Help me pick a new service for home telephone (not cell)

[cjzimmer1]

We are currently using Uverse for our home phone (I'd say landline but I don't think it's really a landline anymore since it runs over the internet).  But it's currently costing us about $35 a month for unlimited incoming and 200 minutes of outgoing calls.  Most months my outgoing is less than 100 (I hate talking on the phone).  But I don't want to get rid of the phone completely because my kids need access when they are home alone (they don't have cell phones are we aren't interested in getting them ones either).  It's also really nice to have the phone ring in multiple locations in the house so that we can hear it no matter what room we are in.  

 

So are there some cheaper options available?  Will I will be able to use my same phone system (the base plugs into the jacks but it broadcasts to multiple handsets)?  

 

Any recommendations appreciated.

 

 

[Lanny]

$35 a month? That is, IMO totally INSANE. Buy a magicJack.. I have ours plugged into my Mobile Workstation. I bought it 3 years ago and I think the one I bought, a "magicJack Plus", was the 2014 model. It came with 6 months service. 

 

I  am not aware of a limit of minutes with magicJack but they would certainly cut off someone who was abusing. 200 minutes of outgoing calls is only about 7 minutes per day. That sounds very low use to me.

 

A childhood friend in UT uses his magicJack for his home phone.  I assume he has extensions around the house, but I dont know how he has them hooked up.  I assume his magicJack is plugged into a Switch, but I am assuming.

 

On magicJack.com you can buy a magicJackGO for $35 which includes 12 months of service. I assume they will add shipping and handling. The service after that is approximately $37.73 per year when you renew. $35 plus taxes and fees.

 

My friend had his old Landline phone number Ported to magicJack and he pays them about 10 per year for that.

 

Order a magicJack today and cancel the service you have now. To use a polite word, you are getting the shaft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Yeah either magic jack or google voice.

 

 

[Lanny]

OP: My friend wrote this to me in an email in February 2014. He is an Electronic Engineer and he believes the call quality and reliability of the magicJack is comparable to his previous POTS Landline provider.

 

I have backup internet service through my cell phone's

hotspot. With Magic Jack, it's not necessary to be connected to a computer

once it has been set-up.  It is connected directly to my router via a LAN

connection.  For all practical purposes, it functions just like the previous

connection to the phone company.  Except, instead of more than $30/month for

fixed charges - even without using the phone, I now pay only about $2/month,

and in addition, I can call anywhere in the USA or Canada for free.  This

also includes a voice mailbox that emails me any voice messages left on the

phone. When travelling, I simply connect it into a USB port on my computer,

and again I can call anywhere in the USA or Canada at no charge.  If I want

to call other countries, the charges are very minimal and handled by

prepaying. At the beginning of any international call, the MJ always

notifies me how many minutes I have left depending upon the country being

called and what kind of phone is at the other end (cell phones are generally

more expensive to call),

[Lanny]

OP: I called my friend in UT an hour or so ago.  magicJack to magicJack is free worldwide. We are in South America.  So,  it was MJ to MJ.  His phone is Cordless. Bluetooth or WiFi or something.,   I think he has other Cordless phones in other parts of the house.  After that I called a Cousin North of San Francisco and spoke with her. Probably each call was 15 or 20 minutes.

[Guest]

We have OOMA over the Internet.  $5 a month, no special phones (I think).  

 

[Lanny]

If the OP buys a magicJack, or something like it, she will probably save upwards of USD $350 per year.

[cjzimmer1]

Thanks for the suggestions, after ready a few articles, I decided to put this in DH's lap to figure out but gave him the hive recommendations.  I'm not techy so figuring out where to plug the things in so all the phones worked was beyond me (we have a router and many other boxes of things connected downstairs and I don't have a clue what most of them are).  So I told DH he has to figure out what will work with all his gadgets and allow me to use the phone and send faxes (because that is all I care about).

 

Thanks again for giving us a starting point.

[Lanny]

You are welcome.  If you decide to go with magicJack they have phone numbers you can choose (the area code and prefix) free. I did that. Or, you can pay extra for a vanity number. Or, you can do as my friend in UT did and pay magicJack to Port your old phone number to magicJack. Probably what you have will work with magicJack. Study their web site. magicjack.com  Good luck.

 

NOTE: If you still send faxes, you need to check on the magicJack web site to see if that wil work on their network.  We had 2 FAX machines, but they went for recycling, years ago...

Edited May 18, 2017 by Lanny

[Lanny]

Faxes: On the rare occasions when I need to send a FAX, I send faxes to the USA using efax    https://www.efax.com/

 

ETA: eek   I just looked on the efax web site. They may have discontinued their free service. There are other FAX services on the web.

 

ETA #2: copied from the magicJack web site:

 

Help Center / Compatibility Can I send and receive faxes using magicJack?

 

It should work fine.

Plug your fax machine into your magicJack, just as you would normally connect your fax machine to your telephone jack.

IMPORTANT!! If your magicJack is connected to your computer, make sure that “WIFI†is selected. Your fax machine will not work if you have selected “3Gâ€.

 

ETA #3: I sent a FAX free, at least once, with this web site:    https://faxzero.com/

 

ETA #4  FaxZero URL to send FAX free:  https://faxzero.com/  When I googled send fax free I found an article comparing different sites and when I clicked from that article, I landed on a page where you can send free on faxzero.  That is the web site I used if eFax wasn't available as I recall. One FAX I tried to send to one FAX number on one occasion had a problem on eFAX so I tried this other site and it went though OK.

 

The FAX information I found for this post is helpful to me because I am going to write a FAX soon

 

 

Edited May 19, 2017 by Lanny

[Lanny]

Follow-on about sending free Faxes to U.S. Fax numbers:

 

I just searched my email Inbox, for the word "fax".  Apparently, the last one I sent was in 2015...

 

With the exception of ONE Fax, they were all sent via FaxZero.com

 

Not by eFax as I'd thought before searching my email for the facts...

 

There was one time that I tried to send a FAX and apparently either FaxZero.com or the Recipient was having an issue. That time, I sent the Fax successfully via GotFreeFax.com

 

So, the 2 web sites I have used, as recently as July 30, 2015, are FaxZero.com and GotFreeFax.com  

 

I know the Receivers received those Faxes, without any issues.

 

I  need to write something that will go by FAX, so this information is also useful to me.  :-)

 

 

[abacus2]

I would call and get downgraded to the most basic landline service. Mine is $15 I think and gives me a "package discount" for having phone and internet through the same company.