[RESOLVED] Magic Jack - is it worth it? Or should I get regular phone sevice

[question2012]

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum.

I did a search on Majic Jack but only see older postings. Wondered if buying it is worth it. I just moved into a house and services in this area are very limited. Only one or two providers for phone and it is expensive. My cell phone does not work so well up here and is very spotty on connections when I do get one. I heard a cell tower has been built about 2 miles from here but no one seems to know when it will go into service. My internet and cable tv provider has phone service available but I don't want to spend so much money. And with my luck I will have it installed and 2 months from now the cell tower will be activated.

So my question is can I reliably make and receive calls using Majic Jack. I have cable internet but speed is about 10Gb download and about 1-1.5Gb upload. Will that affect the quality of the call?

Thanks so much for your help.

[fink]

I've been using VOIP, which is the technology that Magicjack uses, for about 3 years now. Not magic jack itself though so I can't speak about that personally.. others here may... my brother uses it when he's away in Florida for a couple of months in the winter and has had no problems. I use a larger phone service provider for my VOIP and it works well for me although there are things to consider...

If your internet goes down or your power goes out then you don't have a phone which can be a serious issue in an emergency esp if you have any personal medical considerations.. you can't call 911. Also to consider... you can't call your ISP to check service if it goes down. I have a cell phone so that would not be a big problem.

You could buy a UPS.. an uninterruptible power supply.. which would provide short term power for the phone and accessories in the advent of a power outage.. prices would start around 50-60 dollars for one that would give you enough battery power for at least 10-15 minutes for the phone to work but that's quite variable depending on the UPS. And that assumes your cable line is still working even if your power goes off.

10M/1M is more than enough for VOIP.. I used it for a while on 6M/.8M and it was quite satisfactory so long as I wasn't doing lots of downloading/surfing at the time. My online connection has always been very reliable so I have had no issues with not being able to use my phone when I need to.

[question2012]

fink: Thanks for your input. Not being able to call 911 should not be too much of an issue. I have no health problems; well until now that I said that. Urgh! Anyway I can try calling 911 with the cell just have to keep; trying if I have no phone can't call 911 anyway. For them to hook up the phone and for service is expensive and I can't see spending that much money for something I may use for just a few months. Thanks for letting me know about the speed not being an issue.

[fink]

There are lots of sites to test a theoretical VOIP data stream..

https://www.google.ca/search?q=onlin...EIWN8Qflp4CgAg

Take the results with a grain of salt. I used some test sites when I was investigating VOIP and got middling results but as I said never actually had any problems.

[question2012]

OK, check in time.

First off: correction to my original post. Not Gb but Mb.

Second: Purchased Magic Jack Plus from my Rite Aid and a cordless phone. Using it without a computer, plugged into my wall receptacle and it working just great. No echo, nothing. This probably saved me about $500 this year using my local phone company. Let's hope it stays working this well.

I wanted to come back and post this for others that may do a search for this topic related issue.

Thank you "fink" for taking the time to respond.

I do not see how to mark this post "RESOLVED" does a moderator have to do this?

[fink]

You're welcome, glad it worked out.

Just click "thread tools > mark thread resolved" at the top of the posts. I will do it now, you can next time

[HAN]

I spoke with a family member that has owned the original MJ (and now runs OOMA.) The old MJ had some serious issues but it seems that the Plus version is much better. I read several recent comparisons of MJ Plus vs other VOIP solutions. MJ always tested well. So it would seem that you chose well indeed!