Home Phone

27Oct2003 Filed under: Geek Out

For the first time since 2000, I have signed up for a home phone. For the last three years, it’s made more sense financially to just have a cell phone and a cable modem for internet connection. While DSL was a little cheaper, it also required paying for a home phone, and that ended up being more expensive than just a cable modem, which was about $30/month back when I first signed up in 2000. But Comcast (which bought AT&T Broadband, which used to be @Home) has raised their prices for non-cable TV subscribers — if I had a TV, I could get cheap rates, but since I don’t have a TV, the cable modem was going to set me back more than $50/mo!

Therefore, it came down to choosing between paying $50/month for just a cable modem, or $50/month for DSL and a basic home line. And realistically, a home phone will be nice to have for local calls. I think we’ll leave the ringer permanently off, but it’ll be sort of novel to have a phone that I can talk on freely before 9pm.

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11 Responses to “Home Phone”

tlc
October 27th, 2003 at 1:59 pm

Very exciting for those of us in NYC!
paisley
October 27th, 2003 at 3:06 pm

we, for the first time , are only using our cell phones and had the home phone cut off. it made no sense to pay only for sales people to call to offer us crap we don’t want
we switched places with you guys .
i am a comcast cable modem girl . (and we get free basic cable because of that-which is suppose to be “hush hush”) .. what is the differance in dsl speed compared to cable?
Dave
October 27th, 2003 at 4:19 pm

When was a cable modem only $30? Makes my $60 to Comcast seem very dirty.

Anyway, with Cingular (which I know you hate), you can pay an additional $7 or so and it changes your nighttime hours to begin at 7PM as opposed to 9PM. For just about anyone who talks, you make up that extra charge pretty quickly in keeping your minutes down. Perhaps your cell provider has something similar…
Ariel
October 27th, 2003 at 4:24 pm

Back when I first subscribed to @Home, it was $30/mo….that was in 2000. I think they were gouging themselves to bring in new customers, make it appealing to dial-up folks. And, appealing it was. But when Comcast made it so that non-cable TV subscribers have to pay almost $60 just for high speed internet, they made themselves instantly irrelevant to those of us who don’t have/want cable TV.
BK1
October 28th, 2003 at 6:09 am

I did that for years, but now that I have moved into the stix I can’t get a signal in my new house so I had to break down and get a local line. Oh and they only offer cable by me no DSL so I am paying out the @@s
donut
October 28th, 2003 at 8:58 am

this post nearly perfectly summed up a major trauma in my life right now…
leblanc
October 28th, 2003 at 9:48 am

we wouldn’t have a home phone either if it weren’t for the DSL. i never, ever answer it, because it’s always just a telemarketer, and rarely even notice if someone leaves a message on the answering machine. the only people who call that and leave message are our moms.
Ariel
October 28th, 2003 at 9:51 am

Yup, don’t think we’ll be giving the number out, the ringer will stay off, and there won’t be any voicemail. It’ll mostly be useful for outgoing local calls, and phone dates….and I’m actually really looking forward to having it for those things!
BK1
October 28th, 2003 at 1:41 pm

Hum… Phone Date’s
Jodi
October 29th, 2003 at 1:07 am

DSL is the only reason I have a home phone line, too. Like leblanc, I have noticed that the only people who call that phone are telemarketers and my grandmother, who refuses to call cell phones. I use my cellular for all my calling needs, and I must say that my plan is just fabulous. I have the SunCom UnPlan, and it is a little slice of phone plan heaven. I probably average over an hour a day on my cell phone long distance. With my plan I pay just over $60 a month, and I get unlimited minutes to anywhere, any time. I don’t have to worry about trying to limit my calls to evening and weekends, I don’t have an allotted number of minutes each month, and the only rule is that I have to call from my “free zone”, which covers Richmond and the surrounding counties. I never leave here, but should I have to travel elsewhere and need to use my cell phone, I get 200 “just in case” minutes per month.

I didn’t mean to launch into an UnPlan commercial, but I just can’t get over how handy this plan is!
db
October 29th, 2003 at 6:03 pm

Jesus- Comcast is there too? Pure evil!

Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.

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