On Wednesday, May 11, 2011 7:12:47 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Wed, 11 May 2011 12:52:26 -0400, "J. Clarke" wrote:

snip

And the breakup of AT&T, with the subsequent destruction of Nobel Prize
factory known as Bell Labs, certainly did nothing to promote the
Progress of Science and the useful Arts.


The price of a phone call fell through the floor, though.

Depends on the phone call. I pay a lot more for local service now than I did when it was all AT&T. They used to subsidize local service with long distance, now they have to recoup the cost of the local service from the local service charges. People who do a lot of long distance benefit, people who don't don't.

On Tue, 17 May 2011 12:59:09 -0500, Tim Daneliuk
wrote:

On 5/17/2011 12:44 PM, J. Clarke said this:
On Wednesday, May 11, 2011 7:12:47 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Wed, 11 May 2011 12:52:26 -0400, "J. Clarke" wrote:

snip

And the breakup of AT&T, with the subsequent destruction of Nobel Prize
factory known as Bell Labs, certainly did nothing to promote the
Progress of Science and the useful Arts.


The price of a phone call fell through the floor, though.

Depends on the phone call. I pay a lot more for local service now than I did when it was all AT&T. They used to subsidize local service with long distance, now they have to recoup the cost of the local service from the local service charges. People who do a lot of long distance benefit, people who don't don't.


'Seems like you're not looking very hard. Phone.com has a voip solution for
$15/mo plus another $5 for the ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter - allows
you to plug in a standard phone). Unless they are barred from offering
this in your area by regulatory interference, this is far less expensive than I
recall the old government-enabled monopoly offerings.
Depends how much you pay for your internet, I guess.

Majic Jack fits in the "low cost" department if anything does.

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 17 May 2011 12:59:09 -0500, Tim Daneliuk
wrote:

On 5/17/2011 12:44 PM, J. Clarke said this:
On Wednesday, May 11, 2011 7:12:47 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Wed, 11 May 2011 12:52:26 -0400, "J. Clarke" wrote:

snip

And the breakup of AT&T, with the subsequent destruction of Nobel Prize
factory known as Bell Labs, certainly did nothing to promote the
Progress of Science and the useful Arts.


The price of a phone call fell through the floor, though.

Depends on the phone call. I pay a lot more for local service now than I did when it was all AT&T. They used to subsidize local service with long distance, now they have to recoup the cost of the local service from the local service charges. People who do a lot of long distance benefit, people who don't don't.


'Seems like you're not looking very hard. Phone.com has a voip solution for
$15/mo plus another $5 for the ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter - allows
you to plug in a standard phone). Unless they are barred from offering
this in your area by regulatory interference, this is far less expensive than I
recall the old government-enabled monopoly offerings.
Depends how much you pay for your internet, I guess.

Majic Jack fits in the "low cost" department if anything does.

In 1980 monthly residential phone service cost $8.61 a month. For the
previous 30 years the rate of increase had been less than the increase
in the consumer price index. In constant dollars the rate went down
every year. If that trend had continued to the present residential
phone service would cost about $18 a month today.

Your "cheap" VOIP solutions require broadband Internet. Do you have a
source for broadband that costs less than $16.40 a month?