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.

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-

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.

Strongly suggest that you use google to learn a lot.
Your questions are broad.

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.

We have VoIP from Vonage. You get a box that plugs into you router (much
like a computer). Then you plug your telephone into the box. That's it. The
telephone jack on the box is identical in every way to an incoming trunk
line (our two VOIP lines go to our PBX system - just like a telco trunk line
would).

For $19.95/month* you get:
* A telephone number
* A host of goodies like call-waiting, caller-id, voice mail,
call-forwarding, etc.
* All the long distance you can eat.

VOIP requires an always-on high-speed internet connection (DSL or Cable).

With some VOIP vendors, you can keep your existing number. With all vendors
you can choose your area code. Suppose you live in Little Rabbit, Montana
but all your relatives live in Boston. By choosing a 617 area code, when
your relatives call you, to them it's a local call.

I think the MagicJack gizmo works pretty much the same way, but it uses your
computer to replace the "box."

As an alternative, contact your local AT&T office and tell them you just
cannot stand this outrageous charge and that unless there's some adjustment,
you're going to switch. They WILL lower you bill. By as much as half.

An obvious alternative to the alternative is a cell phone.

Good luck.

-------
* The $19.95 (or whatever) is the total. No 9-11 fee, no Al Gore Tax, no
Spanish-American War Excise tax, no sales tax, nothing. It's $19.95 period.

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:23:40 -0500, HeyBub wrote:

With some VOIP vendors, you can keep your existing number. With all vendors
you can choose your area code. Suppose you live in Little Rabbit, Montana
but all your relatives live in Boston. By choosing a 617 area code, when
your relatives call you, to them it's a local call.

One of the negatives of VOIP has been calling 911. The vendors were to make
improvements in this area. Not having VOIP I don't know the current status,
but others can jump in with their 911 experience.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Don Wiss wrote:
On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:23:40 -0500, HeyBub
wrote:

With some VOIP vendors, you can keep your existing number. With all
vendors you can choose your area code. Suppose you live in Little
Rabbit, Montana but all your relatives live in Boston. By choosing a
617 area code, when your relatives call you, to them it's a local
call.

One of the negatives of VOIP has been calling 911. The vendors were
to make improvements in this area. Not having VOIP I don't know the
current status, but others can jump in with their 911 experience.


The Vonage folks fussed at me 'til I provided info for 911. Evidently they
can patch the call to the right place.

Don Wiss wrote:
On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:23:40 -0500, HeyBub wrote:

With some VOIP vendors, you can keep your existing number. With all vendors
you can choose your area code. Suppose you live in Little Rabbit, Montana
but all your relatives live in Boston. By choosing a 617 area code, when
your relatives call you, to them it's a local call.

One of the negatives of VOIP has been calling 911. The vendors were to make
improvements in this area. Not having VOIP I don't know the current status,
but others can jump in with their 911 experience.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

If especially elderly folks or young children are involved 911 is the
main weak point of VoIP because unlike a POTS line which gives your
location information to the 911 system the VoIP carriers simply connect
the call to a regular number at the call center.

The other weak point is that many broadband carriers do not have backup
power on their equipment. So unlike a regular phone if the power goes
off the Internet connection may go off which also disables your phone
capability.

on 9/25/2009 8:22 PM (ET) George wrote the following:
Don Wiss wrote:
On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:23:40 -0500, HeyBub
wrote:

With some VOIP vendors, you can keep your existing number. With all
vendors you can choose your area code. Suppose you live in Little
Rabbit, Montana but all your relatives live in Boston. By choosing a
617 area code, when your relatives call you, to them it's a local call.

One of the negatives of VOIP has been calling 911. The vendors were
to make
improvements in this area. Not having VOIP I don't know the current
status,
but others can jump in with their 911 experience.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

If especially elderly folks or young children are involved 911 is the
main weak point of VoIP because unlike a POTS line which gives your
location information to the 911 system the VoIP carriers simply
connect the call to a regular number at the call center.

The other weak point is that many broadband carriers do not have
backup power on their equipment. So unlike a regular phone if the
power goes off the Internet connection may go off which also disables
your phone capability.

Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first
setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system.
Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if
you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you
and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your
911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address
when you return home.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:05:37 -0400, willshak
wrote:


Magic Jack supports 911. You have to put in your address when first
setting it up and the address is recorded with the 911 system.
Your 911 address can be changed at any time and whenever you want, so if
you go anywhere, like on vacation somewhere, you take the MJ with you
and plug it into someone's computer, or your own laptop, and change your
911 address to where you are temporarily staying. Reset the 911 address
when you return home.

Good to know, about my house, but I'd never get around to changing it
when I was someplace else. I'd have to be being chased by killers,
like in the movies. Then I'd do it.

I realize you are making a point that it's as good as a regular telco
wired phone, and better I guess than a cellphone, where you iiuc you
can't do that.

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:16:02 -0400, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:23:40 -0500, HeyBub wrote:

With some VOIP vendors, you can keep your existing number. With all vendors
you can choose your area code. Suppose you live in Little Rabbit, Montana

One of the negatives of VOIP has been calling 911. The vendors were to make
improvements in this area. Not having VOIP I don't know the current status,
but others can jump in with their 911 experience.

I called 911 and the police responded within 5 minutes to Vonage
headquarters.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Just kidding. I have a normal phone.

"Don Wiss" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:23:40 -0500, HeyBub wrote:

With some VOIP vendors, you can keep your existing number. With all
vendors
you can choose your area code. Suppose you live in Little Rabbit, Montana
but all your relatives live in Boston. By choosing a 617 area code, when
your relatives call you, to them it's a local call.

One of the negatives of VOIP has been calling 911. The vendors were to
make
improvements in this area. Not having VOIP I don't know the current
status,
but others can jump in with their 911 experience.

If you have a high speed internet connection the "poor mans" VOIP is the
"MagicJack" which is touted on TV late at night. It's sold at Wally World,
Target, etc.

The problems a 1) you have to have your computer ON to take or make
telephone calls. (It provides an "answering machine" function that sends
messages to a mail account.); 2) it tends to "hog" computer resources.
Many folks unplug the MagicJack when they are doing a lot of surfing.; 3)
you may not be able to get a "local" phone number -- this means that it
might be a toll call for your next store neighbor to call you.

When you "set up" the Magic Jack you can provide 911 information. ALL
domestic calls and FREE! The purchase price $40 includes free telephone
service for a year.

If you take a trip out of the US, you can take along your Magic Jack and
make calls to the US (but not anywhere else.)

$40 isn't much is you make a fair number of LD calls.

The federal government has gotten quite gready at the expense of folks with
land line telephone service.

If you don't take/make many calls, you may find it cheaper to dump your
land line service and get a "throwaway" cell phone. Basic service can be
less that $10/month plus the call charge. Your phone would always be with
you.

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

After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks and
keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable service, when
I need it.

I also have a tracfone (cheap cellphone) which I keep in the car for
emergencies.

For long distance calls I use ECG which is a LD service that costs only
pennies per call, instead of ATT LD, which costs plenty dollares per call.

Thank you for replying

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-
"Walter R." wrote in message
...
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.

--
Walter
www.rationality.net
-

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:34:21 -0700, "Walter R." wrote:

After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks and
keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable service, when
I need it.

And it will work during power outages.

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:26:32 -0400, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:34:21 -0700, "Walter R." wrote:

After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks and
keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable service, when
I need it.

And it will work during power outages.

Insert my usual wisecrack about people who have landlines but nothing
but cordless phones.



Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On Sep 26, 1:08*am, mm wrote:
On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:26:32 -0400, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:34:21 -0700, "Walter R." wrote:

After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks and
keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable service, when
I need it.

And it will work during power outages.


Exactly. And all the 'services' that telephone users used to take for
granted, such as being listed in a telephone book/directory, service
during power failures, free maintenance calls, free wiring in your
home, direct 911, 611 and 411 lines to Emergency, Repair, and
Directory back in the bad old non-competition days are gone.
These days your are on your own in a sort of 'Batteries not included'
way. Hook it up and fix it yourself!
Fortunately the basic networks and telephone numbering plan areas are
still there, like a road sytem; even though the type of vehicles (And
maybe the type of fuel that powers them! is changing! .
Ain't competition wonderful?.

Insert the usual wisecrack about people who have landlines but nothing
but cordless phones.

stan wrote:
On Sep 26, 1:08 am, mm wrote:
On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:26:32 -0400, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:34:21 -0700, "Walter R." wrote:
After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks and
keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable service, when
I need it.
And it will work during power outages.

Exactly. And all the 'services' that telephone users used to take for
granted, such as being listed in a telephone book/directory, service
during power failures, free maintenance calls, free wiring in your
home, direct 911, 611 and 411 lines to Emergency, Repair, and
Directory back in the bad old non-competition days are gone.


They aren't gone anywhere. If you want or need that level of service you
can pay your regular area telco.

These days your are on your own in a sort of 'Batteries not included'
way. Hook it up and fix it yourself!
Fortunately the basic networks and telephone numbering plan areas are
still there, like a road sytem; even though the type of vehicles (And
maybe the type of fuel that powers them! is changing! .
Ain't competition wonderful?.
Insert the usual wisecrack about people who have landlines but nothing
but cordless phones.

mm wrote:

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:26:32 -0400, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:34:21 -0700, "Walter R." wrote:

After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks and
keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable service, when
I need it.

And it will work during power outages.

Insert my usual wisecrack about people who have landlines but nothing
but cordless phones.

I have a landline and nothing but cordless phones on it. I also have
several UPSes and a couple generators.

On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:32:57 -0500, "Pete C."
wrote:


mm wrote:

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:26:32 -0400, Don Wiss
wrote:

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:34:21 -0700, "Walter R." wrote:

After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks and
keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable service, when
I need it.

And it will work during power outages.

Insert my usual wisecrack about people who have landlines but nothing
but cordless phones.

I have a landline and nothing but cordless phones on it. I also have
several UPSes and a couple generators.

You are excused. Unless you bought the generators solely to power
the cordless phones.

Walter R. wrote:
After reading the responses so far, I have decided to pay my 25 bucks
and keep my landline. At least I know that I have highly reliable
service, when I need it.

I also have a tracfone (cheap cellphone) which I keep in the car for
emergencies.

For long distance calls I use ECG which is a LD service that costs
only pennies per call, instead of ATT LD, which costs plenty dollares
per call.
Thank you for replying


As I said before, keeping your land-line and paying 25 bucks are not
necessarily connected. ATT WILL reduce your monthly charge - you have but to
ask.

ATT knows that tens of thousands of people are switching to VOIP or cell
phones every day. Twelve dollars a month from you is better than no dollars
a month from you.

Walter R. wrote:

For long distance calls I use ECG which is a LD service that costs only
pennies per call, instead of ATT LD, which costs plenty dollares per call.

Walter,
Look into BigRedWire (www.bigredwire.com). We've been using them for several
years now for both domestic and international long distance service. They save
money by doing 100% of their business on the web (your monthly statements are
always available on-line), and not having either telephone or snail mail for
customer service, but are quite responsive to e-mail. We've found their
connection quality and service to be faultless and their rates to be excellent.

"Walter R." wrote in message
...
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.


Our basic telephone charge is quite reasonable. What runs up the bill are
the various taxes and charges put in by the government.

For example, we have the "911" fee. We have a fee to pay for the operators
who "translate" voice to TTY for deaf folks. We have local utility tax.
We have the "universal service fee." We have a fee to pay for the system
that lets VOIP folks have any area code they want (number portability.)

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.

VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol. Magic Jack is a specific
implementation. If you have high speed internet your ISP should have
already tried to sell you on giving up your land line so I suspect you don't
have high speed internet.

John Gilmer wrote:
"Walter R." wrote in message
...
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.


Our basic telephone charge is quite reasonable. What runs up the bill are
the various taxes and charges put in by the government.

For example, we have the "911" fee. We have a fee to pay for the operators
who "translate" voice to TTY for deaf folks. We have local utility tax.
We have the "universal service fee." We have a fee to pay for the system
that lets VOIP folks have any area code they want (number portability.)

USF is one of my pet peeves. I border on what used to be rural area but
not any more. The local phone company is Frontier and they get boxes of
USF money to help them serve the "farmers". And to top it off no
competition is allowed. I ported our number to a VoIP carrier quite some
time ago. I mentioned it to one of my friends who lives in the "rural"
area and was surprised when I tried to order a port. No other carriers
are allowed to compete in "rural" areas.

Number portability has nothing to do with what you described. It means
that you are allowed to keep your number if you move to a different
provider.



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.

VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol. Magic Jack is a specific
implementation. If you have high speed internet your ISP should have
already tried to sell you on giving up your land line so I suspect you don't
have high speed internet.

On Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:57:57 -0400, "John Gilmer"
wrote:


VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol. Magic Jack is a specific
implementation. If you have high speed internet your ISP should have
already tried to sell you on giving up your land line so I suspect you don't
have high speed internet.

I have verizon DSL. I called aobut something and after that was done,
she tried to sell me FIOS. I said it was too expensive. She said we
have an introductory rate for 3 months. I said, What good does 3
months do me? After that it's too expensive. I finally made her
laugh and admit it was too expensive.

"Walter R." wrote in
:

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.

In addition to all the other good opinions, another thing (for some at
least) is to look into the "triple play" plans that cable TV companies
and Verizon have. I live in North Jersey 07410, and here Verizon has a
fiber plan that costs $100/mo plus fees+taxes and for that you get
unlimited phone service in US, Canada and PR (I believe), as well as over
300 channels and 15 Mbps down/5 Mbps up internet. With 2 STBs and all
the Jersey fees and taxes this plan has cost me $125/mo total. I just
renewed the plan and upped the service to 25Mbps down/15 Mbps up, and
this costs $10/mo more, and Starbucks WiFi is thrown in for free (as well
as 3 mo Showtime).

My gripes were with some first installation problems of the phone, and
the D#@N#d ActionTec modem blowing up after the first week. And the
initial billings took about 6 months to get straightened out. Ever since
it has been rather good.

We don't much use all the phone service we're entitled to, and the TV
still has almost no channels worth watching. However, all the baseball
and football you might want (I think).

My new "subscription" will not change in price for 2 years, but I have
"only" a 1 year commitment.

YMMV!

--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:47:24 +0000, Han wrote:


In addition to all the other good opinions, another thing (for some at
least) is to look into the "triple play" plans that cable TV companies
and Verizon have.


I found a similar savings using Ooma. Like many I use my cellphone for
nearly everything but still wanted a home phone. With Ooma you pay a one
time fee then nothing.

A feature I really enjoy is the multi-ring service. Simply any call to
the home also rings on my cellphone. Sure is handy when you are waiting
on a delivery call and need to run errands. Plus the cellphone is set to
forward calls to the home number if I don't answer in 6 rings. The two
together means I can shut one off and still get the incoming calls. Neat.

Jim wrote:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:47:24 +0000, Han wrote:


In addition to all the other good opinions, another thing (for some
at least) is to look into the "triple play" plans that cable TV
companies and Verizon have.


I found a similar savings using Ooma. Like many I use my cellphone
for nearly everything but still wanted a home phone. With Ooma you
pay a one time fee then nothing.

A feature I really enjoy is the multi-ring service. Simply any call
to the home also rings on my cellphone. Sure is handy when you are
waiting on a delivery call and need to run errands. Plus the
cellphone is set to forward calls to the home number if I don't
answer in 6 rings. The two together means I can shut one off and
still get the incoming calls. Neat.

You might investigate Google Phone. Free. You get a number. Thereafter any
calls to that number are routed to one or more other phone numbers, which
you can change at will. Sort of number portability. It has other features,
too.

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.


I have a magicJack and a VOIP service from http://www.viatalk.com/
I don't recommend the magicJack for regular phone service but it's
a good supplement to any phone service and for $20.00 a year it's
quite useful. My magicJack died but I still keep the number for
something to give anyone who may give the number out to a telemarketer
or collection agency. The voice-mail messages are Emailed to me and
I don't have to worry about being disturbed by pests. A magicJack
requires a computer to be on and connected to a high speed service
if you wish to make and receive calls, voice-mail is remote/web based.
My ViaTalk uses a stand alone adapter plugged into my router and gives
me two phone lines with one number. One of the lines can be provisioned
as a fax line.

TDD

On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:06:17 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

My magicJack died

How long did it last?

--
6th Florida Inf`ntry, Co G, CSA 1861-1864 Confederate States Army

Oren wrote:
On Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:06:17 -0500, The Daring Dufas
wrote:

My magicJack died

How long did it last?


Almost two years, I think an anti-virus program trashed
the software. I just haven't taken the time to fool around
with it or ask tech support about it. I just renewed the
number for another year because I give it out to people
I don't want pestering me. It still records voice mail
on the server and sends it to me via Email. I can forward
the number to anywhere. I had it forwarded to an AT&T
test number for a while when a collections agency was
calling every day. Having a private phone number for $20
a year isn't bad at all.

TDD