AT&T Raising Landline Prices. Again.
Eliminate price controls? Amazingly get higher prices...
09:01AM Monday Oct 19 2009 by Karl Bode

Despite the recession and the fact AT&T should want more people using their landline service, the baby bell is raising landline prices in California some 20%, according to the Mercury News. AT&T and Verizon convinced California lawmakers to erode consumer price caps over the last few years, promising lawmakers the result would be lower prices. AT&T says the price hikes, which will hit about half of California residents, are simply being adjusted to "market levels." "There's nothing in the economy or the cost of providing phone service that would justify a 22 percent increase," said Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog.


Continued...

Yet one more good reason to have only a cell phone and no land line at all.

That is only doable if you can get a dependable, strong cell signal inside your home.

Yup. I live up on a hill and my signal isn't great at home. Most of the time it's just one bar or worse.

My neighbor makes all of his cell phone calls at the mailbox.

Another decent option is VOIP, if you can get a very fast Internet connection at a reasonable price (or if you pay for one anyway). I have wondered how well that MagicJack thing works. If it works, it looks like a somewhat ideal solution if you have a computer that you leave on anyway (but needing to leave a computer on seems to be the drawback).

Speaking of MagicJack, I found out about something similar on FW - the NetTALK TK6000:

~~~~http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/deal-discussion/953008

Seems to only be compatible with some routers, so YMMV. I couldn't find any info about using it with my Buffalo WHR-G125, but maybe since it's compatible with a router using DD-WRT maybe I'll just flash my router with that or other third party firmware (still using stock firmware since that works for me).

List of compatible routers:

http://forum.nettalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=169

For now, we have our phone service with Cox using one of their bundle plans (phone, internet, and digital cable). But definitely been looking into MagicJack, Ooma, and now this NetTALK thing.

We have Comcast VOIP (got a great bundle deal) and have been very happy. Total bundle (Cable+Internet+phone) is cheaper than we used to pay for land line, and the quality is great.

YMMV on VOIP services. I have a colleague at work who has MagicJack and her voice often sounds really garbled. Not sure what her internet connection / router / etc. is like, though.

The signal at our house varies wildly ever since Sprint upgraded the local towers to the new EVDO standards. When I'm downstairs in my office I lose the signal altogether except for being able to get the notice that I have a voicemail for a missed call.

Last week while talking to Sprint CS about a billing issue I mentioned the fluctuating signal strength and they sent me an Airave device and waived both the cost of the unit (normally $99)and the monthly charge. The Airave looks like a wireless router and connects to a LAN port on our existing wireless router. It then becomes a cell tower right here in our home giving us full signal strength all through the home even in the basement and outdoors as well. It claims a 5000 square foot range and can handle three cell phone calls at a time. If you find that a neighbor is also on Sprint and is able to log onto your device you can restrict access by listing only the mobile phone numbers that you want to be able to access it. But being that we are in a very rural area we haven't had that problem.

I had thought that I would have to locate it in the basement for it to give me coverage down there but while trying it out in the upstairs living room we found that it works just fine. It even comes with a satellite antennae that locks on to GPS for location information so we can make 911 calls that will include our location info. (It has a GPS antennae built into the device itself and also an external antennae in case it can't get a signal on the internal one if the unit is not located close to an external window).

It can also be taken with you and used at other locations (although it is not approved for international travel) as long as the Sprint system where you are going supports the service. Since it connects to the Sprint system through the internet connection you do not need to even be able to get a local cell signal for it to work. If you are on a call and leave the house it seemlessly switches the call to a local tower so you don't lose the call. The only thing it cannot do as of yet is provide EVDO data service, that is still handled by a local tower. But we have been able to have an EVDO data connection open and still use the Airave for a voice call at the same time. If I'm in the basement my data connection falls back to 1xrt, when I go upstairs it will change back to EVDO.

If you are using your cell phone as your main home phone you can add unlimited local and long distance calling separate from your cell plan minutes for $10/month for one phone or $20/month for multiple phones.

Info on the Airave available HERE and availability info HERE.
Our home zip code shows that it is not available here yet, and so far it has been working just fine, so take the availability results with a grain of salt and call Sprint directly if you are interested in finding out about the Airave device.

I hate AT&T and their outsourced marketing. I just went through 4 days of nonsense because they upgraded a business client's DSL service to DSL Extreme (at $110/mo.) and used my name as the person who authorized the change (I'm listed as a contact person on the account). They also went ahead and changed the static IP addressing we had due to the original account be cancelled, upgraded to extreme, then changed back to basic business DSL. A freakin' nightmare. We were able to get the IP adressing back which totally amazed me, although it took 4 days.

Now their looking to raise rates for phone service? Screw them.

'nuff said.

I recently added ooma and have been waiting a few months before I port my number - this rate hike will cinch the deal for me. Ooma call quality has been excellent for me so far. Definitely better than magic jack.