Home Phone Service

[turboace]

Hi All,

Our current phone service, AT&T Call Vantage VOIP, is going out of business and has told us we must find new service or risk loosing our number. I'm reseraching other options. There are a lot of other VOIP companies out there, also we have Comcast and could go to triple play and use them for phone.

What does everyone here use for your home phone service? Any to stay away from?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[mysteryclock]

I had an AT&T land line until recently, being a luddite. But I recently switched over to the Comca$t Triple Play and so far, so good. No reliability issues and the call quality seems to be on-par with regular land lines. That and I'm saving a fair amount of $ every month which was the real seller for me.

 

[twintubdexter]

I do the triple package thing from the cable company, Time Warner. I pay $29 each for broadband, TV with a package of entertainment stuff I rarely watch, about 120 channels total, and the telephone which includes unlimited US long distance. I don't think that's too bad. I have been happy with the phone service. We rarely have power outages here, I can remember 3 short ones in the past 7 years, but no power means no modem and of course no land line phone...

and of course no talking to Mr Veedle

 

[andrewinorlando]

I've been using Vonage for a few years now and so far, so good. Not a single problem, free int'l long distance to a number of countries that I call regularly and every calling feature (25 of them) that one would expect. I use the base package for $18/month which gives you 500 minutes. Works great so far and no sign up fee.

 

[toggleswitch2]

www.magicjack.com

$20 PER YEAR.

It has some issues*, but good enough to have a "landlne" to give out to businesses, creditors, banks and the like, and to use during those hours when the cell phone accrues charges.

*among which computer must be "on" to have phone service.

You are limited to a phone or two if you use a DSL for the computer. If you use a cable modem, you can shoot the phone signal through your exisitng landline phone-service wiring.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I would like to have a land line again. My roommate has been considering Vonage or maybe the MagicJack.

"If you use a cable modem, you can shoot the phone signal through your exisitng landline phone-service wiring."

Toggs, how do you do this?

 

[toggleswitch2]

It's like plugging in any phone, except instead of the signal coming OUT of the wall jack, the Magic Jack will be shooting the signal IN. The Magic Jack connects to your computer via an ordinary USB port and has a standard phone jack on the other end. Just unplug your network interface from phone co. lines. and run a telephone extension cord (male on both ends) between the MJ and the wall jack. (The interface is where you wiring connects to theirs).

You get to choose from a number of area codes(well at least in my area) and an exchange (the first three numbers). The doo-hickie chooses the rest.

 

[runematic]

I have comcast here at the shop. I got the business triple play. So far I love the internet, but the jury is still out on the phone service. Call clarity is ok at best. Sometimes there is an echo or delay that's irritating. Two weeks ago, every call was distorted, ALL DAY. The caller could here me, but all I heard was digital gibberish. It's so nice to have no phone service at work. I'm sure I lost a lot of business that day. The biggest gripe I have is when I need to take the phone off the hook to help a customer or load the truck, the people who call get a "this number could not be found" or "problem with this number" message instead of getting a busy signal. But I do love the cable broadband internet though.

 

[jaxsunst]

I just made the switch to cell only. But, I had Vonage with no problems. Their customer service is really good.

 

[ptcruiser51]

Verizon

Since I'm a retiree I get free service as a benefit. I only pay about $5.00 a month for VM service (non-regulated). I recently got their FiOS only for my television and ditched Cablevision. It's faboo and even with analog sets my picture is better. It's $79/month.

 

[spookiness]

I have plain old copper landline service. If you don't plan to use it much, ask about (or better yet order online if you can) "message rate" service.

I pay about $14 a month, maybe less, I'm not sure.

You get a call allowance of 50 outgoing calls a month (may vary by jurisdiction), and above that you pay a small fee per call. I did the math once, and I'd have to make something like 150 calls a month before it made sense to upgrade to unlimited service. I never make more than 50 calls.

I don't have caller id or any special features. If I wanted to know who was calling, I'd just pick up the phone and answer it....

 

[revvinkevin]

I also have Vonage...

...and have had it for more then a year. I've had some problems with my internet provider, but NOT with Vonage. I have the $25 per month plan (unlimited?) and love being able to call anywhere in the US (plus Canada, France, etc) and not pay any toll or long distance charges! Heck, even Hong Kong is only 4 cents a minute!

So if you do any amount of international calling Vonage is great because a hand full of countries are free (like a local call) and many others have a low per minute rate.

The only thing I don't care for is they way they do billing. They automatically bill your credit card and they do not send an e-mail or anything to let you know the amount is.

 

[sikiguya]

T Mobile

I have the T Mobile home service, which is available if you have a cell phone through them. You have to buy the router (it was $50 about 1 year ago but I am sure it is cheaper now) and it's an extra $10 on my cell phone. Perfect reception, no issues at all.

 

[yogitunes]

I have COMCAST triple play....never a problem, believe it or not, kept our same phone number, when they installed it they added a splitter, one direct line to the modem/phone, and the other to the splitter for eight TV's, to this line they installed a power booster for a stronger signal because of all the tv's hooked up, and the capability of 19 tv ports, sad part is the house was already wired for ethernet cables in all the rooms, and with the new modems this is not needed or used, consider this when rewiring or new construction, not worth it, something new always comes out...

also, when your plan with comcast expires and they want to raise the rate.....call them and either drop one of the services or threaten to go to DIGITAL/DISH or FiOS....I now pay only $55.00 per month for all three, and a high definition box for the plasma TV....they don't want to let you go!!!