Ok, have had it with the land line phone

For you with oomas, I believe the ooma gizmo plugs into a modem, correct? Does that mean that the phone location has to be at or near the modem? The reason I ask is that my modem just happens to be on the other side of the house from the area where I most need to use the phone--ie. office, bedroom, etc. This seems to be holding me up from ooma.
 
Almost embarrassed to admit.. I still have a LL.

But to balance things out, no cable and no smart phone :)
 
I still have a landline, and rotary phones.
 
Currently have LL and DSL bunded through ATT for $50/month. IPhone cell is free from work. After ER early next year, plan to drop LL and use DSLextreme for wireless @ $15/mo and Republic Wireless @ $25/mo for cell. Hate that $10/month for LL is going to nothing but taxes currently so looking forward to losing it next year.
 
aja8888 said:
Gosh, brings back memories. When I lived in Connecticut (Southbury), we had a landline with the Woodbury Phone Company. I wonder if they still exist?
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Woodbury Phone Company was merged into Southern New England Telephone (SNET) in 2007. Interestingly, SNET was independent and never part of the Bell System.

The very first telephone exchange in the country was in New Haven in 1878. My town, Milford, followed within a year thereafter. The Milford central telephone exchange building is a block from my house, so I expect we'll have POTS as long as it is available in this country at all.
 
Gumby said:
I still have a landline, and rotary phones.
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Earlier this year when my grandmother died, we cleaned out her house. She had a Western Electric rotary phone, that must have been from the 1920's or 1930's. It was hooked up in her basement. I was able to make a call with it which surprised me.

The cord from the base to the handset was straight cloth wrapped wire. Same construction for the wire from the phone to the wall. It was also unusually heavy. It could have been used for exercise equipment. I had not used a rotary phone in a good twenty years. And outside of a black and white movies, I had never seen one of this particular style. In old WWII movies it's the "modern" phone they sometimes use. Looking on wikipedia the phone was similar to a model 302.

The model 500, princess and trimline models are the ones from my childhood. And sometimes they had push button instead of rotary dial.
 
I still have land line, same number for over 30 years. Also have a Tracfone. I'm about to ditch the LL but don't know whether to switch the LL number over to the cell . It would ditch the junk calls, but a lot of number changing to everyone.
What would all of you do if you had to do it over? Keep the LL number or just go with the current cell phone number?
THANKS
 
Major Tom said:
I ditched my cellphone a few years ago and have hung onto the landline as it's cheaper, and I don't really need to be in contact with people wherever I go. Its one less thing to have to stick in my pocket when I go out. Besides, I rather like being less connected. It's relaxing being able to go out and knowing that for an hour or two no-one can get hold of me. I look at the birds in the trees, meet lots of friendly local dogs and kitties, and talk to passers-by. Yes - I'm the slightly unhinged local retired guy. I like that!
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Cell phones are the best thing that ever happened to crazy people, as one can now walk around talking to themselves and everyone thinks you are on the phone. even if you don't have a cell phone.:cool:
 
Dave J said:
I still have land line, same number for over 30 years. Also have a Tracfone. I'm about to ditch the LL but don't know whether to switch the LL number over to the cell . It would ditch the junk calls, but a lot of number changing to everyone.
What would all of you do if you had to do it over? Keep the LL number or just go with the current cell phone number?
THANKS
Click to expand...

In your situation, I would probably keep the number that gets the fewest spam phone calls. If people need to change their records of your phone number, they will (and faster than you might imagine!)

If/when I ever move, I just won't get another landline phone and I will keep my cell phone too, like you.
 
Marita40 said:
For you with oomas, I believe the ooma gizmo plugs into a modem, correct? Does that mean that the phone location has to be at or near the modem? The reason I ask is that my modem just happens to be on the other side of the house from the area where I most need to use the phone--ie. office, bedroom, etc. This seems to be holding me up from ooma.
Click to expand...


Not sure if this is the same for Ooma, but what we did when we switched to Magicjack was that we ran a phone line from the modem with the Magicjack to the kitchen where it's connected to our "main phone" which is the base unit for a cordless phone system with a digital answering machine. Then we have cordless phones (with their powering stands) anywhere we want them, living room, basement, bedroom.

If you don't want to run a phone line to another room you can have your base unit near the modem and wireless extensions all over the house. Our set of phones, one base with answerer and 3 extension units was around $100.

This operates just like having our old landline with extension phones all over the house and an answering machine in the kitchen where we see a flashing light when we come into the house. But this one has no monthly bill.
 
Last edited:
Ok, this thread made me decide to buy a ooma! Just ordered one. It comes with a 60 day trial period. Even if I port my current phone number I'll save a couple hundred dollars this year alone by using it.
 
We still have a landline only because DW didn't want to give it up, and it was bundled with our DSL.

But the phone company just raised our monthly bill by 11% and she has finally agreed it's no longer worth it.

Although the DSL part will be a bit more expensive, next month we'll start paying about $30 less monthly. :dance:
 
Marita40 said:
Ok, this thread made me decide to buy a ooma! Just ordered one. It comes with a 60 day trial period. Even if I port my current phone number I'll save a couple hundred dollars this year alone by using it.
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I looked ath the Ooma Telo website. I couldn't find any technical details. I'm pretty sure it would not work with a satellite internet connection (my only choice), but it would be nice if they made such details clear. I guess if I dug deep enough, I would find it. :(
 
hermit, call the number on the website. I found the ooma rep very helpful--answered all my questions.
 
+1. Have been using Ooma ($4/month) for a few years. Others who bought before me don't even pay $4/month. It's $0 for them.
 
Cassie said:
Any pictures of the rotary? Brings back memories.
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These are my phones. The white one hangs on the kitchen wall. The older black one is in the bedroom and the newer black one is in the main hallway. I have another, different one in the garage. If I can find a picture, I'll post it.
 

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Gumby said:
These are my phones. The white one hangs on the kitchen wall. The older black one is in the bedroom and the newer black one is in the main hallway. I have another, different one in the garage. If I can find a picture, I'll post it.
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I had one like the one in the middle (purchased used from Radio Shack) back in the day when you had to pay additional monthly charges for each phone. I knew I was in trouble when first one phone rang, then the second. The caller said if I had two phones, I'd better disconnect it or they would shut off service. Ma Bell, I miss you. :mad:
 
Marita40 said:
Ok, this thread made me decide to buy a ooma! Just ordered one. It comes with a 60 day trial period. Even if I port my current phone number I'll save a couple hundred dollars this year alone by using it.
Click to expand...
Did you order it direct from ooma? you can buy them at best buy and costco. Costco was cheaper. We have ours set up similar to sue j. The set of uniden cordless phones from costco was around $80.
 
We've got an older Ooma with no monthly charge. Have had it for at least 6 years. Ported our landline number to it, and it came with us to Ecuador. Friends and family still seem weirded out that we moved to South America and our phone number stayed the same.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app
 
I called ooma to ask a few questions, especially about a trial and refund period (which is 60 days). I asked her to match the amazon price plus free shipping ($125.00) for the Ooma Telo. She did without a moment of hesitation, so I bought it through her. Within 4 hours it was on its way with tracking information provided.
I don't belong to Costco but I think you can also get it there pretty cheaply.
 
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