They seem to be MUCH cheaper...just curious if any of you use companies like this?
example

By Crystal915 on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 08:59 pm:

My neighbor has it through ATT because Sprint is the only regular phone service here, and most of us hate them. (I use cells for the same reason) She love it, her area code is from her hometown in PA, so her family can call her for free. The only downside is it goes down when our cable (Charter) does, which happens a bit too often.

By Jelygu on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 10:36 pm:

I have cable phone service. I get my basic phone line, high-speed internet, digital cable with DVR (its like Tivo) and high definition service for $116 a month. I never have problems with them either!

By Karen~moderator on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 08:57 am:

My friend, and also my boss, who both bought houses in the same neighborhood in the last year, have their phone service through Cox Cable. It IS cheaper than what I pay through Bellsouth, but not as reliable. Expecially in the past few weeks, when cables were out due to the hurricane, and if you have cable TV or internet and your cable is frequently out, then your phone service is likely to be as well.

Our Bellsouth phone service was hardly affected at all by the weather, but the cable phone service was out for days, and then there was intermittent service after it was restored.

I guess it just depends on the provider and thei reptutation for service, the area, and the weather conditions.

By Conni on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 10:13 am:

We signed up for internet phone thru Vonage a few weeks ago. We like it ok and it is $24.95 a month for *everything* (call waiting, caller ID, Long distance, 3-way calling, etc...). It is cheap to call Canada, Puerto Rico, etc... You can download a soft phone (you have to pay monthly fee for it) to your laptop. So when my dh traveled a few weeks ago to Costa Rica and Guatemala his work provided him with the phone on his laptop and he could call home for nothing. Somehow they set it up to call from a local ext here?? I dont know, but it was cool to know that we werent eating up calling cards and racking up long distance charges. lol

I recommend having a cell phone for when the internet is down. We have had that happen already. It wasnt a major deal to use my cell that day.

Jelygu, my dh said he is going to turn off the Tivo and do the DVR deal you are talking about. I guess they are running a special now and its cheaper than Tivo. Do you like it?

HTH...

By Karefl on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 10:20 am:

MY sister has it through Brighthouse. If she's the ad for it I'm not buying! It doesn't seem as reliable as regular service. Many times I call & it doesn't even ring at her house! It goes straight to digital voice mail. There are MANY days when she calls from her cell b/c her cable phone line isn't working. She gets it FREE though b/c her husband works for Brighthouse.

By Mrsheidi on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 02:48 pm:

hhhhmmm...sounds unreliable for now. We have Comcast cable and lately (knock on wood), we haven't had too many outages. I'm SUCH a frugal person though...it's SO very tempting.