Making the right call for phone service

Is it time to cut the cord? According to a new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , upward of 20 percent of the population no longer has landlines and relies exclusively on cell phones.

[Dadio]

Cut the Verizon landline cord early 2004 to try Skype, and SkypeOut. Like you, I was able to receive inbound calls via cell phone. The savings realized leaving Verizon amounted to around $110-$120 per month. The family here used Skype out to call Europe and the West Coast USA (Verizon calls this Long Distance and charges just too much. Our SkypeOut calling ran us about $60/YEAR. Now Verizon wants me and Comcast also to take there local USA/Canada VoIP for $30/mo. Not going to happen!

A year later we went the distance and took a SkypeIn number so others without Skype could call our PC. The PC now has a USB wireless phone system that has freed us from the PC tether and gives us a wireless range of at least 200 feet while maintaining near CD like call quality. Skype is far more than a 'telephone substitute and I encourage you to checkout all the Skype extras; some are free some cost a little. Skype isn't as techie as some have been lead to believe. Heck, I'm 63 and compared to an MS update, downloading Skype and setting it up is a piece of cake.

[JA Watson]

I wish you well if your business depends on Skype. What are you going to do the next time they have a local service outage, or even a world-wide outage (it has happened), which lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few days?

What are you going to do when you run into a technical problem, and you learn the hard way that it takes a MINIMUM of FOUR DAYS to get any response at all from Skype's so-called technical support, and the answer you finally get will more likely than not be useless garbage?

What are you going to do when Skype's accounting department decides to block your account, disabling any outgoing calls, and as mentioned above takes FOUR DAYS to even answer your plea for an explanation?

If you want good, reliable, SUPPORTED service, take a look at any of the major competitors to Skype - Gizmo5, SightSpeed, or ooVoo.

[liner]

I'm not about to dump my landline. Many, if not most, of the calls I receive from cell phones are of very poor quality, that is words are clipped, dead air, etc. Why would you want to put up with that? And I do know that it's the same with any cell provider.

[George Eastwood]

Reference basic phone service:I have homes in Florida & Pennsylvania with only basic local service. Since I am traveling and living in two regions, cell phone is a necessity. When I need to send a fax, I request an 800 number. If not available, I have taken my fax machine next door to use neighbors land line. Of I don;t abuse the favor.

[liner]

George Eastwood wrote:

Reference basic phone service:I have homes in Florida & Pennsylvania with only basic local service. Since I am traveling and living in two regions, cell phone is a necessity. When I need to send a fax, I request an 800 number. If not available, I have taken my fax machine next door to use neighbors land line. Of I don;t abuse the favor.

Why won't your fax machine work in your two homes? You said basic local service, assume that's a wireline, no?

[Bill Miller]

I recently added voip to my office phone system. Now we can work from anywhere and there is no indication to the clients where the people are. The out going calls go through the phone system so efectivly we are always in the ofice no matter where in the world we are.

[Bill Miller]

I tried majicjack and its a cheap viable way to get into internet pgone calling