Long Distance Phone Service
I’ve been stuck with a very old long distance service plan through AT&T for a few years now, and never bothered to change it. It was from back in 2001-ish when I had been speaking with someone long distance quite a bit, and we wanted to save on long distance. If we were both AT&T customers, it would be unlimited calls for one flat fee a month. Any other calls were a certain amount per minute.
Once I stopped talking to this person, the prices got to be more than the $20/month, because obviously not everyone I talked to is an AT&T customer.
Part of my current financial plan is to make sure I’m getting the service I need at the cheapest price. I do talk to some of my online friends on occasion, and when I talk, I can talk a -lot-. My father also talks to his relatives in Pennsylvania a lot, so that can rack up some charges.
I also don’t want to switch to a VoIP just yet, since our cable company, Adelphia, was just bought out by Comcast, and I want to see what their internet service is like for a few months first, in case I have to switch it. (so far it’s been up and down as far as quality, but enough that I’m still considering Comcast VoIP or Vonage).
Anyway, in the mean time, the plans are as follows:
AT&T offers Unlimited Long Distance calling to anyone in the U.S., 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for $29.95/month.
Verizon offers unlimited local/regional/long distance calling for between $34/99 and $39.99 a month, and this is who we use for local service right now.
Actually speaking of Verizon, we get a monthly charge on our bill for something called Foreign Exchange (FX) Channel, Contiguous Flat Rate - Local that’s an extra $14 per month that I have no clue wtf it is. Actually a lot of these charges seem fairly bogus. Verizon Guardian Enhanced Maintenance Service, Federal Subscriber Line Charge. I’m going to have to make some calls to figure out what this stuff is, but if anyone has any knowledge on the subject, by all means.
MCI offers unlimited local and long distance for $49.99/month (wtf MCI, get with the program people).
Bellsouth does not service my area.
And lastly, Sprint, which I couldn’t find an unlimited long distance plan anywhere on their site. Though they do offer their classic 5 cents/minute, (then again, so does everyone else).
So right now, until I’m ready for a VoIP service, it looks like I might stick with AT&T for long distance, and give Verizon a call about some bogus “Optional Services.”
I know some people don’t have land line at all and just use cellular service. My cellular service is average, and is pre-paid, so that option doesn’t really work with me right now unles I change companies entirely. And right now I’m pretty happy with Virgin Mobile. That and I don’t really use it at all except to talk to my sweetheart on the way to work or if my dad is on the phone.
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2 Responses to “Long Distance Phone Service”
February 8th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Iuse verizon because I have to and I hate it. My phone bill is over $80/month.
Vonage is awesome, and when we get off of dialup, we are so going back. Plus, you can keep your current phone number. I don’t know about other companies like them, but they were good to us.
Oh, and you’ve been tagged!
May 29th, 2007 at 10:02 am
[…] made a post about my thoughts concerning the price of Long Distance Phone Service and how I’m trying to reduce my monthly expenditures. I switched to a cheaper unlimited long […]