I need advice. Who has one of these new phone systems and how does it work for you?
I read reviews of Majic Jack and many folks are saying to stay away from MJ.
I would like to reduce the cost of my rarely used home phone land line.
Thanks in advance, Jack

I haven't tried magic jack, but I've had Vonage for several years now. It works quite well, and I have it set to forward to my cell phone if the internet is out. That happens now and then.

I really should just go ahead and cut it. Nobody ever calls the home phone anymore except telemarketers.

I am lurking around this thread - looking for ideas from other members. I have been trying to get rid of my land line for a while - but my wife likes to keep it 'just in case'. We both have cell phones - and I can't remember the last time someone called on the land line that I wanted to talk to. So, thanx in advance for members who add their two-cents!

Ooma. So far so good. Under $5.00/month and just one nuisance outage since we got it 18 months ago.

We used Magic Jack a few years ago. We were in the process of weaning ourselves off landline service as we were becoming more accustomed to using the iPhone for everything. Still wasn't quite ready to toss the home phones in the dumper.

Was a bit hesitant because MJ sounded almost too good to be true, so I purchased MJ from Radio Shack because they have a 30 day return policy. I figured that was the way to go rather than buying directly from MJ on the Net. I think the price for 2yrs of MJ was less than we had been paying for a month of landline service so what the heck, right?

Plugged it in.... it worked. Crystal clear outgoing and incoming calls. Nice software for answering calls and recording messages too.

The complaints I read were about unlimited use. Some folks bought MJ to use 24/7. MJ would cut off those users. They'd complain that the unlimited use advertised wasn't true. The marathon users who had purchased directly from MJ on the Net complained of difficulties getting refunds. But for those who just want a phone for normal use I would recommend based on my experience.

Didn't renew MJ. One of the reasons is GooglePhone. It's free and we can make outgoing calls to anywhere in the US using the computer. Home phones all took a ride to the Samaritan Center.

When you call 911 from a cell phone you have to tell them where you are, you might not be able to do it, from your home phone they know where to go.

__________________
Don

When you call 911 with a smartphone here in Chattanooga it shows the address as well as pinpoints the specific location within a few feet.

I just renewed my Magic Jack two days ago. Here's the email receipt.

1 Year Re-Up Plan for magicJackGO 1 $35.00 $35.00 03/17/2016
Administration Fee $2.73 03/17/2016

You will be charged: $37.73 03/17/2016

Five years is $99; but I am also thinking about going cellphone only, so opted for a one year plan.

The Magic Jack plugs into an Ethernet port on my router and my wireless home phone base station plugs into the MJ. My router is on AT&T U-verse. I pay AT&T $47 per month for the high-speed Internet access and the Wi-Fi router.

My home address is registered as the 911 location for my telephone number. If I were to move the MJ to another location, I can go online and update the 911 location on my account.

There is a Magic Jack smartphone app available which will allow you to route calls through Wi-Fi or wireless data connections to your smartphone. I've tried it but it seemed more of a bother than a benefit to me.

I would not think twice about recommending Magic Jack. There are a couple of different models available. I have the Magic Jack Go. I bought it at Walmart. It cost me about $50 and included one-year of service.

Never tried that. Probably wasn't available when we were using MJ. Most everyone called our iPhones anyway. But what we did do is instead of plugging MJ into a single home phone, we plugged it into our cordless phone base station which had multiple phones. Worked perfect.

Now thats what I call service! Many thanks to all of you fine gentlemen for the good advice. Now I just need to make up my mind which service to buy.

Not if you have GPS or location services turned off, which many people do thinking they'll save data.

Well yeah, if you disable your phone it don't work. Kinda like yanking the cord out of the wall on a landline phone to save money on long distance.

Now I have the cables bundled and routed to an out of the way bookshelf, but here is what my setup looked like when I first went with naked U-verse and the Magic Jack Go. The red marks indicate the Magic Jack Go, Ethernet cable to router, and the MJ power adapter. A few years back I played around with one of the original Magic Jack devices that plugged into a USB port on my computer, so I've had two years of total experience with them. Once set up your phones work just as they would if they were plugged into a wired outlet. I run the base phone and answering machine along with three DECT 6.0 extension handsets around the house. Magic Jack also comes with a voicemail feature, but I have it turned off and use the physical answering machine on my phone's system.

RE: 911 GPS location. On my old flip phone the GPS system would only turn on when 911 was called. I used the phone twice to call 911 and the phone would make a siren's wail when send was entered after 911. I suspect that smartphones will automatically enable GPS locating when calls are placed to 911. Do not know for a fact, but suspect that to be the case.

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I've sometimes wondered about these services myself. Not much though. I ditched the landline twelve years ago.

In all honesty, the reason why I still maintain a home phone is because three times in the last decade I have lost my cellphone. I found it each time withing 48 hours, but now I live alone and have no backup such as a spouse's phone or a work phone. For what Magic Jack charges it's not enough to worry about. Oh yes... if you want to have your current telephone number ported to Magic Jack they charge an additional $10 or $15 PER YEAR for that service. If it was a one time fee I'd have no problem with it, but it seems a bit pricey to me. I had no problem having a new telephone number assigned to me.