Landline phone service for snowbirds? (Tampa, Port Charlotte: house, purchase, tax)

[MikMal]

Hi all.

I've looked back through the historical posts on C.D. about phone service and found that a lot of people don't even have a land line phone anymore. Unfortunately, the cell service at my P.C. house sucks, so it looks like it will be a land line.

Does anyone have any recommendations with land line phone companies? We're not looking to bundle a bunch of services (cable, internet, phone), just get a residential phone line to make local and long distance calls on and something on the cheaper side since some months it won't be getting any use. I tried web sites for ATT (can't find details of phone plans) and Birch Comm. (our current provide in MD; can't find any info on their site either!) but haven't had luck finding plans; they just direct me to their wireless info . I can't believe these major companies' web sites are so poor in providing information, but I guess that's a different topic altogether.

[nphomeowner]

A friend of mine swears by Magic Jack. You can have your other home phone number here. She said it worked for her niece when they were stationed in Japan, they took the magic jack with them and had their phone number from here in the states and said it worked fine. I do not have first hand experience with it but something you may want to check out.

[TamRE]

My Dad used Magic Jack in Punta Gorda and it did not work half the time, so he got rid of it. We have a friend in NY that uses Magic Jack, but he had to purchase something extra to get it to work. Not sure what.

You need to check to see what phone companies actually service your area. We bought an AT&T microcell for our home and my cell phone works fine now. We live in Port Charlotte. Here's the link for the Microcell - AT&T 3G MicroCell - Wireless Signal Booster - Wireless from AT&T. I am not sure which cell phone company you use though.


Century Link - 800-339-1811 - CenturyLink | Local Provider of High Speed Internet, Phone, Mobile & TV Services

Verizon - 800-483-4000 - Verizon Popup

Comcast - 1-877-870-4310 - www.comcast.com

[MikMal]

Originally Posted by TamRE

My Dad used Magic Jack in Punta Gorda and it did not work half the time, so he got rid of it. We have a friend in NY that uses Magic Jack, but he had to purchase something extra to get it to work. Not sure what.

You need to check to see what phone companies actually service your area. We bought an AT&T microcell for our home and my cell phone works fine now. We live in Port Charlotte. Here's the link for the Microcell - AT&T 3G MicroCell - Wireless Signal Booster - Wireless from AT&T. I am not sure which cell phone company you use though.

My wife's friend, who lives near Tampa, did not have luck with a Magic Jack either. She (my wife) is going to check with her to see what the issues were. Thanks, nphomeowner and TamRe, for the suggestions.

I love the idea of the microcell. Unfortunately, our cell service is with Virgin Mobile and the microcell isn't compatible with non-AT&T products. I've tried to research cell phone signal repeaters but again haven't had too much luck. I have a feeling that I may not be using the proper terminology in the search engine. I may have to go the antiquated route and go talk to someone at a store!

[TamRE]

In addition to our AT&T cell phones we have Century Link as our landline service. We use them for Internet and Phone. We only have the land line for our businesses to use long distance and fax, otherwise we would probably just use the cell phone at our house. My Dad switched from Magic Jack to Comcast. It might be cheaper if you bundle Internet and Phone together or Internet, Phone and Cable.

[kiggy]

Vonage works well, and you can take it anywhere you have your computer. Of course, if your internet goes down, your phone does too.

[mr&mrssunshine]

we have/had century link phone and internet, they do a vacation package where you can 'de-liven' the service when you are away. it svaes a few bucks.

now we are full time we just switched and bundled everything to verizon

[Harbor Hopper]

When our Sprint contract ended, I went to Boost and put my wife on Virgin (both are on the Sprint network). My phone worked great, but my wife's Virgin phone had poor service. I took it into Radio Shack and explained the situation (why would two phones, both on the same network, have significantly different reception). They did an antenna search and found that it wasn't picking up several in the area. 5 minutes, problem solved, free of charge. I would look at that first. Might be something simple. Now neither phone has any reception issues anywhere around PC.

[mrs.cool]

I JUST checked out AT&T today to see if wireless service was available at my house, I'm sick of Verizon. I put my address in their box to see if coverage was available, and it couldn't find my address!! Neither could their "Live Chat" person!!
So...I guess the answer is "No".

[nphomeowner]

If your lucky maybe the tax people won't know your address either! Now how sweet would that be?