Will VoIP Service Replace Your Landline? - Comments Page 1

One thing you should consider is clarity on the line. I have a landline and I keep it for one reason: my 95-yr-old father who has a hearing loss can hear me much better on that phone -- the one with the cord, attached to the wall -- than on the cordless (yes, same phone number, harder to hear for him) or my cell phone (the worst).

Have you discussed alarm systems over VOIP? Traditional systems have been connected to their monitor stations over land lines via a line seizure jack which allows the system to seize the dial tone and send any signal which has been tripped.
If a user switches to VOIP he must either insist that his provider guarantee a traditional dial tone. or spend to upgrade with new interconnect equipment, or switch his alarm to cellular with more upgrade cost.

I don't know what older people will do in the rural parts of WV. We don't have cell service in many areas and many people don't have computers to use the other types mentioned.

"Notwithstanding this progress, the Report finds that approximately 19 million Americans—6 percent of the population—still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds. In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population —14.5 million people—lack access to this service."

https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/eighth-broadband-progress-report

We SINCERELY REGRET going over to VOIP provided by our cable company and here is the reason why.

We live in California and are subject to these power safety shut offs we are told will continue to happen for a decade.

Last week, whilst wildfires were raging out of control, we lost TV, Internet and VOIP calling. Cell service was patchy at best, we learned towers were losing power also, and back up depended on the location of your tower.

My neighbors with standard landlines still had their phone service throughout the whole shut off.

I ditched my landline 20 years ago and never missed it. I have had 3 different VOIP providers over the years. I now have Google voice service and bought Obihai. Don't remember what it cost but it's a one-time expense. What is nice is that if someone calls that number they can leave a voice message or they can send me a message and then I quickly get a notice from Google that I have a new message.
So I don't miss anything except robo calls. The phone that I have hooked up to the Google line is just an old cordless. If you pay an extra fee you can get 911 service. It is much cheaper than the landline and you can pick any area code and pick from a large selection of numbers available.

We ditched the landline a number of years ago, replacing it with MagicJack. I switched to another Voip service for a while when I had trouble with MJ. I finally went back to MJ after buying a new device. I haven't had any problems with it. Sometimes quality is an issue, but not enough to replace it. I would go with Ooma, which reportedly has better quality, but the cost of service included with MJ are extra. We have considered getting rid of the land number altogether, but we have had it for 16 years, and old habits are hard to break;]

Bob, I’m really surprised you did not mention Straight-Talk as an option.
It’s like the best of both worlds. It is on a cell network and the unit has a battery backup for when the power goes out. It has extended standby time and a much shorter talk time. But in a pinch just use outgoing sparingly.
You can also disconnect your wiring at the house where it comes in and you can plug Straight-Talk into one jack in your house and activate all the jacks.
It’s less than $20 per month and if you have cell service in your area, it may be an option some would consider.

Yes Bob - I am [was] one of those innocent land line owners with one kitchen wall land line and 3 portable land line phones on the same line from telephone line ,one in the master bedroom, one in the TV room and one in my office. The first time after buying those 3 portable phones and the electricity went out ,only the kitchen wall mounted phone worked when I reported outage. I thought I was without both electricity and phone service ,phone co. straightened me up ,computer and portable phones need electricity to operate [work].
Also the only negative that I have read about "Magic Jack" ,you have to leave your computer on 24 hours a day, it also doesn't have any electricity to run on.

Jonathan has an excellent point. I kept my copper land line for over 50 years just so I would have a dial tone when residence power went down. Then the connection quality deteriorated quite a bit. When Verizon came to investigate/fix, what they found was a problem with one of their cables; nothing to do with anything connect to or in my residence. Since FiOS was available in our area they would not repair the copper line but would bring the fiber into my residence. Problem is unless I invested my money in a UPS for their fiber interface (DMARC) I would not have a dial tone during a residential power outage. They did offer a lease a battery, but its capacity was limited. Fortunately local cell service is acceptable.

Some information here is obsolete. Vonage now offers an adapter, which is the extent of what they do now.

New houses may not come with a landline connection. Bought a new house (new construction) last year. It had been built on spec so we didn't have much input into what went into it. After we moved in, we realized there was no wall jack/landline connection. So if you're building new, you may need to specify if you want a landline wired in the house.

You do realize that the users like me that must use DSL, for internet service, must keep the land line for the DSL.

Nascar68117 said: "Also the only negative that I have read about "Magic Jack" ,you have to leave your computer on 24 hours a day, it also doesn't have any electricity to run on."

Actually, you do not need to have your magicJack connected to a computer at all although you can if you want to. It now connects to the ethernet jacks on your router which continues to operate while your computer is powered down. Voice quality is much better than the computer connection method. I have both a business magicJack and a personal magicJack connected to my router and have for many years. And the cost cannot be beat!

I am surprised that your article did not mention Ooma as a VOIP option I have had Ooma for about 5 years with absolutely no issues and excellent voice quality. I have the Premier service which includes blocking unlimited numbers and text messages when away from home - both services are extremely helpful. Will never give up my Ooma!

A couple other areas to consider:
- Consider a UPS for most VOIP solutions, to provide not only power to the device, but also power to get to the internet service (ie; Modem and router)
- When using a VOIP solution, not much bandwidth is needed, but it must be there! If you are already maxing out the capacity on the connetion, you can experience all sorts of problems ranging from call quality thru unstable connections.If the internet connection is ustable, so will the be the VOIP connection!
- Some people also complain about other VOIP connections (ie: MagicJack) and others that connect via the PC. The problems are usually NOT is the device or service, but rather the overloaded PC that they are connected through.

Several years ago we had some serious conflicts with the telephone company's business office, and we moved everything over to the TV cable provider. Significant drop in the cost of the telephone service, which is VOIP via the internet. Many features are provided, some of which the phone company did not provide. Call quality is as good, and the only problem is for extended power outages (we do run a UPS here) you will not have phone service.

I also went with Net Talk, which is a service very much like Magic Jack. Price runs just about the same -- and reviews between the two services bounce back and forth as to which is the best. When I picked Net Talk it was for a second line for a fax machine, and at that point Magic Jack said they did not support fax machine, and Net Talk said "Why not?".

The only slight disadvantage to the Net Talk is the need to dial a 10 digit number for all calls. We are in an area where so far 7-digit dialing is accepted for calls within our area code.

And, I believe for both Magic Jack and Net Talk these days you do not need a computer running. Their adapter connects to your router via your LAN.

I've been using Verizon's Home Phone Connect for the last 10 yrs. For $23, including taxes, I get all of the features, except faxing. But, with reading Bob's articles I get around that. And, when we moved from CA to TX I just plugged the device it into and it worked. It uses a regular cordless phone, but the device you plug into hooks to Verizon, and since you aren't going from one cell tower to another, like your cell phone, you get the reduced rate.

Dropped my land line over 2 years ago. My wife can call her relatives in Japan virtually free.

Last year when I moved a distance of about 3 miles, AT&T refused to let me to both keep my landline and my phone number of over 20 years. I felt I had no choice. Sound is much worse with VOIP--voice is very tinny-- and I while I was not in recent Calif blackout zone, my phone stopped working. I can now receive calls but still cannot make a call.