WARNING!! This information is only of interest to those who have, or are shopping for cheap, flexible phone service and are thinking of VoIP.
We needed a cheap house phone. We were tired of the increasing costs for our AT&T service. It had become a problem.
Someone mentioned VoIP phones to me, and since I like anything "techie" it appealed to me. VoIP phones work with high-speed internet. You use a device which plugs into your incoming high speed service. You then plug your phone (or in our case a rechargeable wireless phone with several "bases") and you can have phone service. True, you have to subscribe to both the high-speed internet and the phone service, but the total cost was/is less than we were paying for a house phone.
My first try at a VoIP phone was with my local high-speed wireless provider, "Speednet"
I still use Speednet high speed for wireless internet service. You may not have Speednet in your area, but VoIP service may still be possible, provided you have high speed internet. (In Florida, we use Brighthouse high-speed.)
Speednet charged me $34.95 for wireless internet service and $29.95 for unlimited phone service. It was a savings from the price we were paying for slow dial-up service with AT&T standard local and long distance.
After using Speednet for both the wireless internet and the unlimited phone service for about a year, we discovered Vonage. Vonage was more reliable, had more features, and was CHEAPER, so I switched our VoIP phone service to Vonage (both Speednet and Vonage let you "port" or move your existing phone number. What we liked best about Vonage was that I could take my Vonage phone device to Florida when we went down there on vacation. When plugged into any high speed internet service, our Michigan phone number works. With Vonage, instead of playing $29.95 for unlimited phone, I contracted with Vonage for their $239.99 Annual Residential Premium Unlimited Plan.
With so many "snow birds" like us, it's a perfect system. You bring your phone with you and your phone number follows you!!
It's wonderful folks from our "home town" feel they are calling locally. No one even know we're away. (It gives us comfort because any one trying to find out if we are home by calling our phone number, won't know we're in Florida.
Ok, so that takes care of our one phone, but how do I get a second line? Afterall, if you're in Florida six months out of the year, you don't want your Florida friends to have to call long-distance to reach you when you're right there in their neighborhood.
I discovered "MagicJack" A Magic Jack is also a VoIP phone. It works through the USB port of your computer. I use MagicJack when I am in Florida and my husband's back in Michigan. But the true advantage of MagicJack VoIP service is that they give you a FREE phone line with your MagicJack device. We got the MagicJack phone line for the area where we have a place in Florida. The advantage is that we can forward our MagicJack line to our regular phone numbers. That means that we have two lines. Our Michigan number which is a Vonage number is 989-781-0849. (We ported over our AT&T number so we have never lost our 23 years of continuous service on that phone number.)
Our MagicJack number is a Florida (Hillsborough County) phone number. You can select from phone numbers in most areas. Here are the "area codes" that are available. We paid for five years for $99. (Now you get six years.) Unless I'm in Florida, we have our MagicJack set to forward to our regular phone number.
I suppose we could get by even cheaper with just two MagicJack phones, but MagicJack must be plugged into a running computer to hear it ring. (It will forward without the computer on, but it doesn't work well with wireless phone systems like the Panasonic Expandable Digital Cordless Phone four unit system we use with Vonage.) So here's what our phone service costs us for a year:
Vonage service is $239.99 Annual Residential Premium Unlimited Plan.
Magicjack is $99 for six years or $16.50 for a year!!
That means that we pay less than $22 per month for our service which gives us two local numbers
Admittedly this does not include the cost of the high-speed internet but I assumes you would want high speed internet regardless of what
phone service you have. We have a phone line in Florida and one in Michigan) and unlimited local and long distance. We
also have phone forwarding to our cell phone. We have 911 service.
I highly recommend our two line system. If you only one one phone number, you'll save $16.50 per year.