Lingo Review by WhichVoIP.com

Lingo, Inc. is based in Mclean, Virginia and was founded in 2004. It is an affiliate of Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. Lingo is an affordable service with a range of domestic and international residential plans to choose from.

The Good

Lingo offers a decent range of service options for limited calling and unlimited calling through the US and Canada. It also has multiple options for international calling within 50 countries and mobile phone support within 25 countries. Regardless of what service is chosen, all Lingo plans include free activation and free equipment.

Lingo VoIP plans offer 20+ features including E911, caller ID, simultaneous ring, call waiting, speed dialing, and free phone number transfer. Additional features, such as a fax line, mobile service, softphone and a toll free number can be added at additional charges.

Call quality is reasonable and this is validated by our user reviews where call quality is rated average for most users.

Regular international travelers or business people may find the universal phone number useful. Customers can select the area code they feel is most relevant for them. Local calling rates are applicable for calls within that chosen area code, regardless of whether the phone is physically in that region or not. Users can transport their same number internationally via the Lingo phone adaptor. Currently, 16 countries are available for this service.

The Bad

Across the board, the plans tend to be quite expensive when compared against other companies that you will find on this website.

The "unlimited" service plan is limited to 2,200 minutes/month. It is important to know this limit as Lingo can, at its own discretion, move a customer into a more expensive, higher limit plan if the minutes/month limit is reached, forcing the customer to pay much more than they initially expected to pay. Couple a move to a more expensive plan with the $24.95 Plan Change fee and you may be paying much more than you bargained for. It's definitely good to be prepared while dealing with Lingo and have a good idea as to how many minutes you expect to use per month.

Mobile only plans are available so you can make cheap calls to other countries but surprisingly there is no support for iPhones. It is also very expensive.

Also be aware that early termination of any 12 or 24 month plans will net an Early Termination fee of up to $175.

Additional fees to pay every month on top of each plan include an Administrative, Regulatory and Compliance fee of $2.99.

Tech support is available 24/7, though many customers have complained in our user review section that sales representatives are generally unfamiliar with the products and services provided and technical support is often difficult to get a hold of. It has also been noted in our user reviews that once support representatives have been spoken to, problems are often resolved days later than expected, if resolved at all.

The Bottom Line

• American Essential: Lingo's cheapest plan, the America Essential plan, costs $9.95/month and includes 500 minutes within the US and Canada. Overages cost an additional 4c/minute.
• American Unlimited: The America Unlimited plan offers "unlimited" calling to US and Canada at $22.95/month with the first month free. Lingo does offer an annual alternative to the monthly American Unlimited plan. The annual plan costs $250/year and is a little cheaper than the monthly option.
• World Select: Offers unlimited calling to the US AND Canada plus 1000 monthly minutes to 70 countries for $23.95/month.
• World Unlimited: This international calling plan offers unlimited calling inside the US and also to 50 countries for $23.95/month. Add on an additional 1,800 min/month to mobile phones in 25 countries for a total of $56.95/month.
• Mobile Calling: Mobile only plans are available for Android and Blackberry devices for unlimited calls to the US and Canada along with 45 other countries. The cost is $23.95/month.
• Hardware: Free activation and free equipment valued at $104.95. However, reactivation of an account can cost up to $25. Expect to pay any shipping and handling charges. Customers are responsible for handling the return shipping and handling of the equipment, with an Equipment Recovery fee of up to $75 if not returned within 14 days of service cancellation.

Overall Thoughts

Lingo is an easy to install service that provides decent call quality. However, should you require support from them, be aware that many users have complained about the response times and quality of the support.

For international travelers or those living and working abroad, Lingo's universal phone number is an intriguing option. However, for most users, Lingo is a less than desirable provider as other companies consistently offer more features and more cost effective plans. The mobile plans may be of value to those that do not need a home service and make a lot of international calls. It is an expensive option though, and there is no iPhone support.

Read through our selection of reviews from Lingo users for more insight into this residential provider.

All User Reviews (Page 1 of 20)

Lingo reviews are listed in chronological order.

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Disclaimer: The opinions, views and ratings expressed in these VoIP Reviews are those solely of the reviewer who submitted the review. Whichvoip.com does not necessarily agree with any of the expressed opinions, view or ratings.

WhichVoIP Visitor Comments

#1 : Posted by Sudhir Tomar

I have a Cisco 7941 IP phone and well established Internet connection at home. I bought this phone from Amazon and after it arrived I reset it and after reboot the phone is getting stuck at the updating screen. I need help in fixing the issue and finally setting this phone up at home using either of the VOIP providers I use. Currently I also have services from LINGO VoIP. Please can you help.

-> Response: Unfortunately there is a very high likelihood that your phone only supports the Cisco SCCP protocol instead of the SIP protocol that is used by most hosted providers. The 7941 is typically used in a large enterprise where the Cisco on-premise call management solution manages the call switching.

There may be a way to convert the firmware from SCCP to SIP but that is beyond what we can help with. We either suggest that you chat with Lingo on this or simply return the phone and instead purchase one of the Cisco SPA 300 or SPA 500 series SIP phones. Yealink are also great phones that are low cost with great features.

We highly recommend that you confirm phone support with your VoIP provider prior to any purchase.

 

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