[starflyte1]

We are moving into a house next month that we hope will be for many years to come.

I know that there are LOTS of posts about cable, internet and phone service, but I am totally overwhelmed! How does anyone figure it all out? We have always been happy with Comcast, except their ever rising prices, so we may just take the easy way out and get Comcast.

I have an AT&T cell phone, but my husband would really prefer to have a land line.

I'm just writing down my thoughts. Just really don't know what to do.

[sschuler1]

We went with Comcast for tv and internet, and use Magic Jack for our "land line". It works very well, and we still keep our cell phones to be able to reach each other when we are away on our various activities.

Originally Posted by sschuler1

We went with Comcast for tv and internet, and use Magic Jack for our "land line". It works very well, and we still keep our cell phones to be able to reach each other when we are away on our various activities.

I'm a land line lover. One of the biggest reasons I prefer my land line over a cell is the clarity of the call without disruptions like "Can you hear me now?" which seems to come with all cell phones.

Does the Magic Jack have any of those annoying cell phone nuances?

[Niels]

I'm currently going through the same decision process right now for our new home in Bonita that we are building. I'm considering doing what sschuler1 did - going with Comcast for cable and Internet and then maybe giving Magic Jack a try for our home phone.

In my current house in Albany I have a land line for phone service. Besides clarity of calls that Julie mentioned, I like having a land line because I find my home phone more comfortable to use for long phone conversations than my cell phone. I would like to have a house phone and Magic Jack may be a way to allow me to do that at a much lower cost.

I will say that Comcast is very persistent in trying to get me to sign up with them for service. I signed a contract to build a house in Bonita on Wednesday (the closing date is 1/14/10). On Thursday, Comcast called my cell phone twice about setting up service at my new house. They also sent me an e-mail AND sent a letter to my home address in New York State.

[golfnut]

I have comcast, i signed up under the triple play promotion, tv, internet and local phone for $85/month total. Sometimes the triple play is hard to get here but if you are persistent you should be able to get it. Other than that i have no problems with comcast....GN

[SteveFromNY]

I have Comcast for internet, Direct-TV for television and I use an internet phone called Ooma. I had a Majic Jack but I was very dissatisfied with a number of Majic Jack attributes. First, my computer needed to be on all the time to get or make a call, there was a relatively long wait for dial tone, and there were frequent poor connection problems. It would often sound like people were underwater while speaking, there was echo, and I was often forced to re-boot the computer before I could make a call. I bought the Ooma (it's expensive compared to the MajicJack) and my wife, who refused to use the phone connected to the MJ, uses the Ooma all the time. It has been flawless since I installed it (granted it's only been about 10 days). It connects between the cable router and the wireless hub, and it works completely independent of the computer. So I don't have to have the machine up for it to work.
I know others say they are very satisfied with MJ, but for some reason it didn't work well for me at all. Maybe it was my computer, or individual MJ unit itself. I don't know. But the comparison between the Ooma and the MJ is night and day.

[golfnut]

Steve, how much does ooma cost?...GN

[SteveFromNY]

Golfnut, it was $249 at BestBuy. It's expensive, but if you use the logic it's saving you $50/month or so, it's not so bad to cost justify.