I did not like the fact that a normal landline phone is quite an expense every month, and I either had to pay by the minute for many calls, or I would have to pay a high flat rate every month for unlimited long distance calling. When AT&T started adding fraudulent third party charges to my bill, that was the last straw that motivated me to look elsewhere for phone service.

&
figured out that with high speed internet, I could save a lot of money by using my internet connection for phone service. Instead of paying a big bill to my local phone company, I now pay a lot less to a VOIP company. There are many choices available. I considered Magic Jack, but did not like the fact that I would have to leave a computer on all the time, and their service did not include all the features I wanted. One of Magic Jack's shortcomings was that they could not port my existing phone number. I also looked at Vonage, but their prices are too high.

] basic requirements in a VOIP company are:

• Can port my existing number (I do not want to change phone numbers)
  
• Call waiting
  
• Caller ID
  
• Unlimited calling to the U.S. at no extra charge
  
• Enhanced 911 (the 911 center knows my address if I call them)
  
• Reliable service (always available and people cannot tell the difference in quality from a land line)
  
• Voicemail
  
• Ability to block calls with private or blocked caller ID.

Phone Power was my choice, and I have been pretty happy with the phone service for over a year. I am not especially happy about their business practices though. Some of the things I do not like:

Phone Power's web page says that their regular price is a special that is expiring today, but in reality that has been their price for a long time.

Phone Power's monthly cost calculation for prepaid plans is not correct, but even so their prices are still competitive. The monthly cost they advertise for a prepaid year plus a second free year does not include cost of shipping their phone adapter, and does not include about a $40 charge they will levy at the end of the first year for "taxes and fees". Also they are not likely to honor referral credits -- at least they did not for me or the person who referred me even after I complained about it. So save yourself the grief, and do not expect to get any referral credits or rebates.

Some things I like about Phone Power

• Cloned line (optional): We connected two different phones to our Phone Power adapter, and we have two phone lines that share the same number.
  We have two cordless phone systems with several handsets on each line. My wife and I can both make or receive seperate phone calls at the same time. If both lines are idle, then both ring. If a line is in use, then the idle one rings, and the one that is in use receives a call waiting caller ID notification.

• Enhanced call forwarding: We can designate several phone numbers to ring all at the same time if we know that we will be away from our home phone. Or we can just let several phones ring all the time, and when we are at home we pick up the home phone.

• Reliability - downtime is almost non-existent.

• Failover option: VOIP phones do not work without internet service, or if the power goes out. The failsafe option allows us to designate a cell phone number that will receive calls if for some reason our VOIP phone quits working.

• Softphone: With a computer headset or microphone, we can use a laptop computer to make and receive calls when we are away from home.
  This would allow a college student to use Mom and Dad's phone service from college. Mom: I see our number on caller ID -- that must be Junior calling from school.

• Unlimited calling: Actually incoming calls are unlimited and there is a limit of 5000 outgoing minutes per month, but we never get close to the limit. Outgoing calls to other Phone Power customers are unlimited. Other VOIP companies also have usage limits that they hide deep in their terms of service under topics such as "abusive use of service."

• Pretty good voice quality both ways -- in some ways better than land line. Also only a slight delay is noticable.

• Voicemail - we can retrieve voicemail at home, from another phone, or listen to messages that are attached to Email.

• We also sometimes use other features that are explained on the Phone Power web page.

• After the first prepaid term, the price increases.

• The web page could use some improvement on readability and navigation. I have submitted several suggestions, but it seems that some of the changes made things worse rather than better.

• Voice quality could be a little better for the Phone Power IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system that handles voice mail and other menus. The IVR sounds slightly loud and distorted as well as regular callers who speak loudly.

• Phone Power could enhance their service by allowing scheduled "do not disturb" times when calls would forward to voice mail with the exception of a few priority numbers that I choose. I suppose I could just give everyone my Google Voice number and use that for voice mail and the "do not disturb" feature. Then anyone calling my Google Voice number would forward to my Phone Power number except during the "do not disturb" times.

If you have chosen a VOIP service and are ready to switch, here is my advice -- from the voice of experience :)

1. Skip this step if you have cable internet.

   If you have phone service and DSL from your local phone company such as AT&T, you call your phone company and tell them that you want DSL only (dryline DSL), and that you are porting your number to another company.
   

   You could just port your number, but then AT&T will assume that you also do not want DSL, and will turn everything off . Without DSL (or cable internet), VOIP will not work.

2. Order your VOIP service -- either by phone or online. Port your existing phone number to your new VOIP company. Tell them that you want the start date to be a least a week from now so that you receive the VOIP adapter before the service starts.

3. When your existing phone stops working, follow the instructions to connect your home phone to the VOIP adapter. Note: your VOIP adapter will probably work for making outgoing calls even before your number is ported.

• VOIP and cell phones have some delay. Using wireless internet may increase that delay. You can test your internet connection and delay here by clicking the "start test" box.

• Assuming you do not want to use a soft phone and leave your computer on all the time, you will have to have a wireless router that can connect your phone power adapter to your wireless internet in "client mode" or "bridge mode." Not all wireless routers can do this.

After the special 2 year price for new customers was over, our cost would have gone way up with Phone Power. I wound up paying $25 for almost an extra month of service with Phone Power because I did not cancel my account right away after my number ported. Also I had to pay shipping to return the Phone Power adapter, or else would have had to pay a $100 fee. Porting my number away from Phone Power was trouble-free and only took a little over a week. In May of 2011, I switched to Vitelity -- a cheaper alternative for us, but less like a traditional phone company.

Summary: Overall I was pleased with Phone Power. I really appreciated getting much more for less money compared to having an actual land line phone. I do not miss AT&T home phone service a bit. I have written a review of AT&T which details a few of the troubles I have had with them over the years.