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want to get rid of landline but need dsl
07-07-2008, 04:29 PM
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#1
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Recycles dryer sheets
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Location: near L.A.
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want to get rid of landline but need dsl
I live in a Verizon area in SoCal. I want to get rid of my landline but my dsl(also verizon) is dependent on it? does anyone have any suggetions on what to do here? thanks
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07-07-2008, 04:31 PM
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#2
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Boston
Posts: 620
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I have wanted to explore the same thing for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it. I did come across this article and bookmarked it, but I haven't followed up to see what's available in my area:
AT&T to offer $20 'naked' DSL service - USATODAY.com
Let me know if you get further than I have on this ...
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07-07-2008, 04:34 PM
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#3
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 69
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Cable, EVDO Card.
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07-07-2008, 04:44 PM
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#4
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,502
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You don't need a working telephone landline to get Verizon DSL. You do need a phone jack in the house, but almost every house has the wiring for phones. What you can do is get a virtual number. If Verizon tell you they don't know what the heck that is, tell them you're canceling both the phone and the DSL and going with cable and Vonage and see how fast they remember virtual phone numbers. Phone and cable companies can be so devious in their price quotes that I'm amazed some enterprising lawyer hasn't brought a class action lawsuit.
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07-07-2008, 07:45 PM
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#5
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: mpls, mn
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O.K. How does a virtual number work? Will this work in any part of the country? Sounds interesting.
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07-08-2008, 03:08 AM
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#6
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,502
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mn54
O.K. How does a virtual number work? Will this work in any part of the country? Sounds interesting.
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You get a spare phone number from the phone company, and that becomes your "phone" and how your DSL account is identified. The phone number is not in service, so you can't use it to make calls.
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07-08-2008, 06:41 AM
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#7
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
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You need a wire running from your premises to a device called a DSLAM at the nearest central office (a switch box). You don't need a regular phone signal (POTS) running over the line. When I used a separate DSL carrier and ran servers in the house I had a dedicated DSL line with no phone on it. You do pay something for the line - less than an actual phone circuit. DSL and POTS are just two different signals traveling over the same physical wire. Back in the early days of DSL, I knew a network engineer who setup a kind of unregulated remote office Internet connection by having the phone company set up an "alarm circuit" (otherwise dead wire used for alarm companies to carry their signals) between his networked office and a nearby building where he had no Internet connection. He added a DSLAM at his end and a DSL modem at the other and saved the cost of a T1 line.
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07-08-2008, 07:01 AM
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#8
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,543
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mn54
O.K. How does a virtual number work? Will this work in any part of the country? Sounds interesting.
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phone # is all numbers, a virtual number has letters in it
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07-08-2008, 07:22 AM
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#9
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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Where I am, Verizon offers "naked DSL" (heh heh, hey Beavis, he said "naked") where I live for about $10 per month more than DSL bundled with land line service. I have done that yet, but I am considering it. Of course, if they ever brought FiOS to the boonies, that may be another consideration.
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"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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07-08-2008, 07:51 AM
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#10
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Dryer sheet aficionado
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 44
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ER_Hopeful
I live in a Verizon area in SoCal. I want to get rid of my landline but my dsl(also verizon) is dependent on it? does anyone have any suggetions on what to do here? thanks
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I am not sure what is available in your area, but could you use a cable modem? That way you only need a cable subscription.
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07-08-2008, 07:56 AM
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#11
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,483
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I have ATT DSL, and a landline. My cell is with Verizon so I can't do the whole bundle, but I have been trying to call them to drop the landline and get digital phone, but their number is always busy..........
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07-08-2008, 08:18 AM
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#12
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Boston
Posts: 620
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ziggy29
Where I am, Verizon offers "naked DSL" (heh heh, hey Beavis, he said "naked") where I live for about $10 per month more than DSL bundled with land line service.
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Not trying to be smart, just double-checking: you mean that Verizon offers DSL-only for $10 LESS than DSL bundled with land-line service, right?
Not that I would put it past them to charge MORE for naked DSL (kinda like airlines charging more for a one-way flight than for a roundtrip) ...
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07-08-2008, 08:56 AM
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#13
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lusitan
Not trying to be smart, just double-checking: you mean that Verizon offers DSL-only for $10 LESS than DSL bundled with land-line service, right?
Not that I would put it past them to charge MORE for naked DSL (kinda like airlines charging more for a one-way flight than for a roundtrip) ...
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No. What I mean is that the DSL service itself is $10 less per month when it's bundled with land line service. After you add in the cost of local phone service it's more costly than naked DSL.
__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
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07-08-2008, 01:22 PM
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#14
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: mpls, mn
Posts: 769
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lusitan
I have wanted to explore the same thing for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it. I did come across this article and bookmarked it, but I haven't followed up to see what's available in my area:
AT&T to offer $20 'naked' DSL service - USATODAY.com
Let me know if you get further than I have on this ...
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Looked at the att website. The $20 price is good for 12 months. Then it goes to the regular price of $40 per month.
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07-08-2008, 05:01 PM
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#15
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Central Coast, California
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We use Cox cable for our internet access and have been happy with it.
I've also been tempted to let our land line go, but the fires up here this last week have brought home to me the importance of having a land line, for two reasons:
1. Reverse 911 -- our community invested in a reverse 911 system last year and used it twice last week to send out evacuation orders. You can sign a cell phone up for reverse 911, but...
2. Cell phone towers out. This didn't happen during the fires, but during our earthquake a couple of years ago several cell towers got knocked out and the remaining towers couldn't handle the call volume that followed. Our cell phones were worthless, which would have really freaked me out except that we had a land line.
You may have different feelings about the likelihood of natural disaster striking your area, but the $25 a month we pay for landline service literally allowed me to sleep at night last week, knowing that if a reverse 911 call came, we'd get it on our land line.
Just a couple of things to consider.
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07-08-2008, 05:40 PM
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#16
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,901
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You can probably still have a "land" line through the use of a VOIP service like SKYPE over your internet connection. You would need to have a microphone on your PC.
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07-08-2008, 05:42 PM
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#17
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 13,183
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lusitan
I have wanted to explore the same thing for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it. I did come across this article and bookmarked it, but I haven't followed up to see what's available in my area:
AT&T to offer $20 'naked' DSL service - USATODAY.com
Let me know if you get further than I have on this ...
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I looked at this but since I'm getting ATT landline plus DSL for just over $28/mo (includes all fees and taxes), didn't seem worth cutting the landline to save approx $100/yr. DW likes the landline and I won't spend the year arm wrestling with her over that amount of $$$.
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"I wasn't born blue blood. I was born blue-collar." John Wort Hannam
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07-09-2008, 07:50 AM
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#18
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 148
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ER_Hopeful
I live in a Verizon area in SoCal. I want to get rid of my landline but my dsl(also verizon) is dependent on it? does anyone have any suggetions on what to do here? thanks
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We did dropped our land line but kept Verizon DSL. I believe to make this happen, Verizon set us up on a "Dry Loop" (I believe that was the terminology used by their customer serivce folks.) Anyway, as I understand it, we do have a phone number, though I have no idea what it is any longer. Has worked fine for over a year, though there were a few billing/transition issues at the start.
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07-09-2008, 12:01 PM
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#19
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2006
Location: west coast, hi there!
Posts: 8,809
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Aren't you a wee bit concerned about what happens in a major emergency situation like an earthquake? I think the redundant landline is worth it for insurance purposes.
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