Been thinking about this a lot lately as a way to cut some costs.

Read a LOT of reviews, many bad, some very bad, and many good.

Thought I'd see if any here have experience with it?

 

Yes, I have Magic Jack and it dropped my phone bill $25 the first month. The calls are just as clear as my land line.

 

But what happens when you dial 911? Does it give your correct location? Something you need to think about before you make the switch. If something happens and you cant speak and dial 911 you need them to know where your calling from.

 

I kept my regular land line and just use Majic Jack for long distance calls. 911 still works from all my phones hanging on the wall.

 

clarity of the call depends on the speed of your high speed DSL. if you dont have high speed DSL dont get it. the worst thing is a pop every now and then if your line gets slow.
if you dont have 5 MPAS or better there can be some problems. usually just restart it and it is fine.
we have 7mps w RR and it is clear as a bell. Cant beat $1.66 a month and the cool thing is you can call canada and US for free. if you send it overseas to your family member in the service or someone you know over there, they can call the US for free.

 

So what's the cost on this thing after the free trial?

Vonage offers the same thing. I've been using Vonage at my house for several years now. Both my home and business line. After a couple of international trips where I came home to $400-600 phone bills from calling my family, I finally started taking my Vonage box and a cheap little phone. Anywhere I could get broadband I could call for free. I actually sat in Paris one time and called my aunt in GA (for free). She called my doctor for me and then she called me back (for free). The Vonage costs me $24.95 per month plus I pay another $5 for a local GA number for my family to call me without costing them. So my aunt in GA, called me in CA, but the phone rang in Paris and it was all free.

At that time Vonage didn't have this little plug in thing like this. They started offering it just a few months back. I'm sure even with this Magic Jack, you have to have broadband access for it to work.

Oh yeah... I'm sure this Magic Jack handles 911 just like Vonage. You have to log in to your account online and enter your address for 911. Obviously this doesn't work when traveling but it works for using it at home.

 

After the free trial, it's just 19.95 a year! That's what has me interested. The 911 sounds like it works like you described vonage. One thing I like about this is that it's just a small part that plugs into the USB. One of the biggest complaints I read though is that to get calls, your pc has to be ledt on all the time. This wouldn't bother me since I'm mainly thinking of it as a way to send faxes without a landline and the free long distance.

 

when you travel you use the zipcode in that area for 911.
39.95 for the first year and they offer 4 more years for $60.
if you do that it is like u get the magic jack for free and 60 months for $1.66 a month.
they dont charge the $39.95 till after the 30 day free trial is over.

 

Sounds like it might be pretty good. Personally, I like talking on a phone instead of a headset and mic though. That is what I liked about Vonage from the start. And I did a little jumpering in the box outside my house and now every phone in my house works like normal instead of just the one plugged into the Vonage box.

Sounds like the future is about to be here. Soon communicating all over the world will be free. Now if they could just do the same for food and fuel.

 

magic jack is a phone jack in the USB port
you can use a phone or a headset, you have a choice
alot cheaper than vonage