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Telephone Savings - 8/14/2008 8:48:27 PM
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InfoCentral
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We switched from AT&T to Vonage. If you have high speed internet and a regular land line you could save a bundle switching to VOIP for your land line. We were averaging a little over $100 month with AT&T and when we went to Vonage it dropped down to $32 month.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/14/2008 10:11:39 PM
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humbleinspirit
Posts: 17768
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quote:
We've got VOIP (through Primus). We like it. The only thing I don't like is that when the power goes out, so does our phone.
Yeah, I have that problem too, however that is partly because I have a cordless phone now. While I do not have Voip per say, I do have what the cable company calls "digital voice". To the best of my knowledge it is regular phone service, but I am not 100% sure though.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/14/2008 10:29:22 PM
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isaacsmom
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So, I've never understood this . . . . . . I have DSL through AT&T. If I cancel my phone service with them, and go with Vonage, I don't pay for a land line anymore, but AT&T says the DSL requires a land line? How does that work? I'm very interested in switching, just wasn't sure how it works. I think T-Mobile is offering a similar service now as well.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/14/2008 11:44:43 PM
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Ps103
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There is stand-alone DSL, but AT&T (and the other phone companies) don't like to let you know it is there, and if you force it out of them they usually charge top dollar (ie, not worth your while).
You might want to switch to cable Internet if they won't work with you.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/15/2008 12:25:02 AM
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metoo
Posts: 36
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I'm with AT&T. My phone bill is $26.80 per month for my land line AND DSL. I don't think I can do better with it any other way.
I use a dial-around phone card for long distance using my land line. For $5.00 I get 500 minutes which lasts me 5-6 months.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/15/2008 12:25:14 AM
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InfoCentral
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I had AT&T for my land line and as my DSL provider. What I did was first find another competitor in my area for DSL service. For instance Earthlink could provide this service in your area. I decided to use DSLextreme and changed that first. Once I had them as my ISP I then contacted Vonage and told them I wanted them to provide me with service and I wanted to retain my phone number from AT&T. This is important that you do it this way or else you could loose your number. It takes a few weeks for the transfer to complete but they will tell you when the switch will take over.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/15/2008 12:28:33 AM
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InfoCentral
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Or you can call Vonage and they will tell you what you need to do to switch over. I know I talked to them several times before making the jump and I'm glad I did.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/15/2008 10:19:09 AM
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InfoCentral
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Anyone try that Magic Jack that is supposed to give you free unlimited calling for $20/yr.?
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/15/2008 10:21:50 AM
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dianetavegia
Posts: 2031
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My sister in law tried Magic Jack and gave it up. It would cut off her calls constantly.
To get cable where we are, there's almost $300 in installation costs.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/15/2008 10:36:22 AM
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summerdreams
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I had horrible service with Vonage at my office, so I had it cut off. It would break up constantly and gave me a lot of headaches. (Plus, like everything else, it's twice as expensive for businesses than for the home.)
I have an interent/phone/cable plan through my cable company (Brighthouse), that pretty much allows me to have the phone thrown in for free. It's about $160 a month, but includes really high speed internet, phone, and high def cable with DVR and one premium package. We love it, and I rarely have any phone issues.
Back when we were in financial crisis several years ago we had $10 a month internet, no cable and supratelecom phone service. But now that we don't have any credit cards, we have no trouble paying for the nicer service, and I LOVE not having dial up internet.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/15/2008 7:44:59 PM
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InfoCentral
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I see the packaged deals as a new trend. I saw on the TV today a five day deal that ends today $89/month telephone-cable-internet.
On the telephone side over at Best Buy they had one company that says if you buy their hardware for $240 you can have lifetime phone service. I just wonder how long "lifetime" is going to last?
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/15/2008 8:54:49 PM
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PatricksPeaches
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I have my phone and DSL through Cavalier, which used to be Talk America. I get unlimited local and long distance with all calling features and DSL for $50 a month. With taxes and fees my bill is usually $65 a month. It is nice because I can call anywhere in the US and talk all day for no extra cost. I have never had any problems with either service.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/16/2008 1:37:34 AM
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humbleinspirit
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I think that I read within the past 2 weeks that Verizon is now offering stand-a-lone DSL service, however I am not sure though.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/16/2008 12:14:53 PM
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InfoCentral
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I'm in the Verizon area and yes they did supply me a DSL only line. The service tech for Verizon wasn't too nice about installing it knowing that his company wasn't going to be my ISP.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/16/2008 12:19:08 PM
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humbleinspirit
Posts: 17768
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Oh well, that wasn't very nice of them at all.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/17/2008 5:10:21 PM
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InfoCentral
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No, the guy was very mean spirited. Usually, the service tech will tell me how to hook it up. Which color wires he used etc. This guy told me that he was only responsible to hook my line up to the house and it was up to me to do the rest. Well yeah but trying to be as unhelpful as possible isn't supposed to be included!
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/18/2008 10:35:52 AM
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Row1
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some people can have dsl internet without having telephone service through the same company.
but this is on a political basis, by geography, NOT any sort of technology basis.
the federal govt had an issue with one of these phone service provider mergers. i think at&t. this was an anti-monopoly type situation. this was a couple years ago.
the federal govt allowed the two companies to merge under the condition that the phone company allow dsl ONLY - and the phone company got this decision to apply to a certain geographic region or regions where the business would be newer.
i am in at&t's older area - so I am not able to get dsl only. i tried. they did try to tell me that it was technically impossible to have dsl without a land line account, and the person on the phone with at&t was not very interested in hearing that i knew it was technically possible.
so, that explains why there can be two differing but accurate bits of info: yes, some people can get dsl without also having land line from that company, while others cannot have dsl without a landline also. it is not technology but a political decision.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/19/2008 4:42:18 PM
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Abbreviated
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From: Kansas
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Switched from AT&T landline to Sage & saving 20$/mo.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/20/2008 8:03:48 PM
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PrincessDonna
Posts: 10198
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Cow country, Upstate NY
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We have a bundle deal through Time Warner Cable...unlimited phone in North America including all features, basic cable, and high speed internet. $100 for the first year...$125 after that. Our Frontier phone bill alone was $65-75 every month.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/21/2008 10:05:03 AM
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InfoCentral
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Skype is something I would pick up if I could. You get free calls to other Skype users no mater where they are anywhere in the world. You see a lot of missionaries use this service. Most of the computer animators I come in contact with have a Skype number listed on the signature in their e-mails.
I was going to recommend switching to AT&T VOIP service but I see they have closed that option and aren't accepting any new customers for CallVantage.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/22/2008 11:06:58 PM
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pbaribeault
Posts: 1103
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VIOP is a good deal, but I will never switch. Their 911 service goes through a centralized operator / call centre who then relays the information to your local emergency services.
This is because regular phone lines connect you to the local 911 automatically, and the address you are calling from is part of what they can tell from your call, but with VOIP you have to tell the operator where you are calling from (they have the address you provided them, but it could be out-dated if you have moved, so you have to confirm it). If you can't or don't confirm it, if communication is difficult, or especially if, in a panic you confirm an old address... well, there has been one death local to me. (The ambulance was sent in another city while the toddler died without any response.)
They make this very clear, and it is your own responsibility to keep your address up to date, not just your billing address, but a separate piece of information that tells them where to send the services.
This is exactly like calling 911 from a cell phone... but you don't expect them to be able to send services to your call-location with a cell phone. At my house, I want the safety factor of that. No VOIP for me. Not if they offered it for free. I'm not betting lives on my ability to remember to tell my VOIP company if I move.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/22/2008 11:43:25 PM
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danas_mom
Posts: 529
Joined: 6/17/2005
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Abbreviated
Switched from AT&T landline to Sage & saving 20$/mo.
We've been with Sage for a few years also and really like them. We pay between $45 and $50 a month for our landline (300 min free long distance then .04/min after that, unlimited free long distance to other Sage customers, caller id, call waiting, call waiting id, and probably some other features I never use LOL). That's with their next-to-cheapest service. The cheapest one is $5 less, but only has 90 min free long distance with .05/min after that. We usually have about 150 to 200 min a month, so we'd end up paying about the same either way. Their customer service is SO much friendlier than AT&T, it's definitely been worth the switch.
DSL through them would be pretty expensive, that's the only real drawback. But I'd rather have Sage for my phone and a dialup ISP than deal with AT&T.
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RE: Telephone Savings - 8/23/2008 10:28:30 PM
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karlie
Posts: 16428
Joined: 4/10/2005
From: Central California
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quote:
I'm with AT&T. My phone bill is $26.80 per month for my land line AND DSL. I don't think I can do better with it any other way.
Ours isn't much more. Between our internet(through the phone company) and our monthly phone bill, we only pay about $35 a month.
I think plans like Vonage only save you a lot if you make lots of long distance or calls that cost. We use our cells for long distance and only make toll free and local calls on our home phone, so switching wouldn't save us much at all, if anything. It would probably be more in the long run by the time but the time we went elsewhere for our DSL or Cable.
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