Cut Phone Costs - painlessly

I'm on a limited income and like most of you get upset about paying for more utility than I'm getting...or using.

As for most, residential telephone charges have made my teeth grind, but despite having T-W digital available, and experience advocating/installing Vonage for other penny-pinchers I didn't really want to do away with my legacy phone company.. especially since it hadn't been possible to transfer my old number until recently. Not to mention 911/E911 hassles.

Paying my phone bill this month got me off my duff as it came to $84, up from $77 - which happened due to incentive on DSL expiring taking my internet bill to $25.

And with about an hour of research, I found a way to reduce my phone bill $40 / mo by reducing/eliminating unused features and services.

This happened because SBC previously had me over a barrel, Roadrunner WAS $35 for 1.5Mb so DSl was relatively cheap, but you have to have a landline subscription to get DSL.
And I cant PROVE it, but I distinctly recall that you had to have more than the minimum local phone service to receive INCOMING long distance.
So the reasonable no-hassle best choice for me, several years ago, had been to go with an SBC/ATT bundle, which had incented me with a $15 DSL promo, which expired in two stages to its present $25.

But it also grated me that there were charges for features that come free with VoIP. I wont go into why those feature charges were reasonable 20 years ago; suffice to say they aren't anymore.

The high legacy phone bill, ability to now port my number to Vonage and the introduction of MagicJack caused me to review my phone setup again.
So I went online to see how I could leverage ATT into giving me as much service for much less

Landline use params:
1. Need inbound LD, need local outbound, but not much or often.
2. 911 with no hassle is good
3. Use callerID to screen, "Dont call Dont work all that well"
4. DONT need system voicemail, 3-way, etc; have cell & a machine for that.
5. powerfail operation

Here's the options:
Vonage Unlimited - $25 / mo
Vonage 500 Min - $15 /mo

MagicJack $59 first year, $20 / yr after.
- requires PC running 24/7 OR when you want to make/receive calls.
- limited Area codes, Exchanges available but suitable for OUTGOING calls to North America AND/OR a second line if a local number is available, or just outgoing whatever.

Time-Warner Phone - $35 /mo
- this is digital, but not VoIP and not 'portable' like Vonage and MagicJack

This depended also on my knowledge that local RR has an unadvertised option that competes with DSL 1.5 at $22 /mo

So now, the baseline on which I'm working is:

RR $22 plus Vonage 500 $15 /month
-PLUS I would have to find a wireless router to use. RR charges an extra fee for renting theirs.
TOTAL: $37 plus onetime hit for wireless router.

I went into ATT options and found a 'Basic Local Line' plan with caller ID for $15 PLUS about $7 Fed legacy charges, then add the $25 for DSL and Taxes for about $43 /mo, a reduction of $40 /mo for phone and internet.

- Pro's:
1. in power fail phone still works
2. No 911 hassle
3. Keeps my DSL Wireless with full router function (severely crippled if you hook it to a cable modem; trust me - only supports ONE PC)
4. I keep my relationship with ATT which has much better 2nd and 3rd level support.
- Cons:
1. Very expensive Outgoing LD, about $.03 per minute. IF you use it.. but be aware some calls you THINK are local really arent, they are 'local Toll'
2. Stupid Fed 'grabber' charges which are really a tax. But likely that VoIP/Digital will soon get those too.

So... despite we rarely use outgoing LD (we use in-system Verizon cell to talk to kids), if I WANTED to I could add MagicJack with a vaguely local Area Code for a one-time hit of $60, then $20 renewal every year IF it will work on my old desktop... MagicJack needs USB - 2 and certain performance level. *Important addition!

Both Vonage and MagicJack are easy to set up. But Vonage needs up to ten days to 'capture' your existing phone #. MagicJack is new and it may not be available.
-Both dont work if power fails, a small - medium sized UPS would fix that. Or...

Check THIS OUT!
-Vonage adapter hooks up to cable modem or router, MagicJack needs PC.

Skype? sorry .. Skype is for geeks. sorry Geeks, I dont want to screw with it. MagicJack will kill it, for all purposes other than geek-play.

So, in summary, if you still use a legacy landline, go onto your phone company website and check out their latest offerings. Example: ATT NOW offers a $40 package for 'Nationwide all you can talk'.. obviously still not suitable for me.
But, like roadrunner, they may have 'unlisted options that will reduce your bill even more. You dont know till you ask.

The key is to threaten -nicely- to switch to the other provider{s} and cite how much they charge for what you want. That's how I got the unlisted $22 RR package at my dad's house. Dont try to fool them... they have a comments page on your account, ya know!

The main reason I want to stick with ATT is that their second and third level support is far better than Time Warner/RoadRunner's.

With both, I just call back if I get an idiot on the initial call, and I've never had trouble doing that and getting someone with a sympathetic ear. It's when you need something special that the difference comes out.

As long as you TALK NICE!
ALSO.. if you have a security system, pay attention to the caveats on the Vonage site. This applies across the board, with any digital option.
Note: the latest and greatest is wireless messaging security systems.

Links:
- Surely you all know how to find your other provider and Vonage sites-
MagicJack
- and JUST AS IMPORTANT..
The Unofficial MagicJack Forum
- in there, you find it's possible to spoof your outbound calling # to reflect your actual local line. That's useful.

* Added: MagicJack will not work with Windows OS prior to XP-sp2. Also calling # spoofing is problematic. It requires expertise in system installation, configuration and internet reflector set-up. Even then it comes and goes, probably to prevent fraud & malevolent use by phishers.