This is ‘3-way complicated,’ as I’m sure it is for everyone. You’ve got: 1. Your Telephone
2. Your TV Service
3. You Computer Service
With TELEPHONES: you’ve got the option of:
1. Landline
2. Cell phone
3. Both.
4. Magicjack for $19.95/year. My sister gave me hers because she
never used it. Magicjack works when it works, but darned if I can figure out how to KEEP it
working. It keeps getting messed up.
So right now we have the above three phone services.
–I have a Virgin Cell Phone, which only costs me $10-$15/month at this time (pay per minute). the Virgin phone at $10-$15/month is STILL less expensive than having a $30-$40 contract with Cingular or Verizon Cell phone or whomever. I need it for work, plus emergencies, but I usually use my land line whenever I can.
–I have a Landline, with unlimited calling, which is a real joy because you don’t have to count the minutes you talk AS you talk (no weekend/weekday restrictions, no worrying ‘free minute time"–if it’s 9 pm on the west coast, then it’s midnight on the east coast, etc… That is, unless the person you’re calling has a cell phone, then you have to worry about their end of things). But the vast majority of my phone calls are out of state, given that I live on the PA side of the PA/NJ line and work in NJ–plus my family is in TX, CA, NY, Indiana AND PA. It’s not like the old days when your job, your friends and your family were mostly local).
WITH TELEVISION:
There’s the option of 1. Cable, which we have at the moment.
2. Satellite.
Then there’s: THE COMPUTER. Which we can choose to connect either to
1. Our phone service. DSL, I think. OR
2. Our TV service: Comcast.
Then there’s something called FIOS–fiber-optic something–which they keep saying will be available to us in our area soon but they’ve been saying that for a long time and FIOS still isn’t
here.
We chose to connect our computer to our Verizon service because a few years ago, when we moved to New Hope PA and signed up, DSL was only $20 per month while Computer-through-Comcast was $40.00/month.
But what’s the best way to go now? Should we just keep paying the bills to Comcast for TV, Verizon for landline and computer, Virgin for cell phone by-the-minute, and wait for FIOS to come along?
What are the rest of you out there doing? Is FIOS worth waiting for? My husband keeps talking about getting satellite TV, maybe because FIOS hasn’t shown up in our area yet…
Whatever. Any information to help us think this through would be greatly appreciated.
Satellite TV:
Dish Network - http://www.sathookup.com/dish-network.php
Directv - http://www.sathookup.com/directv.php
Internet/Phone:
Verizon DSL/Fios - http://www.FiosFinder.com
I recommend satellite tv and DSL/land line phone unless you need super speeds. I’m not sure if a VOIP phone (Vonage) will work over DSL - but let us know.
Good luck!