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May 21, 2008 | david | Comments 11

A Full Year Of Phone Service, Including Long Distance, For $19.99?

Yesterday I was reading a post asking for advice about less expensive home phone service, especially for cheaper long-distance options. I left a comment telling him to check with his phone company to see if there is a bare-bones plan available (so he can keep his dial tone for 911 and his DSL line) and then install Vonage (or another VOIP program) for unlimited calling for about $25 a month. I have cable internet and Vonage, so we do not even have “regular” home phone service here, but if I had to have DSL I would try my suggestion for cheaper phone service. However, another reader left a comment about a USB port device called the Magic Jack, which proclaims to offer unlimited local, long distance, call waiting, voicemail and caller ID…for $19.99 a YEAR, not per month. Yep, a once a year charge of $19.99 is supposedly enough to get you full phone service for 12 months. It looks easy to hook up - you just plug your phone into the tiny device and plug the device itself into a USB port on your computer. So my question to you guys is - have you tried this? Do you know anyone who has tried it? I think I am going to sign up for the free trial to see if it works, and I will report back as soon as I can. I will gladly get rid of my $25 a month Vonage in exchange for $19.99 a year!

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    • RSSComments: 11  |  Post a Comment  |  Trackback URL

    1. Darlene | May 21, 2008 | Reply

      It’s actually $39.95 due to a $20 activation fee. After year 1, it would be $19.95 a year. With free Skype & free cell minutes after 9pm & on weekends, it’s another $20 bargain that I don’t need.

    2. David | May 21, 2008 | Reply

      Thanks Darlene for the price info. However, Skype is only free for calling other computers, it is not free for making landline calls!

    3. Paul | May 21, 2008 | Reply

      Have it. Works fine. Not perfect. a couple times voice mail has not answered. Once they had a issue and when someone called there was silence. No ringing, no busy, no voice mail no static either :) . For the price its fine. I’ve used it for job interviews with no problem. On my vista machine prior to a software upgrade it was echoey. As with any IP based phone make sure you have the bandwidth. I have had issues when using bit torrent.

    4. David | May 21, 2008 | Reply

      So it probably works as well as any other VOIP service - my Vonage sometimes drops calls and the like, but for $20 a year, I would gladly put up with a few glitches here and there.

    5. Luke F | May 22, 2008 | Reply

      Have you tried the Skype for $3 a month that lets you make unlimited calls?

    6. Paul | May 22, 2008 | Reply

      Yes but no. When skype first offered unlimited US land line calling for I think it was $20 I signed up for the year. It was ok. I never found a reasonably price / usable skype phone or USB 2 skype convert so i could use a standard cordless phone. I do have a skpe in bound # that I use on my notebook with a blue tooth headset.

    7. David | May 22, 2008 | Reply

      Skype requires a special USB phone, whereas MJ doesn’t. Also, at $3 a month, it’s almost twice as much as MJ is.

    8. KATRINA | Jun 2, 2008 | Reply

      IM CURRENTLY USING THE MAGICJACK AND IT DOES HAVE A FEW GLITCHES THAT I THINK THE COMPANY NEEDS TO FIX. WHEN MJ ADVERTISED THEIR PRODUCT THEY DIDN’T TELL ME THAT I WOULD HAVE DELAYS (DURING LOADING) WHEN TRYING TO ANSWER CALLS, YOU ONLY CORRESPOND WITH THE COMPANY ONLINE, THEY HAVE A QUICK FIX THAT SCANS THE SYSTEM FOR ERRORS AND IT ALWAYS COMPLETES THE PROCESS AND TELLS ME THAT EVERYTHING IS OK BUT ITS NOT. I HAVENT HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH VOICEMAIL BUT YOU ARENT ALLOWED TO ADD A PERSONAL GREETING. I GUESS YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

    9. Paul | Jun 2, 2008 | Reply

      If the loading your talking about is when you first plug in the device then there is no issue. the majicjack software has to load before it will work. there is no way around that. if it is somewhere else I’ve never experienced it.
      If you call your #. Enter in you pass code. hit * a couple times to get to the main menu and choose option 0 mailbox options. you can set your personal greeting there.

    10. Paul | Jul 14, 2008 | Reply

      Final (I hope) Update:
      After about 6 months of the magicjack i can say I will not be renewing my service. I have Cox broadband with plenty of bandwidth. even with that my sound quality has gone down hill over the last couple months. Its unusable 50% of the time now. their tech support has not been able to solve the issue. MY skype phone has worked flawless. Always rings when i get as call. Always connects when I initiate a call. Sounds is fine. no one has ever complained. for $3 a month and $30 for a # which now can be displayed when making a call is $66 compared to $19. So skype wins this one. Yes I know the device cost $20 to start but my skype phone cost more then that so I’ll exclude one time hardware costs. the other good thing with the skype phone i don’t need to leave a pc on.

    11. david | Jul 14, 2008 | Reply

      Thanks for the report Paul, glad I had not gotten around to trying it out. I think I will stick with Vonage for now!

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