In article ,
Ned Turnbull wrote:

On Thu, 28 Aug 2014 13:56:42 +0100, the Omrud wrote:

we are not billed for calls to
landlines or mobiles anywhere in Europe

Same here, in the USA, with an Oooma Telo hooked to your router.
Calls to the USA are free, for life.
The only cost is the ~$4/month to the government for taxes & fees.

What do you pay to have internet access such as DSL? You do have to pay
a local Telco something to have wires from your house to "somewhere",
yes?

Calling to places outside the USA are about 2 cents a minute (USD).

--
charles

On Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:08:33 -0700, Charles Bishop
wrote:

In article ,
Ned Turnbull wrote:

On Thu, 28 Aug 2014 13:56:42 +0100, the Omrud wrote:

we are not billed for calls to
landlines or mobiles anywhere in Europe

Same here, in the USA, with an Oooma Telo hooked to your router.
Calls to the USA are free, for life.
The only cost is the ~$4/month to the government for taxes & fees.

What do you pay to have internet access such as DSL? You do have to pay
a local Telco something to have wires from your house to "somewhere",
yes?

I pay Brighthouse for cable access, and that's a wire to my house.
However, I could pay DirectTV for dish reception and not have a wire.

Costs vary depending on the extent of the service. I pay $160 a
month, but that's for internet, cable TV with premium channels, and
land-line telephone service.

I would like to eliminate the land-line, but my wife doesn't want to.
We tried VoIP a few years ago with the land-line number ported over,
but during the second week we had it there was a computer problem. My
wife has a once-bitten attitude.

Her sisters and other family are not the type to switch over to our
cell phone numbers. If they called the land-line number, and it was
no longer in service, they'd assume we died.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando FL

On Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:08:33 -0700, Charles Bishop wrote:

What do you pay to have internet access such as DSL? You do have to pay
a local Telco something to have wires from your house to "somewhere",
yes?

I think DSL is somewhere around $50 per month, but it's not
available to me as I'm way too far from the switch, they tell me.

So "I" get "my" internet from the sky.

The Ooma hooks to the router.
And a standard telephone hooks to the Ooma.

Total cost is:
Internet = $50/month (roughly for 10Mbps symmetric, although it varies)
Ooma = $125 (one-time charge at Costco for the equipment)
Tax = $4/month (state and local)

Here is a better model (this one has WiFi) than I have:
http://www.costco.com/Ooma-Telo-VoIP...100123925.html

In article ,
Ned Turnbull wrote:

On Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:08:33 -0700, Charles Bishop wrote:

What do you pay to have internet access such as DSL? You do have to pay
a local Telco something to have wires from your house to "somewhere",
yes?

I think DSL is somewhere around $50 per month, but it's not
available to me as I'm way too far from the switch, they tell me.

So "I" get "my" internet from the sky.

The Ooma hooks to the router.
And a standard telephone hooks to the Ooma.

Total cost is:
Internet = $50/month (roughly for 10Mbps symmetric, although it varies)
Ooma = $125 (one-time charge at Costco for the equipment)
Tax = $4/month (state and local)

If I understand you correctly, your monthly charge (neglecting the cost
of the $125) is $55.

That is about what I pay now for internet, long distance in the us and
"local" calls to my area (whatever that is now; it's been shrinking as
more area codes are added). I no longer make any calls to outside the US
so I don't know what AT&T would charge for that.

Admittedly, this comes with the provision that I need to call up AT&T
every six months or so and ask why they have changed my plan when it was
supposed to run for a year.

Here is a better model (this one has WiFi) than I have:
http://www.costco.com/Ooma-Telo-VoIP...h-Linx-Wireles
s-DECT-Remote-Phone-Jack.product.100123925.html

I think I'm too resistant to change now to fuss with new-fangled
gadgetry. More's the pity.

--
charles

On Fri, 29 Aug 2014 07:58:52 -0700, Charles Bishop wrote:

If I understand you correctly, your monthly charge (neglecting the cost
of the $125) is $55.

Yes. That's about right.
About $50 a month for Internet, and about $4 or $5 for Oooma taxes.
The Oooma itself is about $125 at Costco, and is a one-time charge.
Of course there's also the hardware telephone.

But, after that, all calls to the USA are free, for life.
If you make believe you are in the USA, then all calls from, say, Australia,
to the USA are also free. Likewise for all calls from India to the USA.

So, the scammers *could* be getting their calls to the USA for nearly free
(all they need is an Internet connection & pay the $4 or $5 a month USA
taxes).