Posted on 01/22/2017 1:00:12 AM PST by EinNYC
I have been working on ways to economize. One glaring monthly cost is paying $100 to Verizon for my landline service, which is a ridiculous amount of money.
I don't find cell phones to be physically comfortable to talk on for long period of time, and I like the features of my cordless phone (for example, it can block 250 unwanted callers, like telemarketers, etc.). So I wanted a way to keep my comfortable feature rich cordless phone but at a much more affordable rate.
I called Verizon and found that they have a plan wherein you can use a device (Novatel T1114) to allow you to get cellular phone service WITH your cordless phone, for only $20/month in a 2 year contract. As they say on their webpage:
"You can keep your existing phone and phone number and move your home phone service to the Verizon Wireless network with Wireless Home Phone. No broadband or Internet connection is needed for Wireless Home Phone. Plug in your existing touch tone home telephone, and store the compact Wireless Home Phone unit out of the way or on the included desktop stand."
That's saving $1,000 a year and that's what I'm talking about! The Wireless Home Phone unit to which they refer costs $29 but it won't allow you to use your fax machine. The T1114 device, which costs $49 allows you to use your formerly landline cordless phone to now utilize cellular service AND it allows you to use your fax machine, too. It sounds like the best of both worlds.
Soooo, I am asking fellow FReepers if anyone has this setup at home, and how do you like it. Thanks!
We have an Ooma VOIP. Connects to our cordless phone and can be used for faxes. Only monthly fee is about $5 for taxes.
no land line here long ago. i have my verizon cell service. switched to commiecast from Verizon on my internet because they were to late to supply greater than .5 mips. i like verizon but with no tv i need the streaming for movies and youtube etc.
We have an Ooma. Initial cost of the set is about $90 to $100 at Walmart but you own it. Costs $40 to port your phone number, if you don’t want a new number. After that, your monthly cost is just for taxes. Our bill is $4.23 a month.
I’m looking for the opposite—finding a Google Voice type service to transfer a business landline to. So far found out that Verizon Wireless can take a landline but that means two cell phones.
I have a Verizon bundle where I get Internet and landline. It used to be Cable TV too but they sold the TV service to Frontier. It’s been two years or so now and no complaints so far. They’ve been light years better than Time Warner cable which I previously had.
I have T-Mobile. $40/mo buys unlimited voice and text and 3 gb of LTE data.
I rarely exceed half of my LTE allowance. I only need LTE when on the go. If I'm at home, I watch video and access the web on my computer over Verizon FiOS via WiFi (which also works on my Android phone (S7 Edge) when I'm at home).
My phone works fine on WiFi and doesn't draw down my LTE allowance. But I leave it on LTE unless I'm using it to watch video, because the battery drains quicker with WiFi enabled. My LTE allowance is plenty for checking email and the occasional web access at home or elsewhere.
By an OBI and use Google Voice. You will pay $40 or so up front, and $0/month. You can even transfer your landline.
I recently bought a new cable modem for my internet service, It has a built in wi fi hotspot, so I can stream Netflix, etc. I am only interested in getting top quality audible phone service AND the ability to use my fax machine. I read about OOMA, but a lot of people didn’t seem to like it.
And, yes, when I had this service it was about $20 per month.
Allows any cell phone to work with land-line type phones.
“You can keep your existing phone and phone number and move your home phone service to the Verizon Wireless network with Wireless Home Phone.”
Is this an Obamaphone?
I switched my landline to Verizon about a year ago. Kept the old number, easy transition. Just plugged my wireless base station into the Verizon 4G box. Excellent service, very clear, no static, no lost calls. Able to use the recording device built in to the cordless phone and my own call blocker.
I use the Obi device and Google Voice as well. If you want 911 service you’ll have to pay for a secondary service which is just a few bucks a month.
It used to work a lot better, but Verizon keeps on hitting me to take their FiOS with VOIP, offering all kinds of deals, and making my current internet speed throttled, when I know I used to get it to show movies reasonably well.
The reason? Verizon wants to roll up their copper and never replace or maintain it, IMHO. If you do go to FiOS or to a local wired cable TV/Internet/VOIP, they will never give you your land line back.
The reason I keep my land line is that they supply their own voltage for it, whereas if your electricity depends on the power company, and it goes down, so does your phone in case you need it for an emergency response. They say, "Well, you can have a cell phone, or/and back up your VOIP with a battery supply." But, FRiend, the service is only as good as the battery lasts, and if it hasn't recently been charged, you are just SOL, which you should not be under their charter to keep the copper lines active and working despite catastrophes.
I do have a cellular phone, but it was given to me by my daughter and is on her family plan.
Why continue to pay Verizon $20/month. I’m with those who vote for Ooma. I’ve had an Ooma voip device for about 5 years. The Ooma device will pay for itself in just a few months. Hook up your existing phones to the Ooma device, have your number ported, and cut Ma Bell out of your life forever. You won’t be able to tell the difference if you have decent internet broadband. On Ooma’s website they have speed tests to see if Ooma will work for you. I tried a few other voip services before Ooma; Ooma is clearly superior. You buy the device and the service is free. You pay only local taxes (about $3 around here). I worried that Ooma may not survive, but so far, so good; they’ve been stellar.
I couple that with Google Voice, which I have set up to ring both my home phone (Ooma) and my cell phone together. Google Voice allows me to send out cell phone texts on my computer instead of having to type on the small screen of the cell phone.
be advised if you are not on a copper pair straight out of the CO you are being feed by something with a battery back up and if your local power goes out and that unit is on the same leg as you which it probably is, its power is going out too and it will be on battery back up which will eventually fail.
If that unit doesn’t feed a muni or hospital forget them dragging a gen out there.
100 a month. You must have a lot of needless features.
My basic local service is 41 a month with no long d.
I get lousy cell coverage where I live and can’t trust the cable provider either. I have a landline and I keep an old princess phone available so even if we lose electric power I still have a way to connect to the outside world.
I guess I don’t know how to check this out. Maybe mu download rate is slower now if maybe recently they have substituted the system you described. I’ve had this line for 33 years. In fact, about 8 or 10 years ago the squirrels apparently chewed through the line at the pole, and it had to be replaced. I could see where the line was parted.
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