Any suggestions for an affordable home internet & telephone provider. We are trying to cut back with our finances and are currently paying over $75 for the most basic (non-dial up) internet & local/long distance phone service. Anyone have luck with an internet based phone or company that has been affordable & reputable to work with? Thanks in advance!
We pay a lot for internet... maybe $70 I guess, but we have high speed, and that allowed us to get an OOMBA woch was $250 and gives us free phone calls for life. LIFE. No phone bill at all.
Updated
Sorry, it's OOMA, not OOMBA:
That's about what we pay. Just got the bill out today to pay it, and noticed, once again (GRRrrrrr) that a full 20% of the cost is government taxes and fees. Yep.. that means that they are taxing/charging fees to the tune of 25% (bill would have been $60 without the govt charges).
We have an upgraded speed on our internet service though, not the most basic non-dial up.
Double check your bill, and see if they are charging you the "wiring maintenance plan" charges or for anything else that you don't know EXACTLY what it is for. The inside wiring maintenance insurance/plan usually costs somewhere around $7.50/month, and in my opinion, is a complete waste! My phone lines all work just fine. The only problems I have EVER had came from outside my house and wouldn't have been covered (Like the company failed to bury the line and my neighbor ran over it with a lawnmower!!!), or something happened down the road that has nothing to do with our house specifically. In the almost 6 years we've been in this house, I've saved around $500 by making them remove that one little line item...
We are in No. CO and pay $64/mth for very basic landline and basic (nondial up) internet thru Qwest.
We have had Vonage for about 5 years now. I love it because we get free calls to Ireland (my in-laws are Irish) and to Canada (best-friend is in Vancouver).
we called comcast and told them that we were canceling cable and internet and cable if the could not decrease our bill significantly because, we just could not afford it. They got our bill down to $50.00 for both. We dont use a land line only have cell phones so I can't help you there.
You might check to see if you have Veracity in your area. They use fiber optic cables, which made a big difference for us in an area where the cables are really old. We pay a total of about $68, not much less than you but the internet speed with Veracity is awesome.
Internet is a rip off. Period. It really stinks, but there's not much you can do about that. We have Vonage for our home phone. They have a 500 minute/month plan that runs about $30/month with taxes, etc. If you want, I can email you a coupon for a month free, just private message me your email addy. We've like Vonage. One of the best things is that you still get called ID, call forwarding, etc. and you can check your voice mail messages online.
Good luck
T.
Barefoot Books Ambassador
www.ReadandGrow.com
well, in my area we only have the dial up or satellite internet. We have satellite. We use Skype for long distance and have had no trouble. We bought just local phone for around 22.00, no caller iD or call waiting. We pay 2.95 to skype for long distance. You login to their website to program numbers in and you can add 9 numbers at a time like speed dial. Its a little more work....but for us its well worth it because we only have a few people long distance that we talk to a month. But internet here for enough usage a month is 80.00.....I am not happy about that
We still have internet access through Qwest, but have gotten rid of our land line and have cell phones. My dad got a "MagicJack" at Radio Shack, which costs $30 for the jack and $10/year for service. The phone is connected through your computer and the internet, so after the $10 yearly fee, all local and long-distance calls are free.
