drop home phone

[mkel2000]

1). Anybody heard/tried FIOS? It's that new fiber service from Verizon that made a lot of splash but so far seems to remain a vaporware.

My daughter and son-in-law have Verizon FIOS and Verizon Cable TV in Murrieta, CA. Their development is a little over a year old and the service became active to them at the beginning of this year. They love both the FIOS and cable service, much better that their previous providers. Can't wait until it makes it to the San Diego area.

Mark

[Wood_workur]

I have dsl- pretty cheap, and the speeds are amazing- 150 kB/s on a line rated at only 95 kB/s

[JR]

1). Anybody heard/tried FIOS? It's that new fiber service from Verizon that made a lot of splash but so far seems to remain a vaporware.

The Verizon fiber build out is a matter of some controversy. The service that's expected to pay for the $15B capital improvement is IPTV. Unfortunately, the state PUCs have stalled the deployment of IPTV while they ponder the impending loss of mostly-local revenue for cable franchises.

Until they can get rolling on IPTV they're stuck with trying to justify the $35/mo fees for the lowest data rate on FIOS. By comparison, my 300/700Kbps DSL line from Verizon is $14.95/mo. I do business accross that line and haven't felt the need to upgrade (except for my companies desire to put a VoIP phone on my home desk, for which I would want a higher-speed service).

In the meantime AT&T, also trying to roll out IPTV, says their plan can be done for more like $4B in capital improvements. Verizon's plan delivers a lot more bandwidth which theoretically makes them more competitive after the dust settles. Until then, AT&Ts strategy gives them faster time to market while suffering less cash flow problem.

JR

[vaking]

1). Anybody heard/tried FIOS? It's that new fiber service from Verizon that made a lot of splash but so far seems to remain a vaporware.
2). I also have cable and Internet from Comcast that I doubt I will get rid off any time soon. I hate the comcast service but where else can you get a TV feed with probably 40 channels for $15 a month? Internet adds $40 a month to it. I tried vonage and did not like it - vonage over comcast is not that great. I keep my regular phone for another $40 from IDT.

[onedash]

I have cable and doubt I will ever get rid of it. I shitcanned the cable phone due to high price. I have vonage. We have 4 cell phones in our house too but Id rather talk on a real phone and its only $15 a month. You can get it cheaper if you actually talk over your computer I think. Its all on a thumb drive.
I think most wireless is kinda expensive...You could always split a bill with a neighbor and start up a wireless network....

[Jeffrey Schronce]

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.

I have used a couple different carriers and wireless internet access or what Verizon calls broadband wireless is much slower than 56k dial up.

[bruffc]

as for the wireless connection via a cell provider, it stinks

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.

[Whaler]

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 problem

[messmaker]

i have dsl and no land line, dsl is pretty cheap too.

as for the wireless connection via a cell provider, it stinks

Tell me more. I have cut my phone bill but with all the taxes and fees, it is nearly $25 per month. Thats $300 a year. Thats 1/4 the way to a new unisaw. I keep hearing about the 10$ no voice phone line. Anyone do anything like this?

[Cheeky]

i have dsl and no land line, dsl is pretty cheap too.

as for the wireless connection via a cell provider, it stinks

[TheRic]

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.

[crokett]

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.

No. Broadband without voice for me is 41.95/mo. Keeping broadband and voice costs over 70.00/mo and that is with the cheapest voice I can get I just cancelled voice service - asked about price breaks but they were unwilling to deal.

[JR]

Incorrect at least for me. My telco says I can drop voice service and keep DSL. Reminds me I need to call them this week and cancel the voice service. All we eve ruse is cell phones now.

And even if your telco doses pitch a fit, you can probably find a competitive DSL supplier who can use those wires to provide service. Your telco must provide access to those wires, it's the law.

JR

[LarryG]

With all the options you can easily spend $25 per month on a land line.

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.

[Ed62]

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.

Ed