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Magic Jack phone jack

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
After hearing all sorts of good things from some friends, I spent $40 for a Magic Jack phone jack since I needed another line. I'm going to have to give it a mixed review. I hope maybe someone else has one and can add more.

First off, installation is simple. Plug it in and follow the prompts. Well, that is until the prompts stump you. For example, according to Magic Jack, the 812 area code doesn't exist. Unfortunately, that represents a full 1/3 of the state of Indiana. After spending a full hour of wasted time on 'chat' with a live tech (who clearly didn't speak English as his first language), I had to just disconnect from him. His best suggestion was for me to choose an area code from a place like Montana "or something like that" because they had a lot of numbers available. Unfortunately, I don't live in Montana. And, as opposed to his adamant statements, people still do place your location based on your area code.

His best 'other' solution was that they were "working" on getting some numbers in the 812 area code. :glare: I'm sorry, but all I could think of was "dipshit!". After doing a bit more research, I found that there are dozens of area codes that are not available with Magic Jack. I suppose if you want to act like you are from somewhere else, that's great. If you have local relatives who want to call you on that line, they better have a nationwide cell plan or be prepared to pay long distance charges to call you even if you are next door. You get free local and long distance with your Magic Jack phone line, so they don't see it as a problem. Again, I see a failure to think this thing through on their part. Basically, it seems rushed to market to recoup some R&D and then, after some money comes in, they hopefully will address the problems.

On the positive side, I played around with it enough to get a Kentucky based phone number to use in my office (that's really gonna confuse people) and it seems to work rather well at both making and receiving calls. I've not had an opportunity to make any long calls yet. I'm wondering how they will be. I've read where they are frequently dropped. I hope not and, as I said, I've not experienced that yet. With the option to get 5 years of unlimited local and long distance phone service for $69 bucks or so, I'm tempted to use it for my fax line and possibly get another for my office line to avoid long distance expenses. I just need to have a local area code, which they say they are working on. I have my doubts. Hopefully I'm wrong.

I did call my local Sears, Lowes, Target and Wal-Mart stores and none of them were aware that our area code was not available and seemed terrified at the prospect of long lines of irate people since they just started selling the devices. Each place said that, once they verified that fact, they were going to have a large disclosure sign made to place over the display of the devices. They all said they'd rather lose sales than have the huge headache of people all pissed off returning them. Anyone else have any experience?
 

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
My BIL has one and he had to get a number from another area code as well. They are worse than Vonage for that. The call quality is worse than Vonage as well. I blame that on his shiity verizon DSL that only gives him .75mbps. I know when he calls me I tell him to hang up and I call him back so I can hear him. I had Vonage for 2 years, When the local phone co. offered a DSL and unlimited long distance for $70 a month I got on it.
 

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq

Master of Distraction
Staff member
SUPER Site Supporter
I've been really happy with Google Voice. I get free long distance in Canada and the US, free voicemail (delivered to my email), and the best is that it rings both my cell and my office at the same time.

I can email invites if anyone is interested (and you've been here for a while).

PB
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
Does 911 work?
I heard it didn't.

Yup, that works. With cable internet, the calls aren't bad at all, it's just their service is poor and they never told me that I'd have to have an area code somewhere other than where I live.
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I've heard good things about magic jack but the area code issue never came up. I had Vonage for a year and now have Voipo. Vonage and Voipo line quality is exactly the same. Vonage cost 33 dollars a month. Voipo cost 133 per year. Both have free local and long distance calls, and free calls to 6 or so other countries. I did have to change my phone number but was able to at least use my same area code. Changing area code would be confusing to my friends let alone customers if it's a business number.
I'm in a remote area so my local phone bill used to run 70 per month. With Vonage I was paying 33 per month. Now with Voipo the same service costs me 11 per month (paid annually). Plus you get all the extras like caller id, call forwarding, voice mail etc. Another plus is that you can have a 2nd phone plugged into the Voipo device so that you could be on the phone and someone else could use the phone plugged into jack number two. I have never had need for this but as a business that might be handy.

With magic jack I think you have to have a PC up and running for it to work. Not the case with Voipo or Vonage.
check out voipo at www.voipo.com
A network guy I work with turned me on to them last Sept and I'm darn happy he did. He had investigated all the VOIP companies and choose them as one of the better ones for low cost. It's worked for me.
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
As I understand it 911 will not work unless you contact your local 911 folks and tell them your internet number and location. It works it's just not automatic.
 
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