Telephone Service

I read an article that discusses the decline of landline telephones in America. For nearly a year now, I have not had landline telephone service in my home. The main reason? Money.

For a number years I had one of the best calling plans available. For $39.99 per month I had unlimited local and long-distance calling through AT & T. That sounds like a pretty good deal, and it probably is, but what they don’t tell you about in the advertising is that the $39.99 is the basic fee. Then they add another $10.00 or so for services that they are required to provide and another $10.00 or $15.00 in various taxes that they are required to collect. My $19.99 per month Internet service was billed through A T & T so that by the time I got my monthly bill, I owed $85.00 or $90.00.

About a year ago, my wife and I decided that we could not afford to continue having both landline and cellular telephone service. As we talked it over, we decided that if we had to choose between one or the other, the cell phone was more practical—after all, we could take it anywhere and we also liked the idea that our teenage son could have a phone while he is out running around, doing teenage guy stuff.

One of our concerns was how to have Internet service without telephone service. For several years, we had had A T & T DSL service, and we were very happy with it. We knew we could get Internet service from our local cable TV company, but we were not cable customers and did not want to become cable customers. Having cable Internet service without also having cable TV service cost nearly $50.00 per month, much more than we wanted to pay.

We decided to discontinue our telephone service, even though we thought it meant we would have to give up our Internet service. However, when I talked to the A T & T representative, I found out we could have DSL service even if we did not have a landline telephone. It is called a “dry loop,” and originally cost $23.99 per month (it recently went up to $29.00 per month). Unlike the telephone service, there are no added charges; the price is $29.00 per month, and that’s all I pay.

We went for five or six months without a telephone in our home. It was really nice not having that $65.00 per month telephone bill. But there were times when having a telephone in the house would have been convenient. For instance, if my wife had the cell phone with her while she was out, she could not use to call home if she had car trouble.

Another issue was the cost of our cell phone service. Our basic plan is for 450 minutes per month for $40.00 per month. The second line for our son cost an additional $9.99 per month. Unlimited text messaging is $19.99. Taxes bring the total to about $80.00 per month. If you don’t count the cost of the text messaging it means we pay about $60.00 per month for 450 minutes, or about 13 cents per minute. And the minutes include calls received as well as calls made. Our plan does include free nights and weekends, but when you need to call a business during the middle of the day and you are put on “hold,” 13 cents per minute is very expensive.

So I started looking around for a way to have a telephone at home without the expense. I ended up trying two different online telephone providers, Skype and Yahoo Messenger. Both companies allowed me to download their software for free. The software allows me to use my computer to make calls from my computer to any telephone anywhere in the world. Both companies also allowed me to purchase a telephone number so that other people could call me. Neither company required a contract.

I was not sure I would be happy with either service, so I originally signed up for both. I found that the quality for both was excellent—most people cannot tell that I am using a computer instead of a regular telephone. Both companies charge $2.99 per month for the telephone number and have the same basic features (voice mail, caller ID, and an address book that you can use for speed dialing or e-mail messages; you can be notified of incoming calls via a pop-up message or have the phone ring through your computer speakers). I ended up dropping the Skype in favor of the Yahoo because Skype charges 2.1 cents per minute and Yahoo charges a penny (this includes both local and long distance calls in America; international calls are more expensive).

With Yahoo, unlike with a cell phone, I am not charged for calling toll-free (800, 888, etc.) numbers and I am not charged when someone calls me. So I pay $29.00 per month for the Internet service, $2.99 per month for the telephone number, and a penny per minute (this figures out to 1000 minutes for $10.00) for calls that I dial from my computer. This means that I typically spend about $35.00 per month for my Internet and telephone service combined. As I mentioned earlier, I used to pay around $65.00 per month for the phone, and another $19.99 per month for the Internet.

Despite the savings there are a few drawbacks to this system. To have good quality you really need to have a DSL, cable, or other high speed Internet service. In order for the telephone to work, the computer must be turned on and the Yahoo Messenger program needs to be running; so if you want to have continuous telephone service, you have to leave your computer on all the time.

You need a way to talk and to listen. You can use a microphone and your computer speakers, but the quality is better with a headphone with an attached microphone. I use a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoiP) telephone that connects to a USB port on my computer. I bought it at Wal-Mart for $29.99 and it provides better quality than the headphone and microphone I had been using. When using headphone or USB telephone, I have to be fairly close to the computer when I am using the phone. I believe that you can purchase phones that connect wirelessly, but they cost more than mine.

I know that this type of telephone service is not for everyone, but it may be something you want to check out at http://voice.yahoo.com/. I’ve tried it and it works for me.