The last time I suggested readers nix their land line for a cell phone or computer phone line I was practically booed off the blogosphere. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad. But I was surprised how resistant people were to giving up their land lines.
I’m not campaigning for the end of land lines again, but I am pointing out the cost of two alternatives. A reader named Diana prompted this post when she asked:
Have you ever checked out Vonage, or any of the internet phone line companies? Our AT&T bill is so high for very small usage and I have been wondering about Vonage. Rather nervous about trying it because if you are not happy and want to go back to AT&T, you have to get a new phone number and I imagine they impose fees for reinstating service. We’re not ready to give up a landline for cell phone only.
To help out Diana, and anyone else looking to lower their phone bill, I compared the price of two phone services that operate through your computer. Both require a high-speed Internet connection.
Vonage (most customers can use for 911 calls)
Plan 1: Unlimited local and long distance calls in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico costs $10 for the first 3 months, and $25 per month after that. You also get free calls to five pre-selected European countries. Includes voicemail, caller waiting and caller ID. Caveats: must be a new customer and sign up online. Yearly cost: with taxes and fees it comes to $326.53. Effective monthly cost: $27.21.
Plan 2: Upgrade to $35 a month for 25 visual voicemails and directory assistance. Caveats: must be a new customer and sign up online. Yearly cost: with taxes and fees it comes to $448.35. Effective monthly cost: $37.36.
Plan 3: For $18 a month you can downgrade to 500 outgoing minutes (you have unlimited incoming minutes) for calls to the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. Additional minutes are 3.9 cents each. Includes call waiting, voicemail and caller ID. Caveats: must be a new customer and sign up online. Yearly cost: with taxes and fees it comes to $289.84. Effective monthly cost: $24.15.
Skype (cannot be used for 911 calls)
Plan 1: Download Skype software and it is free to call any other Skype number. Monthly cost: free.
Plan 2 (monthly subscriptions): $3 per month for unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles in the US and Canada. $6 per month for unlimited landline and mobile calls to one country of your choosing. $13 per month for unlimited landline and mobile calls to 40 countries. You can make outgoing calls but not receiving incoming calls as part of these monthly subscription plans. If you want to receive calls you must purchase an online number, which costs $30 for a full year if you have a subscription. Otherwise it is $18 for 3 months or $60 for a full year. Yearly cost, excluding taxes and fees: $36, $72 or $ 156 depending on the plan. Monthly cost: varies.
Plan 3 (pay as you go): Buy Skype Credit to pay a la carte for making calls and sending text messages. You pay a flat rate of 2.1 cents per minute to over 30 countries or pay the going rate to a specific country. Connection fees apply. See all of Skype’s pricing here. Monthly cost: varies.
Vonage seems to be a more direct replacement for a landline, while Skype is great for folks who make a lot of international calls or are not worried about giving up their landline.
How much do you pay for your land line? Would you save money giving it up for a computer phone line?
April 16th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I’m curious to hear from people who have used Vonage. The couple of people I know who have used it, have had bad luck with it. I know people who use Skype in addition to their landline.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Julia,
Thanks so much for taking the time out to look at our service.
One thing I wanted to flag is that Vonage does not require your computer to be on for it to work; it just needs a high speed Internet connection.
Also, our $34.99 Vonage Pro plan also comes with Vonage Companion, which is software that allows you to use your Vonage phone number from your laptop on-the-go.
Feel free to reach out to me via Twitter if you have any other questions. Thanks again.
Michael
Twitter: vonage_voice
April 16th, 2009 at 11:38 am
What about Magic Jack? It looks to good to be true, so I am wondering if it is!
April 16th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Oh and I used to have Vonage and it was a little quirky at times but you can’t beat the price. I found that on rainy days my calls would break up or drop. I have thought about going back to them if I get a good enough deal. Oh one thing I loved about Vonage is I never had a telemarketer call in the 4 years i used them. I get them all the time now, even though I am on the DNC list.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I love Vonage. I’ve had it for about 2 years. It’s cheap and I’ve never had any proplems with the quality of the calls. I tried MagicJack, and it’s great for the price, but I didn’t like having to give up my landline number and I didn’t want to keep my computer on all the time and leave it vulnerable to viruses. Even though I was able to turn off the computer and have the calls forwarded, MagicJack doesn’t give you all of the features that Vonage provides. I understand Google will have a service similar to MagicJack soon. I’ll wait for that.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Since we are in earthquake country, I worry about giving up my land line in case something happens. During the last big quake almost all cell towers and internet services were lost for a period of time. We have been thinking of giving up land lines for our cells since we get free long distance etc but the earthquake threat has been stopping us.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Have you looked at the Ooma system? I am very interested in that, but a little hesitant to pull the trigger…..
April 16th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I’ve had vonage for around 8 months and it is horrible for us. I have at least 3 calls a day drop out while I’m talking to someone and I hear my voice echoing if I’m talking to someone in OC. I do believe the problems stem from my AT&T internet connection though. I need to change carriers but I am so reluctant because I will need to get a new e-mail address and too many people will have to be notified.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
You really had a lot of people concerned about giving up their landlines? I am surprised. I haven’t had a landline for about 4 years and a lot of people I know don’t. I save at least $50 per month by not having a landline. Some people I know do still have the landline but it’s so rarely used.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
My Alarm Monitoring Company warns that any of these low cost alternatives are not as reliable as traditional phone services. Unless you are willing to pay for cellular backup, these are not suitable for a system that monitors an alarm
April 16th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Say no to Magicjack! I had it for six months and hated every minute of it. You must leave your computer on 24 hrs a day or no phone and I had to restart my computer many times during the day. Very poor sound quality! Just say NO to Magicjack.
I have switched to OOMA and love it! The equipment does cost around $200 one time only. Very easy to set and has it own router similar to Vonage but never any monthly bills. Your computer does not need to be on to use! Sound is great! If you break down the start up cost is less than $20 per month during your 1st year. Much cheaper than any land line deal I found. And, yes it has all the bells and goodies, ie. call waiting, caller ID, etc. And, yes I have given up my land line for good!
April 16th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Today I spoke for about two hours with a friend in Brazil. He use BroadVoice. I have no affiliation with the company. Basic cost is $20/month plus buying a cigarette pack sized connection box.
From the Website:
Internet phone service allows residential and business customers to use their cable modem, DSL modem, or other BroadBand Internet connection to make and receive Voice over IP (VoIP) phone calls using an ordinary touchtone telephone. Bring Your Own Device™ (BYOD™) plans allow customers to connect their own SIP devices, including IP phones, softphones, and Asterisk PBXs. SmartSIP™ and SecureSIP™ technologies by BroadVoice optimize the routing of network voice traffic, providing the best possible quality voice transmission for each customer’s phone device, and automatically configures BroadVoice Authorized BYOD™ devices.
ttp://broadvoice.com
Love the Babe.
M.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Thanks for the input on Magic Jack!
April 16th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I have had Vonage for years and haven’t had a problem with it. I live in Virginia and I don’t recall a dropped call. I love it but since I use my cell phone more often am planning on canceling it. The MagicJack doesn’t work with Macs which what I have. Oh, by the way, I have my computer, wireless router and phone adapter, and phone on a surge protector and I turn it all off once I leave the house in the mornings. The voicemail takes the calls or I can listen to them on the computer at work.
April 16th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
I’ve had Vonage twice. Their prices are great, but it kept kicking me off my computer and vice versa. NO internet, NO digital phone. This happened for weeks on end. Finally I got rid of it. After several housecalls from Vonage, he said quite often it does not work well with certain internet carriers, such as Time Warner.
I have since gotten rid of my landline, barely used it. However, I dislike being on cell exclusively, too sensitive, so can’t be on long even with hands free. So maybe Skype is the way for me to go. Have other friends that love it!
Thanks Julia for doing MY homework on this matter!
April 16th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I’m one of the few but we had Vonage and absolutely hated it! The outages were terrible, the customer service is severely lacking, and canceling is a major hassle. We ended up bundling our services and getting a phone through our cable company. Our average phone bill runs about $26, taxes and all, and we’ve purchased a back up battery for outages. It all works great.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:39 am
I would NEVER give up my land line as I am so tired of hearing friends cut in and out or lose me completely on a cell phone. I would also never risk a dropped 911 call.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Kristin, would you care to say which cable company you got your phone service from and whether the whole bundle of services saved you money? Or is it just the cable phone service that is reasonable.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I’ve got magic jack and think it’s fantastic. At first I wasn’t thrilled with it because my computer is stone age with only 128 megs of memory. Because of that it would take a long time for the dial tone to come up and receiving calls was not good either. I have since added 256 megs for a total of 384 megs which is still way under what most people have and magic jack works great now. Clear sound, no missed calls, voice mail, lots of other featurs and best of all no monthly bills. I still have a land line which I hardly ever use so I just have to pay the basic at&t rate. As soon as I get a pay as you go cell I’ll be getting rid of the land line too. Why not try magic jack. It’s only about $20. for the year and there’s a money back guarantee.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
I agree that here in earthquake country, it’s important to have a land line plugged into a jack in the wall. Also, when the power goes out, we need that land line. My mobile service is with Verizon and I like it, but reception isn’t always good and calls do get dropped. My dsl is with Time Warner, and occasionally the cable service goes down. I never have a problem with dropped calls or reception on my land line. I do love using Skype for video conferencing. Bargains from the Babe continue to be spot on!
April 17th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I would never give up my landline because of earthquakes. I rarely use the land phone and use my cell for almost all calls but the peace of mind is worth it. We also have an office line set up through cox cable but a squirrel recently chewed through an outside line and it took 24 hours to get it repaired. The battery back up did not work because the incoming line was down. if there is a “big one” it could be days before power is back up so we will keep the hard line and an old fashioned non-battery operated phone.
April 18th, 2009 at 11:02 am
I see that people say that they hardly ever use their
landlines to talk, but I use it alot. It is not always
so now, but I have been told that cell and even
phones that have rcievers so you can carry it around
the house are not secure and almost anyone can
tune in and hear your conversations. Supposedly
landlines are more secure. I know someone who
has devices that can hear cell phone conversations.
hey maybe I am paranoid but I feel more secure
doing sensitive business over landlines like paying
bills or talking to Government Offices that ask for
your Social Security number etc. And of course the
better bet of having a landline in case of earthquakes. I do pay a premium price for unlimited
calling in all states all the time from AT&T, which
is $50-$60/month but can afford it (just barely)
but call family in other states Alot. and only use
my cell for emergencies.
April 18th, 2009 at 11:30 am
the law of attraction, we’ve all heard it before… what we think about we bring about… we mustn’t see the glass half empty and wait for an earthquake. I’ve heard, it’s the metro and boost type plans that allow people/law enforcement to listen in. Any phone can be “tapped.”
I for one like the less is more approach in everything. If I continue to choose to NOT have a landline, I know darn well most every neighbor will… in the event of an emergency. I prefer that comfort over paying for a phone I rarely use and merely sits there taking up space and collecting dust.
I believe, thanks to Julia, Skpye will be plenty for me
April 18th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Let us not forget, that many counties also allow you to sign up your cell phone for those emergency, reverse 911 calls. As a former resident of San Diego County, they encouraged that during fire season so everyone could be reached. You can also add your email address because the reality is you aren’t always near your landline. I’m sorry I don’t have the sign up link handy…
April 20th, 2009 at 8:51 am
I just renewed my Magic Jack. I like it fine.
Yes, my computer must be on for it to work, but I don’t mind. It’s not my primary number, it’s what I use to call long distance – which can sometime be across Los Angeles . . .
Since it’s only $20 /year and you can use any regular phone with it, I like it.
I had Skype, but they kept raising the rates, and you have to use a special phone or headset with it.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:15 pm
We’ve had Vonage for three years, the $18/500 minute plan. We’ve had some sporadic problems with quality, but I think quality is going to depend on your cable or DSL service, whichever you use for broadband internet.
The only reason we have Vonage is that it’s a cheap way to have a phone number to give out to everyone that you don’t want calling your cell phone. The people we want to talk to all have our cell phone numbers.
One nice feature with Vonage (and I’m sure other VoiP services have a similar feature) is that when someone leaves a voicemail, you can configure Vonage to forward a WAV file of the voicemail to your e-mail, so I can see if someone calls while I’m at work, and listen to their message.
April 26th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Julia, your research regarding Vonage had the caveat of must be a new customer. Some of these companies do attract with great first-year prices, then bring out the “bigger guns” for succeeding years. What about Vonage in this regard or any of the other companies?
April 27th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I became so exasperated with AT&T that I changed to Vonage a week ago. Got a temporary number and the box in two days. I set it all up and in no time had a working phone line. Just issued the order today to bring my AT&T number to Vonage (If they don;t try and stymie me on that, I’ll eat my hat).
So far, on my comcast 15M/2.6M connection it is working great. The only thing I notice now is that when I make a Skype call, both skype and vonage try to handle the call, and it’s laughable.
Until I get this problem fixed, I’m going to have to shutoff my Vonage box occasionally. I don;t like that, but I’m sure I’ll find a solution. In any event, it’s worth not having to deal with AT&T ever again!