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I would like to dump my home phone and cut out a bill each month. My wife and I both have cell phones. I have dish network and am unable to use cable for my internet access. What options do I have for hi-speed service?
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spellling champion Lexington region 1982 -
I think you'd be best to keep your home phone, but you wanted options so here goes....
You could bring in a T1, T3, etc. - but that probably isn't what you're going for. These are usually around a few hundred a month at least, plus equipment cost.
You can't go DSL because you won't have a phone line. You can't really go satellite because you don't have a phone line (unless something's changed in satellite over the past 4 years- you still upload over a phone line to my knowledge). You don't have cable.
Really, you'd eliminate all of your options here.
I think going with the phone company on a measured line (maybe $10-15/month depending) and DSL is the cheapest out for someone in your situation. That's the breaks sometime.
Maybe someone else knows something I don't- since my telecom experience has been mostly commercial and not as much on the home side...F#$@ no good piece of S#$% piece of #$@#% #@$#% #$@#$ wood! Dang. - Me woodworking -
How far is it to the nearest Starbucks?
DirecTV advertises that their Internet service doesn't need a phone line now, but everything I read says that a satellite "connection" is (a) expensive and (2) not all that fast. So I too think your options are extremely limited.LarryComment
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Wireless card to your laptop (I think you can get the cards for free if you sign a contract) - add internet service to your wireless plan - anywhere you'd have cell phone coverage you'd have internet access. I can not comment about the down/up load speeds though . . . . . .they should be getting faster all the time though.Last edited by bruffc; 12-05-2006, 10:45 AM.BryanComment
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David
The chief cause of failure in this life is giving up what you want most for what you want at the moment.Comment
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As an alternative to dropping the land line completely, maybe you can do some creative phone plan.
With all the options you can easily spend $25 per month on a land line.
But, if you drop to measured service (something like 100 minutes per month), drop call waiting, drop caller ID and all the other options you can get, you might be surprised to find the bill down around $8 per menth. Might be worth keeping for 911 access, fax, modem, and two-party talking at your house.
Just a thought.
Loring in Katy, TX USA
If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questionsComment
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There was something on TV a few days ago about using the phone via the internet. I wasn't really paying much attention to it because I'm not interested in going that route. But I did pick up a little something on it. If you go the internet route, your 9-1-1 cannot be traced by the police dep't. because there is no physical address. They showed something about not having to connect to a regular wall connection for your phone, but plugging directly into a modem. It seems that the cost is very affordable (maybe in certain situations?). but if you lose electrical power, you lose your phone also. I'm sure if you do a Google search, you can find out quite a bit more about it.
EdDo you know about kickback? Ray has a good writeup here... https://www.sawdustzone.org/articles...mare-explained
For a kickback demonstration video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/910584...demonstration/Comment
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I don't know about measured service, but we have ZERO options on our land-line phone -- no call waiting, no caller ID, no nothin' -- and it's still around $26 month. And it's a total waste of money, IMO, but I've not yet been able to sell the idea to drop it entirely.
David, if you have DSL only, is there a price penalty, so to speak? Most of the phone companies have package deals now in which the cost of the various services is less than the sum of the parts.LarryComment
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David
The chief cause of failure in this life is giving up what you want most for what you want at the moment.Comment
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There are things your can take off your phone bill, but you have to push it a little. For example you are being charged a monthly amount for the right to use that land line to make a long distance phone call. Since you use cell for everything you could eliminate that. You might be paying for wiring insurance, if something goes wrong with the wiring in your house they will come out and fix it. You might be paying for the right to keep your phone number, this is something new, went into effect about a 1 year ago.
Actual phone line service is only about $5 a month, but once they start tacking a little here and a little there, tax here, tax there it adds up. Some of the tack ons are required, like 911, but some you can refuse.Ric
Plan for the worst, hope for the best!Comment
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i have dsl and no land line, dsl is pretty cheap too.
as for the wireless connection via a cell provider, it stinksPeteComment
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spellling champion Lexington region 1982Comment
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I use nothing but a cell phone. I have kept a land line because I have a 90 year old aunt that can't rember to call me on ny cell. I have used the cell to call 911 several times and haven't had a problemComment
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I think this depends on your cell phone coverage, some people I work with (in KC metro) do this and say "it's faster than dial up but not as fast as DSL".
If I remember correctly, a cell phone call is only wireless from the handset to the tower after that the call runs on the same wires used for cell calls, local calls, long distance calls, etc (depending on cell phone company) so as long as you have good coverage to a cell tower then it's BASCIALLY all the same after that.BryanComment
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