Just moved and am looking for home telephone service that is reliable and inexpensive. Any of you been there and done that recently? Would appreciate your experiences in finding and using alternative home telephone service providers. Thanks for your help!
I have "regular" (Verizon) phone service for one line and
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phone service using my high-speed Internet access for the second line. That way, if the power goes out, I still have [hone service; if the phone service goes out I have the VOIP phone service. The
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VOIP service sounds as good as my "regular" phone service, is WAY cheaper for unlimited calling, has all the features included, but is a little geeky to used (I go online to set call forwarding, etc. But, I also get my messages online from anywhere.).
One weird but cool thing about the sunrocket.com VOIP service is that you can take it with you and use it anywhere where you have high-speed Internet access -- same phone number, same unlimited calling, etc. So, if you go on vacation somewhere for 2 weeks, and have Internet access there, you can bring your phone service with you and it works. The online problem is that the 9-1-1 address location that you set up for calls from your home stays the same. In other words, if you call 9-1-1 while on vacation, the call-taker will see your home address info on his/hers computer screen.
AT&T's VOIP service sucks ass in my brother in law's experience. The fun of fingerpointing at his broadband internet provider when the inbound telephone number goes right to voicemail instead of ringing in the house.
You'll be very hard pressed to beat the reliability of the plain ole telephone network. And be prepared for the phone not to work in times when you'd like it most to work (i.e. power outages).
I was there last year and am still doing it. I decided to go with DSL service, and the standard phone service for $18 (not counting the DSL of course). I started off with caller ID on the phone but decided that it wasn't worth the $9 they charged for it. I actually looked in to getting a VoIP phone (and still may do that), but since I live in Georgia, I still have to pay for the $18 (plus "fees") land line even if I don't have the phone line. Otherwise it cost about $15 MORE with just DSL and no phone line.
I looked into Comcast (digital voice), but my house doesn't exist on their network, so they can't give me service. Of course, neighbors on all three sides of me are in their system, but they are still working on sending someone out to "check on it". That was a year ago.
Oh yeah, we use our cell ph> Just moved and am looking for home telephone service that is reliable > and inexpensive.
Here in Pennsylvania, I use Cavalier for phone and DSL. Both items are near $50 / month and the DSL speeds are very fast. For that price, the phone came with voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, *69, etc. No problems with service interuptions since installing 8 months ago.
I had Verizon before that. I paid around $70 for slower service, limits on my calling, no features, and a company with which I can't stand to do business.
It's amaizing what can happen when just a little competetion enters the marketplace.
For long distance service, look into
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They offer 5 cent / minute calling around the clock, credit card billing, Internet interface. I had them for 4 years with no problems.
In the event of a major power outage cell phones backup power is much more limited than hard wired phones. also in max use like a disaster, cell hones will lock out everyone except emergency workers. its programmed in your phone at activation.
sometimes DSL works even when POTS is out, plain old telephone service is POTS.......
That was a big surprise for me when first learning to install/repair DSL service. DSL works (albeit a little "flaky") with one side of the pair open or the pair shorted.
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