CORRECTION
Although my long-distance charges appear on my Verizon bill, my actual long-distance carrier was SPRINT.
That doesn’t change the news that Verizon wants to increase its charges 75% though.
I agree. I made two very long phone calls to a friend in Tennessee. When I divided the charges by the minutes, my 5:30 PM Friday call came out to about 38 cents/minute. My Saturday call came out to 35 cents/minute. I thought I must have made a mistake, so I figured them again. No mistake. This surprises me, since I was only paying 10 cents/minute minus a USAA discount in L.A. on Sprint.
In Akron, OH. I have SBC as a land line. I have their basic local calling only. It costs $20/month. I buy a long distance phone card from a local(Northern Ohio) discount drug store called Marc’s. The card allows me to call for 3 cents/minute.
I have Roadrunner for my cable internet connection, so I can’t tell what I’d do if I needed DSL.
My only problem with cutting the cord is the inability to hear the telephone ringing since I’d effectively only have one telephone. With the land line we have three telephones, two cordless. I can almost always hear one of three telephones ringing.
Unless I remember to keep my mobile telephone on my person at all times I’ll miss too many calls.
I just dropped my land line entirely and went with an internet phone system (Vonage) and so far (aprox. 1 month) It’s been great and about half the cost.
Since I’ve only lived in the US for a year, no company will let me make long distance calls unless I slap down a deposit ($50 to 300, depending on company), and after that I’ll still need to pay at least $4/month just for the privilege of making LD calls.
I use a phone card instead, with a penny a minute rate. $5 lasts me six weeks, easy.
I have the same calling plan as RTFirefly.
For 65 bucks a month, it’s an okay deal. I can call my granny every day if I want to 
And since I live right on the KY/OH/WV border, it’s nice to be able to call my Ohio friends and not get pummeled.
65 is my limit, though. If they raise it 75% I’ll drop them like a hot potato, get a bare bones calling plan and use a prepaid phone card. Which is probably what I should do anyway, that or get a cell phone, but with cell phones I’m afraid of the 2 year contract.
Another correction
My Saturday call was 25 cents/minute. I was having trouble connecting to the internet yesterday, and I was typing fast to get the message posted before I was disconnected again.