Help me drop my land line

[Dalton63841]

Isn't that unlimited outbound only for Skype? Don't they charge separately for inbound calls?

I had those dinky MagicJack devices, and while it served a basic purpose for $40 a year, I didn't want the software sitting on my desktop, especially knocking it out whenever my machine wasn't logged in or in the middle of a reboot. So, I picked up an Ooma for $160 and been pretty satisfied since, with unlimited inbound and outbound, and I was able to port my old telco number.

On this note about the software on your desktop. There is a product out called the Nettalk Duo. It is the same type of thing as the MagicJack, but no software as it plugs directly into the router. Slightly more expensive, but from what I have heard it actually has customer service and they are supposed to be a little better.

Myself I use a MagicJack but its hooked up to a computer being used as a headless file server so, I never have to look at it.

 

[RenoG]

Dropped the land back in August, should have done this years ago.

 

[mpossoff]

correct.

as the second posted said look into skype. OR, if you use ATT and have a plan with A list. Set your Google number to one of your A list contacts. That way you have unlimited calls with your google number.

Hi if I decide to go this route cause I have a-list is this a VoIP solution? I'm not happy with any of the VoIP solutions currently.

 

[sjinsjca]

Good lord! I'd rather pay the ATT fee than do all that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Harrumph. Setup took me perhaps an hour including recording my outgoing voice messages and a bit of tinkering.

And, as predicted, my monthly cost has dropped from over $30 a month to less than $5.

The result is transparent to friends, family and wife. Our number is unchanged, the house phones are unchanged, 911 still identifies our location to the emergency services, the voice quality is superb, and the additional voicemail functionalites are incredibly handy, such as the emailed voicemail recordings.

Oh, and my little voicemail trick completely eliminated the election-time robo-callers. You have no idea how blissful that was.

Worth the effort IMHO. We've now done the same thing in our vacation home.

 

[Maverick1337]

I haven't had a landline in about 3 years. My wife and I have cell phones...that's all we need.

Same. But it's been about 6 years. The only people who called the house were telemarketers and "politicians." The people we knew just called our cell phone so it seemed redundant to have 2 phone services.

If you're worried about going over minutes, fear not. Rollover minutes rock and we never even use our rollover minutes in the first place. I looked at our bill one time and we had over 13,000 rollover minutes saved up.

 

[Mliii]

Same. But it's been about 6 years. The only people who called the house were telemarketers and "politicians." The people we knew just called our cell phone so it seemed redundant to have 2 phone services.

If you're worried about going over minutes, fear not. Rollover minutes rock and we never even use our rollover minutes in the first place. I looked at our bill one time and we had over 13,000 rollover minutes saved up.

My situation precisely...it's what finally motivated me to can my landline. And from time to time, I will need to fax something. That's why there is Kinko's or whatever they are calling it these days. For incoming faxes, I use e-fax. Used to be that faxes happened every day. Now, it's less than once a month. E-mail has supplanted it for me. And I do not miss the telemarketers OR the politicians...

 

[mstrze]

If you're worried about going over minutes, fear not. Rollover minutes rock and we never even use our rollover minutes in the first place. I looked at our bill one time and we had over 13,000 rollover minutes saved up.

Yes, I agree on the rollover. I think too many people think they use more minutes than they actually do. Some must, surely, but in my 2-phone household, we are lucky to use 150 minutes a month on our 550-minute plan. I have rollover minutes expiring every month since we never use them.

If you don't go over your current plan's minutes now, have rollover minutes 'in the bank', have good home cell coverage, AND rarely or never speak on your landline, there is absolutely no need to waste that $30 or so a month.

Give yourself a yearly $360 raise!

 

[Dbrown]

I believe that GV is not a VoIP app, if you want VoIP go for skype or just use your regular mobile number.

google voice is VOIP. You can make VOIP from gmail using a computer.

OP you can use GV as your VOIP but you have make your GV number your "real" number. Once you do set up GV to forward calls to your cell and google talk (any computer running gmail/google talk). When you are home and you get an incoming call both will ring. Answer only on your computer. Obviously you will want to make outbound calls on your computer too.

Call quality is great, and the best thing about it is that if you already have a GV number and use gmail all you have to do is make sure google talk is one of the forwarding numbers and you are set.

 

[red5ive]

I would suggest getting a MicroCell if you are dropping your land line and service isn't that good. I get one bar of Edge at home, so I got a MicroCell and all calls are crystal clear.

 

[H00513R]

If you have a cell phone then you are good. I just dropped mine a couple of months ago. I haven't missed it as all I got on it were calls to donate to my alma maters or police, or political calls. So glad to get rid of it!

 

[mpossoff]

I'm dropping our landline after testing google voice. It works great and you don't need a wifi or data connection. Skype for me isn't consistent in call quality. Google voice is extremely better than skype. I think and I'm not sure google voice runs off the 2g network which is good enough for voice calls from my research.

 

[QuarterSwede]

The only good reason I have read in this thread for keeping a landline would be if you had a security system that needed one

Some, like ADT require a stable line. That's either a land line, reputable and approved VOIP service like Vonage or their own cell service. It's the only reason my wife and I haven't dropped our land line. I could live without a security system but she doesn't feel comfortable at home without one and me.

 

[mpossoff]

google voice is VOIP. You can make VOIP from gmail using a computer.

OP you can use GV as your VOIP but you have make your GV number your "real" number. Once you do set up GV to forward calls to your cell and google talk (any computer running gmail/google talk). When you are home and you get an incoming call both will ring. Answer only on your computer. Obviously you will want to make outbound calls on your computer too.

Call quality is great, and the best thing about it is that if you already have a GV number and use gmail all you have to do is make sure google talk is one of the forwarding numbers and you are set.

If GV is VoIP I'm able to make calls easily with no problems without a wifi or 3G connection. I thought you needed a wifi or 3G connection for VoIP?

 

[el-John-o]

My family built a house in 2002, when we built it we decided not to even hook it up FOR a landline. You won't find any phone jacks or a network box mounted outside. We also have AT&T's LOWEST minute package, and have 2,000 rollover minutes right now. We call everyones cellphone and most folks we talk to have AT&T (granted they are the only ones who offer consistent service out here to that helps, not alot of Sprint/T-Mobile/Etc. out here), in fact I just looked and so far on this billing period I've used 760 mobile to mobile minutes and 8 anytime minutes!

So yeah, forget about VoIP, use that cell-ya-ler tellyphone.

 

[mpossoff]

My family built a house in 2002, when we built it we decided not to even hook it up FOR a landline. You won't find any phone jacks or a network box mounted outside. We also have AT&T's LOWEST minute package, and have 2,000 rollover minutes right now. We call everyones cellphone and most folks we talk to have AT&T (granted they are the only ones who offer consistent service out here to that helps, not alot of Sprint/T-Mobile/Etc. out here), in fact I just looked and so far on this billing period I've used 760 mobile to mobile minutes and 8 anytime minutes!

So yeah, forget about VoIP, use that cell-ya-ler tellyphone.

Yeah VoIP via cell phone isn't good unless you are sitting and not moving around.

Is google voice VoIP? Reason I ask is because you don't need a wifi or 3G connection and call quality is good. The best thing I like about google voice compared to skype is if I'm a passenger in a moving car I get 100% call consistency which isn't possible with skype.

 

[0007776]

google voice is VOIP. You can make VOIP from gmail using a computer.

Google Chat has VoIP integrated into it, but that is a different program, Google Voice is not a VoIP program

Is google voice VoIP? Reason I ask is because you don't need a wifi or 3G connection and call quality is good. The best thing I like about google voice compared to skype is if I'm a passenger in a moving car I get 100% call consistency which isn't possible with skype.

no Google voice is not VoIP. It is just a call forwarding service.

 

[Mliii]

no Google voice is not VoIP. It is just a call forwarding service.

I'm confused. And I don't pretend to understand this, so please bear with me... I have a google voice phone number. I can use it to make calls to other phone numbers. I can forward calls from that number to other numbers. And people can call me at that number... It uses my computer OR my cell on wifi to make calls... what about that isn't VoIP? Do I just not understand what that means?

 

[mpossoff]

Google Chat has VoIP integrated into it, but that is a different program, Google Voice is not a VoIP program


no Google voice is not VoIP. It is just a call forwarding service.

When I make a call via google voice app it's not making a call on edge. I heard it's making call via 2g network?

 

[Dbrown]

Google Chat has VoIP integrated into it, but that is a different program, Google Voice is not a VoIP program

If you want to get technical about it sure. But would you say google talk is voip? No, its a chat client with a voip plugin. Similarly I'd consider google voice voip with the voip plugin located somewhere else. In any case its clear that GV is meant to be used with the VOIP plugin because you cant make international calls without a GV number and Google Talk is the default forwarding number.

no Google voice is not VoIP. It is just a call forwarding service.

No its not. You can use GV without forwarding anything. You can talk and text using GV without owning a real phone and no one would would suspect otherwise.

 

[AbSoluTc]

What if you cannot talk. The local station/FD cannot even determine what tower the call was made from. At least with mobile 911 your tower information is read and the CHP can transfer the call to the local station that services that tower. Still good luck finding the address or apartment number.

I prefer my kids being able to pick up the landline dial 911 and have my info available to the 911 operator so the police, ambulance, and/or fire truck can come straight to me.

Really? How often is your family calling 911? I have only ever called 911 once or twice and both were on my mobile phone going down the highway. Never have I had to call them at home or for any other instance. I am grateful for that.

Why do you think most phones have E911 dialing and location services? Why? Well, it's used to track WHERE YOU ARE. Is it 100% perfect and accurate? No. However, I have yet to hear of anyone dying because emergency services could not find them because they were on a mobile phone.

We have had no land lines for nearly 6 years now. All have been mobile phones. We love it. Even our alarm system is cellular. No problems at all and the freedom of everyone having their own line and number is awesome.

 

[el-John-o]

Yeah VoIP via cell phone isn't good unless you are sitting and not moving around.

Is google voice VoIP? Reason I ask is because you don't need a wifi or 3G connection and call quality is good. The best thing I like about google voice compared to skype is if I'm a passenger in a moving car I get 100% call consistency which isn't possible with skype.

I don't use VoIP via cellphone. I use cellphone via cellphone. Did you know that the iPhone can make phone calls too?

lol that was the point I was trying to make, rather than thinking he needs a "central home number", he might get away, as I have for several years, just handing out your cellphone number and having folks reach you like that always, not use a landline, or a Voice over IP solution for your iPad, etc.

 

[el-John-o]

Really? How often is your family calling 911? I have only ever called 911 once or twice and both were on my mobile phone going down the highway. Never have I had to call them at home or for any other instance. I am grateful for that.

Why do you think most phones have E911 dialing and location services? Why? Well, it's used to track WHERE YOU ARE. Is it 100% perfect and accurate? No. However, I have yet to hear of anyone dying because emergency services could not find them because they were on a mobile phone.

We have had no land lines for nearly 6 years now. All have been mobile phones. We love it. Even our alarm system is cellular. No problems at all and the freedom of everyone having their own line and number is awesome.

I've had to call from home before using my cellphone. In fact, this is a situation where E911 is essentially useless. They didn't sit on the line and say "Okay hold on a second while I get a fix" they said "What is your location." It's when you say "I don't know" that E911 kicks in. Hopefully everyones kids, if they know how to dial 911, know their address!

There have been issues where E911 has mistakenly routed individuals to the wrong dispatcher (one notable instance was a St.Louis Woman who dialed 911 and got a Florida operator) however in these RARE situations, it only takes a second for the dispatcher to correct the situation and contact the appropriate dispatch office. I, too, have never heard of this ending up with someone dying or anything.

 

[mpossoff]

I don't use VoIP via cellphone. I use cellphone via cellphone. Did you know that the iPhone can make phone calls too?

lol that was the point I was trying to make, rather than thinking he needs a "central home number", he might get away, as I have for several years, just handing out your cellphone number and having folks reach you like that always, not use a landline, or a Voice over IP solution for your iPad, etc.

It depends what voice minute plan you have. My brother did that solution with a 700 minute family plan and had to bump up to the 1400 minute plan. Now that he has a-list he can use the new google voice solution like I just started and drop his family text plan as well.

Google voice app via iPhone isn't VoIP I think. And since we have always had the 1400 minute plan we have the a-list. I put my GV number in a-list which allows for unltd voice calls is the point I'm making.

When someone calls my GV number since it's in my a-list it doesn't use att cellular minutes. The only drawback to this is caller id as it displays my google voice number but I can live with that. When I get a missed call google voice sends me an email of the missed call number.

When I make a call I use GV app. It calls me back on my cell via GV number and since that GV number is in a-list it doesn't use att cellular voice minutes.

Result is unltd voice and text. Drop my landline and save on that and also drop att text plan. The end end result is unltd outbound and inbound voice and text via cell phone that isn't VoIP.

End result savings is;

$30 family text+$20 landline= $50/month savings.

 

[DirtySocks85]

I still have a land line. Why wouldn't I. Everything that I register for that uses a phone number gets that number. It is connected to an answering system and I send the voice mails to my email account.

No need to have businesses, politicians, or sales people calling me on my mobile

I can do that for free with a google voice account. Why pay for a landline?

 

[el-John-o]

It depends what voice minute plan you have. My brother did that solution with a 700 minute family plan and had to bump up to the 1400 minute plan. Now that he has a-list he can use the new google voice solution like I just started and drop his family text plan as well.

Google voice app via iPhone isn't VoIP I think. And since we have always had the 1400 minute plan we have the a-list. I put my GV number in a-list which allows for unltd voice calls is the point I'm making.

When someone calls my GV number since it's in my a-list it doesn't use att cellular minutes. The only drawback to this is caller id as it displays my google voice number but I can live with that. When I get a missed call google voice sends me an email of the missed call number.

When I make a call I use GV app. It calls me back on my cell via GV number and since that GV number is in a-list it doesn't use att cellular voice minutes.

Result is unltd voice and text. Drop my landline and save on that and also drop att text plan. The end end result is unltd outbound and inbound voice and text via cell phone that isn't VoIP.

End result savings is;

$30 family text+$20 landline= $50/month savings.

Well, where I live most folks use AT&T. The other carriers don't know we exist out here. So therefore, since it's an AT&T saturated market, I have the smallest calling plan (500 or 700 minutes I don't remember), and still have more than 2,000 rollover minutes. The majority of my talk time is mobile to mobile. And of course, I have unlimited texting too. But, all of that I would have regardless if I had a land line or not, so why ADD a land line to the cost?

-John