Phone cord cutting

[lawman]

Ooma.......$6/mth.....works great

 

[rayvt]

Google Voice does not have 911 capability. But there are a couple of places you can buy it from, costs about $2/month.

But there are a number of commercial VOIP providers that cost about the same $24/year, *with* 911 service and phone service. It made sense to go with a commercial VOIP provider instead of "free" GV, since the overall cost is about the same, and I'd rather deal with a company than google, they have a better incentive to provide good service.
They have many, many features--so many that your head will swim.

Most voip providers cater to small-ish business users.
A few are good for a small-usage home phone user. voip.ms is one, callcentric.com is another.
The cheapest plans are about $2/mo (including 911 service) plus $0.005 to $0.01 per minute (half a cent to 1 cent)

I have tried both, and both are good. All you need is an OBI200, a one-time purchase of $50 ($30 if you catch a sale).

We were paying $45/mo for our AT&T landline. We now use voip.ms and pay about $3/mo. That's less than the *taxes* on the AT&T bill.

You can configure your OBI to have 4 different voip services. I have mine configured so I can call out on voip.ms, callcentric, google voice, and a toll-free-only outcall. Incoming calls can come in from voip.ms or GV--with different ringtones. Outcall only on callcentric, because I didn't want to pay extra to get incoming calls on callcentric.

 

[leftcoastjayhawk]

In the early days of the Magic Jack VOIP phone system you could take your Magic Jack anywhere in the world and call to or get calls from the USA as if you were in the USA. And Magic Jack (like OOMA now) only cost $3/month for unlimited calls to/from US numbers. (our Ooma is up to about $5/month now). The Magic Jack then was a little box that plugged in to a USB port on your computer, with a phone jack to a standard land line type phone. (now I understand they have a stand alone box like Ooma, no computer necessary) In 2008 our son went to London for some summer Poly Sci classes and took a laptop, a Magic Jack, and an old Princess phone we had lying around. He was the go to guy for the other American students who wanted to call home.



A couple of years later, my brother was traveling in Europe and spent some time with friends in the Netherlands who had a Magic Jack with a US phone number. They used it to call other friends in Norway who also had a Magic Jack with a US phone number. Still all unlimited calls (to US numbers) for $2 or $3/month. (I recall the up front cost of the Magic Jack box was only about $20?)



Now we have an Ooma for our landline and want to keep it as its cheap and its hard to give up the same phone number we've had for 35 years. But it major use now seems to be to receive spam calls, so I'm thinking of just using a "white list" on our attached Panasonic "cordless" phones hooked to the Ooma. Our cell phone service (for 2 phones) cost us $32/month total including taxes on Xfinity Mobile for 3Gb/month, which is plenty for our usage. Xfinity Mobile uses Verizon's service, which we were on for many years for about triple Xfinity's cost.

 

[meleana]

I'm in Colorado and I pay centurylink $40/mo for a wired phone which mostly gets spam calls, plus mis line and other "fees".
On top of that I pay $15 for long distance. It used to be pay-by-the-minute and it would be $3-$6 a month but they changed to a minimum monthly fee with more "free" hours than I care to use.

So it seems like an easy $50-$60 savings a month. I used to not trust cells for 911 but it's now mandatory to do proper location reporting. It's still possible the cell tower would be down when good ol' copper is not. That's why one of my phone is the an old unpowered (well powered by the phone line) no frills phone.

I do get my internet from Centurylink, but comcast regularly comes knocking with a similar price point (around $80/mo) but supposedly higher speeds.

Everyone in the household has a cell phone (using Ting, about $40 for 3 phones, but I may look at Mint)

I do call overseas to reach some family for an hour a week, sometime they call, but the way their international calling is set up, they get a surcharge for calling a cell phone, so I would have to call them all the time (not a big deal)


Any of you guys still value a land line or am I a dinosaur?

Would adding a free VoiP provider be worth the trouble? Maybe for the international calling? I could use zoom and the like but my parents are technophobes and having a hard time switching a non-telephone system.

We were long time hold outs with keeping our land line. But when we retired and moved we decided to just keep our cell phones. I have an old Iphone6S Plus ( Straight Talk)? and hubby has a flip(Consumer Cellular). Expensive enough.

We have internet and a security system ( that works off cell towers) and we also have fire emergency pulls hooked right into the fire dept. Plus Alexa, who can also make calls.

And we have a little old iPhone SE with no cell service but can also be used on our wireless connection at home.

 

[BasketCase24]

I highly endorse the free Google Voice option. It takes a few steps and a few days to get it set up, but then no more landline fees. I have mine ring to my cellphone, and it requires people to say their name, then it asks me if I want to accept the call. If they DON’T say a name, it just disconnects. Voicemail gets transcribed. I used my old landline number, and that’s what I give to businesses, keep cellphone number private.

 

[Vinnygret]

We pay $25/ cell line but YMMV. You really don’t have cell phones?

I have one, but it is a flip phone and if you plan to call me on it, you'd better let me know so I can be sure to have it turned on. I don't have a job or children, my parents are now dead. I've been using the phone I bought for my father and paid for while he was alive, so I have a consumer cellular plan at less than $25/mo. My prior phone was a pay by the minute flip phone. Husband just got a smart phone through his daughter's plan. I feel pressure to get one b/c there are things you must have one to do. Otherwise, I don't feel a lack without one. I have a blocker for the landline and the one time I felt I REALLY needed a cell phone, all the circuits were busy. Landline worked tho' when I got home.

 

[JDRbole]

We ported our landline number to Ooma, have bought the premium service and are quite happy. Spam screening is spotty .... Voice mails and a 100% call log are available on the internet so that is handy when we are traveling. We have reasonable cell coverage at home but the Ooma VOIP calls are usually less troublesome.
...
Ooma "Telo" basic boxes can be had on eBay for $20-30. There is a serial number on the bottom; you just sign into Ooma on the internet and enter that number to start the simple setup process.

Does Ooma have call forwarding and caller ID?
Thanks

 

[frayne]

What's a land line ?

 

[Vinnygret]

It's a phone that works even if "all circuits are busy" and it never has to be charged. It's very reliable.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I highly endorse the free Google Voice option. It takes a few steps and a few days to get it set up, but then no more landline fees. I have mine ring to my cellphone, and it requires people to say their name, then it asks me if I want to accept the call. If they DON’T say a name, it just disconnects. Voicemail gets transcribed. I used my old landline number, and that’s what I give to businesses, keep cellphone number private.

My son went to visit a friend in Germany with no sim card and relying on Google Voice and Facebook calling for his communications. Free WIFI is everywhere over there and it worked for him. My daughter and her husband went to Japan and arranged to pick up a hotspot at the airport for their time there and that also worked great. I call my family overseas on Facebook and the quality is usually excellent and it's free. Even T-Mobile now defaults to WIFI calling as the preferred method using your minutes allocation.

 

[folly]

You have options.
I have a free Google Voice number as my landline and use it all the time when I'm in the house. It rings to both my cellphone and the house wall phones. If you want to use it as a landline you need to buy a Polycom OBI200 Voip Adapter or if you just want it to ring to your cellphone, no extra equipment needed. After you buy the adapter there is nothing else to pay, it's totally free and I love it. I put $10 on Google back in 2012 for international calls to the UK and still have $4 left. I no longer use them for international calls, I call through Facebook app for free but here is a link to their rates
https://voice.google.com/u/0/rates

I also do the google voice using the OBI except I unplugged it and found I really don't miss it. The cell phones meet our needs. Itwas just a matter of getting use to it. I originally thought I needed that house phone, I liked the feel of the house phone better than the cell but I quickly got use to using the cell. I found this retro telephone handset that plugs into your cell phone on Amazon ($9), it gives you the feel of a house phone when using a cell. If you decide to get a google voice I recommend you have your current house phone number transferred (I think it is called ported to google, the phone companies chg around $20). The reason is assigned google number gets so much spam. Another good feature of the google system is it can convert a voice message to text and send it to your cell. Makes it easier to find that appt time or info. I hate listening to voice msgs on cell phone.

 

[Music Lover]

It's a phone that works even if "all circuits are busy" and it never has to be charged. It's very reliable.

I've never had and don't know anyone who has got the "all circuits are busy" message. My cell phone is just as reliable as a landline, but I don't have to be home to use it.

By the way landlines are known to have connection issues at times. They may be rare but they do exist.

 

[W2R]

I've never had and don't know anyone who has got the "all circuits are busy" message. My cell phone is just as reliable as a landline, but I don't have to be home to use it.

By the way landlines are known to have connection issues at times. They may be rare but they do exist.

After Katrina, neither land lines nor cell phones would connect reliably in this area. The idea of landlines being any more reliable than cell phones in an emergency is a complete joke to anyone who lived in New Orleans in 2005. I tried and tried to report to my work using both a landline in Alabama, and my cell phone, to no avail. My work (the US government, for goodness sake!) could not get in touch with me or anybody else via voice communication, although texting sometimes (not always) came through. At that time I was "anti-texting" so I had previously insisted on Verizon turning my texting off, and they did. When things were normal again I had it turned back on. E-mail also continued to work for some reason so the only way I could report to my work chain of command that I was safe, was by email to our HQ in DC.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I've never had and don't know anyone who has got the "all circuits are busy" message. My cell phone is just as reliable as a landline, but I don't have to be home to use it.

By the way landlines are known to have connection issues at times. They may be rare but they do exist.

I get it often when calling family in Alaska. Usually on "busy" holidays but I do get them; cell to cell call(s).

After Katrina, neither land lines nor cell phones would connect reliably in this area. The idea of landlines being any more reliable than cell phones in an emergency is a complete joke to anyone who lived in New Orleans in 2005. I tried and tried to report to my work using both a landline in Alabama, and my cell phone, to no avail. My work (the US government, for goodness sake!) could not get in touch with me or anybody else via voice communication, although texting sometimes (not always) came through. At that time I was "anti-texting" so I had previously insisted on Verizon turning my texting off, and they did. When things were normal again I had it turned back on. E-mail also continued to work for some reason so the only way I could report to my work chain of command that I was safe, was by email to our HQ in DC.

I flew some evacuation missions down there after the hurricane and communication via cell phone was nearly impossible. Almost all the phone calls we made had to be made through the airplane's satcom or HF radio (called MARS that was established in 1925 and is nothing more than a network of volunteer amateur radio operators). That was an issue for almost a week if I recall.

 

[BlueberryPie]

Thanks everyone, I figured I'd provide an update and some thoughts.

I did get rid of the landline, par of the motivation to keep it was for emergencies, after all the other VoIP based solution wouldn't help if your Internet or power are down. But the Katrina related comments that it may not be more reliable convinvced me. I also don;t live in the boonies so redundancy is not that important.

I enabled international calling on my cell phone and I'd have to call a whole lot to get even close to what the landline cost before even long-distance costs.

I still have a phone line for my DSL, just not phone service, you don't need phone service to get DSL. I also called CenturyLink and told them I would quit if they couldn't match Comcast prices. they "did me a favor" and beat it by $5 although I'm guessing after taxes, etc... it's wash. I'm also leasing my new DSL modem which adds $15/mo but I plan on purchasing one now that I know the new DSL is table and delivers the advertized speed. Technically the DSL has lower bandwidth than cable, but my friends with Comcast say they don't get the top speeds during busy times.

So I cut my Centurylink bill from $140 (+$15 long distance) to $66/mo and doubled my DSL speed. Shoulda made that call years ago.

Not having a regular phone freed up space on the kitchen counter and my nightstand as a bonus!

My work pays for my cell phone and the wife and kids are on Mint, so $15/month each.

 

[Sunset]

Thanks everyone, I figured I'd provide an update and some thoughts.

.....
My work pays for my cell phone and the wife and kids are on Mint, so $15/month each.

I like Mint for when we go to Canada. I buy international calling on top of my $15 plan, and then can make calls in Canada for 10 cents per minute.
I just refill the International $10 every time it runs down. Texts were 2 cents each.
I don't know prices since covid, but prior to Covid it was the cheapest phone service I could have in Canada and zero commitment as I'd just by a 3 month special.

 

[ncbill]

Thanks everyone, I figured I'd provide an update and some thoughts.

I did get rid of the landline, par of the motivation to keep it was for emergencies, after all the other VoIP based solution wouldn't help if your Internet or power are down. But the Katrina related comments that it may not be more reliable convinvced me. I also don;t live in the boonies so redundancy is not that important.

I enabled international calling on my cell phone and I'd have to call a whole lot to get even close to what the landline cost before even long-distance costs.

I still have a phone line for my DSL, just not phone service, you don't need phone service to get DSL. I also called CenturyLink and told them I would quit if they couldn't match Comcast prices. they "did me a favor" and beat it by $5 although I'm guessing after taxes, etc... it's wash. I'm also leasing my new DSL modem which adds $15/mo but I plan on purchasing one now that I know the new DSL is table and delivers the advertized speed. Technically the DSL has lower bandwidth than cable, but my friends with Comcast say they don't get the top speeds during busy times.

So I cut my Centurylink bill from $140 (+$15 long distance) to $66/mo and doubled my DSL speed. Shoulda made that call years ago.

Not having a regular phone freed up space on the kitchen counter and my nightstand as a bonus!

My work pays for my cell phone and the wife and kids are on Mint, so $15/month each.

Loved my old DSL line but AT&T never offered anything faster than 6 MBps download here, so when they price increased to $50/month I moved over to cable for 10x the speed at around half the price.