January 03, 2006Escaping the 'phone mafia', part one...
In exactly five days from now, dAS and I will be one step closer to a cheaper phone bill and a major leap away from the phone mafia. We decided that 2006 was the year we'd stop getting reamed by the phone company (just the regular landline- we have no cell) so we started checking into broadband phone tech- or what is known as VoIP (Voice-Over-Internet Protocol).
Out here in the bay area, especially the Oakland area where we live, SBC just merged with AT&T, so now there is only ONE local service here in the area, which is basically what you call a monopoly, and I think, well, I'm fairly sure that's illegal (but in our times, who knows...) Anyway, it's really been a thorn in our side that since we are hardly phone-users at all, own no cellphones, and neither one of us spends more than 2-3 hours per week on the phone, we've basically been throwing our money out the window for years. Our two phone bills alone (Working Assets for long distance, and SBC for local) add up to around $40-50/month, depending on the amount of long distance calls we make each month. Not like we had a choice. Until now, that is...
There's been a bunch of hooplah lately with adverts blipping in and out about these new VoIP services like Vonage and so forth, so we looked around and compare shopped, and ended up choosing one called SunRocket. The plan we've just signed up for involves paying for a year at once ($199) although they have monthly plans, and only costs $18/month (unlimited US calls, etc.) I highly recommend checking into it and getting yourselves out of similar corporate bondage, if it interests you.
I'll give a little report on the quality/service once we get it all rigged up and working, but for now I am just excited to have an alternative course of action instead of being backed up into a corner by the phone mafia.
Out here in the bay area, especially the Oakland area where we live, SBC just merged with AT&T, so now there is only ONE local service here in the area, which is basically what you call a monopoly, and I think, well, I'm fairly sure that's illegal (but in our times, who knows...) Anyway, it's really been a thorn in our side that since we are hardly phone-users at all, own no cellphones, and neither one of us spends more than 2-3 hours per week on the phone, we've basically been throwing our money out the window for years. Our two phone bills alone (Working Assets for long distance, and SBC for local) add up to around $40-50/month, depending on the amount of long distance calls we make each month. Not like we had a choice. Until now, that is...
There's been a bunch of hooplah lately with adverts blipping in and out about these new VoIP services like Vonage and so forth, so we looked around and compare shopped, and ended up choosing one called SunRocket. The plan we've just signed up for involves paying for a year at once ($199) although they have monthly plans, and only costs $18/month (unlimited US calls, etc.) I highly recommend checking into it and getting yourselves out of similar corporate bondage, if it interests you.
I'll give a little report on the quality/service once we get it all rigged up and working, but for now I am just excited to have an alternative course of action instead of being backed up into a corner by the phone mafia.
