I’m seriously thinking of dumping my landline. I’m getting tired of paying $45 a month. I hear lots of people are using Magic Jack and I know I can just rush out to CVS or Radio Shack and pick one up. But how well does it work? Is it reliable? I know you need to leave your computer on, but I keep mine on 24/7 anyway, just rebooting it occasionally when it seems sluggish. I have a fairly fast cable connection, and I expect the speed to double in a couple of months when Comcast gets its fiber optic network fully running.
I know many people just use their wireless phones when they dump their landline, But I like to keep a separate line for nuisance calls, such as bill collectors, election campaigners, etc. I’ll probably give my wireless number to my doctor and other important contacts, but the $19.95 a year for Magic Jack sounds pretty attractive for a home-based line.
No, I don’t want to talk to those people. But I don’t want those calls to find their way to my wireless phone, either. I can use the Magic Jack with a cordless base station with an answering machine and screen my calls and decide who I can just ignore and who is worth talking to. As for my wireless phone, I have an iPhone. I’ve been carrying it around pretty constantly for the past year. I listen to music and browse the web with it, also. It’s my favorite toy. But, I do want to keep a home-based phone. I just don’t want to pay $45 a month for that when the same amount of money could buy 2 years of Magic Jack service.
I was in that boat a few months ago, and I replaced my land line with Google voice. I don’t know if they’ll let you keep your number yet or not, but I usually just give out my new GV number to people I don’t want to talk to and keep the service on “Do not disturb” most of the time. Then, when it gets a call, it takes a message and emails it to me. Score!
I second using google voice. And I think they’re going full fledged voip soon as well.
Magoc jack installs spyware as part of it’s package, says so in the EULA. So watch out for that if privacy is something you value. Get skype. It’s a bit more money, but it’s more versatile. And you can even use it from many smart phones over a 3G network.
Do keep in mind if you ditch everything for magic jack/vonage/whatever internet phone system you want in the case of a power or cable outage you are fucked. You really need to keep a cell phone around when you cut the wire habit.
As I said upthread, I have an iPhone and it’s by my side pretty much 24/7. I even have an external charger that runs off its own battery in case the AC goes out.
I have used magic jack at a friends house, and tried o call her on it. It’s not as seamless as it appears. Frequently something will drop out (one way voice), or get distorted, requiring a hangup and call back - yes this happens to cell phones but not to this extent. Her children are very big into computer gaming, so it may be a bandwidth issue, but to me it seems like a pain to use. I have used Skype too which seemed better IMHO.
I had Vonage for several years and liked it, but there was still the associated monthly bill. Last summer when I was about to get married and we were buying a new house, I did a bunch of research and found Ooma. It works like Vonage, but after you buy the equipment to start, there is no additional fee ever, unless you want some of their premium services. We’ve had it since last summer now, and have been very happy with it. Works great and you don’t need to keep a computer running for it to work either. Works for all the phones in our house as well. http://www.ooma.com
You don’t have to keep your computer on 24/7 - it comes with voice mail. If the computer’s not on line it just takes a message.
You do need a fast, clean connection. And watch the bandwidth. For example, playing WoW and trying to use magic jack at the same time is problematic (Guild Wars and magic jack, on the other hand, does seem to work OK) Then again, we have a 12 year old computer, I’m sure a more up to date system would have zero problem with this.
WE like it and use it for all our long distance calling. Obviously, not everyone is happy with it, that’s why there are alternatives.
Seconded. The feedback I’ve gotten on magic jack has been mixed; it seems to be a lowest-bidder kind of item. Also, we get a lot of complaints from people who believ they can turn their computer off and it will still recieve calls, despite our having told them otherwise. Also, Magic Jack cannot get you a local number everywhere. You may find yourself in someone elses’ area code. Not a problem for you, but if your friends and neighbors still pay for long distance calls, they’ll be paying to call you.
Ooma is a much more well-put-together device. It’s also free for life after you buy it, not that they aren’t interested in selling you premium services.
I have not had a land-line in a long time. I am a bit of a nut when it comes to personal privacy, so I never give my cell number out other than close friends/family. If I absolutely have to give a number to someone who does not meet my parameters (my doctor for example), I give my gf’s number.
You can already go full VOIP with Google Voice, the company/software they acquired, Gizmo5, already works with Google Voice. It’s a bit clunky though. Likely after it gets rebranded and reworked by Google it’ll be smoother.
I’ve been using a Magic Jack for about a year now and… it’s okay. It’s certainly worth the $45/year.
It IS annoying that it insists on keeping this huge freakin’ popup on your screen at all times. And it also constantly reinstalls the icon onto the desktop. Since I’m running it on a server, though, it doesn’t annoy me too much.
I haven’t noticed too many dropouts, but occasionally we’ll find that we’re simply unable to receive calls- I have to make a call and that kinda resets it. I think this happens when my internet connection momentarily craps out. The annoying thing about this is that there’s no indication that this has happened- you just stop getting calls. Since we both primarily use our iPhones, this is just irritating, but not enough for us to spring for a regular phone service.
Thanks for the answers, everybody. I don’t think Skype is for me. I want a replacement for my landline, and Skype isn’t it. They even have a disclaimer on their website. No 911, for one thing. Ooma sounds good, I just need to get together $349 for the equipment. There is still a monthly fee, but those are regulatory fees and 911 fees, and still quite miniscule. Less than $3.50 a month. That’s not bad. The only turn off for me about Magic Jack would be pop-ups on my PC. Are they really that intrusive? Would I see them over top of my browser?
The MJ pop-up comes on when you boot and when you are using the phone; it’s not constantly on the screen.
I’ve had it for over a year with no problems … in fact, I just realized that I don’t remember the last time I used my land line. I do pause a big download when I use the MJ phone … it’s gets a little scratchy … but in general, it is actually clearer than my land line.
Big big plus is that you can take it with you when you travel. You can make and receive calls from anywhere in the world that you have high speed computer access.
As for the spyware thing – do you really think your local phone company doesn’t keep a record of the calls you make? I’m a pretty big privacy nut myownself but I’m not worried about MJ.
Like most everything, it has its peculiarities, but for 40 bucks and then $19.95 a year … well, I renewed mine when the first year was up.