Magic Jack

[Shaman97]

Since everyone in the family has their own cell number, we rarely use our home landline to call out to anyone.

In fact, almost all of the phone calls we receive are telemarketers of one type or another. So after looking at our phone bill, we see we are paying ~ $30/month for the priviledge of hanging up the phone on the telemarketers, or just not answering the phone (call screening).

 

Today, I installed a Magic Jack and made a few calls - sound is great. Paid $40 for the chunk of hardware that comes with 1 year of service. After that, $20/year. There are some concerns that if I lose my DSL service, I lose a phone...but I have the cells to use.

 

Anyone else have any experience with this thing?

 

So far, so good.

[ghaverkamp]

I haven't used Magic Jack, but I do use a combination of my mobile, Google Voice, Skype, and Jajah to do my calling. (Add in RingCentral, if you include the business line.)

[CoarsegoldKid]

Hey that sounds like a good idea. I figured that if you canceled your phone service the DSL would go away too. Guess not.

[pbbeck]

There is such a thing called "naked DSL" — that is DSL service without the phone service. You can ask your telephone service provider about it, but they don't tend to willingly let on that naked DSL is an option.

[elkroeger]

I haven't had a land line since, um... lemme think... about 1999. I haven't missed it yet.

[Shaman97]

My DSL bill was $28, but AT&T is running a special: $20/mo for their fastest speed with a 12 mo. commitment regardless of voice plan. If they need a voice plan, you can join your existing cell number to the DSL plan.

 

I was at their slowest speed @ $28/mo.

[Boone60]

My cell phone doesn't work at my home. I have DSL for my computer, and I use Google voice for long distance. How can I get rid of my landline?

[Jerry Johnston]

Have the device and thought the quality was as good as the phone line is. Had a couple of dropped calls and at the end of a year it just stopped working without any warning it was about to become due for the next year and where to pay. It now sits in a drawer waiting until I feel like renewing it.

[Ken H.]

We've got a cell phone gateway installed. Conventional phones, sat. dish for PPV, etc. all operate as always, but the calls come and go via the cell phone network / plan. (Of course we have an 'all you can eat' plan. Two cell phones for $50 month. Hard to beat.)

[JimD]

I have Magic Jack &mhave been mostly please with it. I have to restart it every once in a while when it starts cutting out. I signed up for the 5 year plan for $50 that was available when I got the jack. Their cust service is lacking, but any problem I have had was fixed by restarting the software.