OT: Vonage,magic Jack?

[Daveroo]

Hi all,ive been without a phone for a couple months now in an effort to save money,my dad is all anal about it,he says he is worried about something happening to me during the night or something and he wants me to have a phone,but to connect back to ATT,which i gave up long ago,( i had a cellphone)and have to a landline,i have to install about 200 ft of cabling ,new boxes on dads house,my pole near my shed,and then put a box on my RV,plus its 49.00 to connect,and another 69.00 to bring in a "drop" from the pole across the street.they will not double,or go on top of my "high speed,DSL line"....bottomline...i cant afford all of that....

i got an ad in the mail yesterday from Vonage 9.95 a month,the "box" to connect to my DSL/Modem is free(normally 70.00) until 11-29(?),and no connection fee.....im tempted....but ive also seen ads on the pc for...6 months at 9.95 if you act now,so will my fees go up with the offer i got in the mail?..what is vonage's normal fee?...

and is magic jack the better deal> 69,00 for the equipment,29.00 a year,no monthly fee?...but is there any chatches with that?..and are there any other things out there like these?

[Ickie]

I have had a MJ since they came out, I called verizon 4 years ago and told them to get their crap out of my house, and I have never looked back. My unit which is paid up until 1 more year has to be plugged into a computer to work thus the computer needs to be on 24/7.
The new MJ units can plug into your router or wall plug as I understand it, no computer nessessary.
The cons is you need high speed internet, my old 5 meg download speed was OK and now my 40 MBPS speed is awesome. I do not know how they work on the slow 1.5 MBPS DSL .
I hope this answers your question.:icon_lol:

[Ickie]

one more con, to call your neighbor, you need to include the area code, thats just how they work.:isadizzy:

[aircav1970]

Dave,I've been a Vonage customer for several years now and I have never had a problem with their service,the vonage modem hooks right up between your internet modem and your computer and you are good to go.My bill is $34.00 bucks a month and I can call anywhere on it with no other fees involved.I can recommend it as a solid alternative to a regular land-line.

[n4gix]

If you are poor (like me) or disabled you qualify for a FREE cellphone. There are many providers out there that participate in this US Government sponsored program. I've had one from SafeLink now since January 18, 2012...

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enrollment/Safelink/en/Public/NewHome.html

Everyone qualified receives 250 minutes per month free, and unused minutes rollover to the next month. Currently, I have 1233 minutes available, and 137 Service Days before I have to do an Annual Renewal (automatic via website). There is also a requirement that you make at least one phone call a month (or receive one) to keep the service.

Anyone on Food Stamps or Medicaid automatically qualifies. See this FCC website for further details on eligibility and availability from participating providers:

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/lifeline-and-link-affordable-telephone-service-income-eligible-consumers

The major advantage of a cell phone is that you can carry the thing in your pocket, take it to the bathroom, etc. I even sleep with the thing "just in case" I need it. Several years ago before I had my back surgery to fuse L3 L4, and repair some disc damage, I got trapped on the bathroom floor for thirteen stinking HOURS before I managed to drag myself back to the bedroom, take some pain meds and recover from the ordeal.

If I had had my LifeLink phone then I could have called for help!

[srgalahad]

If you are going with a VOIP system (Voice over IP) one thing to check (carefully) is the 911 capability.

In many cases, since VOIP is not tied to a location, and is not GPS-trackable, 911 call centers cannot determine your location in the sort of emergency where you cannot verbally give an address.
We had a case here a couple of years ago where a child died because the caller was too stressed to be coherent and the VOIP phone was last addressed (for billing) 1500 miles away.

[capun]

I have Vonage for at least a couple of years, specially to call South America. Before Vonage, either I had to pay lots of money to AT&T or use companies that you have to dial a special number, wait then dial the receiving phone number, big hassle. Now its a flat rate, talk as much as you want for the same price, but depending on the country (and the Vonage plan) calling a cell-phone costs extra.

Most of the times I get good connections, if not I just hang up and dial again. And really I don't know if the problem is Vonage or the land line at the other end.

A lot of companies give you the "special" rate for a period of time, like Comcast gives you a "teaser" rate for 6 months.

Also remember that the quoted rate price does not include all of the extra "fees" that you get charged automatically.

[hey_moe]

What bothers me in this day and time is all the hidden things these companies forget to tell you. Take your phone bill for example. They quote you a price of fifty bucks of so. Then when you get the bill it seventy five bucks. When you call them up they tell you they don't have anything to do with the taxes, wire fees...ect..ect. Same thing goes with cable TV, Internet, cell phones. There are so many hidden fees that they forget, wait, not forget but don't bother to tell you. They already know what the bill will be because it shows up on there screen. Here is an example of crap that Verizon does to it's customers. Linda's has a smart phone and it was time to replace it because the screen was starting to act up, anyway when I went in to the Verizon store to get her a updated phone the first thing the salesman said was she is up for a FREE upgrade.There is no such thing as a free upgrade. When I asked him how much the cell phone will be he stated it will remain the same or a few dollars more. I was paying 162.22 a month. The last three bill have been 183.87. I know you are saying well we are only talking about twenty bucks or so but my thing is that wasn't what I was told from the beginning. What should have been said was there will be 120.00 or so increase a year. But for some reason they forget that part...lol. It's not just Verizon that does this but as far as I am concerned every cable,phone, cell phone, internet you name it does this. The only way to stop this is not to get any of it. Same thing when you get a hospital bill, how the hell can make ends meet when you try and read and understand it.:isadizzy::isadizzy:

[Ickie]

MJ has a straight and forward fee, $69,00 for the equipment,29.00 a year.
when I got my MJ is was $20 for the jack and 20 a year, (I got in on a deal they made me at the begining, they needed money, it was $50 for 5 aditional years, and I am kicking myself for not buying 20 years, lol)
they have their own find ya someone 411, and 911 services.

[SSI01]

Ickie - My wife wants to know what exactly does MJ do? Is it for phone calls, or internet, or both? Can you use it for cable or satellite TV? Is it for telephone communication only? Without burdening you for the response, can you tell me what MJ says you can do with their service besides save the money? Thanks:salute:

[n4gix]

You must already have a high-speed internet connection (cable) before you can use Magic Jack!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagicJack

magicJack is a device that plugs into a USB port on the user's computer (or in the case of magicJack Plus, plugs directly into a router), and that has a standard RJ-11 (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/Registered_jack) phone jack into which any standard phone can be plugged. This allows the user to make unlimited phone calls to U.S. (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/U.S.) and Canada (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/Canada). It is a computer peripheral (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/Peripheral) that, in combination with telephony (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/Telephony) service from the related YMAX Corporation, provides Internet-based telephone service (VoIP) (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/Voice_over_Internet_Protocol) to the United States (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/United_States) and Canada (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/wiki/Canada). In 2011 the company introduced magicJack Plus, which no longer requires a computer.