Phone lines are obsolete

I had looked a little bit into the various Voice-over-IP services, but recently my coworker Ed said that he signed up for Vonage. It’s a phone connection with unlimited access for $25/mo., or 500 minutes a month for $15/mo. That’s much cheaper than a normal phone line, and calling anywhere in the country works. I’d been thinking of looking into it more when our house got further along, but I may sign up for it sooner than that (since I can just take it with me). I might not have a regular phone line put in when we build our house (or at least, I probably won’t activate it).

Now the issue would be what area should I get a number from… It looks like the closest options are Worcester and Sturbridge… Since I don’t want my parents to need to call long-distance to get to us, I guess I’ll get a Sturbridge number, but it seems weird that then the people we know in Worcester would need to call long-distance to get to us before we move. But I think I know more people in Charlton than I do in Worcester. (And it’s really just a convenience for inbound callers; outbound going anywhere is the same rate.)

Anyone have any experiences with various VoIP services and want to make a recommendation?

Oh, and rate how interesting this post is. :)

4 thoughts on “Phone lines are obsolete

  1. 6.3

    In my experience, VoIP quality gets hurt badly when it actually interfaces with the public phone system. Also, one of the nice things about the modern phone system is that the line carries enough energy to power the system. With VoIP, if the power goes out, you lose your phone. Far better to have a line that will work under all circumstances, I think.

  2. Well, they claim that the quality is just as good, but that’s why I wanted feedback from people with experience ideally.

    As far as power, I have a UPS now, which might power the net connection. Also, Charter Telephone, while being more expensive, claims to have an 8 hour backup.

  3. Do you know if cell phones work at your house? It’s double the cost, but to me having a cell phone is a great convenience given I’m generally only at my apartment to sleep. I definately think land lines are outdated, there’s probably little reason to get one (though they are good to have in case of emergency)

  4. RF signals of any kind pretty much don’t get to my parent’s house, and there’s no reason to think that they’ll get to our house once it’s built.

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