Brad tipped me to Magic Jack and I could not resist trying it out. It's a device about the size of a silver cigarette lighter, with a USB port on one end and a phone jack on the other end. Plug your regular landline phone into one end and connect to your computer using the other end. In about 3 minutes you can make free phone calls to anywhere in the US - to landline or cell phones. I called between our house and cell phones just as a quick check, then took it on a test drive, calling my brother Tom in Sacramento. Sound quality was good.
The device costs $20 and a one year license costs $20. If you take 5 minutes and do an online chat with a live tech help, you might be offered a $2 off code, as I was. The package came on Friday, after placing my order on Wednesday. There is a 30 day money back guarantee, which I will utilize if the first month doesn't go as I hoped.
At present there do not appear to be a vast number of area codes available, but as they expand they will offer a chance to reselect a phone number. There is no chance to change to your existing number. I have not yet determined whether the number I received in my area code actually is a local number if called from my house or church.
Magic Jack registration includes 911 sign up, so that in theory it will be safe in that regard. My only as yet unanswered questions have to do with connecting more than one phone. Apparently there are devices that can be bought at Best Buy or similar places, that carry phone line info over your electrical system, so that you can set one of those up, then plug any phone into a companion device that is plugged into an electrical outlet. With that, I'd be able to use 2 phones in my house. That device may cost me another $50-60. If it works as the tech guy said it would, I think we'll spring for it and say goodbye to our landline.
Will this replace my $50 a month Embarq account? If it does it will save me a lot of money.
2 comments:
In terms of emergency preparation I'm not sure it's a good idea to give up your landline. It's not what I'd do. Advantages - more dependable than IP (Internet telephone) and more dependable with more capacity than cell phones; and power comes through the phone wires so if the power goes out at your house you still stand a good chance of having landline phone service.
Better would be to just get base bones, lowest cost landline service in case of natural disaster-type emergencies. Of course if there's an emergency and you have to dial long distance it will be relatively more expensive, but if you've banked your monthly savings for that rainy day you will be way ahead of the game anyway.
Nice blog. We were using Magic Jack for a week or so. Even when it was working, there was at least a 30-60 second delay on outgoing calls, as well as incoming... you answer the phone and hear nothing (on the callers end it is still ringing, even though you have picked up). Then it just stopped working altogether. Customer care does not really ‘care’. Check out this great site www.pissedconsumer.com for other complaints about the company.
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