AT&T Set to Offer No Contract Wireless Home Phone

Terms like "no contract" and "wireless" usually aren't associated with home phone service, but that's exactly what AT&T now offers.  Basically how it works is you use your existing home phone, but it makes calls using ATT's wireless network instead of a landline connection.  The graphic below shows how you connect your home phone using AT&T's device:

One of the major perks of this is that the AT&T Wireless Home Phone device is portable, so you can take it with you anywhere in the country and still have your working home phone.  The new no commitment prepaid home phone plans look like this:

 

-- $20 per month for unlimited, nationwide calling.

-- $15 per month for 1,000 minutes of international long-distance, including wireless and landline numbers in Mexico and calling to over 50 other countries such as Canada, China and India.

-- One-time cost of $99.99 for the Wireless Home Phone device.

-- Voicemail, caller ID and call waiting are all included at no additional cost

You may also be interested in: Daily cell phone specials from AT&T 

And on top of all this, it's only $9.99 to add your home phone to your existing FamilyTalk plan or $19.99 for unlimited nationwide calling.  If you do choose to go the contract route, the home phone wireless device is free. 

Basically this is a very nice option if you prefer to keep a home phone line, and being you can use this phone just about anywhere you go makes this a very attractive option. For more information view the full AT&T No-Contract Wireless Home Phone Press Release.

VOIP Phone Service

It may be hard to believe since so many people live on their cell phones these days, but there is a great number of people out there who still prefer to have a home phone at their residence.  With the unpredictability of cell phone outages or malfunctions, it makes perfect sense to have a home phone up and running.  The good news is today's technology makes having a home phone line easier than ever, that's where VOIP comes in.

What is VOIP you might ask?  VOIP stands for "Voice Over Internet Protocol," which in plain English means your phone lines works through your Internet connection rather than an expensive phone company hook up.  Basically you get everything you would want from a home phone but without the high cost.  You can call anyone, anywhere, and even make international calls through VOIP.  Your phone works just like it did before, and you have the security of knowing a backup form of communication is always there. 

We welcome any current VOIP users to leave their review in the comments below so those of you who are in search of VOIP phone service reviews can get some insight on your decision to keep your residential phone at a lower price.

Lingo Home Phone Service Offers the Lowest Prices in My Area

It's been a while since I've checked on prices on home phone service in my area, and I've avoided having a home phone since my bad experience with Charter.  But recently with cell phone bills rising and cellular companies requiring customers to have date plans etc., I've thought about getting a home phone again. 

I used our local provider quote tool (located above) to see what was being offered in my area.  Of course Charter, AT&T, and a few others had some different packages to look at, but another company grabbed my attention since it was the lowest price offer I saw.  For only $9.95 a month, Lingo offers home phone service with 250 minutes.  For me, this is exactly what I had in mind as far as minutes go because I don't actually talk on the phone very much.  For anyone that may need more minutes, they do have other offers with more minutes at decent prices.  They even offer America and World unlimited packages.

As far as how it works, Lingo is a VOIP service which means it uses your Internet connection for calls, but the set up looks pretty easy with just a couple of things to plug in.  For the $9.95 250 minute plan, there is a $14.95 initial charge then it goes to the $9.95 which seems reasonable. 

I plan on giving Lingo a shot, but I'm not sure how good the service quality is yet.  If anyone has or has used Lingo, we welcome any opinions on their service.  If you want to check the home phone service offerings in your area, simply enter your address in the phone provider quote tool above.

Using Your Cell Phone as Your Home Phone

While we write about the best deals in home phone services, including traditional landline phones, we are aware that many households only use cell phones. The percentage of households with no landline and "cell phone only" home phone service continues to increas. According to this article at CBS News, the number of houses with no landline has doubled since 2007. Around a quarter of households use cell phones but do not have a regular home phone. I am sure the number is much higher among younger users. I even know a lot of older people who have ditched the home phone completely for a cell phone or switched to a cheap voip phone service. I know at least one person who uses a prepaid cell phone and a very limited home broadband connection.

While it may make sense for some to drop their home phone service, there is good news. There are still many good deals for home phone service, traditional and voip. If you want to see what all your options are, I recommend running a quote through our local phone service tool at the top of the page.

If you are interested in switching to cell phones or expanding your current wireless service, our recommended vendor is below.

As for me personally, I AM in the process of switching my landline over. I am going with the Verizon Wireless Home Phone Connector. We wrote before about something called the Verizon Hub. This is not the same thing. The Hub was used over a broadband internet connection and seemed a little redundant for the price. If my Home Connector works correctly, I will be able to plug my cordless home phone into a wireless device and connect over the Verizon Wireless network. I am only paying $9.99/mo to keep my home phone number in service, as I am adding it to my Verizon Family Plan. I am still keeping my AT&T Uverse service, for tv and internet. The phone just wasn't a very good deal. I was paying $25/mo for limited minutes and they raised the price. I think their high speed internet is a very good deal and their tv plans are decent, but it just didn't make sense to keep my phone with them.

I added my Home Phone Connector directly through Verizon, but when I got my regular cell phones this is where I found the best deals:

AT&T Home Phone Customer Service Problems

Today we have yet another negative review on AT&T's home phone service, which is becoming a regular thing around here.  This review posted by an anonymous user, describes the trouble they had trying to move their service after moving.  I personally had some trouble with customer service when I first got the service, as their technician showed up earlier than the time they gave, and then tried to blame us for not being there for the installation.  After threatening to go to another service, the situation was resolved.  Here is our anonymous poster's experience with AT&T customer service:

"I cannot believe the problems that I have had with AT&T. After several minor incidents with AT&T that I looked over, this last one I am not so sure that will be possible with. We recently moved. I called AT&T on the 19th of the month to schedule having my service transferred to my new address. I had them turn off my home phone and DSL on the 28 at my old address and turn on my phone and DSL at my new address the same day. Well by Saturday it still was not on. I spent several hours on the phone being sent from customer service to repair and repair to customer service. Repair tells me that they cannot help me because my phone has not been turned on and that they cannot repair the line until it is. Customer service says that it is on and that it needs repair. Finally someone in customer service tells me that I live on a line where the city I live in recently changed the way it works and that my new number does not match with the side of the line I live on. They tell me that between one and two p.m. on June 1st it will be turned on. They said I should be home in case they need to come in to see if there is an issue but that there should not be. Well at 1:45 p.m. I call because low and behold there still is no phone line. They tell me that they are unable to give me a time frame in which it will be turned on but that by the end of the day it will be on. I have an appointment for between 1 and 2 p.m. on the 2nd just in case it does not work once they turn it on. Well at 7:30 p.m. still no line. I call the repair center because customer service is closed just to see if it is showing as complete, because if it doesn't then repair won't touch it tomorrow because it has not been turned on. Needless to say, they tell me NO, it has not been turned on. Needless to say I will be calling them tomorrow to give them a piece of my mind and letting them know I will be contacting a lawyer if they do not complete their part of our agreement. They have cost me over $500 dollars because they cannot do their jobs and turn my phone and internet on and they are fixing to lose some of their money when I call my lawyer tomorrow if it is not turned on."

Feel free to share your experiences or thoughts in the comments below.

Verizon Fios Reviews Needed

For the past couple of years, we have gathered a diverse collection of AT&T U-Verse reviews.  While we've covered other companies and services, even featuring reviews on services like cable and cellular service, we haven't been able to get much info. on Verizon Fios service, which we believe is regarded as another good service overall.  The main problem with Verizon Fios seems to be that the service isn't available in enough areas yet, well actually it hasn't been since we first heard about it which was at least 4 years ago.  We know Fios offers high speed Internet, cable tv, and of course home phone service, so we're asking any of our readers to contribute your thoughts on Verizon Fios if you have had any experience with any of their services.  If we get enough feedback we will feature a follow up post similar to our coverage of U-Verse service, in which we will feature both the positives and negatives of the Verizon Fios services.  Please leave any reviews or thoughts on the service in the comments below.

Cheap Home Phone Service

Being I was finally able to cancel the horrible Charter Service, I was able to use our free tool here on this site to shop for cheap home phone service, and wanted to report my results here for anyone that is curious on the shopping process.  I entered my information in the boxes above, and right away I got offers from both regular AT&T and U-verse, along with Verizon, and unfortunately Charter.  Well Charter was out right away for obvious reasons, so it was going to be some form of AT&T or Verizon.  We've featured a pretty wide variety of AT&T U-verse reviews, ranging from great to rip off, but I have some friends who have U-verse and I've checked it out before, and I liked what I saw and heard about the service.  I also have high opinions on Verizon service, and use them as my cellular provider.  On the price side of things, Verizon was a bit higher, but I was OK with that fact being I know that their service has been great the past few years.  The one drawback for me was that Verizon Fios TV isn't offered in my area, therefore I couldn't package my Internet/Cable/Home Phone through Verizon, but thankfully U-verse did offer all three services, and on top of that offered a $200 reward card back with their offer.  So AT&T U-verse gets my service, with a great price on bundled service, and $200 back on top of that.  So I can now tell you all first hand, that our free local provider quote tool is the best way to shop for home phone service and even bundling it with other services you may need.