View Full Version : Goodbye and Good Riddance CenturyLink
Just a quick statement. Not even a rant.
I switched to Ooma telo, and ported my number from my 20+ year old CenturyLink account. Not sure why it took me so long, but I am thrilled to have shuffled the coils of CenturyLink off my back.
As an added bonus, I just mailed them a check for my final balance of 92 cents. That's right. I wrote out and mailed a check for 92 cents. Haha
Just had to say it... [emoji12] [emoji38] [emoji39]
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Madeinhb
02-22-2017, 19:08
Love ooma
Ooma has been awesome, not one issue in almost a year.... or however long it has been. :)
clodhopper
02-22-2017, 20:59
Not familiar with ooma. Looked it up and appears to be VOIP. The OP had me thinking you dumped DSL, but now I am guessing you dropped the landline. Who is your internet provider?
Have cable broadband. Current provider is Comcast, but I've had the "same" service for about 18 years. It has just changed names 4-5 times.
Never really bundled. I've always had separate phone (Centurylink), TV (DirecTV) and Internet. Been with Directv for about the same length of time, and they're about 2-3 months from getting severed as well.
For the cost, based on home phone traffic, all the Ooma hardware will be paid off on first couple months. If I made more home phone long distance or international calls it would be a total no brainer.
As it is, for the minimal monthly cost to keep my legacy home phone number active via VOIP (maybe slightly higher than one month of landline, for the entire year), it's worth it to me.
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I will add, I've always had pretty good broadband service at my house, regardless of who was getting my payments.
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Been happy with the call quality of Ooma, so far, as well. I think that correlates directly to your Internet quality, too.
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I have saved over $2300 by switching to Ooma. Always works fine for me. Screw Century Stink!
I cut the cord to Qwest quite a while back. Shoot, it could have still been USWest. I've been using ViaTalk for quite a few years and love the features. I particularly like being able to give certain numbers a busy, or even a no longer in service tone. They run buy one year get one free deals frequently.
pickenup
02-22-2017, 22:34
I have saved over $2300 by switching to Ooma. Always works fine for me. Screw Century Stink!
After talking to Ah Pook, he convinced me to switch to Ooma a while back.
Thanks
Why even bother with land lines these days?
Why even bother with land lines these days?
I was wondering the same. I have to keep one for my DSL, but dont even own a phone to plug into it.
Rooskibar03
02-22-2017, 22:42
Why even bother with land lines these days?
This is what I was thinking.
pickenup
02-22-2017, 23:52
Why even bother with land lines these days?
Cell phones do not work where I live.
A fax machine is why I would keep a land line. But it doesn't come up enough to make me get another one. Finally, people are starting to learn about this new thing called email and I can send most documents that way.
Honey Badger282.8
02-23-2017, 00:14
I know my iPhone 6 with AT&T has wifi calling, as long as I'm connected to wifi I can make a call regardless of cell reception. No extra fees.
I have been dragging my feet for entirely too long moving to Ooma and porting my line from Comcast. I fired Qwest years ago but kept my number. F them.
Ordered an Ooma box from Amazon yesterday when I found a special Ooma (Reg $99)+ Linx wireless adapter (reg $50) for $93 while also ordering a new Ubiquiti Pro AP so I can put a bullet in my old troublesome Linksys WAP54G.
Ooma Premier service is $120 year and you get a free number port or a free accessory. I could do Ooma free, but for $10/month I'd rather keep my number. Old School in that regard I guess.
I know I'll likely pay a little more than current new customer offerings for internet only when I unbundle my Xfinity Blast+ and only expect to save around $20/month because I rent their modem and pay for maintenance due to working from home and needing that extra bit of assurance that anything's covered. When I call to change during the number port, I'll try to press for a better deal and will play the retention card if necessary, even if it's only a better deal for 6-12 months.
I'm still a little uncertain how the port goes if I'm otherwise keeping the internet service. When dumping Qwest it was easy. Port done by Comcast. buh-bye turds. I know you need to maintain the line/account and let the new service do the port, just not sure if Comcast will try to screw me over with the unbundle.
I may opt to buy my own modem, but will likely keep paying $5 month if I can for them to cover all wiring and general issues inside/out. Looks like my timing may be a little off and perhaps it's best to wait out the coming Docsis 3.1 rollout instead of dropping coin on a Docsis 3.0 now even though they've gotten pretty cheap.
ETA: Looks like Docsis 3.1 isn't a reality for my service needs or availability here. I will probably buy a $90 Arris 16x4 modem and send theirs (3.0 4x4) back.
I've been using MagicJack for about 8 years now. $18 bucks a year when you purchase 5 years at once. My wife and I are the only ones that ever call the house on the land line anyway...
Madeinhb
02-23-2017, 03:09
Cell phones do not work where I live.
Well depending what phone company you have- you can buy or put a refundable down payment on a mini cell extender that plugs into your WiFi and boosts your service. My father in laws house went from 1 bar to 5 bars with it.
Madeinhb
02-23-2017, 03:11
I have been dragging my feet for entirely too long moving to Ooma and porting my line from Comcast. I fired Qwest years ago but kept my number. F them.
Ordered an Ooma box from Amazon yesterday when I found a special Ooma (Reg $99)+ Linx wireless adapter (reg $50) for $93 while also ordering a new Ubiquiti Pro AP so I can put a bullet in my old troublesome Linksys WAP54G.
Ooma Premier service is $120 year and you get a free number port or a free accessory. I could do Ooma free, but for $10/month I'd rather keep my number. Old School in that regard I guess.
I know I'll likely pay a little more than current new customer offerings for internet only when I unbundle my Xfinity Blast+ and only expect to save around $20/month because I rent their modem and pay for maintenance due to working from home and needing that extra bit of assurance that anything's covered. When I call to change during the number port, I'll try to press for a better deal and will play the retention card if necessary, even if it's only a better deal for 6-12 months.
I'm still a little uncertain how the port goes if I'm otherwise keeping the internet service. When dumping Qwest it was easy. Port done by Comcast. buh-bye turds. I know you need to maintain the line/account and let the new service do the port, just not sure if Comcast will try to screw me over with the unbundle.
I may opt to buy my own modem, but will likely keep paying $5 month if I can for them to cover all wiring and general issues inside/out. Looks like my timing may be a little off and perhaps it's best to wait out the coming Docsis 3.1 rollout instead of dropping coin on a Docsis 3.0 now even though they've gotten pretty cheap.
ETA: Looks like Docsis 3.1 isn't a reality for my service needs or availability here. I will probably buy a $90 Arris 16x4 modem and send theirs (3.0 4x4) back.
I thought about the premium service but decided not too. Started with the free service and haven't upgraded yet. The only thing I would use on my phone is being able to make phone calls out of the app.
Zundfolge
02-23-2017, 10:25
The simple truth is that ALL telephone, cellphone, internet, cable TV and satellite TV providers suck.
I still can't see how people could hate Century Link worse than Comcast ... Comcast is truly one of the most evil companies in the country (right up there with Target, Twitter and Soros Fund Management) ... at worst Century Link is just incompetent (and frankly I've never had any problem with them ... I'm also one of the 7 people in the world that ran WindowsME without any problems, so I'm probably not typical)
I think I have a Motorola SB6141 laying around, would sell cheap for those that are trying to avoid paying the man.
I moved out to the sticks and ended up with DSL.
I think I have a Motorola SB6141 laying around, would sell cheap for those that are trying to avoid paying the man.
I moved out to the sticks and ended up with DSL.
That's what I run. Bought it off another member here. It's been great. I think you may have even helped me get it set up?
That's what I run. Bought it off another member here. It's been great. I think you may have even helped me get it set up?
Yessir!
I just got sick of paying $50 a month for a service that I rarely used. Comcast coerced me into a bundle several years back because the bundle with the phone/internet/tv was $15 a month less(even with the modem rental) than just tv and internet. As soon as the promotion expired, I gave them back their modem and killed the phone service, having never had a phone actually plugged in.
GilpinGuy
02-23-2017, 11:29
Well depending what phone company you have- you can buy or put a refundable down payment on a mini cell extender that plugs into your WiFi and boosts your service. My father in laws house went from 1 bar to 5 bars with it.
I got excited and was just reading about this for ATT (only cell network that works around here, most of the time). "Not compatible with satellite and wireless broadband service." Damn....still in the stone age up here.
Living in the city I'm able to use my cell phone for data to my laptop. $65/month covers my Internet and cell. No interest in cable
funkymonkey1111
02-23-2017, 13:30
My router is not where i want my answering machine/phone base to be. So, should i get a Linx to mount by the answering machine?
The simple truth is that ALL telephone, cellphone, internet, cable TV and satellite TV providers suck.
I still can't see how people could hate Century Link worse than Comcast ... Comcast is truly one of the most evil companies in the country (right up there with Target, Twitter and Soros Fund Management) ... at worst Century Link is just incompetent (and frankly I've never had any problem with them ... I'm also one of the 7 people in the world that ran WindowsME without any problems, so I'm probably not typical)
I agree they are evil but still the only half decent service i can get. Clink gives me 3 to 4 down and less than one up on their supposedly top tier plan. Garbage rental equipment compared to what i had from Comcast which i know arnt great either.
Sad when Taiwan basic internet is like 10 times better than what we have. Places that try municipal fiber get shut down by Comcast etc campaigning against it.
My router is not where i want my answering machine/phone base to be. So, should i get a Linx to mount by the answering machine?
Do you have a phone jack near the router?
Yeah, we switched to Xfinity recently and dropped Century Stink. So far we're very happy with the internet service.
funkymonkey1111
02-23-2017, 15:25
Do you have a phone jack near the router?
Yes. But its now where i want the phone base
Zundfolge
02-23-2017, 15:38
Sad when Taiwan basic internet is like 10 times better than what we have. Places that try municipal fiber get shut down by Comcast etc campaigning against it.
Well Colorado is 7.4 times larger than Taiwan with only a quarter of their population, so it would likely be much more expensive to provide us all 10 times better internet (and I bet their government subsidizes internet infrastructure more than we have or want to have here).
But yeah, that's one reason of a myriad I say Comcast is evil.
Yes. But its now where i want the phone base
You can backfeed dialtone through the rest of the house using that jack.
Disconnect the landline service from the demarc box in the side of the house. Run a phone line from the Ooma box to the unwanted jack next to your router. Now every jack in the house has tone.
You can backfeed dialtone through the rest of the house using that jack.
Disconnect the landline service from the demarc box in the side of the house. Run a phone line from the Ooma box to the unwanted jack next to your router. Now every jack in the house has tone.
But Beware: Phones with a physical ringer will not ring, only digital. Something to keep in mind if you plan on using older desk or wall phones at any of your jacks.
Madeinhb
02-23-2017, 17:09
I got excited and was just reading about this for ATT (only cell network that works around here, most of the time). "Not compatible with satellite and wireless broadband service." Damn....still in the stone age up here.
You have satellite Internet?
funkymonkey1111
02-23-2017, 17:30
You can backfeed dialtone through the rest of the house using that jack.
Disconnect the landline service from the demarc box in the side of the house. Run a phone line from the Ooma box to the unwanted jack next to your router. Now every jack in the house has tone.
But Beware: Phones with a physical ringer will not ring, only digital. Something to keep in mind if you plan on using older desk or wall phones at any of your jacks.
Thanks for the info, guys! every month i get that damn Centurylink bill and cuss. I've always kept it in case of emergencies--during Katrina and other disasters when cell service has shit the bed, land lines were the only thing working.
The Linx is really for putting a phone where you don't have any wiring. I wouldn't have paid $50 for one in my case, but for $5 it was a no brainer.
As said, you must disco the telco line at the demarc and then you can use the house wiring to backfeed the VOIP device phone out to the rest of the house.
Very impressed so far. This thing freakin rocks.
Ubiquiti UniFi® AP AC PRO
https://prd-www-cdn.ubnt.com/media/images/hero/productherogallery/unifi-ap-ac-pro/unifi-ap-ac-pro-hero-gallery-01.jpg
Very impressed so far. This thing freakin rocks.
Ubiquiti UniFi® AP AC PRO
https://prd-www-cdn.ubnt.com/media/images/hero/productherogallery/unifi-ap-ac-pro/unifi-ap-ac-pro-hero-gallery-01.jpg
For the uninformed, and haven't Googled it yet, what does this do, briefly?
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For the uninformed, and haven't Googled it yet, what does this do, briefly?
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It's a fancy wifi access point
So...range extender or router replacement?
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You can backfeed dialtone through the rest of the house using that jack.
Disconnect the landline service from the demarc box in the side of the house. Run a phone line from the Ooma box to the unwanted jack next to your router. Now every jack in the house has tone.
This is what I do and have phones all over the house. My VoIP provider is my answering machine and emails the messages to me. My cordless phones tell me if there's a message and I access voicemail through a button on the phones when I'm home. I've had this setup since before advanced LAN calling was a thing and have crappy cell signal in my home office in the basement.
So...range extender or router replacement?
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I believe you need something on the network handing out IPs, such as a router. I dont think the AP will do it. You can disable your router wifi and just use it for addressing.
I believe you need something on the network handing out IPs, such as a router. I dont think the AP will do it. You can disable your router wifi and just use it for addressing.
Okay. Thanks for the info. I get the basics, but would definitely require more research on my part. My house has decent coverage, so I guess it's something I don't need to worry about too much.
Whew.
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How much are you guys paying on a recurring basis for Ooma?
A few years ago I decided to go with MagicJack for $30/year. Ooma was more expensive upfront plus you had to pay taxes, about $3 / month IIRC. I wonder if the prices have changed.
I didn't really use it that much, so the extra features of Ooma weren't important to me. Now that I live somewhere that I get good cell service at home I don't use it anymore. The only reason I haven't cancelled it is I give out that number whenever I'm signing up for something that requires me to give out a phone number, like utility service, websites, pizza delivery, etc.
while also ordering a new Ubiquiti Pro AP so I can put a bullet in my old troublesome Linksys WAP54G.
Ha! I made the exact same switch about a year ago. I since bought the Ubiquiti router and managed switch. Love it all. I wished I would have dropped that Linksys sooner.
funkymonkey1111
02-23-2017, 18:31
How much are you guys paying on a recurring basis for Ooma?
A few years ago I decided to go with MagicJack for $30/year. Ooma was more expensive upfront plus you had to pay taxes, about $3 / month IIRC. I wonder if the prices have changed.
I didn't really use it that much, so the extra features of Ooma weren't important to me. Now that I live somewhere that I get good cell service at home I don't use it anymore. The only reason I haven't cancelled it is I give out that number whenever I'm signing up for something that requires me to give out a phone number, like utility service, websites, pizza delivery, etc.
Ha! I made the exact same switch about a year ago. I since bought the Ubiquiti router and managed switch. Love it all. I wished I would have dropped that Linksys sooner.
They have a calculator on their site that will tell you exactly how much. For Englewood it was $5 and change
funkymonkey1111
02-23-2017, 18:35
So...range extender or router replacement?
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I'm certainly no expert on this, but I upgraded my router to one with the ac standard and bigger antennas and the difference in performance on netflix, roku, amazon, chromecast, etc, was profound. I don't know what you've got, and this comment may not be at all helpful, but it really made a difference. Mine has two bandwidths, so if you have a lot of users or devices, you can put some on one band, and some on the other
I'm running an N standard router, thanks to another member upgrading to the AC standard, and it was a huge improvement. We don't seem to bog down the system too much, but I will keep that in mind.
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The only reason I haven't cancelled it is I give out that number whenever I'm signing up for something that requires me to give out a phone number, like utility service, websites, pizza delivery, etc.
Why not just get a Google Voice number. Turn it on/off as needed. Good for Craigslist transactions as well.
Why not just get a Google Voice number. Turn it on/off as needed. Good for Craigslist transactions as well.
I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the suggestion!
I use a Google voice number for my business. When someone calls that number, it rings on my cell phone as that number and I know to answer in my "business voice."
I believe you need something on the network handing out IPs, such as a router. I dont think the AP will do it. You can disable your router wifi and just use it for addressing.
It is "just an Access Point (AP)."
It is awful fancy. It does do DHCP and tons of other stuff.
I have an enterprise class firewall here (that is my DHCP server) and prefer to use that between my network and ISP (cable modem) box.
Separate devices usually perform better overall and I'm not locked into whatever crap WiFi is built into the ISP's box.
My network stability immediately improved with this and it now overpowers the surrounding wifi networks by a healthy margin. Such was not the case with the aging linksys WAP54G I'm going to stick a bullet in some day.
ETA: Does not do DHCP. The settings are in the controller software, but it's only for their router and firewall products.
I switched over to a Linksys EA9500 Max-Stream AC5400 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router about 5 months ago...and it's a beast. It's also a lot larger than your run-of-the-mill home WiFi router.
http://www.linksys.com/images/productmt/967824/372.jpg
Linksys EA9500 Max-Stream AC5400 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router
Comparative Wireless LAN Performance (http://cache-www.linksys.com/downloads/marketing_briefs/Tolly216133LinksysEA9500MUMIMOWLANPerformance.pdf)
ChadAmberg
02-23-2017, 20:30
Been using an Ooma box for probably 5 years. Works great. Best part is that no junk calls make it through anymore...
I'm not 100% caught up on the thread but I thought I'd post this piece of info.
If you're going to port a number, think about porting it to google voice. That way you shouldn't have to worry about it in the future, unless Google goes out of business and then who knows.
We did that with our old home line (had with Qwest for 15 years) and now it rings our new home line, both our cells and at times my moms cell (takes a minute or two to change). When trying out VoIP providers (before Ooma) our house number changed 4 times in 5 months and if we hadn't had the google voice line it would have been a gigantic PITA.
I'm not 100% caught up on the thread but I thought I'd post this piece of info.
If you're going to port a number, think about porting it to google voice. That way you shouldn't have to worry about it in the future, unless Google goes out of business and then who knows.
We did that with our old home line (had with Qwest for 15 years) and now it rings our new home line, both our cells and at times my moms cell (takes a minute or two to change). When trying out VoIP providers (before Ooma) our house number changed 4 times in 5 months and if we hadn't had the google voice line it would have been a gigantic PITA.
Good suggestion.
However, it seems like a bit of a hassle to have to temp port a landline # to one of the carriers for a (small) fee, then port to GV since they only support direct ports from mobile.
FYI for anyone thinking of porting their landline number to Ooma.
Don't purchase the Premier first. Do the port add-on once you're setup and they offer the first year Premier discounted if you take their offer, which brings the total (if prepaid) to $100 instead of $120 (plus taxes of course).
Mistake I made.
I like CenturyLink. They give me paychecks.
However, it seems like a bit of a hassle to have to temp port a landline # to one of the carriers for a (small) fee, then port to GV since they only support direct ports from mobile.
it was a bit of a hassle but not too bad. We used an ATT go phone with 10 min on it that we picked up at Target for like $20. When we were done my mom used the same go phone to port hers.
Oh well, this looks like as good a place as any to vent about our CenturyLink service over the last 10 days or so...
Every time you get the faintest whiff of diesel from a backhoe at the Woodmen-Union intersection, our CenturyLink landline phone goes out.
When they built the new intersection it was a monthly occurrence.
Now they're doing some infrastructure work on Union and as they approached Woodmen last week... No phone (yes, we checked at the network interface to be sure).
Called them last Wednesday and they setup a service call on Friday. Window: 9am-7:30pm. Gee, thanks, gotta sit on my hands all day waiting for you.
Tech shows up at 5pm asking all sorts of questions he should know the answers to, No, we don't have DSL, yes, we have only one line.
He bounces back and forth a couple times between our house and whatever distribution box is near the Diamond Shamrock that's West of Union on Woodmen, sharing the problems he's having restoring our service with us every time he's at the house.
Finally, about 7pm, he shows up and announces "You're fixed!". I pick up the phone and there's a dial tone. I tell him: "Don't leave, let me test something."
I call our landline from my mobile: Landline phone doesn't ring, I just hear ringing going unanswered on the mobile.
I call my mobile from the landline: Caller ID blocked (we don't have ours blocked).
I told him, "No, it's not fixed, it's someone else's line." He tries to tell me it is my line. I tell him that if doesn't ring my physical phone, it's not worth anything to me.
He changes his tune "Oh, it's a programming problem, I can't fix that, they'll fix it on Monday." and abruptly leaves.
My guess is that he was late for beers on a Friday night, and just blew us off.
So if I consider not fixing our phone a 100% failure, the fact that he broke someone else's phone means that he's a 200% failure.
Skipping the details of how we eventually connected, over the weekend we got to meet some nice folks, Bill and Teresa, the owners of the number that we got.* Their phone died of course the moment ours was "fixed".
A little research showed that the tech closed the ticket, so the "programming" was NOT fixed on Monday.
Bill and Teresa filed a ticket and they got their phone back yesterday, so we're back to a dead line again.
We also filed another ticket.
Now I'm sitting on my @$$ again with a 9am-7:28pm (yes, 28) window.
If I can talk the GF into VoIP, CenturyLink will be losing another customer ASAP.
O2
*I've been meaning to catch up with some old friends in New Zealand for some time, glad I got a chance to. I'm kidding.
I don?t mean to be rude, but people still have land lines?
(Fine. Technically I do have a land line. Just hasn?t been a working phone hooked to it in about twelve years.)
Martinjmpr
07-30-2020, 14:04
I don?t mean to be rude, but people still have land lines?
(Fine. Technically I do have a land line. Just hasn?t been a working phone hooked to it in about twelve years.)
We finally ditched ours in 2018 but that was the wife's old number and line.
I haven't had a land line in my name since 2002.
I don?t mean to be rude, but people still have land lines?.
I won't take it personally. I don't want it, GF wants it for two reasons:
1) 911 knows where you are if you call and can't communicate.
2) Works during a power failure.
I hope to woo her over to VoIP with the promise of a VoIP that knows her address and a UPS with the modem, router and VoIP box plugged into it - at least it'll work for awhile.
O2
Martinjmpr
07-30-2020, 14:19
We just moved my mom from her townhouse to an "independent living" seniors apartment and getting the Century link landline and DSL (sadly they were the only option) was a total clusterf***.
Multiple appointments where they flat out didn't show up, or showed up and didn't do anything, hours spent on hold or waiting for a call back, etc. The story they (Century Link) are telling is that they are short handed and having work done by independent contractors who sometimes just flat out don't do anything, period. I would estimate the entire process took a little over two weeks from the date she moved (and she had called a couple of weeks prior to that to notify them) until she had both a working phone line and DSL.
I don't LOVE Comcasst but despite all the bitching I hear about them, they are light years ahead of Century Link in terms of customer service.
Century Link seems to have adopted the old Lily Tomlin routine of "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company."
Martinjmpr
07-30-2020, 14:22
I won't take it personally. I don't want it, GF wants it for two reasons:
1) 911 knows where you are if you call and can't communicate.
2) Works during a power failure.
I hope to woo her over to VoIP with the promise of a VoIP that knows her address and a UPS with the modem, router and VoIP box plugged into it - at least it'll work for awhile.
O2
You know you can register your cell phone with the sheriff's dept and it will display your home address when calling 911. Just fyi. ;)
hurley842002
07-30-2020, 14:25
I must be one of the few that have actually had good luck with Century Link (knock on wood). We had it in Colorado after getting tired of paying Comcast prices, and it worked just fine for us. Here in Arizona, the only choices where I'm at are Cox and CL, we chose to just transfer our service, and other than one outage we've had great luck, even getting service set up during Covid was simple, and the tech was great. We subscribe to a mid tier speed, and run multiple televisions streaming, along with tablets and whatever else, with zero issues. That being said (little side bit), I just picked up a cell phone plan with First Net (at&t), and my speeds are insane (212 mbps), which is much faster than my home internet.
You know you can register your cell phone with the sheriff's dept and it will display your home address when calling 911. Just fyi. ;)
Yhea, that's done. The landline is more like Linus' security blanket. :)
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AlarmingScentedAoudad-mobile.jpg
O2
theGinsue
07-30-2020, 18:31
As long as it's still an option, I will maintain a landline; for several reasons.
(1) After watching the cell towers get totally clogged and essentially unavailable for most folks for more than a day during 9/11, I saw the value of a landline (still able to make every call I tried and even received many).
(2) As mentioned above, they work in a widespread power outage that have caused cell towers (okay, I know they aren't "cell" towers anymore, but...) to die. While I have 5 handsets around the house (all tied to the base unit), all requiring power, I have 2 no electrical plugin required phones in the basement to deploy as needed. They were invaluable during power outages.
(3) My base unit has an integrated answering machine. *I* have the message local to me, not on some companies server someplace I don't control.
(4) This one just occurred this year: I work in the office for a week, then from home for a week. When at home, I have to keep an open line to a shop meet-me-net (telecon) for 8 hours every day. I use my landline for that and use my mobile for any other calls I need to make.
Yeah, they're old fashioned and all, but I like it much better than my mobile phone. If it weren't for traveling for work so much I'd ditch the mobile completely and keep the home landline.
One last note about landlines: If I had any say about it I would return all "Obama phones" to landline service with an answering machine (they say the users need to be able to get messages from potential employers). 1 landline with an answering machine would cost taxpayers about $35/month and everyone in the household can use it but a mobile phone it 1/person and some households have many issued, costing taxpayers an unknown amount.
JohnnyEgo
07-30-2020, 19:12
I don?t mean to be rude, but people still have land lines?
(Fine. Technically I do have a land line. Just hasn?t been a working phone hooked to it in about twelve years.)
Can't take a call from a prison on a cell phone. Has to be a landline. Been maintaining mine for 20 years now, with 5 more to go with good behavior. The joys of having relatives on both sides of the law.
scratchy
07-30-2020, 19:53
I finally had to cancel my landline when they could no longer find me a good copper wire pair. After 2 years of service calls, with an unusable line days after each one, I was forced to VOIP. Comcast is my provider and as an employee, it costs $4 a month.
I use Magicjack as my landline over Comcast. with the hotrodded UPS (20 Ah motorcycle battery), it'll run for about 5 hours in a power outage. 911 address is user definable.
And that's probably 5 hours talk time, right?
Yhea, that's done. The landline is more like Linus' security blanket. :)
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AlarmingScentedAoudad-mobile.jpg
O2
With CenturyLink, it's more like Lucy holding Charlie Brown's football.
I finally had to cancel my landline when they could no longer find me a good copper wire pair. After 2 years of service calls, with an unusable line days after each one, I was forced to VOIP. Comcast is my provider and as an employee, it costs $4 a month.
Unless you're 10-12 miles from plant, and given nothing.
Oh, and, the remote working allowance is limited to something like 100mbps+. (Guess who corners the market on that)
With CenturyLink, it's more like Lucy holding Charlie Brown's football.
Exactly.
We're on day 10 of not having our phone. We're waiting on the "The office" to do something to enable our [I assume] physically fixed phone line.
O2
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTXPSxt1oO1iWB00lqzK6evMctATZq VIkbqSA&usqp=CAU
Dlesh123
07-31-2020, 13:46
As long as it's still an option, I will maintain a landline; for several reasons.
(1) After watching the cell towers get totally clogged and essentially unavailable for most folks for more than a day during 9/11, I saw the value of a landline (still able to make every call I tried and even received many).
(2) As mentioned above, they work in a widespread power outage that have caused cell towers (okay, I know they aren't "cell" towers anymore, but...) to die. While I have 5 handsets around the house (all tied to the base unit), all requiring power, I have 2 no electrical plugin required phones in the basement to deploy as needed. They were invaluable during power outages.
(3) My base unit has an integrated answering machine. *I* have the message local to me, not on some companies server someplace I don't control.
(4) This one just occurred this year: I work in the office for a week, then from home for a week. When at home, I have to keep an open line to a shop meet-me-net (telecon) for 8 hours every day. I use my landline for that and use my mobile for any other calls I need to make.
Yeah, they're old fashioned and all, but I like it much better than my mobile phone. If it weren't for traveling for work so much I'd ditch the mobile completely and keep the home landline.
One last note about landlines: If I had any say about it I would return all "Obama phones" to landline service with an answering machine (they say the users need to be able to get messages from potential employers). 1 landline with an answering machine would cost taxpayers about $35/month and everyone in the household can use it but a mobile phone it 1/person and some households have many issued, costing taxpayers an unknown amount.
Plus 1. Cell phone quality is like landlines were in the 60s. Terrible at connecting, Poor connections after the call is finally established, dropped calls, poor coverage. Expectation always exceeds what they can accomplish. But since texting is the way of the world (kids) bout have to have one. And I dislike simplex voice comms.
clodhopper
07-31-2020, 14:14
+1 landline.
ANADRILL
07-31-2020, 14:30
centurylink has the worst customer service
POTS (plain old telephone service) drives me nuts from the heavy increase in spam/canned/scam calls. All of Ginsues points would be tops if it wasn't for getting 8-15+ trash calls a day on average when having one (in my limited experience) I know my parents won't answer theirs unless you start to leave a message, which drives the call volume down, but the POTS at work - obligated to answer - is just incomparably overloaded with trash calls that I want to break it into tiny pieces.
I get more of that crap on my cell than I do on my VoIP home phone. At least my VoIP phone lets me target those robo-dialers with a *disconnected* message so my number gets pulled from their database.
We haven't had a landline, (twisted pair, anyone remember that description?) in quite some time. That said, I get at least 95% BS calls with spoofed area codes on my cellphone. It it was 99%, I would not be surprised. The opt out scam didn't do anything.
Zundfolge
08-01-2020, 15:20
We've eschewed any form of cell phone up until December of last year ... now we have two of the infernal devices and no land line (had to go with the cable company for internet anyway so $40/mo for a VOIP land line seemed silly since we can get a smart phone from Walmart for $35/mo).
...$40/mo for a VOIP land line seemed silly...
Clarification. The VoIP costs $40 a month, or the internet access, which you'd run VoIP over, costs $40 a month?
O2
Zundfolge
08-01-2020, 21:37
Clarification. The VoIP costs $40 a month, or the internet access, which you'd run VoIP over, costs $40 a month?
O2
The addition of a VOIP phone line was an additional $40/mo (actually the phone line was cheaper than that, but we'd have to go with a higher/faster tier of service so it would have worked out to $40/mo more to add a phone).
Cox cable is like Comcast only less competent, but also less evil.
$40/month for VoIP is insane.
$40/month for VoIP is insane.
That's why I asked the question...
O2
$40/month for VoIP is insane.
It is, and that's what you're charged unless you bundle up.
Also why I moved to ooma. I'd prefer to drop it altogether, but the wife is adamant that we maintain the stupid thing. Net cost is still around $15/month between the fed taxes and enhanced services.
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