Sick of high prices - taking landline mobile

[JHZR2]

We pay $82 all in, with taxes, for a landline and 50/50 internet (fios). What a waste. These suppliers throw all kinds of deals out to get you to switch, but then don’t play when you want a better deal. Ok, time to move my business.

The bill was $76, then they just upped the landline fee. We barely use the landline, I was keeping it for 911 reasons, but kids are old enough now and it’s not like we live in the middle of nowhere.

So I’m thinking I want to put my old landline onto a sim and use one of my old iPhones as the landline. We can get fancy with the handsets all over the house later....

My iPhones are AT&T, but can be unlocked. I’m thinking of one of the freedompop plans that is like $49.99/yr for 1000 minutes.

So I’m curious:

- What does one need to know about taking their landline mobile?
- What’s the best voice only service for minimal cost per year to maintain a number?

It looks like I can get xfinity 200/10 for $39.99/mo, so if I can get phone for $4/month, I’m doing good.

We boycott television, so no need for that.

Anthing else to consider?

Thanks!

 

[maximus]

I wouldn't even bother. There's no point in paying for something you won't use much, plus you'll just get more spam/scam calls - if you keep an extra line.

I have a "cellspot" from T-Mobile that plugs into my modem at home. The device is essentially a small cell tower in my home, so me and my guests(who have T-mobile) always have 4 bars of LTE or I can do WiFi calling. That's my "landline." No need for anything else.

I live in a poor cell reception area. T-Mobile gave me the cell spot complimentary to use.

 

[JHZR2]

I’m interested in keeping it. We do use it for somethings, and I’m not interested in getting those calls on my cellphone. So I want to port it to a cellphone. Not google voice, as thst doesn’t have 911 capability.

 

[mattwithcats]

My phone line is Magicjack.

VOIP, so you need internet. About $40 for a year...

Plug internet into big 8 pin socket, smaller 4 pin into phone or wall jack
(I use a splitter to do both)...
Wall jack carries it to other wall jacks in the house.
Mine was running warm, so I added a heat sink, and some thermal paste, held together with a zip tie...

VoIP Phone Service | Internet Home Phone Service Provider | magicJack

Enjoy uncompromised VoIP calling and say goodbye to phone bills with magicJack. Get free unlimited calling to the US & Canada and keep your same number!

www.magicjack.com

 

[ka9mnx]

I kept the landline for the same reasons. It was an independent system that usually worked when everything else failed. I had it disconnected when my provider decided to switch it over to the internet. Using Internet bypassed why I wanted a separate landline. And yes, price was high for either hard wired landline or landline over internet.

 

[shrooms]

Let me say from experience, Freedompop SUCKS. Sure, they show great prices but the service is horrible. Just horrible. If you care, stay away.

Landline is yesterday. I have ATT Prepaid. I pay $60 a month for two lines with 15G of data, EACH line. Service is fantastic. I'm in a rural area. No problem.

 

[JHZR2]

Let me say from experience, Freedompop SUCKS. Sure, they show great prices but the service is horrible. Just horrible. If you care, stay away.

Landline is yesterday. I have ATT Prepaid. I pay $60 a month for two lines with 15G of data, EACH line. Service is fantastic. I'm in a rural area. No problem.

How is it that they suck? As an MVNO, is their service deprioritized to the point that they drop calls or are unavailable?

I have real ATT with unlimited data. I use my smart phone a lot. I still want a home-based phone for a variety of reasons...

I kept the landline for the same reasons. It was an independent system that usually worked when everything else failed. I had it disconnected when my provider decided to switch it over to the internet. Using Internet bypassed why I wanted a separate landline. And yes, price was high for either hard wired landline or landline over internet.

While the FIOS system isn’t POTS over copper, it is still a different system over a different land-based conductor, fwiw. In reslity, experience shows that cell based systems are more robust after storms and whatnot, so I’m not opposed keeping my home line and putting it on another carrier for redundancy. Thing is, most “cell” plans, even prepaid and mvno are expensive too. I’m looking for the 100-1000 minutes a month plan, for like $5, in lieu of the $20 it’s costing me for my phone.

 

[Pelican]

We pay $82 all in, with taxes, for a landline and 50/50 internet (fios). What a waste. These suppliers throw all kinds of deals out to get you to switch, but then don’t play when you want a better deal. Ok, time to move my business.

The bill was $76, then they just upped the landline fee. We barely use the landline, I was keeping it for 911 reasons, but kids are old enough now and it’s not like we live in the middle of nowhere.

So I’m thinking I want to put my old landline onto a sim and use one of my old iPhones as the landline. We can get fancy with the handsets all over the house later....

My iPhones are AT&T, but can be unlocked. I’m thinking of one of the freedompop plans that is like $49.99/yr for 1000 minutes.

So I’m curious:

- What does one need to know about taking their landline mobile?
- What’s the best voice only service for minimal cost per year to maintain a number?

It looks like I can get xfinity 200/10 for $39.99/mo, so if I can get phone for $4/month, I’m doing good.

We boycott television, so no need for that.

Anthing else to consider?

Thanks!

A mobile landline is an oxymoron! You must be hardwired into the phone system, you may have mobile handsets, but your old iPhone won't be a land line.

 

[alarmguy]

I cant blame the cable and phone companies for charging you so much money for phone service. I mean why not? People pay it, if I was the company I would do the same.
You could have saved hundreds if not thousands on your home landline over the last decade if one just does a search on the internet.
We haven't paid for TV in a decade ( we do subscribe to two services for $20 a month to watch movies on our Roku ect), plus superior OTA TV on all five of our TVs) and we haven't paid for our home landline in a decade, yet we still have one. So why did you? *L*
Here is your answer;
1. Go to your favorite search engine and search Ooma
2. Purchase Ooma
3. Set up your Ooma account
4. Plug Ooma into your internet router
5.Plug your phone (or phone line) into Ooma
6. Start using your landline again.

Total Cost, One time purchase of Ooma Device = $75
Monthly cost for phone service $0.00 + government tax = roughly $5 a month depending what your tax is.

Ooma works the same as any pay for telephone service in the country and just as good. We love having a home phone landline that we never use.
We give out our home phone number to anyone and everyone who requires one for a service or whatever and ONLY give out our cell number to people we want to have it plus for security reasons we have the home landline.

With that said, at times we do use it, not often, lets say a long conversation with someone and you dont feel like holding the cell phone or an occasional overseas call instead of using the cell phone for that as well. More or less we do everything we do on our cell phones but equally good is the landline and its perfect to give out the number to anyone because we never pick it up, if its important they will leave a message and within a few days we may listen to it.

 

[JHZR2]

A mobile landline is an oxymoron! You must be hardwired into the phone system, you may have mobile handsets, but your old iPhone won't be a land line.

No kidding... point was that the landline number was still retained. And that it would be retained in/at the house, not on our person. Because of this, don’t need data, texts, etc. just minimal minutes.

I cant blame the cable and phone companies for charging you so much money for phone service. I mean why not? People pay it, if I was the company I would do the same.
You could have saved hundreds if not thousands on your home landline over the last decade if one just does a search on the internet.
We haven't paid for TV in a decade ( we do subscribe to two services for $20 a month to watch movies on our Roku ect), plus superior OTA TV on all five of our TVs) and we haven't paid for our home landline in a decade, yet we still have one. So why did you? *L*
Here is your answer;
1. Go to your favorite search engine and search Ooma
2. Purchase Ooma
3. Set up your Ooma account
4. Plug Ooma into your internet router
5.Plug your phone (or phone line) into Ooma
6. Start using your landline again.

Total Cost, One time purchase of Ooma Device = $75
Monthly cost for phone service $0.00 + government tax = roughly $5 a month depending what your tax is.

Ooma works the same as any pay for telephone service in the country and just as good. We love having a home phone landline that we never use.
We give out our home phone number to anyone and everyone who requires one for a service or whatever and ONLY give out our cell number to people we want to have it plus for security reasons we have the home landline.

With that said, at times we do use it, not often, lets say a long conversation with someone and you dont feel like holding the cell phone or an occasional overseas call instead of using the cell phone for that as well. More or less we do everything we do on our cell phones but equally good is the landline and its perfect to give out the number to anyone because we never pick it up, if its important they will leave a message and within a few days we may listen to it.

Yeah, I’m aware of VOIP. I think the food landline is effectively that anyway, just done at the ONT. If I was looking to do that I think I’d pay $20 once to port to Google voice (again, first through porting to a cell phone), and then be done with it for good.

 

[JustinH]

Cell coverage is spotty at our house, so I've had a refurbished OOMA device for the past five years.

Device cost me 49 dollars, and hooks up to a cordless phone. The free service is about six bucks per month for "fees", and I have never had a problem with it.

 

[JC1]

I got rid of our land line last year. Glad I did. Biggest pain is that you need to call everyone you do business with to update the contact numbers.

One thing with switching a conventional land line to something else that uses the internet is that when the power goes out you can't use the phone. No biggie for me.

You have a lot of choices for switching good luck and report back on your choice.

 

[wdn]

I have been using an Ooma Telo for years and ported my old landline phone number to Ooma. My old phone service provided local calling only and cost $34 a month and no caller ID. Reliability and call quality of Ooma is excellent. It also has free nationwide long distance and free caller ID.

 

[alarmguy]

^^^agree on Ooma as you can tell from my previous post.
To JC1, although EXTREMELY rare for our area is if the power goes out we still have our internet, router, phone line and security system running on a UPS, Un-interruptible power supply or commonly known as battery back up. We actually get excited when the power goes out just to see it work but in 14 years since moving south our longest power interruption has been four hours

 

[shrooms]

How is it that they suck? As an MVNO, is their service deprioritized to the point that they drop calls or are unavailable?

I used them before. Worst service I ever experienced. Garbage.

 

[ka9mnx]

^^^agree on Ooma as you can tell from my previous post.
To JC1, although EXTREMELY rare for our area is if the power goes out we still have our internet, router, phone line and security system running on a UPS, Un-interruptible power supply or commonly known as battery back up. We actually get excited when the power goes out just to see it work but in 14 years since moving south our longest power interruption has been four hours

Our internet goes out more often than the power. If my power goes out I run the generator but I won't have internet because it relies on the same power that runs my house.

 

[dblshock]

Spectrum unlimited cellular/data is $45 after fees and tax, why fuss?

 

[JHZR2]

Spectrum unlimited cellular/data is $45 after fees and tax, why fuss?

Because it’s not what I’m looking for. I want the lowest cost voice only service that is reliable.

 

[alarmguy]

Spectrum unlimited cellular/data is $45 after fees and tax, why fuss?

The fuss is you have to subscribe to Spectrum Internet as well and your stuck with their internet. With Spectrum there is ALWAYS a catch. Any Cable provider will be a bad deal. If you want cell service, Redpocket cost much less is least 400% or more faster data and unlike Spectrum there are is no catch. Spectrum Mobile 5Mbps download speeds, really? Welcome to 2010 last decade.
Here are Spectrum catches;

Activation​

A one-time activation fee of $10 per line.

Eligibility​

A residential or business Spectrum Internet account is required before signing up for Spectrum Mobile. If a Spectrum Mobile customer discontinues Spectrum Internet service for any reason, then:​

• An additional $20 monthly charge is applied per line
• Spectrum WiFi speeds will be limited to 5 Mbps down/1 Mbps up
• Additional lines cannot be added

Auto Pay​

Auto Pay is required for Spectrum Mobile service. All Spectrum Mobile payments will be charged automatically to your credit or debit card on file. We don't accept cash payments for Spectrum Mobile service.

Furthermore from their website = (gosh I haven't heard about roaming charges in a decade)​

9. Roaming and International Charges: Roaming means coverage on another mobile network operator's network ("Roaming"). Subscriber's Mobile Service may be used for international calling and Roaming. Mobile Service originated or received while outside a Mobile Service plan's included Coverage Area is subject to Roaming charges. Whether a Device can roam depends on Subscriber's Device, the Mobile Service plan, and the availability of Roaming coverage. Certain Mobile Service may not be available or work the same when Roaming (for example, data services, voicemail, or call waiting). Use of the Mobile Service while Roaming is also dependent on the Roaming provider's support of applicable network technology and functionality. There may be higher rates and extra charges (including charges for long distance, tolls, or calls that do not connect) for international calling or when Roaming. Subscriber may or may not be informed that he or she is Roaming, or of the associated costs.

 

[JHZR2]

After some haggling with Verizon, they dropped the price and upgraded the speed.

I now have 200/200 for $39.99/mo. Still figuring the phone, redpocket is an option...

Speed on a Sunday am is good: