Majic Jack

[RAINMAKER]

Majic jack that is. Has anyone tried / or is using this device for their home phone sevice. I'm considering cancelling my home phone and just using my cell. That's the easiest way to get me anyway. My issue is I've had the same phone co. and # for 23 years , I kinda hate to give up my/our home # but at 60.00 a month for phone and high speed i-net it's a little steep. I could keep my i-net with the same people for only 15.00 a month.
Just looking at some options. Dropping the phone and keeping the net would be a 540.00 a year savings .

Thoughts and input appreciated Thanks "RAINMAKER"

 

[GW VOYAGER]

It may work for you but I would give it a lot of thought before I turn off my home phone.
I would first call the company and get them to go over your bill and get rid of any bells and whistles which you do not need. I had rather do without call waiting than lose my home base phone. Go with basic service.
I retired from phone company and can say that many that cut service had it turned back on at a later date. Rember you will most likely not get the same number back that you had for years. That may or may not be a factor for you.

 

[sfc2113]

Great for you but not for people without calling plans that call you, My neighbor got charged 45 cents per min calling his son in law on a magic jack. still would have a land line with 911 service for around 13$ per m

 

[CJBROWN]

We dumped our land line about a year ago. Realized the only people that called were telemarketers and the neighborhood kid calling our son.

Wifey picked up a magic jack phone to use for business prospecting, it's cheap and works great. Your computer has to be running in order for it to work, and you need a high-speed connection. We have the ATT u-verse thingy, it's fantastic.

We all have cell phones, so there's no need for a land line for us. If you have cell phone backup I would highly recommend it.

Let's see....$120 month for fiber-optic HD TV and internet, $140 for cellular with internet and unlimited texting...just don't need a land-line telephone. :roll:

 

[Strikezone]

I know I've checked into something similiar to majic-jack (don't remember the name) and I was going to be assigned a number that would be long distance for local callers. This wouldn't work out for us so I scrapped the idea.

 

[gwwannabe]

We haven't had a land line for the last seven years and probably won't ever have one again. We each have cell phones and wireless cards for our computers so our offices are totally mobile.

The post stating that a neighbor got charged .45 a minute for using Magic jack just can't be true because the phone is not connected to or using the phone company facilities. It connects a plain old telephone to ones computer and uses its internet connection to route calls. The phone company never sees the call.

Magic jack just showed a new device that will allow your cell phone to connect with your computer and route calls across your internet connection. Your cell phone carrier will not see this call either. However, MJ has to connect to your cell phone using wireless spectrum so it's expected that lots of legal wrangling is coming.

Gary 89 Overnighter

 

[Daman858]

One huge negative with Magic Jack is that, to use it, your computer must be ON all the time.

I have Vonage which allowed me to transfer my home number and gives me unlimited calls to the US Canada and many other countries. It also has call forwarding (like to your cell phone), caller ID, free 411 and a bunch of other features. $30 bucks a month. The Vonage router plugs into your modem so your computer does not have to be on and actually you don't even need a computer to use it. I have no fiduciary interest in Vonage, just a happy customer.

 

[sfc2113]

We haven't had a land line for the last seven years and probably won't ever have one again. We each have cell phones and wireless cards for our computers so our offices are totally mobile.

The post stating that a neighbor got charged .45 a minute for using Magic jack just can't be true because the phone is not connected to or using the phone company facilities. It connects a plain old telephone to ones computer and uses its internet connection to route calls. The phone company never sees the call.

Magic jack just showed a new device that will allow your cell phone to connect with your computer and route calls across your internet connection. Your cell phone carrier will not see this call either. However, MJ has to connect to your cell phone using wireless spectrum so it's expected that lots of legal wrangling is coming.

Gary 89 Overnighter

Correction, My Neighbor was charged by verizon telco for calling his son who uses a Magic Jack. Telco told him although they have the same area code the mj is in an outside routed area code and they were charged for it. 45 cents pm because they only have a local calling plan. The mj is long distance to them. If my neighbor had a 19.99 calling plan he would have not been charged. So they say. They have disputed the charge and verizon is removing it and told them they will be charged long distance to this number without a calling plan.

 

[gwwannabe]

SFC, this scenario makes a lot more sense. He called an exchange outside his local calling plan but within his area code. In truth, I didn't even think about initiating a call to a MJ and I apologize for the tone of my comments. I was assuming MJ to MJ. Apparently there are access numbers to get to the internet to reach the MJ. Maybe Dad should get a MJ - way cheapter than the calling plan if he has internet access or can find cheap dial up access for the phone calls.

Gary 89 Overnighter