internet phones

[Mike Schwartz (PC Support)]

> From: Enrique Arredondo
> 
> All of my neighbours are getting rid of their local base phones and
> switching to vonage.com and paying just $14 a month for 500 minutes[snip]

   I have played with Internet Phone systems, and I just can't get the
clarity and stability of a POTS phone out of any of them.

  Also, I just don't do enough long-distance calling to make it worth the
$14 or more a month.  My family has 4 cell phones with 400 minutes of
on-peak national long-distance and unlimited off-peak long-distance, and we
pay less than $100.00 a month.  Heck, we've never even come close to the 400
minute mark.  The convenience of the cell phone beats Vonage and all the
rest of the Internet carriers.

   I still keep 3 land-lines operational, but I could just as well cancel
them, although I would probably still keep my fax line.  I looked into
Internet fax services, but they were almost as expensive as keeping the POTS
line running.

   POTS = Plain Old Telephone System

Mike Schwartz