emerged as a real contender because ofthe dynamism of the features they offer and, equally important,at a price that is easy on the pocket. Lingo is the mostcompetitively priced, and this is the deciding feature for manysubscribers.
Lingo works on the same principles as any VoIP service. Itcomes with a software and hardware package that converts soundsignals to data and transmits this data through shared lines,thus getting around the charges applicable to the regulartelephone network. In simple terms, it enables you to receive ormake calls through the Internet. The Lingo functionality sendsyour calls through the Internet to your modem, and then directsthe call to a regular telephone through your Lingo phoneadaptor. Your Internet connection remains uninterrupted, soLingo works seamlessly with your regular Internet tasks such asemail and data access.
Lingo is widely available, with unlimited calling plans forresidents in Europe and Asia. It offers an unlimited monthlybusiness plan at $49.95, in which you can call anyone in theU.S., Canada, and Western Europe, an unlimited internationalbusiness plan at $99.95, an unlimited Asia plan at $34.95, andan unlimited international plan at $79.95. Lingo carries all thefeatures that you normally associate with a traditional phoneline, and has the following Lingo-specific benefits:
* An emergency call service
* Portability of your local phone number
* Flexibility of selecting phone numbers from across the US orthe world
* Free Lingo-to-Lingo calls
* Online account management, and one convenient monthly bill
* A connection booster
* Money-back guarantee
The Lingo Website lists the countries for which telephonenumbers are available. Unfortunately, this list is limited now,and one hopes that Lingo will build this further.
With its impressive list of features, Lingo sounds like a goodoption. However, if your need is to ensure consistent voicequality rather than save money, you need to look beyond Lingobecause most often Lingo will give you only average soundquality. The Web interface is not particularly friendly, and themenu design leaves room for improvement.
These disconcerting factors notwithstanding, Lingo is still thelowest priced VoIP with its set of advanced features. If you aremaking a large volume of international calls, particularly toEurope and Asia, it is time to switch to Lingo because you willlower your telephone bill to a miniscule amount. For example,the call rate from the US to Mumbai (India) is $0.13 and to theUK (personal) $0.28.
To top it all, you have the flexibility of the Lingo money-backguarantee to fall back on. Moreover, like Vonage, there is anincentive for recommending friends and family to Lingo: you willboth get a $25 credit to your account.
About the author:
Hamesh Brown enjoys writing about VoIP. For more information,see this
Lingo review.
