How much for the Internet service in your area?
i use magic jack plus
it’s only 29$ for one year, cheaper for a five year plan.
BUT, you need fast internet to make it worth it.
I’ve got majic jack. The initial purchase is $50 plus $20 for six months service. After that you can pay for 5 years and that comes to the $19.95 a year they talk about. It’s not that much more to pay year by year.
I wish I could get internet only and no cable.
Only problem is that if you don’t have a land line, you can’t make a call if the power goes out. But if you save big bucks, that may be worth putting up with.
So we got Ooma, which is like Magic Jack. If the power does go out again we'll go to the library or Starbucks to power up our cell phones. No use paying through the nose for a land line when we can just hook it up to our Internet.
I have Magic Jack. Like it fine except I cannot call my sister on it. I always get a message saying I need to call Magic Jack to pay for a conference call! The only thing I can figure out is she lives in a little town with probably the last surviving private phone company in the US! So I always have to call her on my cell. That’s my only complaint about Magic Jack.
Have Magic Jack for a few years, for $19 a year? It’s mainly used to intercept BS calls from phone scammers and solicitors. It’s dormant most of the time, but it records the messages and sends them to your email so you can screen them. I use it to put on the purchase orders over the internet. I rarely get calls on it, which is a good thing.
I’ve used both Ooma and Magicjack. Ooma is head and shoulders above Magicjack.
The features are awesome, price is great, and call quality is excellent.
It's cheap... it has great options for forwarding, simul-ring, and so on... and those things can all be done via the web. You don't need a computer to use the service.
Last year I took the box and a cheapo phone with me to Costa Rica for a month, and had my two lines in my hotel room as if I was back home.
Not sure why, he just dumped them for the local carrier and didn't bother to do any checking. Now, he's a little leery of "Wal Mart Specials".
As long as you’re at WalMart, why not just get StraightTalk? You buy the cellphone you prefer, and service is just $45 a month for unlimited everything. Uses major cellphone networks, depending on your location; you refill time online or on the phone. I notice absolutely no difference from AT&T, and it’s wayyyyyyy cheaper!
Check out OBI100 voip box ($39.99, easy setup) and voip.ms service ($0.0105/min to 48 states, precharge & pay as you go, $10 one time to port, $1.50/mo for e911).
Regarding power outages, Ooma lets you designate a number that calls get forwarded to if power or even Internet service is disrupted. It's automatic -- I said to forward my calls to my cell.
So it's like I have a landline without having to pay for one. Excellent sound quality too.
Highly recommended.
I use MagicJack Plus. I am extremely happy with it and it’s way cheaper than the $10 a month plan you found.
my wife and I tried the Walmart phone, I think it’s called Straight Talk.. Each phone is with a different carrier, so it depends on the phone you pick.
I really did not care for it, and we both took ours back after 20 days or so... the reception was spotty, the customer service was horrible, and the phones were older technology. The Data (internet ) connectivity was spotty and bad for both of us ( mine was Sprint, her’s was a bit better with AT&T )
... so why get a smart phone, if it’s hard to get on the internet?
after that, we just both bought iPhones, with AT&T.. while we pay an extra $100 a month, more than the Straight Talk deal, for our Data, Text and cell phone calls, we are very happy with them... In the end, you get what you pay for...
I too, love my Vonage. For an extra $10.00 p/mo I have a dedicated fax line with them.
I bought an OBi 100 It works with Google voice as well as others. It doesn’t need a computer to operate, but you can use your google voice account to block calls etc.
I wanted to use my land line number on it, and I had to jump through hoops to get that done, but it wasn’t all that bad. Basically, I had to transfer my land line number to a track phone, and then from the track phone to google voice.
It costs nothing per month. It doesn’t do 911 though. I
This is better, although $5 more a month, since it doesn’t require Internet:
Straight Talk Wireless Home Phone
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-Talk-Wireless-Home-Phone/22084643
If you have wireless Internet, MagicJack and the one you’re talking about won’t work.
I am considering doing the same. I have AT & T and I rarely use the phone to make calls especially long or international calls. Yet AT & T are charging me like 60 bucks a month and I’m sick of it. Like I said the reason I continue to use the landline is for an emergency incase my cell phone does not work or did not recharge the battery. Good enough getting screwed by cable now the phone ompanies are doing the same.