It finally got to me - although we hardly use our home phone these days (since we get long distance as part of our cell phone plan, and otherwise just don't talk to people), I finally got fed up with paying over $50 to Frontier and ATT for the privilege of having an analog phone line.
The alternatives are two - just use your cell phone, or get a VoIP connection, running off of our high speed internet connection (which itself costs over $40 per month). The cell phone only option is not for us, and we like some redundancy, so that leaves VoIP.
Why didn't I do VoIP before? Well, a three reasons. First of all, historically I didn't trust it from a call quality standpoint. Secondly, I was uncomfortable with losing telephone service in the event of a power failure. Third, there was a time when 911 was not properly supported (now, this is no longer a problem).
The first concern was overcome in two stages - my workplace switched over to VoIP several years ago, and voice quality is just fine, no complaints at all. Then, in the last week, I selected a VoIP vendor, and this vendor lets me choose a "pay by call" plan, which (until you change your number over) can be run from your computer using a "soft phone" - this lets me evaluate voice quality, and sure enough - it is just fine.
This leaves the power failure issue (or internet failure). This is still a valid concern, but for us, I feel an acceptable one. Backup #1, we have cell phones, and backup #2, I have reliable phone service at work. So all told, barring a long, multi-day power failure, I don't see a great problem - in an emergency, we could probably drive to a friend with a real phone :-)
At the time I write this, I have selected a service provider, and made a number of test calls using a soft phone from my computer. The next step is to receive and attach my telephone adaptor, change over my number from ATT, and finally (the joyous part) cancel my phone service with Frontier / ATT.
My expected savings? About $40 per month, or $480 per year. AND - I get cheap international calling too (4 cents to Russia, good quality). Not bad. Once I get the final setup working, I'll write a "here's how to do it" posting, for easy reference by friends.
1 comment:
How can your land line cost $50? We have Frontier basic phone service which costs us $20. Get that and use your cell phone for long distance, you'd come out farther ahead than going VOIP. Assuming of course that cost is your real motivation here ;-)
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