No Landline and Skype

Hey Rex, have some questions about Skype. I don’t want to let my home phone number go, but, I’m tired of paying att too much just for local calls.

I know you use Skype and have been using it. I know you like it, too. Is it worth getting rid of the land line?

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My Reply
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My answer: get rid of your landline and go with “dry loop” DSL for internet or cable internet.

“Dry Loop” means you have no dial tone. The  phone companies don’t want to advertise that since they want to sell you dial tone, but it is
available is you press the issue.

http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=11523

The only downside I see from no landline is e911 service, but I have my cell phone. Personally, I would rather have my cell in an emergency since I always have it on me. True, the e911 can’t locate me precisely from just dialing it, but they can get close enough for my comfort.

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Skype
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As far as Skype, it works out great for me. I have a local Skype telephone number (318) 219-xxxx that rings me on any computer that I am signed into Skype with (doesn’t have to be my computer).That costs me $30/year.

I have voicemail, call forwarding, 25-person conference calling, etc, and can call the US and Canada for about $30/year.

So for about $60/year I can call basically anywhere. I can also have Skype forward to my cell and vice versa.

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Call Quality
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With a default network setup, Skype calls will sound pretty darn good. The only time you might get into “trouble” is if someone else is saturating your network (video/music uploading, etc). To eliminate this on my network, I use a Linksys WRT54GL router which I’ve flashed with DD-WRT firmware so that I can optimize VOIP traffic on my network. In other words, if I’m talking on Skype my router prioritizes that traffic auto-magically.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_%22DD-WRT%22%3F#Features

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Pamela
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http://www.pamela.biz/

I also use Pamela for customized voice-mail and call recording when needed. It’s cool software and not very expensive.

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Faxing
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I don’t fax much, but I do subscribe to an online fax service for my business. All of my faxes are received as PDF attachments via email. To send out, I just attach a file to an email, send it to a special address, and it faxes out.