Alternative to Magic Jack

[JOhnH]

I don't even remember how much Magic Jack cost when I got it because it seemed insignificant. My latest renewal is $43/year. That's still not much, but the service sucks. The sound quality is awful and when the answering machine answers, and the caller hangs up (whether leaving a message or not), the line doesn't drop. I have tried three different phone sets from different manufacturers and I have talked to Magic Jack several times. The best they could do was implement call screening so I don't get so many nuisance calls.

I looked in to Ooma because are supposed to be a higher quality and FREE. But you have to buy their device (on sale for $79) and only pay taxes and fees. The T&Fs come to $5.19/month (~$75/year). That's not free, but I'd pay it if it was actually better quality than MJ.

Any other suggestions?

 

[kmacht]

Get a cell phone like the rest of the world? Seriously, a prepaid cheap cellphone would work if you have a cell signal by your house. Nobody says you need to take the cell phone with you. You can leave it at home and use it just like a home landline. If you just want to make/receive phone calls and don’t care about using the phone for anything else there are some really cheap phones and prepaid plans out there.

 

[RussR]

Ooma had always been very highly regarded by Clark Howard, although I haven't heard him mention it in probably two years or so. Probably because the demand for such a service has weakened.

Consumer Reports reviewed them recently, you may be able to find the issue at your local library if you don't want to pay for access. Ooma came in a close second to Sonic.

If you can give us an idea of what you use it for, that may lead to some other advice or options. Travel? That was one of the main selling points of MagicJack in the past.

As @kmacht mentions, some cell phone plans are very cheap. For example, I found a plan from Tello that is only $5 a month - no data and only 100 minutes a month, but if you don't talk much, that's about as cheap as it gets. They offer more minutes for only a few dollars more.

 

[Pinecone]

You can use the cell phone even if you have a poor signal at your house. Just get a phone and service the supports WiFi calling and enable it.

I use Vonage for a VOIP line at home. It is more expensive, but I have had good service from them for many years, a lot of them using it when traveling to make calls home.

 

[DaleB]

You can use the cell phone even if you have a poor signal at your house. Just get a phone and service the supports WiFi calling and enable it.

Problem is that when you lose Internet, Wi-Fi, or power you’re still without a phone. That’s our situation; if there’s no working Wi-Fi and internet in the house you’ll need to go stand in the driveway to make a call.

We’ve been using Ooma for several years. Their anti-robocall and anti-scam screening works really well. I still don’t answer if it’s not a number I recognize or a call I’m expecting, though. Damn political calls are still allowed by law, imagine that.

 

[FORANE]

I've had ooma both tiers of their service. They were good at porting my number into ooma. The service for voice was reliable but fax very unreliable.

I currently use (and really like) google voice with the now discontinued voip device OBI202.
it's completely free phone service. Google voice will transcribe voicemail to text and email the message to me. Very reliable including fax. Problem is I read that support for this device may discontinue this year or next year. Google voice is now offering commercial voip and looks to be migrating away from the free service.

 

[Lindberg]

I've had OOMA for years, originally because we wanted to keep our number and have actual phones throughout the house. Now the only actual phone is in the closet next to the OOMA box. It's probably time for us to get rid of it and port the number to Google or something that doesn't require hardware.

If you want a physical device though, OOMA works well. And as someone else said, the following options are nice.

 

[Lycosaurus]

This is the system I have been using for the last few 7 years or so:

Cisco SPA 112 (or 122) as the ATA
Service provided by voip.ms

I can usually get the SPA 122 or 112 for around $20 bucks used, or new is about twice that.
The voip service costs about 1 c per minute (outgoing) and 0.5 c minute (incoming) for Canada/USA. Monthly phone number fee is $1. I have 3 lines, two for my wife (business phone line, 1 fax line), along with 1 home line.

I have a solid internet (fiber, low latency) and sound quality is great. You have amazing flexibility with the voip service; you just need to take a look at their site (voip.ms)

Internet is down, no problem. I routed incoming calls to my cell phone if my ATA cannot be reached.

I can call Europe for cheap. I can even use my cellphone to call the ATA and make outgoing long distance calls such as Europe / Australia for cheap.

Downside?... you need to be a little tech savvy to setup the system... or have some good smart friends and a few beers.

I have no affiliation with the service other than just being a happy client.