Since my husband and I have retired and the economy is bad and prices keep rising, we have been doing a lot of cost cutting, but good cost cutting. We cutoff satellite and went to a Roku box plus PlayOn channel and love it. We both have switched to prepaid cell phones and have been using them for long distance calls. We were considering eliminating the house phone and using our cells but when someone calls you, it uses your minutes too. Unlimited plans for 2 cells would cost more then the house phone. Then I found MagicJack plus. Its very small, has a usb connection on one end, a phone line and ethernet connection on the other. You can install it into your modem with included cables and adapter or simply plug it into your pc and hook the phone line into it. Thats what I chose to do since it needs to be on a pc occasionally for updates. Plugged into a pc you need the pc on for it to work, plugged into a modem you don't. I put mine on my netbook and desktop to see how it worked moving it to a different pc. It automatically downloads a tiny program the first time and a setup. Warning! Read carefully or you will buy something you don't need. It costs 69.99, which includes the apparatus plus the first year of phone service. On installation you are asked if you want to purchase a year for 29.95 or 5 yrs. for 99.00 or neither, not making it plain if the 69.99 includes the first year service, it does. For a few bucks you can get a vanity number, port an old number over, get a Canadian number. I went strictly with the 69.99 deal. Love it! Sound quality is better then my cell phone Im told. I can tell no difference on my end of conversations. You can dial from the popup screen or your phone. The popup has a contact list and phone numbers you can enter. You get free long distance in the USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands. You can call elsewhere with calling cards. You get caller id (but only your number shows on their caller id) you pick your own number, conference calling, forwarding, voicemail, call waiting. Free directory assistance and a magicjack fix program you can run if you have any snafus. Usually just rebooting it works if you get an error, according to google. Ive never gotten one. When your first year is up, 29.99 is your renewal bill for a year. No monthly bill, no federal or state taxes. The website has a faq/knowledge base at the bottom of the screen where you can ask questions and get the answers on how tos. Another great thing, you can move it to any pc anywhere and it works and keeps the same number. It just downloads the drivers and you are ready. That means, put it on a laptop and travel and get your home phone calls on the road if you want. There is an app on the website to download for ipods/ipads. If the popup bothers you, there is a googled program for 5.00 to download and prevent it. Just think! A great phone for 29.99 a year!
Edited to add you do need high speedi nternet for it to work and your phone number is unlisted. Some people don't recommend porting the old phone number over because their phone company, if you have dsl, disconnected that number when phone service was discontinued, even though you were retaining stand alone internet.
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