Cut Your Home Phone Bill Forever
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A New Way to Lower Your Cell Phone Service Bill
by Ezra Kucharz
Aug 7, 2009
Tired of counting minutes and texts on your cell phone? Ezra Kucharz weighs in on a workaround using the new Google Voice service and your everyday cell phone.
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It's time to bury your home phone bill.
The typical monthly cost of a home phone ranges from $20-$30 for an Internet-based service (Vonage, cable, etc.), to $40-$60 for a traditional copper-wire landline.
Now you can keep the number and nix the cost. Of course, as with any calling plan, international calling rates still apply.
You only need two things: a broadband Internet connection and a device called Ooma.
Presumably, you have cable or DSL high-speed connectivity at home. The cost is already part of your monthly budget.
Ooma plugs right in to your Internet router or computer. You then plug your phone into Ooma and port your existing home number from your current provider over to the Ooma service. This takes about a week or two. Once that’s complete you can cancel the old provider. That’s it!
You don’t need to buy new phones. You can also plug Ooma in to your home’s existing wiring so all the other phones in the house have service. Plus, you get all the extra features you’ve come to expect like voicemail and CallerID.
Ooma is available online
Do the math.
A traditional copper-wire landline costs about $720 per year. By buying an Ooma box with a one-time expense of $230, the box pays for itself in four months. The first year you’ll realize $490 of savings, with over $1,210 of savings over two years.
Using Vonageor your cable company? Ooma pays for itself in about eight months.
There is another cheap option, too.
MagicJack is a device that plugs into your computer and costs about $20 and $20 per year. The difference is that MagicJack requires that your computer be powered on all the time. Ooma can plug into your router instead, leaving your computer to power on and off as you decide.
Granted, some (many) people just don't want to give up a landline.
There’s that comfort in knowing that even if the power goes out, your landline still works. The same can’t be said for your Internet connection. Many will argue that you still have your cell phone for when that happens...and you can always charge your cell in your car.
But, if you can justify making the change, there’s significant money savings to be had.
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I have been interested in cutting my landline altogether and this device fits the bill. With a onetime cost, I no longer would have to pay for landline service.
Amazon customers rate this a 4.5 out of 5 stars!
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Thanks for sharing this. One of my relatives uses MagicJack, and she understandable lost use of her phone service when some malware took over her PC (and for the week I spent cleaning it up :P).
The only other stand-alone devices I was aware of were those with monthly fees, however modest, but Ooma looks like it'd be an ideal solution for her.
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Douglas Uhlenhake replied about a month ago
Hello Mr. P,
I have worked in Technology for more than the past decade and part of the previous one.
I use MajicJack and I scan my computer frequently (nearly daily) with various multiple security products from a variety of the major security software vendors - McAfee, PC Tools (Spyware Doctor and Desktop Maestro), Symantec (Norton 360), Spybot Search & Destroy (only skilled techs or very experience enthusiast/power users should use this one in my opinion)
Ad-Aware (NOT Adware ie. the infections), and others... And while they have detetect (when FULLY UPDATED just prior to doing a FULL Scan, only detected nuisance LOW level threats including cookies and Adware), NO serious threats.
So the bottom line of my message to you Mr. P from both a Tech perspective and a financial consulting perspective is that I would not rush to judgement about MajicJack being at fault for the infections your relative experienced and rush out and purchase another device yet.
She may have downloaded a file, visited a hostile website(s) without realizing it, or she might have even been hacked especially if she has an always on, broadband internet connnection since that's like having an open window or door to your home or office where your computer with internet connection is. She may have gotten a popup even that when she clicked on the x to close it, or thought it was a system message about a system update of some kind, it possibly ran malicious code and installed the code on her computer without her knowledge.
Does she have a Router and is security setup on it and her pc to make her pc operate in Stealth visibility level in her router and her software firewall like McAfee Personal Firewall or ZoneAlarm. There are a lot of considerations to think about and examine before the issue can be isolated for certain. Other possibilities need to be cleared of suspicion before defining the problem solely as MajicJack being at fault.
If MajicJack was a source of serious threats I would tell you as fast as I possibly could. But that has not been my experience with it yet.
I will continue to monitor it just incase. But so far it's working fine without causing any issues.
Other sources to look at are Toolbars such as Web Search Toolbars, Website Toolbars, etc.
Even visiting microsoft's websites like MSN.com cause incurring receiving internet junk/clutter adware and cookies. Some poeple are against Google and Yahoo Toolbars, but I will say this for them. I've never had a problem with them. The also run limited version of anti-threat scanners (Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware) that are actually programs from very major software vendors like Computer Associates (CA).
Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Douglas Uhlenhake
I suggest anyone and everyone should discover Skype (www.skype.com). We use this at work religiously, especially when talking with our development team in India.
I also like MagicJack as well as Vonage. Of course, I'm not that great of a resource since I haven't had a landline in over 10 years.
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