Today many people are giving up on home phones and going straight with a cellphone provider as their primary phone. This is great for some people especially if you are single but if you need a phone where the family can be reached or if you want to have a plan for your home so you can save money on your cellphone costs then there are a variety of options out there. If you want to stay with your cellphone alone there are also a number of ways to save money and even get free service.
Although we will be mentioning a number of companies in this How To we are not writing an endorsement for any of them. It is up to you to do your research and find out which company provides what you need. Everyone is different and even every location is different when you are talking about wireless or wifi plans.
How To Find A Low Cost Home Phone Provider
Having a home phone doesn’t always mean that you are going to subscribe to your local phone company that installs wired services in your house. Today there are a number of ways to get home phone solutions without going the traditional way.
On the other hand if your broadband provider or TV provider is also offering phone service you should take a look at their plans and see if they are what you need. If you bundle your services you normally get discounts that are special to your plan.
Most Cable providers and Verizon that offers FIOS and Television will also offer home phone service. You have to realize that this product may not be the same as old copper lines. If you need to send a fax or make a dialup connection VOIP services normally will not work with a modem or fax so you need to ask before you buy.
Your next choice other than working with your broadband provider is using your own equipment to sign up for VOIP services. There are companies that offer a full package such as Vonage however remember with these package deals also comes a premium price. Another way to get VOIP services is to buy your own device and sign up for Google Voice. There are a couple devices out there that you can purchase for under $50 and you will get a real phone number that people can call and your home phone will work just as it normally did.
The final option for home phone service is using a Connect2Cell phone that a few manufacturers make. VTech is one and they make a device that connects to your cellphone over bluetooth automatically after you set it up. This will allow you to use regular wireless handsets over your cellphone account. This device will use your normal Cellphone Number for service and its basically just an extension of your phone. The benefit is that you are not tied down to another monthly bill. The benefit is everyone in the home can pickup a normal handset to make or answer calls. Some people use these devices as a way to get around poor Cell Coverage in their home or apartment. People will put the base station near a window or outside wall of their house that gets the best reception and then they can put a handset in a bedroom or basement where Cell coverage is poor but the base set will still work.
How To Find A Good Discount Cellphone Service
If you are looking for a cheaper cellphone provider then join the crowd. Almost everyone I have ever talked with has said their monthly bill is way too much for them or that it provides things they will never use which they feel they are getting overcharged for.
It might be interesting to know that most people over 35 do not txt message each other very often. They might do it if they are required to but for the most part people over 35 want to talk with a human that will help them with their problem or with friends that they need to contact. There are exceptions though and instead of texting you will see these people on Social Networks using their account to send and receive messages.
Another thing is companies that are offering unlimited low resolution television or movie watching. For the most part adults do like to use their television for viewing this content and even if they aren’t subscribed to Cable for TV they will use a Roku or Android TV Box to watch content from a variety of providers.
So there are reasons that people like different types of voice, txt and data plans on their phones and there are a variety of providers out there that are happy to give you what you want.
Personally working in construction you can’t overlook the usefulness of a Flip Phone with actual buttons. If you are ever in an accident on the jobsite how are you going to manage to dial your phone if you can’t see the screen .. with a flip phone you can feel the buttons and call 911 quickly for help. I would keep that in mind and you might want that option for safety reasons.
If you are looking for the best plan then you should look for a MVNO provider.
Here is a list of providers at Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_operators
The list does change and some of these places do go out of business because most people don’t know about them and they have low budgets to attract a subscriber base to stay in business but I am sure you will recognize some of the names. Check the list and their options and then look for reviews of the company online. Reviews can change quickly from everyone loving the service to everyone hating it so you have to do this when you are ready to look for coverage and then if you can look back a few months or years to find out how they did in the past.
What is the Best Free Phone Plan?
In addition to low cost or special options that can lower your phone plan there are companies that offer free Cell Service both over Cellular Networks and over WiFi.
WiFi calling might actually be a part of your current plan so check that out before you start searching. If your cellphone provider offers WiFi calling then you can make free calls that don’t count against your minutes.
Other options include providers like FreedomPop which offer free cellphone service of a few hundered minutes txt and 500mb of data for free every month. They do this because their service is using the Data Network and not Real Voice. To upgrade to Real Voice will cost you a few dollars per month and you can get unlimited voice and text for not much more over real Voice Networks.
You also have the option of using a VOIP service over your Cellphone. This is good for people that normally have access to WiFi during the day. The drawback is that people calling your cell number won’t get you at your VOIP number. The way to fix that is to get a Google Voice free cellphone number and use Google Hangouts App for your VOIP over WiFI and then set the service up to call your Cell Phone or other phones when you don’t answer your Google Voice number right away. It basically just forwards your calls.
Other options are out there for VOIP services and you should check them out. Freedompop also has a free app for VOIP WiFi Calling and you can get a real number and many other companies do too.
Then you have the Video Chat services. This is an option for some people but I wouldn’t want to get into it on your cellular data. If you use Video Chat then do it on your WiFi.
Final Note
One thing to note is VOIP services such as Hangouts don’t use a lot of data so if you have a minimal data plan you can get a minute of voice for about 1mb of data and text services over cell data are normally only use about 1mb of data for a hundred or more txts.
Which service you use is up to your personal needs.
Some companies offer discounts if you have a family plan and many phones. Others offer unlimited data for video streaming from a specific list of online streaming companies. If that is your thing then maybe its an option. I never have time for that when I am out. Eating lunch for me is eating and then getting right back to what I was doing so I can get things done and get home quicker.
The options are your’s to make just do some work and check out other providers and look for current reviews.
Remember none of the companies here are endorsements. Some of the I have never even tried but I know they are used by others. I can’t give you any feed back on quality of their services.. so do your work.