Moving from Home Phone to Cell Phone

Phone service has changed over the last few years, with some people choosing just to use their cell phones.

Plenty of other people still have their landlines, but even those are constantly changing.

While I'd say using a phone is as popular as it ever was, a lot has changed. About 17 percent of people in the U.S. don't have plain old telephone service in their homes, they use cell phones exclusively. For those of us with regular service, there really isn't much regular about it.

You can still call 'ol "Ma Bell" and choose from various service packages. Some of you have switched to cable phone service that from your use perspective is the same as the service from the phone company.
There are services such as Skype that allow you to use your computer, a headset and an Internet connection to make calls throughout the world for a low per minute charge or monthly fee. But did you know there are other types of Internet based phone service?

One type you may have heard of is Vonage. You purchase a Vonage adapter connect it to the Internet, plug a phone into it and for about $25 a month you get unlimited domestic calls along with features like call waiting, caller-id, voicemail and call forwarding. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection.

Another Internet phone service is from T-Mobile. It operates basically the same as Vonage with most of the same features and goes for around $10 a month. The catch here is you have to have T-Mobile cell phone service to get the home service.

While most Internet services use an adapter for phone service, they generally only provide one outlet to connect a phone. Using a multi-handset cordless phone eliminates the one phone restriction. Or if you're handy you can do what I did and connect the adapter into your home's phone wiring so all the old phones still work.

There are other phone services; even AT&T is offering Internet based phone service. Depending on your needs you could save a lot of money by educating yourself and shopping around.