Ditch the internet phone?
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Oh, and you can set up a Google Voice number for free. I have one so I can give that out to people I don't want to have my mobile phone number. I don't use Google for much of anything; not sure what privacy stuff I might be giving up by having it, but well...whatever.
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@bernard -
when you say internet phone, I assumed it was something through Spectrum. Do you mean a phone number through something like Ooma?edit: I just re-read your OP. If you want to keep a VOIP version, kind of a "landline", instead of going with the NH Broadband option you could do something like Ooma. i haven't checked their monthly cost for basic service, but it used to be quite reasonable.
Though given how little you use it, you probably could get rid of it altogether.
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said in Ditch the internet phone?:
This works fine for us, as we have our Panasonic cordless phone system that we can bluetooth our cell phones to. It has five handsets so we can leave those all over the house and pick up calls from our cell phones from anywhere. More on those later...
I have a spare Panasonic system - base station and five handsets - lying fallow in a box in the basement. It's yours if you want it. They may need new rechargeable batteries, as the ones that are in there were used for a time, but those can be obtained quite cheaply.
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Oh, and you can set up a Google Voice number for free. I have one so I can give that out to people I don't want to have my mobile phone number. I don't use Google for much of anything; not sure what privacy stuff I might be giving up by having it, but well...whatever.
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Talk on the phone? huh I get very few calls and make calls only when there is no alternative. I get several political texts every day. I text people and get texts. I still use email.
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Keep the internet phone. You might need it when traveling.
Pay the extra cost and avoid the hassle.
1 and 2. My votes.
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Shortly after I wrote my OP, my internet connection started getting really wonky! Could no longer access WTF and some other sites. Some sites worked, some didn't. I started to think there was a major outage somewhere. Next morning, the situation had not changed. So I drove to the Spectrum office where I was told my modem and router were obsolete now what with the upgrades they've been making. Came home with new equipment, set it up and it took far longer than it should have to get it working.
I'm pretty sure, now, that I will ditch the internet phone (VOIP) and see how life goes with just the cell phone. My phone usage is so very low I probably won't even notice! The biggest hassle will be logging in to all my important accounts (there's a whole page of them) and updating my account information (banks, insurances, utilities, websites, etc.)
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@wtg Very kind offer, wtg, but I honestly don't know what I'd do with five handsets. As I mentioned above, I think I've used the internet phone maybe twice in the past few months.
Thank you.
@Bernard said in Ditch the internet phone?:
@wtg Very kind offer, wtg, but I honestly don't know what I'd do with five handsets. As I mentioned above, I think I've used the internet phone maybe twice in the past few months.
Thank you.
You don't have to use all of the handsets!
But I'm not sure I was clear about how we use the Panasonic setup...we don't have an internet phone anymore either. We use it with our cell phones.While a cell phone can be carried anywhere, if you don't have it on you, it's a pain to answer calls. Neither of us carries our phone with us on our person when we're at home. Quite frequently I leave mine in my purse in the closet and can't hear a call coming in at all. Or I'm in another part of the house or out in the yard.
The Panasonic has a Link2Cell feature that lets you bluetooth your cell phone(s) to the cordless system (it can also have an internet/VOIP line coming into it, but that's a separate matter). We have the cordless handsets in the basement and on the first and second floors. We can pick up our cellular calls from the handsets rather than having to find our cell phone(s) to do so. It will also alerts us when we receive a text message, though it doesn't actually display the message. Despite the fact that there is voicemail and the text will be there when you check the phone, we are geezers who still operate under the "if the phone rings you try to answer" school of behavior.
Of course if you carry your cell phone around in your pocket, or if you just check your phone for voice mail and texts when you feel like it, then the cordless units don't add any value!
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If there's no issue with locating you for emergency services I'd for sure ditch the VOIP phone. We went full cellular several years ago because all our land line ever got was solicitor calls. If you are comfortable with setting up the router I'd go that way. Ours is cheap at $5 a month so we keep it.
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This discussion is helping me clarify things. We have Spectrum cable and internet, a Verizon landline with our decades-old number, and two cellular lines. Keeping the landline is way expensive, $115/mo., but it’s the number our friends and family use, and we use it on Panasonic handsets. And we get endless spam calls all day! If we just used the cell numbers on the handsets, we could jettison the landline! If voice quality is good.
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This discussion is helping me clarify things. We have Spectrum cable and internet, a Verizon landline with our decades-old number, and two cellular lines. Keeping the landline is way expensive, $115/mo., but it’s the number our friends and family use, and we use it on Panasonic handsets. And we get endless spam calls all day! If we just used the cell numbers on the handsets, we could jettison the landline! If voice quality is good.
@RealPlayer You can check to see if your Panasonic system has Link2Cell and if it works with your cell phones. If it doesn't have L2C, and if @bernard doesn't want my phones, you're next in line. You could try them out to see if they work for you.
Or you could buy new from Costco. Easy return if they didn't work for you for some reason.
Regarding your home phone number...If you really, really wanted to keep it you could go with an MVNO, a mobile virtual network operator. That's a wireless provider that offers cellular service over the usual cellular networks (Verizon, ATT, T-Mobile), but at much lower rates. If you've heard of Consumer Cellular, you're already familiar with an MVNO; they use the ATT network and have retail stores.
MVNOs: https://bestmvno.com/what-is-an-mvno/
It might be a good alternative for you to keep your home number but lower the cost significantly. Buy a cheapo cell phone and port your home number to whatever MVNO you pick. You'd really be using it just for talking and wouldn't need to worry about data caps or speed; the plans all pretty much have unlimited talk and text.
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Gave up the two landlines many years ago. Never missed ‘em.
Switched to a mesh router (EERO). WiFi now works flawlessly anywhere on the property.
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Hey WTG, you say you are using the Link2Cell feature to connect your cell phones to the Panasonic units via Bluetooth. I could definitely do the same here. But one thing I’ve noticed here is that if my cell is using Bluetooth for some function, it slows down other cell functions like streaming or scrolling the internet. Way down, it’s frustrating. Don’t you notice this too?
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@realplayer i pretty much only use my phone for calls and texts. At home I am either streaming on a TV and surfing the net on an iPad or my laptop. I wouldn’t notice any degradation in speed when the phone is Bluetoothed/Linked2cell to the Panasonic system.
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I'm going to have to face this set of decisions when I move.
For one thing, I'm replacing my 2024 Motorola Edge with a Pixel 10 Pro XL. Life is too short.
Then I have to figure out how to get internet and whether I want to have television again.
I can't know now what the options will be or how much they will cost so I'm not worrying about it.
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