I am moving soon from my house to a condo and considering what to do about my home phone. I’ve had this number for 36 years and it is portable. It just doesn’t seem practical to pay Verizon or Comcast each month for the occasional call from a relative or business along with the incessant solicitations which I ignore.
So, does anyone use MagicJack Plus 2014? Is it really now providing the uninterrupted, clear calls it advertises? With the caller ID, call waiting features? MIL had MJ years ago and it was abyssmal.
I hesitate to switch everything to my cell; I’m still of the mindset that it should be for emergencies or close family/friends. But for those of you who went cell only, how was the transition?
We switched our home phone number to my wife’s cell phone. I work from home and switched my office number to my cell. It has worked out great. I would never have a home line again.
We have it. It’s fine, can’t tell any difference from before. You have to dial the area code even if you’re calling across the street. I don’t know why we still have a landline, exactly, but Magic Jack is so inexpensive, why not?
We have used Magic Jack as our “home phone” for 7 years now. It was pretty bad when we had it plugged into our kitchen laptop (using wireless internet). I tried unsuccessfully to teach my wife to pick up the phone and pause before saying “hello” because there is a lag. She insists on picking up the phone thusly: "Hello? Hello? HELLO??? oh… hi!!! " Now it is plugged into my powerful computer upstairs with direct internet connection, but the phone itself has a wireless extension downstairs. It works much better this way. I also have a Google Voice phone number that runs on an Obi device (Obihai technology). I think the Obi can be purchased for about $50 - $60 and then there is no charge for the google voice phone number. Works very well. There is even an inexpensive program that lets you use your magic jack thingy (dongle?) with google voice. Problem is, I don’t think you can port an existing landline number to Google Voice.
Can you port your existing landline # to magic jack, or do they then own the #? That was a problem with other VOI phones services-- they then “owned” your # so held you hostage.
I think everyone should get a google voice number, its free why not?. I hate giving out my cell, because I fear telemarketers will start bugging me constantly. I route my google voice to my cell, and I have it set up so that the caller has to give a name before the call will place. But I digress, I would like to get rid of my home phone too, as no one ever calls on it, but I worry about emergencies. If you call 911 from your cell, sometimes they can only get your general location, and that scares me. I also use the our local phone company for our internet service.
My girlfriend and I are cellphone only, like most people our age. I have mentioned before though that I’d like a home phone for emergencies. We both run out of cell phone battery pretty often. I have a bad habit of continuing to sue it once it gets below 20% instead of putting it down or charging it. Also, someone else mentioned that emergency services can trace a landline easier than a cell. Nonetheless, I haven’t been inspired to fork over more money to AT&T for VOIP. Magic Jack looks interesting though, at $35 for a year. Since its VOIP and not a true landline, wouldnt there still be the problem of location tracing?
Someone recommended porting to Call Centric when I asked about this a while back. I gathered then that once the number was “in the air” so to speak, it could later be ported from Call Centric to Google Voice.
At my address in MD, Verizon’s internet-only option is more expensive than internet plus landline, so the landline stayed. I just have to call them up once a year and threaten to cancel all services to keep the “special temporary bundle rate”.
We pay $55/mo for landline + DSL internet connection. The good thing about our phone is that its NOT digital so still works during power outages. We considered bundling landline with cable, but that would have been digital and no phone during power outages.
We pay $118/mo (including tax) for 4 smartphones with unlimited calling and text, plus 2.5gb 4lte data with TMobile. This is 1/2 the price we were paying with Sprint! We also get free data and text internationally!
I really didn’t want to give up our landline but the expense really did seem like a silly one since only telemarketers and my mother were using it. We gave it up about a year ago and the ‘home’ number is my cell number. the transition was fairly smooth and we don’t miss the old phones. And we sure don’t miss that phone bill!
I switched to ooma about a year ago. $3.50 a month. That way I can keep my home phone # that I have had for almost 20 years. I had been keeping a regular land line for power outages - but finally decided the cost wasn’t worth it. I have had no problems with oooma.
Another vote for OOMA. got the unit from costco. works great.
Had an original Magic jack and it was a piece of garbage.
If you want to keep the number, see if y out can get a triple play w you cable/Internet provider.
Another option that I used for my 86yo mom when she moved to an apartment in a neighboring town and couldn’t port her number, as the new location is still copper wires. Verizon wireless, home phone anywhere (or something like that). It’s only $29+ taxes/fees/month and you get a black box that picks up a cell phone signal and you plug a regular home phone in and you would not know the difference. Only issue is she dependent upon electricity and cell signal.
Here’s a good reason to keep the old landline. The kid was carjacked over the weekend–bad guy took his car, his wallet, his cell phone (nobody was hurt.) Kid doesn’t know anybody’s cell phone number cause he’s used to hitting a button for “mom,” dad," or “sis.” But he remembered the number of the landline and was able to call us and tell the police even without his cell phone.