Rewind to last decade, and there were a lot of articles about people ditching their landlines for cellphones. Now I think that is without question and it’s quite rare for a young household to have a home phone, but we bucked the trend as we just got one!
One of the major proponents not to get a home phone is because it’s expensive. Bell (or Rogers or Shaw etc) will charge you $20+ a month for a phone and “features”, and they’ll try and sweeten the deal by bundling with your other services. No thanks! $20/month + taxes is a lot of money year over year. That money is better spent on a better cellphone plan!
So it’s a bit odd that I got a home phone, but I got a good deal. I have a “soft” VOIP phone, so it uses my Internet connection; but even VOIP plans are pretty expensive if you go with someone like Vonage – you might have to pay $20/month still, and therefore still not worth it!
I ended up setting up my home phone by spending about $100 for equipment and having $0/mth based on my calling pattern. The one-time ~$100 bought me an ATA device to connect my normal phone as a VOIP phone, and the SIP configuration details. Individual calls to major Canadian cities are free, as are incoming calls. I tried a few calls and there isn’t too much delay, and well worth the one-time cost. Seems like a deal that is too good to be true actually, I’ll have to see how it works out over the next little while.
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