Telephone Bill

[grampster]

Thank you Al Gore, Democrats and Rural Electrification. 

So, I have Sage as my land line phone service.  The monthly nut is $43.and change.  At the grocery store the other day, I look on the back of the receipt and find Sage is offering a really outstanding deal.  Unlimited local use, 300 anytime long distance minutes, call waiting, forwarding, Caller ID etc.

I call Sage and ask if I can get their better deal even if I'm already a customer.  Sure says the nice lady.  She says I'm on one of their older plans and she'd be able to upgrade me, price wise, as I already have all the goodies the new plan has.

My savings?   $2.00!  $2.00??  Yep!!  There is $19.00 a month in taxes on my phone bill.  State, Federal, 911, Al Gore"s "Every kid needs the internet tax" and Rural Electrification.

PS:  I saw the tearful, cheering, Standing Ovation on the Emmy's last night for that worthless, lying, pos Gore who showed up to have some words about some kid propaganda TV show that is infesting the minds of our children with BS.  I thought I was going to puke.

[HankB]

Yep, like the commercial says, your phone bill contains a lot of phone bull.

When I moved to TX, I signed up for "measured" service - it gives me 25 local calls a month, with 8 cents for each extra local call I make. I normally pay under $20, even with all the BS add-ons. (Though now I'm getting DSL which costs me another $20 or so per month . . . )

[Manedwolf]

Why still have a landline, unless you get poor cell reception in your area?

I have a Bluetooth docking station for my cellphone that energizes the rest of the phone lines, so when the cell rings, the rest of the phones ring. I can also call from any of the other phones, too.

No landline.

I've never understood paying for a phone that rings where you're not, rather than one that's with you.

[mtnbkr]

Why still have a landline, unless you get poor cell reception in your area?

We keep our landline hooked up to an answering machine and give that number out to all the companies who might need to contact us.  Friends, family, coworkers, companies we might need to have an immediate conversation with, etc get our cellphones.

Chris

[onions!]

Why still have a landline, unless you get poor cell reception in your area?

minor thread drift->I have a neighbor that is a day care provider.One of their requirements is a land line.

I don't even have a cel,let alone a land line.There's a pay phone two blocks away.Close enough for me.

[Racehorse]

Voice Over IP is where it's at. I pay $20 a month for unlimited local and long distance calling. Calls to Germany (my wife is German) are about 1.8 cents per minute, which is about as cheap as it gets. If you already have DSL or Cable internet, it's pretty hard to beat VOIP.

[Boomhauer]

Voice Over IP is where it's at. I pay $20 a month for unlimited local and long distance calling. Calls to Germany (my wife is German) are about 1.8 cents per minute, which is about as cheap as it gets. If you already have DSL or Cable internet, it's pretty hard to beat VOIP.

But I don't have high-speed internet. All I've got is dialup. Which sucks.

Also one of the reasons that I don't go hunting down links and source articles that often...

[Silver Bullet]

There's a pay phone two blocks away.Close enough for me.

You must have a higher pain threshhold than I do.   

What happens when you're expecting a call; do you hang out at the pay phone ?   

[onions!]

There's a pay phone two blocks away.Close enough for me.

You must have a higher pain threshhold than I do.   

What happens when you're expecting a call; do you hang out at the pay phone ?   

 =)Nope.There isn't anyone that'd want to talk to me so bad that they couldn't wait until the next day.I spend 7-5 M-F on the phone.

As long as the folks stay healthy I'm not gonna waste $$$ on a phone.

[Brad Johnson]

My unlimited AT&T (formerly Southwestern Bell) local-only service in the "No Frills Package" runs me $20.21 every month, including all the BS taxes and govt mandated fees.

Brad

[mtnbkr]

Those packages aren't available everywhere.  VZ offers a similar package in SW Va, but the closest I can find in this area is $20 for a limited number of calls.  That works since we never make outgoing calls from our landline.

To be honest, I'm half tempted to get a third line on our cell service, assign the landline number to it, and cancel the land line.  We can still ignore the "house number" like we do now.   It would save us about $10/month. 

Chris

[BrokenPaw]

Manedwolf,

Who makes that docking station that you have?

[Manedwolf]

Manedwolf,

Who makes that docking station that you have?

I have an Intellitouch XLink, but there's also one called a Dock-n-Talk. Different ones work better with different phone brands, it seems.

[K Frame]

Those packages aren't available everywhere.  VZ offers a similar package in SW Va, but the closest I can find in this area is $20 for a limited number of calls.  That works since we never make outgoing calls from our landline.

To be honest, I'm half tempted to get a third line on our cell service, assign the landline number to it, and cancel the land line.  We can still ignore the "house number" like we do now.   It would save us about $10/month. 

Chris

Hum...

You need to look at what that might do to the cost of your DSL. You might end up spending more in the long run because you'd need either a dry line or another means of accessing the net.

[mtnbkr]

Dry lines are typically about the same cost as thee DSL alone so I'd save the difference between the land line and the third cellphone.  I already have the phone, I'd just have to add it to the plan.

Chris

[K Frame]

interesting. I was under the impression that the dry lines carried a "well, you don't have any other services with us, so we're going to punk you just because we can" fee structure...

[mtnbkr]

nope.  In fact, I almost converted ours to a dry line, but I held onto the landline "just in case" and also as a dummy number to give out (who cares how many telemarketers call when you don't answer it).

Chris

[Brad Johnson]

Those packages aren't available everywhere.

Yeah, I know.  Being in a relatively big city has its advantages sometimes.  My parents are on a rural coop.  Their basic bill runs about $40.

Brad

[K Frame]

I still remember the night I called your cell phone wanting to sell you aluminum siding for your crypt... AND while posing as a charitable organization...

I could hear the veins in your forehead throbbing...

 

[K Frame]

"Yeah, I know.  Being in a relatively big city has its advantages sometimes."

Uh...

That still doesn't account for why it's not available in the area where Mtnbkr and I live.

The "town" in which he lives is 40,000 or so, and the "town" where I live is about 30,, with the immediate surrounding area bringing that up to nearly 100,000.

[Brad Johnson]

Well.. maybe it's just because you're you.  Chris is guilty by association.   

Brad

[Gewehr98]

Maybe Mike is paying a penalty for having his super Verizon FIOS service, instead?   

Some folks enjoy having a land line in areas where storms and other catastrophes are likely to occur.

The telcos are really good at maintaining that 48v line voltage on the wires.  I have a big bank of surplus telco AGM batteries right here, switched out after 5 years, even though they're rated for 10 years.

What does that mean?  When power goes out, and cell phone towers are down, chances are the land lines are still up. 

I've even seen discrete little devices that take advantage of the 48v line voltage to charge cell phones and iPods.  Not that the telcos would be happy to know you're using the lines for that purpose...

I know that cell phones are not the preferred method to communicate during hurricane evacs and post-storm.  I discovered that firsthand.  I have Vonage now, with a huge UPS feeding the Motorola voice modem and all the other components in our communications/network rack.  That's only as good as the wire on the poles outside, though.   

[atomd]

Yep, mine is pretty much for emergency use only. My cell phone is the same though. I don't really use the phone unless I have to. I'm not a super talkative guy but I do see the need for a phone if your car breaks down or there's some sort of emergency. They can be good to have around just in case....even though I don't normally use them.

[K Frame]

Nah, I just got the FIOS installed, and it's with Verizon, the company we're talking about.

In fact, my phone services and DSL was also with Verizon.

[mtnbkr]

Mike, I think you have those numbers backwards and maybe even underestimated for your town.  There's no way your town is smaller than mine, even if you count our "unofficial guest workers".

The last time we had an event significant enough to affect phone comms, it was 9/11 and the landlines were saturated for hours.  I didn't have a cellphone back then, but I can't imagine them being any better.  From 11am till at least 5pm, our phone was as good as useless.

If I need to get a message out that bad, I'll use my battery powered ham radio to jump on one of the traffic nets.

Chris