Walter R. wrote:
My telephone charges creep upwards, almost every month, mostly due to
increased government mandated charges. I pay AT&T now $ 26 a month for what
is essentially local service. Long Distance is on a separate bill from ECG.

What are the alternatives to increasingly expensive land-lines? We live in a
low area and have poor cellphone connections. What is this Magic Jack thing?
Does it work? What are the drawbacks?

What is VOIP? Just heard about it? Is this another valid alternative.

Thanks for any input.

IIRC VOIP stands for "voice over internet Protocol. You can purchase the
service from Vonage (about $30.00 per month). Free VOIP is available
from SKYPE, however you may not have incoming service (others can
elaborate about this).

I have a Magic Jack (MJ) and use it quite a lot. I believe that it is
also a form of VIOP. It costs about $30 initially and then about $10.00
per year. Even though I have the MJ I still maintain my land line
because the MJ is not 100% reliable.

MJ, SKYPE and Vonage all require a high speed internet connection (i.e.
cable, HS digital or equivalent).

Each of these services(and there may be more), have their strong points
and weaknesses. For example I don't think that MJ has provisions for
international calls, whereas SKYPE does. I'm not sure about Vonage.

Rather than going into them all here I suggest you start goggling them
for info.

HTH,

EJ in NJ