At&T Stand alone DSL, Home Phone- Magic Jack

[uummm]

I am considering 3 options.

1. Dropping down a teir on DSL for $7 a month savings and loose the land line.

2. Dropping land line, going down one teir on DSL and getting Magic Jack.

3. Dropping land line, going down a teir on DSL and get the 5th cell phone which would mean I would have to sign a new contract and my cell phone would go up $11 a month and we would be locked in for a year I think (though I wonder if we bought our phone outright if we would have to sign the year contract-all we need is the SIM card). Though we would have to pay $35 up front for the new line activation in addition to the $11 a month.


Here is the story.
We have AT&T DSL Xtreme and Community Caller Plus land line and I pay almost $58 a month for these 2 items.

I was paying $65 and when I went to call and find out if I could get a DSL only I was told I could keep my land line and DSL and get a $12 discount for keeping my land line (new offer I didn't know they had GRR). So I went along with this idea him saying it was only $7 a month for the land line to do it this way...What they don't tell you is you will STILL be paying $10 a month IN TAXES/Fees for this land line.

Several months after switching to this lesser bill, I still feel as though I am paying too much for DSL and a land can just as easily call my cell). We have cell phones so the land line really isn't that important other than when we are out and I have a kid or two at home -they do NOT have cell phones-I would have no way to get hold of them if I didn't have this land line and if the oldest brother was not home with his cell that he MIGHT hear ringing if we were to call. All long distance calls are made on cell phones. And another Cell phone is not an option because we would have to renew and get a contract which we do NOT want to do (My monthly service is better than their new contract service)-I will have to switch in a year when #2 gets his DL but am not ready to spend $12 more a month yet.

I was thinking of Magic Jack for the $20 a year to keep a land line, but I guess I would need to change my phone number-I don't really care so much about that. But then I wonder if anyone has the Stand Alone DSL if they are paying these same $10 in taxes on that or whether it is just the PHONE that gets taxed....

We had cable internet and after 2+ years they had jacked the monthly payment up to $65 from $24.99 slowly every 6 months (that is how they getcha). Plus it is Charter and they just filed chapter 11 this past week (Also they have the WORST CS ever AND I had to go through the BBB to get $120 that they owed me!) so cable is not an option.




So the questions I need answered are-

If anyone has At&t Stand Alone DSL what taxes/fees do you have to pay.

Is Magic Jack worth it? We don't really use the land line, and my kids don't even know our home phone number (we had cells only for 2 years before we bothered to hook up the land line). I guess it would be more for emergency only. Though I read someone said they had to put in for 911 service with Magic Jack?

[uummm]

Well, so much for not having to get a new 2 yr contract. According to the website if I switched plans I would have to have a new 2 yr contract.
Boy they sure don't make this easy.

[CW&M Mom]

I haven't heard good things about Magic Jack.

We have high speed internet, and vonage. As long as you have a good high speed internet....vonage seems to work quite well.

[uummm]

My husband pointed out that 911 still works even if you don't have a paid for land line, as long as it is hooked up. When we first bought our house, I didn't hook it up so we couldn't use it, but now that I have had it hooked up to turn off the service, the 911 should still work...though that doesn't help when I just need to get hold of my kids.

[loaslaen]

Originally Posted by uummm Is Magic Jack worth it? We don't really use the land line, and my kids don't even know our home phone number (we had cells only for 2 years before we bothered to hook up the land line). I guess it would be more for emergency only. Though I read someone said they had to put in for 911 service with Magic Jack?

It sounds like you have a cell phone that you use regularly. If you really don't use land line, then Magic Jack is worth it. You can't beat $20 a year for phone service with Caller ID and other features and unlimited long distance, etc.

With Magic Jack you do have to have an internet connection and the computer has to be on. When it's not on, you lose power, etc, it does have voice mail that you can check by phone or email.

You can either hook up a regular corded phone or cordless phone, or you can connect the headset with microphone to your computer without hooking up a phone. You can also use just your computer's mic and speakers to talk, but it's probably not the best reception unless you have a quiet home.

The problems that I have personally had with Magic Jack is that sometimes it echoes. Sometimes if I call a number it won't ring or anything on my side and no one answers, but the party I'm calling does get a ring and silence when they answer. Not sure why that happens. I know there's an update on their site for Windows Vista, so maybe it's just a glitch with that particular operating system. I don't think that's much different than the problems you get with some cell phones echoing or dropping calls.

[foggierbard9]

We had the AT&T stand alone DSL. Ours was $34 a month. That was it, that was the bill. There wasn't any additional taxes on top of that. It worked great and we never had problems with it. We don't have it now because we moved and they don't have AT&T here just verizon. :(

My parents got rid of their landline about 6 mos ago and put the additional phone on their cell contract. They like it better, and pay less that way than with the landline phone. They have internet through their cable company.

[foggierbard9]

For 911 service a cell phone doesn't even have to be activated. It just has to be charged. That is how the donated phones that go to shelters are able to be used. The only thing they can call is 911 without activating it.

[jwahlton]

Well I work for AT&T so I'd rather you get that

[uummm]

Well, we are going to stick with At+T do I have a choice?

I think I will drop to the lesser DSL, drop the land line and pick up the extra cell phone. After all that we should save $11 a month after the first month ($26 activation fee) and sign the stupid 2 year contract. What has stopped us from getting the 5th phone is the plan we have now is for 4 phones, $59.99 for first line +$9.99 per additional. I got 850 minutes a month that roll when I don't use them. Plus I got 20% off the $59.99 corp discount. Now we will get $69.99 for 2 lines +$9.99 each additional and only 700 minutes a month (which was 750 the last time I looked a few months ago) and get 20% off the $69.99 corp discount.

We are not happy we have to sign the 2 year contract, but honestly it isn't like we would be willing to spend the $35 per phone to switch to Verizon in the future either.

[aquene27]

I just did the At&t turnover to stand alone DSL with a # transfer to Vonage. I had a HELL of a time with AT&T. It took them almosy 7 weeks to turn it into stand alone, including a flub by a worker who disconnected the entire account and I had to wait 10 days to get it back up so we could transfer the #! I called MANY MANY times, requested to speak to managers/supervisors and was told that they don't speak to people like me and when I did get ahold of one, I got about 6 words out and SHE HUNG UP ON ME!! I was Livid!

Anyways.. make a really, really long story short, At&t doesn't charge taxes on stand alone DSL lines.

HTH