2:13 am
Anyone using any sort of internet type phone service? I'm looking to "fire my phone company." Anyone with any real world experience?
2:30 am
I switched to an OOMA box last year after reading a Consumer Reports article on it. Purchased at Costco for $200 and another $40 to retain my old phone number. 911 still works, no computer to leave on, no charge for any calls in the US, only charge is $2 every month in taxes. http://www.ooma.com
3:26 am
Club Member
January 20, 2009
Offline Ooma!
5:40 am
January 7, 2003
Offline All we use are cell phones. Fired the phone company some months back. Found over the last few years we were never using the land line we were paying $29 a month for. Thought of doing something like magic jack in addition to the cells, but there is no reason for it. My dad is up in the hills and cannot get cell service at his place so it his stuck with some kind of land/internet line. Are you in that same position?
3:08 pm
Cell phones are a bit sketchy at my house so we're trying to keep something. Our internet connection has improved a ton and I'm tired of $30/month for no long distance. Everything is long distance from my house. 😐
I'll look into Ooma. Looks like the highest cost up front, but can't be beat after that? It'll pay for itself pretty quick and I can keep my old number? Quality is good?
4:50 pm
Who is your internet with? By "improved" do you mean in uptime or bandwidth? Using any net-phone will of course be slave to that.
My only experience, if its worth anything, was with Vonage. It was back when they first started and I used them from like 2002 to 2006 or something. Worked great and was no brainer relative to cost/features of Telco. However, Comcast...started messing with them. I believe its all sorted now since Vonage is going pretty strong now. Quality was good, again, dependent on your net connection overall. There are Quality of Service (QoS) settings that can be used to improve, if needed. For example, to make the Vonage phone traffic be a priority over other net traffic.
We have been Cell bound for 4+ years or so now, Verizon currently. Spotty cell service doesn't seem a helpful factor in this part. However, Sprint does have a decent wireless service for this type of application. Something like ~20/mth iirc.
Hope that helps.
5:42 pm
My internet is with SmarterBroadband (http://www.smarterbroadband.co...../Index.htm). It's fixed wireless. No cable/DSL/etc in my area. It's improved over satellite (by a mile) which we had for a while and improved over the speed we started with. It's fast enough to stream video and they say it can be used for VoIP.
6:55 pm
Club Member
January 20, 2009
Offline We've had Ooma for about 1 1/2 years and have never had any quality issues. Before that we had Vonage and the quality was fine but moved to Ooma for the overall cost savings. Once you buy the Ooma device you just have to pay the monthly taxes. It's paid for itself already. We have a 3Mbps connection.
10:06 pm
Wow.
The provider looks real good there Bender. Either Ooma or Vonage would work for ya. I thought majic jack used Telco lines?
Good luck
1:40 am
I have been using Vonage since 2005 and am still using it. I am contemplating using NetTALK, however. Mostly, I am trying to get the monthly bills down. I have had only a few problems with Vonage, and that was when I first started. I was getting interference but they cleared that up. Then the Vonage router went. They curriered a new one to me and I was up and running. I have enjoyed hundreds of dollars of savings as we live on the West Coast and our family is on the East Coast. Some reports claim that Vonage is not compatible with fax use. I have used, and continue to use, a fax on the line, though I do disconnect it after use to keep calls from going to it. I moved to a different part of town, set up the modem and router and was back on line right away. I like the way I can check the billing and calls online. I know who called and when. Vonage also sends me an e-mail when a message is left on voicemail. I can also set up my service to give me the message in print to my e-mail.
The only beef I have with Vonage is the monthly bill now that the kids have their own cell plans with free LD. So now I want to save even more by getting rid of the monthly bill in favour of a small yearly one. I would gladly stay with Vonage if they would give me the same billing.
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