[chrisser]

I’ve recently been looking at our telephone costs. It is ridiculous how many government fees and taxes are tacked on to telecom line costs.

I’d like to keep the home phone line, especially since the DSL runs over it, in case the cell towers stop working, but the cost is getting to be prohibitive.

And don’t even get me started about Cable/Satellite and the inability to pick just the channels you want to buy...

[VeniVidiVici]

I’d like to keep the home phone line, especially since the DSL runs over it, in case the cell towers stop working, but the cost is getting to be prohibitive.

You can now get DSL without the phone. Called DSL Direct. If you do this you can still use a telephone option such as that offered by Google or MagicJack or Skype.

[TomGuy]

I dropped the landline last December. I don’t make many calls and even fewer long distance calls. The costs continued to rise and was at $25 per month.

To call my brother 6 miles away was long distance. By the time the phone company tacked on all their fees and long distance charges, even a 1-minute call outside my area was around $5.00.

I went with a pre-paid cellular with 600 minutes and 1 years of service for $100 (around $9 per month). I also bought a MagicJack ($20 for the instrument and $20 for a year of service).

The combined cellular and MagicJack with free long distance was still less per month than what the landline was. And, I can take the celluar with me.