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I've been using the google hangouts feature in my Gmail for over a year or so now, just to make outgoing calls that may become lengthy, such as customer service calls. No need for obi device, just using my old desktop with headset plugged into headphone/mic jacks. I have to manually turn on and shut off the mic by clicking on speaker tab in taskbar>levels>microphone>mute/enable>level adjust. Not that hard, if I knew for sure that Google Voice will remain free with obi box for years to come, I might buy an obi box.
I think the Obi boxes are now obsolete. You can buy an Android phone for as little as $20 at Walmart and use the wifi in your home. Why buy an Obi box to be able to attach an old analog phone?
I think the Obi boxes are now obsolete. You can buy an Android phone for as little as $20 at Walmart and use the wifi in your home. Why buy an Obi box to be able to attach an old analog phone?
Well, I can think of a few reasons why some people might want one. The analog phone will probably last 37 years and you would go thru 37 smartphones in that same period of time. The Obi box is a hard wired connection to modem, like my desktop computer is with eithernet cable to modem. This means I can shut off the radio on the modem and it will use less power that way, to be more precise, it uses 2 to 20 watts less power with wireless off, the average use of wireless router is 6 watts. Also, smartphones are battery intensive devices, batteries cost money and create environmental problems. There is also less security risk with hard wired devices, than using wifi router, hackers like wifi. I just happened to have that old headset around from the old Dialpad.com days when I would use it for free calls back in 2001. Still works!
Someone might poke holes and say my desktop uses more power than a smartphone, but I like a full sized keyboard and monitor. In a computer powered cage match with desktop vs smartphone, the desktop will destroy a smartphone in very short order. Also looking forward to the free windows 10 because I qualify for having windows 7 on my desktop. I have a good chance of this beautiful HP DC-5800 desktop still working 5 or 10 years down the road with free windows 10, which micosoft claims will be the last OS and will switch to subscription model and continually update windows 10 forever (rumors).
I finally got the urge to buy my first laptop a couple months back, a nice Dell with windows 7, for 100 bucks off ebay. The first day when I was doing windows updates on it, it crashed. Sent it back to seller and got refund, took them several days to figure out the RAM memory had a flaw that made the system shutdown after a few hours. Should have never bought one in the first place, they are junk. One of my friend went thru 3 laptops within a couple years.
Lindsey Graham did a good job smashing his smartphone yesterday.
Correction, I viewed the full footage of Lindsey Graham smashing his phone, not the brief clip I saw on the news the other day, but the whole full phone smashing production. HE WAS SMASHING A FLIP PHONE !! OMG!! He is a crack addicted smartphone user and will replace his flip phone with a smartphone. It will probably crack before you know it, and he will buy another one within an hour. If he was smart he would buy an old Rugby II flip phone and switch to Pure Talk. This way he will be better prepared in case The Donald gets his new phone number, it will cost him much less to smash another flip phone, but he won't have one because he smashed them all.
Now when he rides his bicycle and the phone rings, he won't be able to fast draw his flip phone and answer the call without stopping his bike. If he tried that with smartphone he would fumble around and drop it on the concrete and break it, or he would wreck his bike while fumbling around trying to answer the call. He even said that he's upgrading to smartphone, with his temper I would not advise it. Lindsey Graham was disrespecting flip phones and I hate him now.
I'm all about saving money, but I think I'd rather pay $110/month than go through the hassle of trying to locate usable Wifi every time I want to use the phone.
The idea is WiFi-FIRST, not nothing but WiFi. I have spent an average of 7 cents a day over the last 10 weeks supplementing my wifi with cellular calls and texts. There are plans for as cheap as $35 for a year to give you supplemental cellular to bolster your wi-fi calls and data.
That may be too frugal for you. Pay Plus cellular has a $50 Standard PIN (3G-only plan. You cannot activate a 4G device on this plan) that last for 120 days. There is a $0.50 per month service fee on the Standard plan and text cost 5 cents per text and 5 cents per minute.
So you will pay at least $150 over the year and you must average 8 minutes or 8 texts per day. If you run out of money additional Standard PINs loaded to your account restart the 120-day rollover period.
That may seem like very little talk and text time, but you often find that free wifi is immediately available or within a 100-200 yards of walking distance.
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Originally Posted by Geneyus
I am intrigued by the commercials I've been hearing about Walmart's phone plans. Supposedly, they can cut your phone bill in half while still using the major carriers' cell towers, and data is included. I wonder if anyone on here has used them.
Walmart actually has many different brands. Straight Talk is their primary brand, but their is also Family Talk, and they have special deals with Virgin paylo that you can only get at Walmart, and Total Wireless is an excellent deal for a mobile virtual network operator based on the Verizon network.
Agree with this. We have a land line b/c it's part of our cable package. Was looking into Ooma - but the landline was pretty much same price as w/o for our package.
Now if I could only get the rest of my cable bill down I'd be set- but the damned interned only service is only like 30 bucks cheaper a month anyway...say a prayer for a la cart service one day....
You an get internet and TV without their phone service, they want you to pay for it but it isn't free, service without it is usually $25 or $30 a month cheaper. We have cellphones and a VOIP home phone. We use Ooma, you can buy the Ooma device for under $90 if you find a coupon or get one from ebay and the basic service is free, you just pay around $3 a month tax. #1 Ranked Free Internet Phone Service | Ooma VoIP Phone
Careful that you don't eliminate yourself along w/ your phone bill. If you have a medical emergency or the house catches on fire, you'll have to get in the car and hunt for a wi fi spot to call for help. If someone breaks in, you'll have to tell them to hang out a while while you get in the car and look for a wi fi spot to call the cops. I'm sure they won't mind.
You an get internet and TV without their phone service, they want you to pay for it but it isn't free, service without it is usually $25 or $30 a month cheaper.
Not always, COMCAST uses some clever pricing schemes so that it is often more expensive. In this case, they don't view the phone as a revenue source, but they think of it as something that makes the home owner less likely to drop the service or trade it in for satellite TV.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2sleepy
We have cellphones and a VOIP home phone. We use Ooma, you can buy the Ooma device for under $90 if you find a coupon or get one from ebay and the basic service is free, you just pay around $3 a month tax. #1 Ranked Free Internet Phone Service | Ooma VoIP Phone
There are phones that allow you to plug your cell phones in for recharging within bluetooth range of the base unit. That way you can answer your cell calls on the same handsets that you answer your Ooma calls. There are devices that give you the same capability without changing your home handsets, but they don't work as well.
I'm content with $9 a monthlandline, aided by LifeLine. Every year, Ihave to phone ATT and ask for a promotional discount,which they always give. For long distance, I have no carrier, I just use Google Phone for all LD calls, of which I make less than one a month. All my friends pay $150 a month for unlimited, so I just wait for them to call me. I seldom have to wait very long. If necessary, I can email them and tell them to call me.
For long distance, I have no carrier, I just use Google Phone for all LD calls, of which I make less than one a month. All my friends pay $150 a month for unlimited, so I just wait for them to call me. I seldom have to wait very long. If necessary, I can email them and tell them to call me.
There is no voice limit on Google Voice, so you shouldn't have to e-mail someone to have them call you.
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