Getting rid of local phone line - go Vonage, Comcast VoIP or skip it?

[bruceg]

My local phone line bill is some 40 bucks a month, add taxes and whatever and it goes to 48. With very little calling on it, it has hit 60 bucks a month for the last three months. Most of our calls are over cell phones. My wife has one, I have one, two of my kids have one.

So - the question becomes: why would anyone in their right minds pay 60 bucks a month for a phone line that is barely used just so folks they don't particularly like can call them?

I'll be calling to cancel the local phone line. I could use that 60 bucks a month. I'm thinking of using voice over IP to replace the local line. Vonage looks to have a good price. Comcast doesn't look too bad (we have Comcast cable in place). I've used VoIP before on a work-at-home line, and am familiar with its quality - that isn't a big issue.

Anyone using VoIP? Vonage version? Comcast? Positive and/or negative experience? Customer service? Do you have to sign a one year contract? Easy enough to cancel if you want to?

If I want to keep my current phone number, do I have to cancel with the local Telco first? Or do I place an order for the new service, port the number over, then cancel?

 

[DYI hunting]

I use Greenstream from Alltel. $40 a month and includes 1.5 Mbps internet and your regular phone with some shortcomings. It costs to call out $0.10 per minute, but all incoming calls are free. It gives me the ability for people to still call the house and is cheaper than having both a phone line that is barely used and internet.

 

[7Mag Hunter]

I got a magic jack 2 mos ago for business LD calls....Works
good.....No monthly cost.....

 

[Confederate_Jay]

Keep in mind that doing away with your local service may have an impact on 911's ability to locate your residence if you call and are unable to give them an address or directions.

 

[Eddy M.]

Switched my home line to our Family plan with ATT - home line is now $9.95 a month with free long distance- was advised by ATT land line will still function for 911 calls only

 

[Doc_5729]

I'm sitting here debating the very same thing with the exception VOIP. I have Verizon cell phones that work anywhere and everywhere I go so why do I need a home phone?

Especially at $124.00 per month.......... YUP, seems I'm getting ripped big time.

Well truth of the matter is, I have it for the DSL HOWEVER, I'm getting ripped a new one for that in the fact I pay for that SO-CALLED super fast DSL and I get slower than dial up speeds.

Emailed the building rep some pictures of a problem on a current project last night and the upload speed was 33-48k. Took almost 30 minutes to upload 7 pictures. Connection timed out 3 times.

Likewise I downloaded a large PDF that was emailed from our steel building rep in NC at 57k.

Super fast DSL speeds for a 6 meg line huh? Amazing.

This has been an on going problem for months now.

Yeah I called into tech support and that didn't work

So I called the place they call the Ivory Tower in Atlanta, former home of the former BellSouth CEO and that didn't help.

Seems those technicians, as they call themselves, have more excuses than Carter has pills and the telephone equipment is the most perfected thing that's every been invented and has no problems what-so-ever.

Always want to blame your computer equipment.

Well that didn't work either when I pulled another one out of the closet over there and had the same problems.....

Finally got tired of hearing his poor mouthing and kicked him out.

Anyway, I'm beat and feed up with it all, they win. So I called to tell them to turn it all off and sat on hold waiting for a customer service rep to answer. After 22 minutes I hung up.

I wish you luck.

 

[jason4445]

For the land lines if you have not check recently find out what plan you are on call and see if the phone company offers any cheaper plans. Mine was running in the $50 a month plus long distance calls, so I called and was put into a newer plan. Now my bill is $33.00 a month including taxes and fees, and I get two hours free long distance. I have Windstream.

 

[JuliaH]

My hubby went to Vonage. All we use ATT now for is our DSL line. MUCH less expensive. Both of us also have Verizon cell phones and our phone bills are much better

 

[brownceluse]

If you really need a land line I would go with Comcast the triple play. I have all 3 services and you can't beat the price about $100.00 a month! If you go with Vontage you will still need high speed internet.

 

[bruceg]

Think I'll give Comcast a call. I already have Comcast cable and Comcast Internet. I use a Cable modem I picked up at BestBuy. Just wasn't sure about porting my number over so I keep the same number, wasn't sure about quality of Comcast versus Vonage (although for business I used to have AT&T VoIP run over the Comcast cable with no problems at all).

When you go for VoIP for your local line, does the voice gateway get connected to your inhouse phone lines, or do you just use a wireless phone? My old business stuff, I just did a self-install gateway and used a wireless phone. Is that the same deal with Comcast? Just a simple self-install and your done?

Finally - do you put the voice gateway in front of your router for good voice quality, or put it behind your router?

 

[matthewsman]

won't last long

If you really need a land line I would go with Comcast the triple play. I have all 3 services and you can't beat the price about $100.00 a month! If you go with Vontage you will still need high speed internet.

Our comcast runs $140ish with HBO and internet only...

I use vonage,no problems or complaints there...Comcast kept wanting us to use their phone service but it was higher than vonage until recently..

 

[JuliaH]

Most of us who can get it want High Speed Internet... it is worth the cost to me We had high speed satellite before, and it was great, but more expensive because we wanted it fast, not just the lower cost family stuff (which is better than dial up but still too slow).

So Vonage turned out to be great!! We kept cell phones because if DSL goes down for any reason... well, there goes Vonage too...lol. But all in all its a good deal!

Julia

 

[BBQBOSS]

i use phone power.. its voip. They are out of Cali. I got them b/c they were cheap. I was expecting the worse but havent had one problem in the couple years ive had them. I think I hear Murphy calling...

 

[BoxerLuvr]

Think I'll give Comcast a call. I already have Comcast cable and Comcast Internet. I use a Cable modem I picked up at BestBuy. Just wasn't sure about porting my number over so I keep the same number, wasn't sure about quality of Comcast versus Vonage (although for business I used to have AT&T VoIP run over the Comcast cable with no problems at all).

When you go for VoIP for your local line, does the voice gateway get connected to your inhouse phone lines, or do you just use a wireless phone? My old business stuff, I just did a self-install gateway and used a wireless phone. Is that the same deal with Comcast? Just a simple self-install and your done?

Finally - do you put the voice gateway in front of your router for good voice quality, or put it behind your router?

I had AT&T for internet (DSL) and phone service and was paying @ $100/mo.

I got tired of paying that much for just those two, plus only reaching 1.5mbps on a 3mbps DSL and my phone would disconnect you 2 or 3 times on a 10 min conversation.

So, I switched to Charter Cable package deal. All 3 services for @100/mo. I get 5Mbps downloads and the phone works perfectly now. had no problem porting the phone # over. I'm happy.

When I called AT&T to cancel, they offered to reduce the cost of everything and jack up my download speed on the internet. Told them, to late, I'm already gone.

 

[bigt61]

Try the Majic Jack


www.majicjack.com


I have one. No problems at all.


Cheaper than anything else out there.

 

[Dixie Dawg]

I use Greenstream from Alltel. $40 a month and includes 1.5 Mbps internet and your regular phone with some shortcomings. It costs to call out $0.10 per minute, but all incoming calls are free. It gives me the ability for people to still call the house and is cheaper than having both a phone line that is barely used and internet.

I got a magic jack 2 mos ago for business LD calls....Works
good.....No monthly cost.....

Try the Majic Jack


www.majicjack.com


I have one. No problems at all.


Cheaper than anything else out there.

X2!
The magicjack is pretty much just like Vonage, except it's $20 a year instead of per month.

Was sure nice to open my Windstream bill this month and see it only be $40!

 

[JuliaH]

Thanks for the website... does it have voice mail and called id and all that we get from vonage? I will check out the site. Sure would be nice to cut that phone bill even more than we did with Vonage

Try the Majic Jack


www.majicjack.com


I have one. No problems at all.


Cheaper than anything else out there.

 

[Dixie Dawg]

Thanks for the website... does it have voice mail and called id and all that we get from vonage? I will check out the site. Sure would be nice to cut that phone bill even more than we did with Vonage

I don't know if it has all of the features that Vonage has... but there are a lot of features that I never used.
Magicjack does have voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, and free directory assistance, do not disturb, call forwarding, three way calling.

You can order the magicjack and try it for 30 days without being charged for it. If you decide not to keep it, you can send it back and they don't even charge you for the shipping costs (of course you have to pay the shipping to return it).

I've been using it for about 2 months now and love it.

 

[Dixie Dawg]

My local phone line bill is some 40 bucks a month, add taxes and whatever and it goes to 48. With very little calling on it, it has hit 60 bucks a month for the last three months. Most of our calls are over cell phones. My wife has one, I have one, two of my kids have one.

So - the question becomes: why would anyone in their right minds pay 60 bucks a month for a phone line that is barely used just so folks they don't particularly like can call them?

I'll add here that the only reason I still have a local phone line is because I HAVE to in order to have DSL. I have windstream, and you can't just have DSL unless you have a phone line too. That's why I have their greenstreak service. Like someone else on here said, it's $40 per month and that includes my DSL and unlimited free incoming calls. Any outgoing calls are $.10 per minute. But I use my cell phone or my magicjack if I make any outgoing calls.

I don't know about other telecom services, but they may be like Windstream, where if you have DSL you have to have a phone line. But $40 per month is pretty standard for high speed internet, I think... so I guess I can look at it as a bonus that I get free unlimited incoming calls as well

 

[JuliaH]

Thanks!! I think I am going to talk with hubby about MajikJack and see if he will get one We have a phone line for DSL but it only handles the DSL. Our voice line is on Vonage...they got the number changed from ATT so we could keep it, but I gotta read more to see how this might work cuz I am not sure how they would do a phone number