OT: Alternatives to landline and VOIP telephones?

I rarely use my land line. I probably make 5-6 calls/month; used to be more until my parents passed, but am not (yet) ready to go cell only. I like that even if the electricity is out (was out once for a week after a hurricane), my old fashioned phone works. And I like being having multiple extensions spread around the house.

My current land line is like $40 a month, so planning ahead for reduced income, I'm looking for alternatives. I am not really interested in VOIP, although my cable company pushes it, because of a) what happens when the elec is out and b)I've had my internet out for days at a time... thank you Comcast. I do have a limited cell phone (100 min / month that I never use all of), but with the telemarketers who constantly call my land line, I don't want to use the cell# as my primary and have it ringing while I'm at work. Yes I'm on the no-call list; yes they ignore that.

I used to see a gadget on the Wal-mart site that was a home phone replacement. As I remember, it actually ran off of a dedicated cell phone, but you could port the old landline # to it, and I believe could also plug a set of phone extensions into it.

Sound familiar? Or does anyone know of something similar. I may yet bite the bullet and get ooma, but wanted to check alternatives.

Reply to
Lee B
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Hi, Tried Skype?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

On Sat, 13 Sep 2014 10:33:39 -0400, Lee B wrote in

And half of that is taxes and "fees".

Reply to
CRNG

I would bet that what you saw at Walmart was actually one of the VOIP solutions. IDK what they sell right now, but they have sold several of them in the past. Some of the common names there are MajicJack, Nettalk, BasicTalk, etc. Given that you have a cell phone too, I don't see the objection to VOIP. If it goes out, you still have your cell for use. And while there may be something, somewhere that could connect a home type phone to a cell phone, I don't see how you're any better off, It's still cell phone service, isn't it? Plus if you want it separate from your current cell phone, then you need two cell phones, etc.

I would stay away from MJ, been there done that. Nettalk is better, I have it now, but would not recommend it for a variety of reasons. From all that I've seen since I made my decision, if I were making a choice today, I would go with Ooma. Read the reviews at Amazon and they have pretty happy customers, unlike MJ, Nettalk, etc. I've seen Ooma on sale for $100, after that you just have to pay monthly taxes, which are typically about $3.50. With that you have unlimited free calling in the USA. Ooma can be had used on Ebay. I think they charge you $10 to reactivate a used unit. MJ, Nettalk is about $40 a year. BasicTalk is $10 a month, so that isn't attractive compared to OOma. With any of those you can port over your existing landline number.

Only other suggestion I can think of is to look into the lowest cost, limited local phone service from MA Bell.

Reply to
trader_4

We have a Panasonic cordless phone, answer/mach, cell blutooth compatible system that works well. You can pick-up landline or cell calls from any of the cordless handsets.

Reply to
BenDarrenBach

Hi Lee,

Like you, I rarely use our phone. I would switch to cell only, but because of the topography here we can't get a reliable cell signal. So a land line is a must.

I've thought about installing a cell phone booster, but they're expensive and may not work with our weak signals anyway. I also like having multiple phones around the house.

I have VOIP service through a company called "1-Voip". I think it costs me about $20 a month. It includes free nationwide calling, voice mail, caller ID, number blocking, etc.

Most of the time our internet still works if the power goes out, but you still need power to run the adapter and most phone systems. I have mine connected to my computers battery backup, but I've never needed to use it when the power goes out.

Our Comcast internet service actually goes down more than the power goes out. Naturally, the Voip phone line doesn't work in that case.

I could always fall back to our cell phone, even if I have to walk around the property to find a signal. :)

I think you need to sign up on the no-call every few years for your land line. I also seem to recall reading something about a separate no-call list for mobile phones.

Of course, the simple solution is to turn your phone off until you need to make a call. True, no one can call you either, but are you supposed to be on the phone at work anyway? :)

I only turn my phone on a few times a year. I just don't use it, but I keep it for emergencys anyway.

Anthony Watson

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Reply to
HerHusband

My neighbor is a cell only guy and he uses a northern cell service (snow bird) that has lousy coverage here in Florida. Instead of changing carriers he bought the booster. It has an antenna on the roof that picks up the tower well and his cell is solid anywhere around the house.

Reply to
gfretwell

There is no need to sign up again, at least in Indiana and they automatically port your number to the national list. The problem is that most of the callers are VoIP themselves and either spoofed to the point they can't find them or originate out of the country. I used to complain to AG all the time and they kept sending me things saying they couldn't find (even Rachel from Card Services). It become so the only people they were bagging were the small business guys from the area who were too dumb to know better. Now I just ignore the calls.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Read this, particularly step three:

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Reply to
BenignBodger

We switched home phone to VOIP a few years ago to get our cable bill down. Phone line can be tied in to your regular home lines. I also kept an old land line for business and Verizon switched it to a FIOS setting as old copper was deteriorating. Both systems have battery backups in case of power failure. We have separate cell phones too and I recall a hurricane event where cell phones would not get through but land lines would.

VOIP is great as there are no long distance charges in the US and you get all the services like caller id and call block included and not as extras from the old phone company.

Of course with cable service, you have an annual fight to get your bill reduced. FIOS is constantly pestering me to get their full service and I tell them every time that I will if they give me the introductory offer for life.

I told my wife the other day that telemarketers were more a threat to me than ISIS. They are already a world wide PITA.

Reply to
Frank

I have been in SW Florida for 30 years living through plenty of hurricanes. My cable has been out after a normal thunderstorm or even on a sunny day, power has been out a few dozen times but I have never lost POTS.,

I get the complete option package including free long distance from Century link as part of the phone, internet and Dish package. Even with a bunch of extra movie channels and the "full boat" cable channel package I am still about the same as triple play Comcast with one movie channel.

Reply to
gfretwell

Potsie has a lot of advantages.

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon
[snip]

I had just got phone service from the cable company when hurricane Ike hit and the power went out. The battery in the telephone adapter worked fine, but service was lost after 4 hours when the battery in the cable node failed. It was another 24 hours before they got a generator there.

[snip]
Reply to
Mark Lloyd

After Charley Comcast TV was down for almost a week, the internet was down 10 days. What really whizzed me off the most was my monthly ReplayTV was a doorstop until I could get the internet back

Reply to
gfretwell

We use Tracfones and every member of our family ended up with a different underlying carrier. None of us can get a decent cell signal, and no one who visits our house can get a signal either. Ironically, we're only a half mile from the cell tower on top of our hill.

One of these days I might try the booster route, but it hasn't been a big priority for me.

Anthony Watson

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Reply to
HerHusband

Kurt,

I signed up many years ago, so I wasn't sure what the current rules were. Apparently they passed a new law in 2007 to eliminate the five year expiration. Cool, I learned something new! :)

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Anthony Watson

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Reply to
HerHusband

Service not available here. Choice between Comcast cable and Verizon FIOS and have both connections in my house. I see neighbors switch back and forth getting cheap introductory packages and switching when it expires to go to other introductory package.

Reply to
Frank

Found it! Or at least I think this is the one I'd seen before.

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. Finally found it in the "office electronics" listing.

Main objection to using cell phone exclusively is that my regular cell plan has 100 minutes of voice (but 5 GB of data which I use more of). I just have visions of "want to win a cruise", "do you need home improvements", "we'll be collecting in your area this week", etc using up my 100 minutes. But yeah, I should call my phone company and see what they have to offer in a really basic plan.

I think a part of me worries about what if in the future I have to give up cable and internet, although realistically, I'd probably eat cat food before I gave up internet! Esp since I'd like to cut the cable TV cord at some point and just use Hulu etc.

Reply to
Lee B

Unfortunately, unless you're prepared to go completely off grid, you'll always be vulnerable to whatever cables bring services to your home. Even cell towers can go down in major disasters.

I could personally do without a phone for days or weeks without any major inconvenience (short of a medical emergency). I could always drive to town and use a pay phone (if I could find one) if I needed to contact family or something.

I dropped cable TV and now use an Antenna. So, I could still get the TV news if I needed to stay updated on disaster recovery. Of course, I would need power or a battery operated TV. :) Or fall back to old fashioned radio for news.

Anthony Watson

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Reply to
HerHusband

They seem to have zero interest in enforcing this law.

You can fill out complaints but nothing comes of it.

The idea that these calls are untraceable is ludicrous. Every one of them wants you to send money somewhere or give money to someone, follow the money.

Reply to
gfretwell

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