BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living Idea for saving money on phone bills

Started looking into alternatives when Verizon knocked out my line while installing another in my apartment complex and took over two weeks to fix.

There is a technology called Voice Over IP and switching to it will save me money. I pay about $30 for bare bones phone service from Verizon.

I looked around online and see that I can get a voice over IP service called SunRocket for $199 a year that includes unlimited US local and long distance. That's about $17 a month.

I'm really excited about this. Does anyone else use this service or know about voice over IP?

Thanks

No, but I'd love to hear what you find out!

Well, I'm not much of a techie or a gadget type so I hadn't really heard too much about VoIP. I'm just starting to research so will keep you posted as I learn more.

I saw an article about SunRocket that was very positive

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/personaltechnology/2002842984_ptreviews04.html

The article mentions that you can have an extra phone line for free- that's very helpful for home business, families, etc. You can even get the extra phone line to be a different area code than the one you live in!! The article mentions using the second line with the area code of where relatives live so that relatives can dial them as a local call.

Will update with more later.

Anyone with experience with VoIP wanna weigh in?

I've got an even better idea: get rid of your phone, then no more bills! Read that again, it's brilliant!

I don't have one, nobody calls me anyway, well they would if I had one I'm really popular especially with the girls*. So if I had one then it'd be ringing all the time with offers of dinner parties and gala showbiz events. Get rid of your phone then you'll have more time to do other stuff and chat on here! Erm, no you wouldn't, you need to be on a phoneline don't you. Damn, pretend I didn't write this (who wrote that - not me).

* It's true, ask anyone (except Bob Pench the fool)

Ha ha.

I do know many people who've gone landline-less and depended on their cell phone to save money. I find my cell phone service too unreliable for that- I have far too much trouble picking up signal in my own home to go that route.

Something else about SunRocket that appeals to me- they have no hidden fees, the price quoted includes taxes and there are no activation or early termination fees.

The few dollars more each month that my phone company seems to tack on under the heading over regulatory and tax charges really gets on my nerves.

So anyone here using VoIP?

Not me matey. I don't even know what a voip is. Sounds a bit sinister though, I think we'll just leave it there.

Well, I got curious about how the technology works- I knew it involved transmission via the internet. Turns out the service uses the modem from your home internet connection.

I typed VoIP explained into Google and this is what I found. A pretty nice FCC explanation:
http://www.fcc.gov/voip/

Also pulled up a site that looks very useful called WhichVoIP. It has user reviews, and SunRocket got a great score beating out a competitor called Vonage.

http://www.whichvoip.com/voip/voip_reviews.htm

Thanks for the links matey, might try and get this new fangled voip malarkey installed in my trailer, I mean apartment. It all sounds very complicated though, but I'm sure I'll be able to sort it out, I'm brilliant with stuff like that*. I'm really excited about this, oh sorry, wrong forum.

* ask anyone, they'll tell you

How did that happen! That one above* everything went a bit weird for a bit. So, what was I talking about? Ah yes, that's right - using your internet connection to transmit your voice (analog) over the internet (digital) and, oh lordy.

* it's me

I don't even have a cell phone, never used one and have no clue about that terminology. Anyone who comes to my house complains about reception and cannot get a signal, so good thing I have not made the investment.

However I may get a tracfone by summertime if my kids go to summer camp so I am easily accessible while doing errands, etc.