Deal for Home Landline for USA calls only

[dealmasti]

Hey guys

i am looking for a phone service by which I can have a landline phone (may be voip too) to call unlimited to any number in the USA. it will be great if it costs less than $10 per month (or Free preferably!). i have cell phone but wanna have a home phone to avoid over use of daytime minutes of my cell phone.. any ideas??
many thanks in advance..

[Tomrgalvtx]

Try the MagicJack which will give you the service you want for a couple bucks per month. Don't forget you will need a phone and a computer with broadband for a host.

[mike93704]

For how long do you plan on keeping you landline? If it's something you will keep for years, you may want to consider the Ooma Voip service that has been talked about quite a bit on slickdeals. It'll be about a one-time $200 cost, but then you will have no more monthly fees or charges for calls within the U.S.

It seems to have a better reputation for quality than Magicjack, which costs $40 and then $20 for every year after that.

The Ooma is a standalone system and does NOT require your computer to be turned on. MagicJack requires your computer to be on to receive or make calls.

If you need your phone to be "ON" for most of the day, and you DON'T normally leave your computer running those same hours, you may find yourself using quite a lot more electricity to keep the MagicJack active. This may negate the savings in initial cost of the MagicJack (you don't need to leave your computer running while you're away, though -- MagicJack will take voicemail).

People were calculating that running a desktop computer those extra hours could amount to an average of $50-$150 extra electricity costs over a year (at about 10-15 cents per kWh, 5-15 hours per day, 100-250 Watt computer -- rough estimate).

The Ooma uses just the electricity that powers the unit -- which, most likely is much less than the computer you would have your MagicJack hooked up to at home (maybe).

[Q-Bert]

t-mobile@home

9.99/month

Less with Freelancer's discount

[dealmasti]

thanks for the tip guys.. is there no service with a monthly fee of 2 bucks or so..?

[damnyou]

How about $2.95 a month with Skype?

http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/subscriptions/

you need to buy a skype based wifi phone and then no need to keep computer on always

[mike93704]

How about $2.95 a month with Skype?

http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/subscriptions/

you need to buy a skype based wifi phone and then no need to keep computer on always
That's just for unlimited outgoing calls. For incoming, you will need SkypeIn for about $60 per year.

The Skype-based wifi phones start at around a hundred dollars. The fancier ones are $300 and up.

http://shop.skype.com/phones/

Once you add the cost of that standalone phone plus Skype service for a year or two, it comes to more than the one-time fee VOIP adapters (like Ooma) which can take regular phones.

If you don't get the Skype Wifi phone you'll have to calculate the extra cost of electricity and wear and tear on your computer's hard drive over a year (maybe an extra $100-worth).

I think Skype is great for short term convenience (I use it all the time when traveling overseas for local and international calls) , but if you are looking for a permanent landline alternative, I think you have to calculate the cost over a couple of years, plus the convenience factor of the various options, not just the cost per month of a couple of months usage.

Again, this depends on how long one wants to have a landline.