Replacing phone with VOIP

[Kroeran]

If you have good internet service, I recommend MagicJack. Only $47 for the hardware, and $20/yr, and you get a telephone number that folks can call. At first, there were a number of technical issues with getting it working, but knock on wood, lately I have not had any problems. (I would only recommend MagicJack to folks that have a certain level of computer expertise - anyone that would need to read "Windows for Dummies" would not have such expertise, LOL)

You can also get a pay by the time mobile phone like TracFone for any times when MagicJack would be having problems. The cost is only about $.10/minute.

I see no reason to have a landline ever again.

I think I will definitely give it a whirl for $47, in case I can get it working, which may be 75% based on what I have been reading. The link to the MJ forum will also be useful, if combined with some perseverance. A real home run for me is any technical solution that will not only be cheap, but as well will be dual use between base and second home.

For home base I have a trailing edge (well, its older than that) laptop whose only job is to run a security camera on the garage (which sends images to my blackberry using a $20 program called crime catcher), which could also do double duty running the magic jack, which I would hook to the house lines (if that is doable).

I have Virgin pay as you go cell that I picked up at the 7 elevan down the street in Fort Myers. I can turn it off and forget it in the drawer for several months before it complains (via email) that it needs a small topping up.

 

[Delawaredave5]

If you have a "triple play" (tv, phone, internet) -- do you save anything by taking out the phone and going VOIP ?

I pay around 110-120/month for all three. I haven't inquired, but I've been assuming taking phone out won't reduce cost much. My friend thought it would only drop 10 or 15.

 

[tryan]

Originally Posted by smjsl

@Kroeran: Porbably obvious but... With any VOIP plan, don't forget that if electricity or internet are down, you'll be out of luck. I guess an emergency cell phone or "cheap" land line would work for such cases - but I suggest having some plan B for such cases.

I put a house monitoring system (power and temp) on my VOIP . The IP has generator backup and I put a UPS on the modem and Vonage Router (soon to be ooma). Several power outages over the last couple years ... no problem (system calls my cell and house phone). UPS is only good for about 2 hours ... but how many times do you need to be told "power is out at location ...".

 

[Kroeran]

I found this article pretty handy to assess some of the VOIP services. The table near the bottom charts international calls.

A Review Of Ooma Internet Telephone: Free Phone Service For Life | Spot Cool Stuff: Tech

For us international calls are a non issue. Monthly fee is everything. But I can't leave the computer ON forever so ooma was the way to go (at the lake).

ooma sounds good...only works in US at the moment

 

[SciFiFan53]

A just in time discussion for me.... so I will thread hijack a bit and ask a few questions...

I currently have AT&T phone and DSL... can I just cancel the phone and keep the DSL with AT&T.. moving the phone line to a VOIP provider?

What speed do you need for the phone? I have the SLOW speed DSL, but it works just fine with SKYPE with video calls... I can not see how voice alone would need any more speed...

Which option is best for calling overseas? ie, voice quality, costs etc... My wife wants to call her mother and friends back home... some do not have SKYPE and she also wants to be able to just 'call' at any time....

We live in Shanghai right now, been here for 2 years. Because we have a monitored security system at our house back in the US, when we did the research, it seemed that our security provider would only work with Vonage- so we kept our land line for them and went with Vonage. It has worked fine. Most of our ex-pat friends here have gone with Skype and it works fine also. That's assuming the internet connection is working, which isn't always the case here...

 

[Kronk]

Interesting. Hadn't heard of Ooma before. But I just ordered one. Right now Amazon is having a bundle deal for the older hardware unit package for $204 -- and if you buy today or tomorrow you get a free iPod Shuffle (4th gen, 2GB, costs $55). Free shipping for the whole thing.

I'll be porting over my existing home number for $40 when the thing arrives. Current home phone is a regular POTS line, and something in our wiring is screwy -- phone company says it is inside our house. All of our calls have pops and crackles to the point where it is sometimes tough to hear. So rather than try to fix the problem (and continue to pay $38/month), this sounds like a good solution.

From what I could glean, the newer ooma hardware does not give you caller name lookup for free (part of the $10/month package), but the older one does, which is why I opted for the older model. We'll see if that is true. In any event, the caller id will show the phone number of the caller.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Here in the semi-boonies of northern Illinois, power outages of an hour or two happen maybe once or twice per year, but sometimes they are out for a day or more. Land line phone hasn't had a problem for over a decade, back then the longest we ever lost service was a few hours.

Cellphone service usually works at our house but not always.

Friends and family have had very mixed results with various VOIP services, I can't isolate a particular brand. Some are quite pleased, others absolutely furious. One daughter just had the condo association in Chicago where she lives change VOIP providers. The provider made a real disaster out of it, she couldn't make outgoing calls for about a week; yesterday she finally was able to receive incoming calls for the first time in over a MONTH.

Out here, I say "You should be prepared to be your own policeman, fireman, and doctor; for at least 30 minutes." That's if the phone is working.

We're sticking with the land line for a while...

 

[Andy R]

Vonage for 4 years here. You can "light up" your whole house just like service from a traditional telecom by connecting the output line to your home phoneline system. That way all the jacks around the house are live and then from there you can use any standard phone you want (wired, wireless, etc). I love the voicemail to email function (very handy) and when I travel, I take the Vongage adapter with me and have my landline where ever I go.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I have vonage. I buy it for 12 months, up front, so the monthly fee works out to $20. After registering with 911 online, it works fine. Used 911 twice and they knew who I was.

ETA: this price beats my cable companies triple play, thats why I don't use their VOIP

 

[tryan]

Right now Amazon is having a bundle deal for the older hardware unit package for $204 --

Buy.com had the same stuff for $190 after a $10 coupon (google buy.com coupons). Free shipping ...came today via fedx. My guess is the $$ of the old equipment will be dropping like a rock. But with the pay-back in side of a year this is a no-brainer.

Wasn't interested in saving the old number (at the lake) ended up reserving a number in a neighboring town (no numbers available in my town). All set to go (but I won't be there for a couple weeks for the install).

 

[Bimmerbill]

I'm interested in hearing how the ooma works. My Vonage is 200 a year, so that sounds like a pretty good deal. I only have one phone. Doesn't look like you can get the hub only tho.

 

[tmm99]

I almost got Vonage, but someone at work told me it was a nightmare when he tried to cancel it, so I decided to keep my landline but downgraded it to the minimal plan, and use rebtel.com for any distance calls from my home phone. I just call the pre-set local numbers (which I set up on the rebtel site) and dial the local numbers but I connect to people out of states and out of countries. My friends/family can call me using the local number too and those calls get charged to my online account.

It's been working for me fine, and I think I am saving about $50 a month compared to when I just had the landline with a long distance plan and a world plan.

It is kind of nice to know that I have a landline...

 

[wheel9]

I have ooma for house and business phone. For the $99 Premier service I get a second line also. It works fine with great sound quality. Have had other VOIP providers and they seem to be very reliable. Magic Jack is pretty erratic from what I have heard. There is a way around the requirement to have a pc on by using an Open-Source router.

 

[tryan]

I almost got Vonage, but someone at work told me it was a nightmare when he tried to cancel it

Vonage seems to be straightened out ... cancelled last week. No problem.

It was a second line ... I wasn't triing to preserve the phone number. I can see where this could get sticky.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Ouch, appears Vonage raised their prices for the year plan. $297.81. I think I'll order an ooma.

 

[Kroeran]

any Canadians use ooma? would the only downside be a US phone number?

 

[ERD50]

Ouch, appears Vonage raised their prices for the year plan. $297.81. I think I'll order an ooma.

When I looked over reviews on Amazon, they were very positive overall. However....

when I looked at the negative ones, it was pretty scary. Seems like customer service is about nil. So it's one of those things that if it all works well (and it does seem to for most), great - but if it doesn't you might be stuck. Not cool since you pay everything upfront.

A little googling also showed that the company needed to raise more cash earlier in the year, and some of the original investors were unwilling to go in. I guess if you have a backup plan, and accept the risk, it will only take about a year to breakeven over vonage. The hassle factor would be a bigger issue for me, but hopefully you end up being in what appears to be a majority that are happy with the service.

-ERD50

 

[Kronk]

Yeah, I took the risk of the company going out of business into consideration. The only hassle that would bug me is porting my telephone number (that I've had for over 13 years) AND the company goes out of business AND my telephone number gets lost in the shuffle. Otherwise, I figure it is a pretty good $200 bet. We'll see.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I took the plunge. What the heck, I like playing with new IT stuff. I still have Vonage, tho it appears it expired today. I don't think I ever got a reminder. They tried to auto charge a cancelled credit card.

 

[easysurfer]

I took the plunge. What the heck, I like playing with new IT stuff. I still have Vonage, tho it appears it expired today. I don't think I ever got a reminder. They tried to auto charge a cancelled credit card.

Hopefully, you won't start getting calls from bill collection agencies. I have a friend who tried to cancel from Vonage, and that is what happened to her.

 

[Kroeran]

I was poking around on the web to get the scoop on using ooma in Canada with a US area code (Canada codes apparently will be coming soon), and I stumbled on a discussion about Google's Grand Central, which seems to be a hybrid between Skype and Vonage.

Comments?

 

[tryan]

ooma is up and running at the lake. Set up was all of 5 minutes (disconnect Vonage router; plug in ooma router ... add vonage router to ooma router for wifi - yup they let you keep the wireless router.). Connect to the internet once so the box can find homebase and your off and running.

I am running my home monitor off the hub and 1 phone off the scout. Made several calls voice is crystal clear. Simulated a power outage to ensure the home monitor calls my cell (modem and ooma powered by ups) ... no problem.

I'll run this thing for a couple months before dumping vonage on the primary residence.

On a side note, a friend is in the VIOP business and says ooma has to "pay" to access everyones network (all the baby bells). So one has to wonder how it can "free forever". November is my first month of "payback" ... 9 more to go.

FWIW, if there's a problem the fall back plan is to reactivate the vonage box (will take all of 5 minutes). In the mean time competition is good ... vonage rates have been creeping up for years.

 

[Bimmerbill]

My ooma is waiting for me at home, according to FEDEX. Total with the $40 number port is about $20 less than my 1 year Vonage plan. So, I need until next SEP to break even.

I noticed my Vonage plan included two taxes (911 recovery and fed tax) for about $25 a year. Wonder how ooma pays that?

 

[tryan]

Total with the $40 number port

Do you have to notify vonage about the port or does your $40 pay ooma to handle it? How long does it take before you can start making calls?

Thanx in advance.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Not sure. Will find out tonight when I get home after work and play with it. I think I'll review the ooma FAQs now tho.