home phone service

[urbanvb]

Once again I am wondering if I should keep my home phone service. I pay roughly $40-45 bucks a month for my home phone but rarely use it. Mostly only my family calls me there but then if if there is no answer they always call my cell. My friends do the same but mostly call the cell first. I am single so this decsion will only affect myself. So what are your feelings on this and reasons for or against keeping the home phone service? I appreciate any and all feedback.

[monsoon]

I got rid of BellSouth over a year ago and go Packet8 VoIP service. $19.99/month, call anywhere in the usa for canada for free anytime of the day, bunch of free services. Works really well.

[DetroitBazaar]

IMO, no absolutely not, they are robbers those landline phones. Either get a plan or go prepaid. With prepaid you can control your minutes and not have to worry about the overages, I like Virgin Mobile- very anonymous too!

Peace

[ChiefJoJo]

I'd be interested to hear some more discussion on this, as it's something I'm thinking of as well.

[monsoon]

If you have broadband cable service, I don't see any reason to keep a phone line. VoIP is very cheap in comparison, has a lot more features, and works great.

[Viper]

I only have a landline because the military requires you do so. I doubt they'd allow for a switch to VoIP unfortunately because I really want to drop Verizon home service.

[RestedTraveler]

I use VoIP for work. The sound quality isn't quite as good as that of a normal "land line" phone; however, the biggest detraction I've found is this: When my internet signal drops, the VoIP stops working as well. I'm here to tell you there's nothing worse than speaking to a client over VoIP when that happens, especially if the call is discussing something that's business-critical to that client.

[MZT]

Single. Cable Internet. Ditched the land line, at my last residence and this one too...

[Viper]

My Internet speed it about to be increased to 15 mbps. I will be getting Vonage for sure now.

[monsoon]

I've been using packet8.net for the last year and a half and it is great, and $5/month less expensive then vonage. Plus it uses Level3 for its backbone.

[TNpete]

As I'm an first-time poster and a bit of a technological nit-wit I was hoping someone could humor me on the Internet phone thing...

I currently pay BellSouth (who I hate, with a bitter, bitter passion) for both DSL and local-phone service (which I have no use for whatsoever).

If I wanted to look into an internet phone, would I have to cancel DSL with BellSouth and get a new internet provider such as Comcast/Charter/etc. I'm fairly certain you can't get the high-speed internet connection (DSL) w/o carrying local service.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

[colin]

I've also been contemplating ditching the landline, as it's been useless since ditching my dial-up. I have cable internet, but the cableco refuses to allow me digital phone service.

Qwest (the locals in the Great West) has been charging me $3/month for long distance that I don't really even use very much. I called around, and others either want ridiculous rates for local toll (in-state) calls, or have a monthly fee or minimum monthly balance.

If you do use long distance quite a bit, one of the VoIP services would be the best, although I believe that they're over-priced right now and will come down significantly within the next year (simple economics, so I'm sure this isn't news to anyone). Once they pay off those initial investments in infrastructure and reduce growing pains, there should be lots of new customer incentives.

I may end up changing my cell phone plan and buying a new phone. It's been tempting for a while, and I think that my landline has just become my proverbial whoogie (i.e. - comfort blanket).

[monsoon]

You don't have to go with the cable VoIP service. Packet8 charges $20.00/month for unlimited called and Vonage about $24.00.

TNPete - that is correct. You need highspeed cable to use VoIP as the Bellco's have a vested interest in keeping you from doing so. I made the same switch that you mention and found that cable is much much faster than DSL and doesn't cost as much when you factor in the cost of the required phone line in order to have it.

[Cotuit]

In Boston, Verizon is allowing people to have DSL without the land line because so many people are moving to cable to drop their land lines and switch to VoIP. They figure it's better to hold onto the DSL and lose the land line than it is to lose the customer entirely.

[TNpete]

TNPete - that is correct. You need highspeed cable to use VoIP as the Bellco's have a vested interest in keeping you from doing so. I made the same switch that you mention and found that cable is much much faster than DSL and doesn't cost as much when you factor in the cost of the required phone line in order to have it.

Thanks!

I'll look into it some more following the holiday season. At this point I'm so bitter with BellSouth (long story, major screw-ups in rolling over account from SC to TN) that I'm willing to look into anything that will keep me from having to stroke them a check each month.

[TNpete]

Understand it might be a stupid question; but with Vonage, etc. you're not limited to calling only those who use the same service correct?