Saving on Internet and phone service

[paulsiu]

I have been thinking of ways of saving money on the phone and internet bill. A local phone account is about $22 not including those annoying regulatory fees and taxes. A 3 Mbps Internet is about $38. Add long distance and the phone portion jumps to around $40.

If I replace the phone with a VOIP device like OOMA, the phone portion drops to around $5 per month, but my internet would remain the same or increase. To take a look at the possibilities:

AT&T DSL 3 Mbps = $43 per month ($38 with phone line)
Comcast Cable 3 Mbps = $40 per month ($30 with cable)

Basically, DSL is cheaper with a phone line. Cable drops to $30 if you also have cable. I could go with a slower connection. A 1.5 mbps is around $38 and a 765kps is about $30. However, I feel 1.5 is a bit too slow. Faster is always better, but 3 Mbps appears to be fast enough for our needs.

AT&T and Comcast both offer VOIP packages that have cheap introductory rate, but then goes up after 12 months. You can game them by threatening to leave every year, but frankly, I don't really have time to bargin every year.

What are fellow bogleheads doing for internet and phone.

Paul

[mike143]

I am doing the $42.95 (after tax and fees) AT&T 3Mbps DSL option add $1 a month for Anveo VoIP number and $0.01 minute for outgoing usage or after 40 minutes incoming a day. First year of AT&T was cheaper, they had a year promotion, $42.95 is the after promo price. Still on the Dish Network America (60) package at $45.31 after taxes and fees, it was also cheaper for the first year promo. Only competition from there in my area is Bright House and DIRECTV which only cost more even with promos. Grandfathered Virgin Mobile plan for <$25 a month after taxes and fees.

[Toons]

Comcast for internet (59.00)
Google voice for home phone( free)
Walmart straight talk cellphone(30.00)
Monthly

[ilisira]

Comcast for internet (59.00)
Google voice for home phone( free)
Walmart straight talk cellphone(30.00)
Monthly

And OP can use OBi100 (http://www.amazon.com/OBi100-Telephone- ... 004LO098O/) if he/she wants to make calls through a regular handset.

[jeffyscott]

Currently have TWC phone, internet, cable at about $120 per month, plus about $7 per month for 2 prepaid cell phones.

We get great reception with an antenna we have in the garage attic, so if we don't get a deal on a package when this one runs out, I'm thinking we'll maybe port our home phone to another prepaid cell phone and then to google voice, pay only for internet and get netflix and perhaps hulu+.

[jsl11]

Pioneer Telephone is 2.7 cents per minute for long distance telephone for land lines. That rate lets you call anywhere in the continental US.
Jeff

[hlfo718]

You can also make domestic calls for free using skype. Long dist is fraction of a penny a min. You don't need a webcam for that.

[kenyan]

One risk of VOIP is having no emergency service. Ooma does get you 911 service due to their routing system, but Google Voice/Skype/Obi do not.

We have not had home phone for a long time, but recently decided to spring for an Ooma due to our extremely poor cell phone reception at our new apartment. Not as cheap as some other options, but will work out to $120 (one time cost) + $4/month.

We had been using Vonage on our cell phones (over Wi-fi), but that was imperfect - couldn't receive calls, no emergency service, no telling when the free service would end.

[feh]

Internet access through cable company: 12Mbps down, 3Mbps up for $35/month.
Vonage phone service: unlimited usage for $12/month.

[fire5soon]

I've had MagicJack for about a year for my home phone service. It's unreliable at best. It works for a couple of weeks and then will die for another couple of weeks until their tech folks can figure out the problem. I've tried using the Plus version not plugged into a computer and I've tried leaving it plugged into the computer as well. When it works, it's great... but I wouldn't want to have to depend on it. I doubt I'll renew once my next year of service ends.

[feh]

I've had MagicJack for about a year for my home phone service. It's unreliable at best. It works for a couple of weeks and then will die for another couple of weeks until their tech folks can figure out the problem. I've tried using the Plus version not plugged into a computer and I've tried leaving it plugged into the computer as well. When it works, it's great... but I wouldn't want to have to depend on it. I doubt I'll renew once my next year of service ends.

We tried Nettalk (another low cost service similar to MagicJack) for a couple months. Same story - awful service.

Vonage is rock solid.