Options for Home Phone Service

Options for Home Phone Service

Consumers have many more options for home phone service than ever before, and the options can be confusing. The good news is that you don't have to be limited to old-school home phone service any more. And what's even better is that you have plenty of opportunities to save money as well.

Traditional Home Phone Service

Traditional home phone service, which is still purchased by the majority of consumers, consists of a land line into the home, and a dial tone. Services like long distance, voicemail, and caller ID all cost extra. This mainstream service may sound inexpensive at first, but by the time all those little extras have been added together, your monthly bill can come as a shock. But despite the fact that traditional service is more expensive than more modern alternatives, people are naturally resistant to change - although today, there are very few reasons for holding onto the same phone service you've always had in the past. Switching is remarkably easy, and you can keep the same phone number you've always had.

Home Phone Service Alternatives

Increasingly, consumers are embracing alternatives which deliver more services at lower cost. A common option is to switch to using only a cellular phone, and abandon the land line completely. For some, this may be cost-effective, but the advantages of having both a land line and a cellular line should not be dismissed too quickly. Even if you use your cellular as your primary phone, the incremental cost of having an additional land-line, even as a back-up, is very small.

Assuming then, that retaining home phone service is a desirable goal, one must then look at the provider. "The phone company" is no longer just the phone company, and there are several different ones competing to provide you with home phone service. Cable providers for example, have been offering attractive "triple play" promotions, delivering cable television, home phone service, and high-speed Internet all in the same package, and these usually offer some cost advantage over purchasing each service separately.

However, despite the advertising claims, one must not assume that a package deal is always cheapest, and there are some circumstances where buying each service separately may be advantageous. Because high-quality home phone service is no longer limited to moving over the phone company's copper wires, there are many options, and many different companies that are offering innovative home phone service solutions that may meet your needs much better than would the bundled service. Anybody with a broadband Internet connection, regardless of where that Internet connection originates, can purchase home phone service from any one of dozens of high quality Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers. Even if you don't have a computer at home, there are still very affordable VoIP options that can suit your situation. Call quality is the same as the traditional circuit-switched telephony you get from one of the Baby Bell companies, it's less expensive, and you get more services.

Before going with the default option, look at all the possibilities. Compare prices and services available, how much each additional service costs, and understand all of the many options you have for receiving home phone service.