Landline Phone

[bobpbx]

I have one, and want to keep a landline phone in addition to my cell phone for now. But, I have AT&T and the fees and charges are high.

I'd like to hear from others. What are good options for economical landlines. If you know the secret to keeping AT&T but keeping it cheap, I'd like to hear that too.

PS: I thank you in advance.

 

[46er]

All I have is a 'landline', but it is not the traditional kind, it runs off cable. The results have been better, and less expensive, than when it was thru AT&T. We have the anyplace in the USA fixed price plan and its included with our cable and I'net service; also includes some services we don't use. I had my doubts, but have had no problems, except for sandy, but only Verizon wireless was working for anyone around here then. Price if phone is all you have thru them, Comcast, for a new user is $30/mo unlimited nationwide service. Might want to check Verizons offerings.

 

[Teegate]

Try Vonage. Just read the website carefully.

http://www.vonage.com

 

[46er]

Cheapest out there I think is MagicJack, $30/YEAR unlimited local/USA, if you can deal with the way it works.

 

[ecampbell]

If by land line you mean that wire coming into your house, I don't think there are any good providers. We switched from Verizon to a Comcast package, but that comes through their cable and always goes down with a power outage. The separate land line would normally stay up. May be their substations have a back up generator, I don't know. Because of the way they divide up regions, Verizon would charge us long distance for a 5 mile call. A truly horrible company. We had DSL through them for awhile but that was always going down. It was the old wires down at the street, they would never fix it but always cashed our checks. Back to Comcast, we got to keep our number, put when power goes out so does Comcast, so backup cell. Also I could lease a car for less than my monthly Comcast bill. Did I mention reruns, 500 channels and nothing on.
Sorry. I had to rant.

 

[bobpbx]

Try Vonage. Just read the website carefully.

http://www.vonage.com

Guy, do you use it? Does the other party need to also have internet?

 

[bobpbx]

If by land line you mean that wire coming into your house, I don't think there are any good providers. We switched from Verizon to a Comcast package, but that comes through their cable and always goes down with a power outage. The separate land line would normally stay up. May be their substations have a back up generator, I don't know. Because of the way they divide up regions, Verizon would charge us long distance for a 5 mile call. A truly horrible company. We had DSL through them for awhile but that was always going down. It was the old wires down at the street, they would never fix it but always cashed our checks. Back to Comcast, we got to keep our number, put when power goes out so does Comcast, so backup cell. Also I could lease a car for less than my monthly Comcast bill. Did I mention reruns, 500 channels and nothing on.
Sorry. I had to rant.

Amen to most of your points Ed. That idea of long distance is a big joke. If I call Lakehurst or Vincentown it's long distance with AT&T. The very term should be struck from our vernacular.

During the last two big storms, my landline went down as well! I can no longer use that excuse. I just like the backup aspect of it.

Regarding the 500 channels and nothing on; what, you don't like ads? They are plentiful!

 

[bobpbx]

Cheapest out there I think is MagicJack, $30/YEAR unlimited local/USA, if you can deal with the way it works.

I'm going to talk to my brother-in-law who has it and see what he says. I've always avoided it, ironically, because of the word "magic". That was a poorly chosen word, but then again, since it's probably true that the gullible are more easily snookered, they quickly bought into it, even though (ironically again) it works. If this makes any sense!

 

[Boyd]

I have Verizon, and need to keep it because it's my only way to get internet. But I don't even have a phone connected, I use my cell for voice (it is routed over the internet connection though with a femtocell device).

 

[46er]

500 channels and nothing on.
Sorry. I had to rant.

I've been trying to make TV over the internet work, but doesn't do it for me yet. What bugs me is getting, and paying for, multiple channels airing the same thing. Does anyone need NYC and Philly stations? I don't, nor the many others whose language I don't follow. I have no idea how many channels I get, but I am only interested in a handful. First company to provide a cafeteria approach to channels will get my business.

Phones are just an appliance for me; neither make nor receive many calls, except from the politico's and marketeers.

 

[46er]

I'm going to talk to my brother-in-law who has it and see what he says. I've always avoided it, ironically, because of the word "magic". That was a poorly chosen word, but then again, since it's probably true that the gullible are more easily snookered, they quickly bought into it, even though (ironically again) it works. If this makes any sense!

My 2 sons used it for a year or so, never hear many compaints from them, although it was a bit klugy when it first started out. From what I read, its come a long way.

 

[Ben Ruset]

I have heard good things about Magicjack, but the way that it works is fairly annoying.

I'm assuming your land line is from Verizon and your long distance provider is AT&T? You should just be able to switch to a different LD provider (or use Verizon) to get a better deal. The alternate would be to get a VOIP phone connection from Comcast or whomever you have Internet service from.

 

[bobpbx]

I'm assuming your land line is from Verizon and your long distance provider is AT&T?

No, I have both from AT&T right now. I need AT&T for the cell, it's the only tower near here. But yes, perhaps I should jump back on Verizon for the land line.

 

[Teegate]

Guy, do you use it? Does the other party need to also have internet?

Yes, we have Vonage. When you sign up they send you a modem that plugs into the ethernet in your modem or router. Then your phone line comes out of the Vonage modem. We rarely have outages with Comcast here so in the three or 4 years we have had it we have only really noticed the interruption a few times. Obviously, when the cable goes out you need a cell phone to call Comcast. Whenever you call my house you are using Vonage. If the price is right for you I can't say anything bad about it. We do not regret getting it.

I believe you can keep your same number but we chose to just get a new one.

 

[bobpbx]

Try Vonage. Just read the website carefully

Guy, one part of the vonage information on the website says: "Vonage Visual Voicemail®- get your voicemail as text, voice or email (message and data rates may apply).

Do you have your own answering machine like I do? Is there a charge when someone leaves a message in any format?

 

[Teegate]

I have an answering machine and it works without a charge. That Visual Voicemail is a feature they offer where your messages are sent to your cell phone as an audio file. We don't have that.

 

[Teegate]

Seriously, if your internet service does not go down often and you like the price of Vonage, it really is a decent choice. We have never had to call them in all the years we have had it. It works flawlessly.

It takes a little time to get it set up since they have to mail you the modem. It can be purchased in stores but with you getting free delivery and activation I am assuming they would have to send it. You must have automatic payment through your checking or savings account as there is no bill sent to you. So if you don't want that you are out of luck.

When we first signed up they sent us a temporary number to get started with as we wanted to keep our number. In the end we decided to just keep the temporary number so we never had to deal with the transfer. We just called them and canceled the transfer. So if you don't mind a new number they will send you one and as soon as the unit comes it is ready to go. My wife just said she remembers her having to call and set it up but I think that was because we were dealing with the number change. I still remember it as working right away.

It is designed to work with a single phone or wireless phone but I easily was able to hook all of my wall phones up by buying a dual plug and running one of the wires into the connector already present on the wall. Now we just use the wireless phone so it really is not an issue anymore.

Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

I did not know that AT&T offered local phone service (to get a land line) in NJ. I thought Verizon was everywhere that Bell Atlantic used to be.

 

[Old Crazy]

I've been using this VOIP company for three years and I've been pleased so far with their service: http://www.itpvoip.com/

I just have the basic plan, which is $9.99 a month ($15 a month after all taxes are added in) For that I get 500 minutes a month, voicemail, caller ID, call forwarding, voicemails sent to both my phone and email address, plus a bunch of other features. And I was able to keep the existing landline phone number that I had for 15+ years with Verizon .

One minor consideration, which wasn't a big deal for me, is that if you switch to VOIP, your phone number will no longer be listed in the phone book.

 

[bobpbx]

I did not know that AT&T offered local phone service (to get a land line) in NJ. I thought Verizon was everywhere that Bell Atlantic used to be.

The way they charge me, I must be the only and last customer!