aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA | reply to bgraham
Re: Why would I pay $45?
I have MagicJAck and pay $20 for the entire year. It sounds just like when I had my landline with FIOS only I'm saving almost $500 a year. Plus no taxes. |
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ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16
Stratford, CT | Majic jack sucks, are you serious? The most unreliable phone service on the entire planet. |
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tshirt
Premium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
 ·Comcast
| reply to aaronwt
said by aaronwt  :I have MagicJAck and pay $20 for the entire year. It sounds just like when I had my landline with FIOS only I'm saving almost $500 a year. Plus no taxes.
Well, sort of.
with magicJack, you are are paying your BroadBand provider (Verizon, in your case) for the access point.
I'm sure all the telco's would be much cheaper in the voice market, if they didn't have the huge overhead of maintaining a local/long distance network (local termanation for non-customer calls are a particularly big drain).
As the telco's transition to pure IP voice service, I think you'll see the Broadband price rise to cover the network cost, and voice service drop closer to full service VoIP providers (vonage, etc.) |
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aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
2 edits | reply to ITALIAN926
said by ITALIAN926 :Majic jack sucks, are you serious? The most unreliable phone service on the entire planet. Have you used it? I've used it with a Vista 64bit PC, Vista 32 bit PC, and two Window XP machines. It has been flawless. The sound quality has equaled what I had when I had my land line with FIOS. You can't get better than that. It has worked exactly as advertised. I have had zero problems. IF they had the option to port the home phone number, back when I ported it to my cell phone, I would have ported it to MagicJack instead.
I have been extremely pleased with it. It has worked EXACTLY like they advertised for me. |
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aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
| reply to tshirt
said by tshirt :said by aaronwt :I have MagicJAck and pay $20 for the entire year. It sounds just like when I had my landline with FIOS only I'm saving almost $500 a year. Plus no taxes. Well, sort of. with magicJack, you are are paying your BroadBand provider (Verizon, in your case) for the access point. I'm sure all the telco's would be much cheaper in the voice market, if they didn't have the huge overhead of maintaining a local/long distance network (local termanation for non-customer calls are a particularly big drain). As the telco's transition to pure IP voice service, I think you'll see the Broadband price rise to cover the network cost, and voice service drop closer to full service VoIP providers (vonage, etc.) I am paying FIOS anyway for my 50/20 connection. Even when I had my landline I had the 30/5 first and then the 50/20 INternet. So I'm not paying any extra for that. |
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battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000 | reply to aaronwt
Thanks for encouraging the 4 minute commercials they run. I don't care if it's the best service ever, I will never give them a dime. |
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aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
4 edits | said by battleop :Thanks for encouraging the 4 minute commercials they run. I don't care if it's the best service ever, I will never give them a dime. I've never seen their commercials. It's rare that I watch any commercials. A coworker had it and really liked it so for $40 I figured I would try it. I looked it up online and checked it out. For only $40 it was worth it(I actually paid less since I had a $25 Best Buy gift card that I used for the purchase so I only paid $15 plus taxes). Especially since it's works exactly the way they said it does. Plus it doesn't affect any of the machines I've used it on. They run as fast as ever. |
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battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000 | I've seen them run one with a guy that looks like a stereotypical used car sales man on QVC. They have a count down timer and number sold graphic running. They run them like mini infomercials that run during a commercial break. |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28
 ·magicjack.com
| reply to ITALIAN926
said by ITALIAN926 :Majic jack sucks, are you serious? The most unreliable phone service on the entire planet. Works fine for me (which, of course, says nothing about how well it works, or doesn't, for someone else--not everyone has a good enough setup for VoIP even if they're using an ATA). And I certainly didn't get broadband so as to support VoIP, so the cost of broadband doesn't even factor into it (unlike when I had DSL and needed to have that landline, but still had VoIP, too). |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | reply to aaronwt
I've used Skype, and it works very well.
For $36/year, I use it on my cell phone (WiFi) for international calls, and work conference calls, and webcam conferences.
Its been very robust - even usable over VPN, through a proxy. |
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hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH | reply to tshirt
You'll only see HSI prices raise from the Telcos if they change to pure IP for everything. Cable rates will stay the same if not become cheaper. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to aaronwt
Great. It works for you. Glad your computer has become an ATA device for what should be treated as a lifeline service.
Now, back to reality where the air exists and water is required to sustain life.
MAGIC JACK IS NOT "PHONE SERVICE"... it's a toy, plain and simple. If I were to rank the phone services out there are sustainability:
POTS
Cable Switched Service
Cable managed VoIP Service / Fiber VoIP (FiOS, Surewest)
Cell Phones
3rd Party Vonage, etc
Two-Cans & String
Skype
MagicJack
MJ is a ponzi scheme waiting for the breaking news that will be the next shocking news cycle story, which isn't a shocker to some of us already. If anyone knows anything about MJ and its model, and how it plays with the rest of the PSTN, MJ can't survive. It will eventually hit it's plateau and the service will go dead.
This service is a joke. (Yes, I have it and I've used it. The service sits in the drawer now) Not only does this "phone service" require internet connections (which is fine) it also relies on the stability of your PC, as you/we know, that has to remain powered up AND not crashed or sleeping.
Vonage finds that many people are not too keen on the notion of having to self serve their home phone needs. They're not happy with having to do their own installs (which is why they now have installer teams same as satellite did years ago) they find that people are not keen on having to reboot/power cycle their phone box, and people don't want to be passed around between providers when there's an issue with the service. (All proven facts)
Now comes MJ being pushed as a "real player in the phone business".. HAH! MagicJack is really nothing more, in my opinion, than a service like Skype that can plug into your phone jack. However, the boob that "invented it" is playing people with the claims. $20 a year isn't sustainable - the service WILL go dark and probably not too far into the future as there are already signs of it.
Some of these "vision changers" think that people are going to simply give up stability for price. It took many years for the cell phone industry to even gain the status that it could be used as the only phone, and even then, people still complain about dropped calls, call clarity, and reliability.
MJ is hardly a phone service at all. Just becuase it can 'make a phone call' doesn't make it a phone service.. at best, as it stands, MJ is largely a techies toy.
Continue to use it, rave about it, praise it's ability to fit your needs, but DON'T call it phone service. I would NEVER port my primary, established, or important phone number to any company that doesn't stand behind its product or is held to standards by any authority that will ensure they are a sustainable provider.
To be honest, if government EVER did one thing right, they'd bar ANYONE from providing "phone service" or a service called "dial tone" to the end user in this country unless they followed rules and had oversight by the FCC. Phone service in the US is just FAR too important to allow children to hawk a service to the consumer made to believe that what they are getting is "phone service" which is largely compared to that of the likes of a reliable POTS service.
my 2-cents |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
·Comcast
 ·Qwest.net
·magicjack.com
 ·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to battleop
I'm cell-only, plus MagicJack. For long conversations, I pick up the phone and make a MJ call. MJ actually is more reliable than my cell; here in Colorado I sometimes have to place a call twice...first one's a fast budy. Other than that, the cellular service is crystal clear.
MagicJack? As long as my internet isn't wonky, it's crystal clear too, and unlimited.
Just because I'm paying less per year for my RJ-11 phone service than anyone else is no cause for strife. No, I don't count my broadband bill into the mix because I use that connection for other stuff.
Yes, I can get a landline, but what would I use it for? 99.9% of calls I make are long-distance from here, and even a basic line would cost me $20+ per month. Plus long distance. No thanks.
YMMV, yes But cellular plus VoIP has proved quite reliable for me. If you think MagicJack should die and everyone should move to VoIP provided by the people who run your internet cables, be my guest...but I'd like $40 per month from you to cover Comcast Digital Voice.
When the price differential is that big, whaddya gonna do?
Still, MagicJack isn't for everyone. I'd be hesitant to run a high-volume business line over the service, and they don't have local numbers everywhere. Then again, only cable and telco VoIP have local numbers back home, as far as oIP stuff goes anyway. So, realistically, I' pay $30/month for unlimited, full-featured VoIP with a local number from my cable or telco provider. No added texas or fees. If they want a penny more of my money, I want crazy does-the-dishes-for-yu features. Got it? |
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lucky178
join:2000-11-06
Coshocton, OH
| reply to aaronwt
unfortunately i have to agree magic jack is horrid i have not been able to use it for 2 months now. when it worked service was very iffy, it would disconnect for no reason or not receive inbound calls. when I plug magic jack in, my computers will no longer recognize it. i tried magic jack tech support and they had me download several "fixes" and it still cannot be recognized by my computers. i have vista and xp. |
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aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
·Verizon FIOS
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to fiberguy
MAGIC JACK was a bonus for me. I dropped my land line a few months ago to use my cell phone as my primary service. But the call quality from my cell phone has never been close to land line quality. I was using a Dock N talk with the Bluetooth connection on my cell phone so I could use my 1.9GHz(DECT 6.0) cordless phones while at home. That worked fine, but again, since it's going over the cell, the quality is the same as the cell.
So then I tried the Magic Jack after a coworker turned me on to it.
So I dumped my Dock N Talk and got an Xlink BTTN unit. It works like the Dock N Talk, linking with the cell phone over it's BT connection, but it also allows up to three cell phones, and a land line. So for the land line port I am using the Magic Jack. So for all outgoing or incoming calls I can use either line. Although I will mainly be using the cell line for incoming and the Magic Jack for outgoing calls.
For 911 service I will be using my cell phone, although I've never had to use 911. I've had to call the police and fire dept. before, but not in a life threatening situation, so 911 wouldn't apply to those situations. You use the regular number instead of tying up 911 service like most of the calls they receive for 911 that aren't really emergencies.
said by fiberguy :Great. It works for you. Glad your computer has become an ATA device for what should be treated as a lifeline service. Now, back to reality where the air exists and water is required to sustain life. MAGIC JACK IS NOT "PHONE SERVICE"... it's a toy, plain and simple. If I were to rank the phone services out there are sustainability: POTS Cable Switched Service Cable managed VoIP Service / Fiber VoIP (FiOS, Surewest) Cell Phones 3rd Party Vonage, etc Two-Cans & String Skype MagicJack MJ is a ponzi scheme waiting for the breaking news that will be the next shocking news cycle story, which isn't a shocker to some of us already. If anyone knows anything about MJ and its model, and how it plays with the rest of the PSTN, MJ can't survive. It will eventually hit it's plateau and the service will go dead. This service is a joke. (Yes, I have it and I've used it. The service sits in the drawer now) Not only does this "phone service" require internet connections (which is fine) it also relies on the stability of your PC, as you/we know, that has to remain powered up AND not crashed or sleeping. Vonage finds that many people are not too keen on the notion of having to self serve their home phone needs. They're not happy with having to do their own installs (which is why they now have installer teams same as satellite did years ago) they find that people are not keen on having to reboot/power cycle their phone box, and people don't want to be passed around between providers when there's an issue with the service. (All proven facts) Now comes MJ being pushed as a "real player in the phone business".. HAH! MagicJack is really nothing more, in my opinion, than a service like Skype that can plug into your phone jack. However, the boob that "invented it" is playing people with the claims. $20 a year isn't sustainable - the service WILL go dark and probably not too far into the future as there are already signs of it. Some of these "vision changers" think that people are going to simply give up stability for price. It took many years for the cell phone industry to even gain the status that it could be used as the only phone, and even then, people still complain about dropped calls, call clarity, and reliability. MJ is hardly a phone service at all. Just becuase it can 'make a phone call' doesn't make it a phone service.. at best, as it stands, MJ is largely a techies toy. Continue to use it, rave about it, praise it's ability to fit your needs, but DON'T call it phone service. I would NEVER port my primary, established, or important phone number to any company that doesn't stand behind its product or is held to standards by any authority that will ensure they are a sustainable provider. To be honest, if government EVER did one thing right, they'd bar ANYONE from providing "phone service" or a service called "dial tone" to the end user in this country unless they followed rules and had oversight by the FCC. Phone service in the US is just FAR too important to allow children to hawk a service to the consumer made to believe that what they are getting is "phone service" which is largely compared to that of the likes of a reliable POTS service. my 2-cents |
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battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000
| reply to iansltx
I think you are not catching on as to why I wouldn't give magicjack a dime. It's the same reason that wouldn't buy Vince's ShamWOW or anything that Billy Maze peddles. I won't buy an x10 Camera or anything else from any one who runs an annoying commercial. |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | ???... there are commercials that aren't annoying? |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO | reply to battleop
I could care less about commercials. Don't have TV. But whatever floats your boat... |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| reply to fiberguy
While I don't count on Skype as primary phone line (I have cable VoIP), I do use it as a second line to dial out and do video conferencing. For $36/year, its a cheap dialout + video conferencing. I wouldn't recommend it for use as a primary line (eg. I'd recommend it as a compliment to a cell phone - cheaper than adding tons of minutes, and it will do Canada calling for free). |
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Frank
is chilling
Premium
join:2000-11-03
somewhere
·Verizon FIOS
1 edit | reply to battleop
said by battleop :Thanks for encouraging the 4 minute commercials they run. I don't care if it's the best service ever, I will never give them a dime. it's your own fault for watching commercials period.
Buy, Rent, or Make a DVR.
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At first I thought everyone on the highway was drunk but then I realized I was driving in Florida  |
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