Magic Jack And Other Telecommunication Related Devices

There are so many gadgets that we find ourself entertained by these days, from Kindles, IPAD's, to Smartphones, that we often get confused as to which may be best ones for us. Or we may be thinking - Is this new and cool gadget really necessary that we have our sights set on, especially in todays tight economy. Well we all may have had to think about this at twice, and made the decision, before we reached for our wallets to pull out a couple of Benjamins. As far as I know money doesn't grow on trees and its not likely to any time soon. Sure those IPAD's, Smartphones and the like, are great for keeping that kid in us adults stimulated. And just importantly, in keeping those who have young children entertained as well.

But have you ever really considered cutting back on your monthly phone bill, by utilizing one or more of the popular telecommunication gadgets available on the market today. A monthly phone bill for most of us who use providers like Verizon, Time-Warner, Comcast and a host of other cable and phone providers may be paying more than necessary. And I'm sure many of us are aware of this, but have we really gone ahead and done anything about it so far? If you do not want to keep paying anywhere from at least $45.00 upward of $80.00 for your monthly service and are somewhat frugal, but not a scrooge, than read on further.

Let's start with vongage...Woo-Hoo, Woo-Hoo, Woo-Hoo. Most of us may have heard this phone providers catchy, but often annoying marketing tune either over the radio, or on a television commercial. A couple of years ago, I used the vonage service for a separate business line. I did have fairly good phone service, that provided both local and international calling features and for about five dollars extra per month, fax service in addition. A $19.95 per month phone bill at first sounds great, however what most people don't realize is that the $19.95 per month, eventually turns into $30.00 to $35.00 per month. This is especially true if you have a separate fax line used in conjunction with your vonage land line. So you have to ask yourself the following question...Is this really a bargain, or should I just stay with my old Verizon service at this point in time? The choice of course is up to you and you will have to make that final decision. There are a lot of people who have vonage and our very happy with their service so far and the quality of sound is excellent as well.

Next let's look at what I thought to be one of the more cooler devices, within the telecommunication gadgetry department. Magic Jack as it is popularly named is one of those cool looking gadgets, that many of you just can't wait to hold in the palm of your hand. You may have seen it numerous times on television commercials as well. Magic Jack you say - "Wait a minute, I know that guy, didn't I attend junior high school with someone by that name, you may be asking yourself at this moment?" No, unfortunatley that wasn't the same individual, but you can bet that the inventor of this neat little gadget that works through your ethernet or by way of the usb on your PC; is raking in more than his share of monthly phone bill funds since its creation.

Magic Jack in my opionion will certainly save you money and provide you with a second, and yes even a solo land line if that's what you're looking for. At a modest price of approximately $39.95 per year you definitely cannot go wrong by purchasing this communication wizardry. When you first purchase magic jack it will cost you approximately $85.00 and some loose change. That is because you are paying for a combination of the device itself and the first year of phone service. Afterwards your yearly, not monthly phone service will be a one time fee of $39.95. So taking this all into consideration, this does seem like a real bargain does it not? Certainly you cannot go wrong with the purchase of magic jack, however if you are in need of a separate line to the house for faxing, this service does not have features to support a fax machine.

So it may behoove you to keep your original service provider for a solo land line, and use it as a fax line as well. This is another option that will save you about seven to ten dollars per month. The voice quality of magic jack is not bad at all. I for one have used magic jack as a separate line connecting to a conference call. In addition I have spoken to a few friends who used magic jack to listen in on a company conference call and to speak with family members abroad.

The feedback, that I received from them was; that on occasion you could hear the speaker of the call, sound like he or she was a bit broken up. In other words if someone said for instance..."And on todays conference call we shall discuss the topic of"...Well more than one time, the word (And), used as an illustration here would seem to echo. Echo in the sense that it sounded like you were in a large room with no furniture. All you would hear during numerous times of the call, was And And And And And. In other words whether you were listening in on a conference call, or speaking to a friend etc... there would be a very annoying echoing, that continually interuppted even flow of words over this device. Almost as if the speaker on the other end was stuttering terribly.

Magic Jack is now new and improved and with the older magic jack comes the enhanced new, magic jack plus. With the magic jack plus, you have two options. First you can continue to use the device plugged into your pc, with your telephone line plugged into the other end. And in addition and the part that I like the most, is take the device, which now comes with a usb adapter that plugs into a 120 volt outlet and plug magic jack into the wall, all without using your computer as a hub, or docking device. All you do is take the ethernet cable running from your internet modem. Plug one end into the magic jack and usb adapter attached to it, and than run the phone line from your telephone into the line extension adapter, which is right next to the ethernet opening. And voila...you're ready to start talking to whomever you please. Long distance and local phone calls are included, all for just $39.95 per year.

Recently I discovered a new love in the way of telecommunication devices. You could say that it discovered me, when I was surfing the internet. VoipO or as it is simply called- (Voice Over Internet Provider Ops), is a compact little silver box, that displays three little green lights, blinking in unison with each another; when hooked up properly to an existing DSL or Cable modem. One thing I can tell you is that for $15.00 per month you cannot go wrong, especially with the local and long distance calling quality that this little box provides via its provider. Like magic jack it provides you with your own number, however with magic jack you have a choice of two to three different area code exchanges to choose from. But this may tend to get confusing after awhile, even for the most complicated of us humans.

VoipO does provide fax service capabilities if you are in need of them. But I have found that if you go online and simply purchase a trendnet modem from Amazon, than that is all you really need in way of a fax. A document to be faxed can be scanned into your computer via your printer and a received fax in return can be printed. However the only catch here is that you have to use the trendnet modem with a live phone line.

So it is always a good idea to keep that old verizon landline, to hook to your trendnet, or similar modem device when you want to fax documents. Another good point to bring up at this time, is that if you do loose your electric during a storm, you will still have electric running to a verizon live landline for example. But some may just simply use their cell phones to make that call. In addition some folks still do use a cell phone as their primary landline, rather than going with a cable or DSL service provider for their main house phone.

There are many options that you have at your fingertips, as you may have already realized, if you have read on to this point in the article. So far I have been using VoipO as a second line and have made several calls with this service provider. None of those calls fortunately so far were made to the bullpen, for a relief phone provider. Yes and without a doubt I am fairly happy with the quality of sound that VoipO provides for me. There is no static, no echoing on the line when speaking to another individual, just a clear, concise conversation between two individuals over a phone line, just like it was meant to be. To add I can use this service as a separate phone line to my home with an answering machine attached if I'd like to. And also just plain use it as my own private line. This may be an added bonus for those of you who may still have teenagers at home. Look at it this way-basically there will be no arguing over who is going to use the phone next. And probably the best feature of all, is that the price is right.

In summary I have added an appropriate little music video; to help my readers keep in mind, all of the different telecommunication choices that they do have to choose from. And when at last you have made that final decision as to the provider you want for your home based land line. Hopefully your connection won't be lost over the telephone line. Happy listening!