It’s almost that time for me to renew my agreement with Verizon Fios. I like Verizon, don’t have problems with them. we still have our landline, which I’d like to keep. What are my options if I want to switch to something else? I have seen the ads for Ooma, Vonage, etc. Just not sure about the pros and cons. Any ideas or suggestions?
We just use our cellphones.
From what I know, Verizon in most places has replaced their traditional “land lines”, the old twisted pair copper phone lines we remember, the ones that could work when the power went out, etc. These days, they are replacing that basically with the same phone service you get if you formally get FIOS. My “landline” now uses the FIOS router hardware. Likely your ‘landline’ by now is running off the FIOS box, not the old copper landline, if not, it soon will be (that copper they are ripping out is worth a fortune).
Basically, all modern phone services, whether it be on FIOS or a Cable phone service, use what is called voice over IP (or voice). Instead of being an analag voice connection over wire, your call is routed over the internet now different than when you IM or access web sites, your call is broken up into IP packets, sent on the net, routed via the net. If the user on the other end is on VOIP, it will get to them over the internet;. if they are on a cell phone or a true landline, the phone company on the other end will get the call from the net, and then put it onto their cell network or to the landline user.
Ooma, Vonage, etc basically hook your phone up to the internet connection you have (broadband), but they basically do the same thing, it is VOIP.
@chuckdoodle, do you get a seperate bill from Verizon for your ‘landline’, or is it part of your FIOS bill? I don’t have fios but through laziness and procrastination, I still have my ‘landline’ and it is expensive, if you are doing that you may want to see if you can include it in your FIOS bundle, it will be cheaper, and basically would be an accounting difference if your landline already uses fios (and given that you have FIOS in your house, I am about 99% certain they yanked the copper when they put that in).
@musicprnt we have Frontier landline. It is NOT VOIP which we specifically asked NOT to have.
We keep a wal phone hardwored landline. It’s cheap cheap. Gets great reception all the time when our cell phones often do not…and rheynare part of our bundle with our internet.
Verizon refused to maintain my “copper” landline. If something goes wrong, they have to send out a repairman making it expensive. With a FIOS box, they can manage remotely.
@thumper1:
I don’t know Frontier landline, where I live (and I suspect with chuckdoodle) the landline doesn’t physically exist any more,Verizon no longer offers the landline (likely because they have taken down the copper wiring). Frontier seems to still offer the landline service, other providers don’t offer that option. Frontier if you get their internet service offer VOIP as well I noticed. Almost all phone carriers are moving away from landlines (physical copper connection), it is very expensive to maintain it compared to fiber, and they can make some nice revenue selling the copper cable once they remove it shrug.
Yes…I COULD get VOIP…but I declined that option. I want a phone that works when my internet is out. And Frontier offers that were I live.
@thumper1:
I understood that, some phone providers still offer landlines, Verizon has actively been getting rid of them over the past several years and the other carriers are doing that, they don’t even give you the option, and since chuckdoodle is on verizon it is likely they won’t, either (could be Verizon hasn’t hit their area yet, there are still plenty of areas that don’t offer FIOS at all, but obviously they have it, and they may not have finished getting rid of landlines in all place shrug).
One of the reasons I kept a landline was my wife was paranoid that if we lost power, we would lose phone service, that became moot when they took that away:)
Same as thumper. Old fashioned landline, still offered by Frontier, and we keep it because when the power goes, everything else goes including cell service in my neck of the woods.
Yep…same as BB! And whenever the power goes out…and along with it cell and internet…and VOIP, our neighbors come here to let their families know they are OK.
So jealous of those of you who still have the possibility of true wired-in phone service! Our neighborhood was switched over to FIOS before we moved here. There is a battery back-up that is supposed to permit phone service for “up to 8 hours” in case of a power outage that takes down everything else, but I’ve never had an opportunity to test it out.
Options:
- Cell Phone
- Voip
- Send smoke signals
@musicprnt et al. We still have the phone plugged into the wall- the normal landline. I do know what VOIP is and we have Verizon FIOS, but they include my landline in my current bundle. I like when power goes out I still have the ability to call someone.
One concern some folks I’ve known have had with the switch to VOIP vs copper is the obsoleting of phone and fax equipment/faxmodems they still rely on for their home businesses/communications.
Especially considering when I was working a corporate IT gig a decade ago, one thing we had to check is to ensure no one plugs in an analog phone/fax machine/modem directly into the corporate digital phone lines as doing so could possibly cause them to burn out because of the voltage/wiring differences.
Not sure that’s still the case, but I still have some older neighbors and clients who would be mighty peeved if they find their analog phone/fax machine/fax modem on computer is effectively put out of commission because of the trend in replacing analog phone lines with digital/VOIP ones.
we still maintain a home phone number (not a land line) that I use for interactions with businesses or organizations that might call me, but that are not anything that needs to be urgently answered. I like to reserve my cell phone for important calls - I don’t want it constantly buzzing at work when the call either doesn’t require response or the response can wait till the next day. I purchased service through NetTalk - was able to keep my same home phone number, costs me $30/year, small device that plugs into my router (you can get wifi ones now). I also have any messages that are left sent to my email, so I can easily check a message during the day if it does seem important.
It’s also handy when H is the only one home and either let his cell battery drain or left the phone at work :))
The Powers That Be had better not discontinue my landline because cell phone service inside my house is terrible. Calls often get dropped, and even when they don’t, it’s often hard to hear the other person. I have to stand up against one of the windows in the back of the house to have any chance at all of having a coherent cell phone conversation. Sometimes, when I need to make an important call, I take my cell phone and drive to a different street with better reception, thus turning my car into a phone booth.
Cell phones may have revolutionized society, but at least in some locations, they’re terrible for making actual phone calls.
@chuckdoodle:
That is interesting, in my area they converted everyone with land lines over to FIOS, you had no choice, they removed the physical copper wiring. From what I understand that is the game plan with most phone companies, they plan on getting rid of the copper network over the next 5-10 years or so.
There are issues with the VOIP implementaiton, 911 calls work differently and yes, if the power goes out you lose service unlike the old copper service. FIOS has a battery backup (which is freaking annoying, I have to reset it like once a month, starts beeping basically for no reason) that is supposed to work for 8 hours, and you can always have something like a generator as well. One person I know (not too bright) was happy to have a land line, but all their phones were wireless phones that require power to operate and when they lost power, found they couldn’t make a call (they didn’t have a plain jane phone around to plug in in that case). The only advantage network based phones might have are in the case of wires going down the fiber and cable network might be more resilient from I have heard (obviously, not if it is the connection to the house itself), but not certain of that either.
When I had for the first time experienced an ATT landline problem (no dial tone) a few years ago, which the tech fixed the following day and attributed to a battery problem, I knew it was time to ditch the ever increasing and suddenly unreliable landline. I’ve had Ooma since then for less cost and is amazingly reliable as my fast Internet connection. I need to hang on to this Ooma Internet phone for alarm continuity. Plus the benefit of Ooma’s call screening/blocking features.
Revising this thread to get updates as we are considering ditching the landline and getting VOIP. Is ooma the best option? Can it handle 2 phone lines if we decide to keep both (probably wont, but its an option).
We went with Ooma about a month ago and one of the reasons was because our landline went out the last time the power went out! That was the only reason we were keeping it. We now just have internet - no cable no land line. We were not able to keep our old home phone number, but really we’ve found that most of our land line phone calls were our kids or surveys. And the kids, while they complained, just call us on the cell phones. We didn’t have to change phones, hook up was easy and we’re saving $20/month.