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xlines

I currently use Vonage for my home and have been pretty happy with them.

Now along comes MagicJack offering phone service for $20 a year!

Is MagicJack safe enough to cancel your current phone service and make the jump?

What do you think? Take the poll and share your thoughts.

Stewart · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 663

IMO, no one should depend on MJ (or any other VoIP service) as their only phone, because it may be unavailable when needed in an emergency.

If you don't have a family at home, have no serious health problems, and cellular coverage is good inside your house, you may decide that your cell phone is an adequate backup. Otherwise, get the least expensive landline. In most of the US, you can get a "low-use", "lifeline" or "basic" phone line for about $5.50/mo. When you add in the ~$6.50 in fees and taxes, it comes to about $12/mo. This is cheap insurance. Not only does it give you reliable access to 911, but it's also an additional line you can use for incoming or toll-free calls. With an AT&T, MCI, or Sprint prepaid card from Costco or Sam's, you can make calls for $0.02/min., e.g. when your other lines are in use, or when your Internet connection is down. If you ever need to connect a fax, Tivo, modem, etc., a landline works really well.

Even if you have a landline, keep a cell phone handy. An intruder may cut the lines before entering your home, or a fire that starts in the basement may disable the phones before it's detected. Of course, in case of fire, you should get yourself and your loved ones out of the house before calling 911.

If you have a home security system, a landline is usually more reliable than VoIP, but also consider cellular backup, for the reasons mentioned above.

Rubberchicken · MagicJack User Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 37

magicjack saves me $600 a year and i think its great i have had very few probs and when i do i get ahold of dan the man not his sorry tech support he gets to the bottom of things quik and gets me taken care of

dukeomaha · MagicJack User Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 41

I don't have 100% confidence in MJ reliability yet. So I still keep Vonage until MJ reliability becomes more stable. I bought the MJ mainly for traveling needs, esp. when traveling overseas.

On a side note, when I called in to cancel, Vonage lowered my bill to 14.99 a month until the end of the year, gave me 3 months free, and gave me a refurb. Motorola VT2442 at an unlockable firmware version. So I unlocked the VT2442 with Cyt 3.5 before calling in to activate. Of course Vonage couldn't provision it because the admin password, provisioning path, provisioning server, etc. had been changed. I played dumb and followed the tech support instructions until they gave me the factory default password. AhHa! Gotcha! At this point I just did a factory reset to restore all provisioning parameters and it was provisioned automatically by Vonage. With the factory admin password handy, I can unlock my VT2442 any time I want, at whatever firmware version.

Jacksondale · MagicJack Expert Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 84

I intend to use it as my only phone line. I have a decent cell that has good service inside my home. My only complaint is my internet service (TWC) has been spotty ever since lightning struck a hub in our area several months ago. However that isn't a MJ problem and TWC is aware of our problem but just hasn't been able to resolve it yet. I really don't need a fax line or security service so those are non-issues for me. Of course, I just got it in January so I'm still really testing it but so far so good. Very Happy

jonfk2 · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:46 pm Post subject:

I have used MJ for the last two months as my only phone service with almost zero problems. Of course, I have a cell phone with the VirginMobile $5.41 (tax included) per month plan, for emergency and additional service. This brings my total yearly telephone bill to $84.91. I am single, with no family at home, so I am "clam" happy with my arrangement.

xlines · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:26 pm Post subject:

Perhaps the biggest factor against making MJ my #1 home phone is the weak customer service. If I knew that I could easily reach tech support concerning an issue, I would probably make the MagicJack jump in a heartbeat.

Cheap Ring · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:54 am Post subject: Buh-Bye , Windstream!

I ported my business line to my cellfone and cancelled my residential service and DSL after getting a huge rate increase. They asked why I was leaving and I told them that their competition was cheaper. They would only offer a $5 reduction for 6 months to get me to stay. I got internet service added to my cable service from our local city utility department at $11.50 cheaper than the phone company. My total savings per month is about $116. With MagicJack I don't have to be afraid to use the long distance. It sure is quiet around here without all of those telemarketer calls. Very Happy

couch-potato · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:30 pm Post subject: IN CANADA

I got my MagicJack a few hours ago - and I am going to cancel my landline ASAP!

I live alone, have a cell phone, and used my landline mostly for dial-up internet, and incoming telemarketing calls.

last month:

now:

It's not a huge financial savings, but I love that I have high-speed internet now, and I am so glad to cut the strings to the socialist telco monopoly.

The only drawback is that I don't have a local telephone number, so my friends can't call me (because they're all being overcharged by the local companies). But I'm willing to live with that, and as soon as I tell everybody I know to get MJ, they can call me whenever they like!

gooney · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:06 pm Post subject: Re: IN CANADA

couch-potato · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:44 pm Post subject:

Yes I have been stuck in the stone-age.

I live in Saskatchewan - which is a pretty backwards place when it comes to telecommunications - check out the prices I've been paying.

I also live on a farm - with no high speed internet access until recently. Unfortunately, as soon as there are leaves on the trees it won't work anymore - but I'm willing to cut down a few trees when the time comes.

dukeomaha · MagicJack User Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 41

$60.00 a month for broadband internet? What a rip-off! Cox here in Omaha charges $56.95 for a 12 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload bandwidth, and that's in US dollars (ironically enough, a US dollar is worth less than a Canadian dollar these days).

I already feel ripped off paying Qwest $26.99 a month for DSL. When I was living in Orange County, California, I paid only $14.95 a month for DSL.

couch-potato · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:54 pm Post subject:

dukeomaha · MagicJack User Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 41

It's a good decision on your part to get rid of the landline.

I suggest you also get yourself an ATA device and use it with Gizmoproject.com (get a Grandcentral DID# to forward to gizmo), Freedigits.com (Freedigits number is already a PSTN DID#), or freeworlddialup.com (Use IPKall or GroovyTel DID to forward to it).

You can signup for Grandcentral here (do it while the link is still good): http://www.grandcentral.com/home/blogger_invite

All of those are free.

MJ call quality can be intolerable at times, so having more than one Voip solutions is safer than just relying on MJ.

With the free services I mentioned, you can make outgoing calls via Grand Central "click2call" also.

couch-potato · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject:

saxman · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:32 pm Post subject:

I dropped he local phone company and kept their dsl service. It's $36.00 a month and just as soon as my contract with them is up next year I'll drop that and go to cable to get twice the speed for about $5.00 more a month. Magic Jack is the only phone I need but I have a cell with a pre-paid plan if needed but what emergency would there be? I have the pc on all the time and if it broke I'd have it running again by the next day. I did add the Hawking HH1 broadband booster so the calls are even better then before with the land line.

SpamBox · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:05 pm Post subject:

It's my only home phone but still have my mobile too.

testing123 · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 703

Some interesting opinions have been voiced here ...

1) As I heard someone say on here somewhere, "MJ is not yet ready for prime time" -- I forget which post it was.
i.e., Beta-level service (still!), Zero Support/Communication (from a "Phone Company" no less), constant tinkering w/ Servers leading to downtime (presumably to improve service), frequent touch-tone sounds during a call (sometimes causing certain actions from the system you are calling)
2) No official support for ATA
3) No official Linux support
4) Privacy Protection: Not so sure it is that good and I am not so sure I want to provide CC info for Int'l Calling given that.

BUT,
1) It has improved quite a bit since July '07
2) It has REAL promise and potential (I just want to see it go from Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy)
3) This concept (I hope) has put ALL other providers on their ear (esp. the big gluttonous "Bells")

You may not believe this but I REALLY want MJ to succeed -- it has already done a lot in just existing.

Right now IMHO, it is best as part of a SUITE of VOIP/Cell/etc Services hidden behind something like GrandCentral or RingCentral. i.e., Redundancy, Failover, Load Balancing, and Uptime (assuming GC or RC don't take a crap)

PS: As much as I would love to have a analog/landline as a "backup", I am not willing to pay another CENT to Local Telco (or have my privacy breached by being listed in the public phone book or Internet phonebooks or Google).

testing123 · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 703

Well, it is days like today/yesterday that make me thankful to have redundancy with other VOIP providers (and GrandCentral).

Sometimes no Incoming, sometimes no Outgoing in the last 12hrs or so.

Hopefully resolve soon . . .

couch-potato · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:46 am Post subject:

MJ is not good enough for my only phone - however that doesn't mean I need a landline.

I know lots of people that have cellular as their only phone service - no landline.

I have a cell and a MJ - no landline.

I would not recommend that anyone use MJ as their only phone - however I think everyone should get MJ - at the very least just for long distance!

Bendle · Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 2:12 pm Post subject:

I just got a flyer from Comcast that offers internet and voice for $49.90 a month everyday low price. I noticed the catch is the download is 768kbps though.

kumar · Dan Should Pay Me Joined: 15 Nov 2007 Posts: 806

Bendle · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:28 am Post subject:

saxman · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:04 pm Post subject:

In Wa., the Comcast price is $44.00 a month for 8 mb, if you already have Comcast cable which I do. I think it's about 20 more if you don't. Right now I pay Qwest $36.00 a month for dsl to go alot slower, 1.5 mbpm.-so for 8 more bucks I can go much faster. I first need to let my 2 year "price for life" contract expire, next year. Otherwise they will charge me a $200.00 fee for quitting the contract early. My advice is never do the contact thing or pay for anything too far in the future like MJ. You never know what deal awaits down the road. These communication companies are scrambling for our bucks and business and the ball is in our corner finally.

MagicPhoneMan · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:50 pm Post subject:

MJ can't be the only phone because its not really portable. A lot of people don't have laptops. MJ best use is for a home phone. A cellular phone is too convenient to go without one. If you have MJ and a pay-as-you-go cellphone, you can save a lot of money

sean · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 07 Apr 2008 Posts: 13

my Verizon home service $65 plus tax month unlimited long distance and local..
Sprint cell $60 month 1000 anytime minutes, unlimited nights(7pm-5am), and unlimited weekends
Magic Jack $20 a year
I had magic jack for 3 weeks now..trying to figure which to cancel and keep mj..

HendersonMike · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:35 am Post subject:

I kicked my loco (local) phone company to the curb 2 weeks ago and have not regretted it yet. I do have a pay-as-you-go-cell for "those" times.

DrScissorhands · MagicJack Newbie Joined: 26 Apr 2008 Posts: 1

i use vonage for my primary.
I have 2 cells I carry, then the other 2 people in my house carry cells
i added 2 magic jacks for outgoing calls....

vonage set to simulring to cell 2

cell 1 also has data plan for lappy, and on different service than the other cell plans in the house

i run a small business, and need multiple lines.

this poll dont have the option I need..... so i did not vote.
I would never rely on magic jack as my primary, but i do rely on voip and cells.

total = 6 lines, and I love it.
You could not pay me to have a land line. expensive, and no more reliable than voip, especially if you have cordless phones. afterall what good is a cordless phone if the base is off...
therefore I have came to the conclusion is a cell is the most reliable phone to have, voip is second.

Bendle · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 11:20 am Post subject:

Doobles · magicJack Apprentice Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 12

$60.00 a month for broadband doesn't sound that bad. I live in the sticks and my DSL costs me $90.00 a month for 3 megs down 256 K up. Cable just came to the area and can do 10 megs down 1 meg up for $38.00 a month.

I was rate locked in a contract with the phone company for 3 years. (The contract ending in February of 2009.)Those idiots raised my rate to $107 in February, then $115 in March, then $99 in April.. Now May's billing is here and it is $102.00... LOL. A few weeks ago cable was offered. I just dumped DSL and went with the cable company. Cable company is triple the speed and 60% cheaper.

The phone company threatened they are going to force a $600 early termination fee on me. I think I have a case to get out of it. I called them twice a month since February and gave them 4 months to fix the billing problem... Which I think is more than fair.

They also threatened they are going to disconnect my land phone if I do not pay the early termination fee. SO... I am going to be one step ahead of them and tell them to disconnect and use Magic Jack until cable offers local telco service which is suppose to be late in the summer or early fall. I told the phone company if they try to collect, I will take it up with the state utility commission.

I already have a cell phone with reliable service.. I think MJ would be Ok for my house phone. I have not yet hooked up MJ.. Probably will tomorrow. I think it will work out very well. I tried Vonage.. I do not like automatic credit card billing. I never had any billing problems with Vonage, but other companies I have. If you are overcharged, your account is zapped, it takes months of fighting to get your money back. Until Vonage does paper statements, sends, or e-mails me a statement so I can approve of the charges before I send the money.. I will stay away from Vonage.. I don't care if its $5 more a month to do it that way.. That's the way I like to be billed.. Smile

Vonage nailed me with an activation fee and termination fee when I had the service. Overall Vonage was good and reliable. I just didn't like the way they billed, along with the activation and termination fees.
Thanks again.. Sorry to ramble.. LOL

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MagicJack Good Enough 4 Your Only Phone?