Should I switch to a VOIP phone and ditch my landline?

Like many people, I rarely use my landline these days and am thinking of stopping subscribing, but I don’t want to rely solely on my cell phone as the reception is sometimes poor within my thick-walled brownstone. I’ve been looking at VOIP services like Broad Voice, Vonage, Ring Central, etc. Apparently these allow you to use your existing landline number and phone equipment but work via the Internet, and cost about a quarter the price of a landline. Has anyone had experience of VOIP at home? Is it reliable? Any pros, cons or recommendations you can share? Thanks very much.

mouster728

in Utilities 9 years and 1 month ago

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mouster728 | 9 years and 1 month ago

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OP here. Thanks everyone for your reassuring comments. I have gone ahead and signed up with Vonage. Why that VOIP company and not one of the many others? I can’t really explain, just name recognition, I think, plus a very low rate for the first year. I may switch to another company after the price goes up in 12 months. (It’s not up and running yet so I can’t comment on how well it works.)

ps158 | 9 years and 1 month ago

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Yes, ditch it. We have Ooma. It’s free – the only monthly fees you pay are the taxes, which work out to about $4 / month in NYC I believe. However, you do have to buy the hardware (I think ours was around $80 on Amazon or so). Works great, no complaints. If you do it, make sure to “opt out” of all the extra services that are free for the first 30 or 60 days or whatever (unless you want them, of course). I remember reading lots of reviews from people saying they felt like they were mislead, because they didn’t know they would be charged for those additional services after the trial period ended. We’ve had this for about 6 months and think it’s great.

trudylou | 9 years and 1 month ago

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We have vonage and ditched the land line years ago. No regrets. Vonage can transcribe voicemails and email them to you. If your cable is out, you can’t place calls but you can easily get messages.

bklynpwds | 9 years and 1 month ago

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I agree with Steve. We’ve had Vonage since its inception in 2001 and have never really had a problem with it. We were able to move our landline phone number to Vonage–AT&T tried to make it difficult but we were persistent. It may not be a big deal now. We use the voicemail system, and can log in from any computer and see all incoming/outgoing calls on a “dashboard”. You can even forward your calls to your cell if you are out of town. All of these things are handled online. Two important things: as Steve said, if the cable goes out, there is no phone service. And if you ever have to call 911, you will need to give them your address so they can locate you. It’s not automatic like on a landline. I mention this if you have children/babysitters. We keep an emergency list next to the phone with our address info on the top just in case.

chipito | 9 years and 1 month ago

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We use google voice with one of these: http://amzn.com/B00BUV7C9A Works great. We have two google voice numbers running on it. (we actually have this but it’s the older version http://amzn.com/B0045RMEPI)

thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 1 month ago

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we have had vonage for 9 years now and have never had an issue with them. they offer some services which I am not to familiar with – such as voice mail, setting the phone not to ring, the ability to check the voice mail from a pc, and other features. we got them because they offered a great rate on overseas calls when made through a package which I think is about $10 more a month. I really see no difference between them and the old landline. though if the power goes out, there will be no phone. but we have cells, so does it matter? Steve