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Grex > Agora56 > #63: the near future of networked homes? | |
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| 25 new of 290 responses total. |
keesan
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response 133 of 290:
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Feb 1 21:12 UTC 2006 |
How many minutes do you get for $5 and where do you get the phone?
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tod
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response 134 of 290:
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Feb 1 21:18 UTC 2006 |
I think its 25 minutes for $5 and you can get the phone at any 7-11.
It has all the bells and whistles of a typical cell phone and you can
receive/send IM or voicemail, etc...check your balance anytime, etc
Mine also has a built-in flashlight. It is way more than adequate for my
minimal cell use.
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keesan
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response 135 of 290:
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Feb 2 02:52 UTC 2006 |
Do you also pay for the physical phone before paying for minutes?
This sounds ideal. Someone could phone for 1 minute and ask for the husband
to get off the computer so his wife could use the phone.
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mary
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response 136 of 290:
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Feb 2 02:58 UTC 2006 |
Sindi, do you need the portablity of a cell phone or are you just
looking for really inexpensive long distance or what? Maybe VoIP
service would do some of what you want and it's free if both parties
connect over computers and dead cheap if one computer calls a
land line. Check out Skype. We used it to call our son in Scotland
without charge. It's how Bruce Howard sometimes connects for long
Grex board meetings.
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keesan
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response 137 of 290:
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Feb 2 03:05 UTC 2006 |
They are looking for a way to get phone calls when the husband is online.
Their kids and grandkids give them lots of free long distance minutes in the
form of phone cards. SOmeone told them to get a DSL line to free up the
phone. He does not need broadband, just a way for his wife to get phone calls
when he is online for maybe an hour a day, early morning and late afternoon.
In West Virginia you can pay $5 a month for a phone line that you can only
receive calls on, not make calls from.
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mary
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response 138 of 290:
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Feb 2 03:06 UTC 2006 |
Gotcha. Nevermind. ;-)
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keesan
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response 139 of 290:
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Feb 2 03:09 UTC 2006 |
If their friends had computers, they could email instead.
That is how people get hold of us.
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tod
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response 140 of 290:
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Feb 2 05:33 UTC 2006 |
re #135
I think its normally $69 which includes the phone, charger, ear piece, and
10 or 20 minutes of phone time included. When I got mine, it also included
a $30 rebate. The phone that came with mine is a Nokia 1100.
I like the fact that I was able to pay cash and stay out of a contract let
alone remain anonymous.
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keesan
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response 141 of 290:
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Feb 2 15:35 UTC 2006 |
Thanks. Can you use your own cell phone and put minutes on it, if you happen
to get a used one somewhere? Kiwanis has a boxful, cheap.
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glenda
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response 142 of 290:
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Feb 2 16:40 UTC 2006 |
Does she get so many phone calls that she really can't do without the phone
for an hour a day while he uses the computer?
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cross
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response 143 of 290:
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Feb 2 16:48 UTC 2006 |
This response has been erased.
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keesan
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response 144 of 290:
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Feb 2 17:13 UTC 2006 |
What would be the total cost of cable modem and Vonage? Right now they pay
$25/month for the phone, probably nothing for long distance since they are
given phone cards as presents, and $6/month for internet. I thought Vonage
was something like $15/month and required being in the room with the computer
to talk on the phone.
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tod
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response 145 of 290:
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Feb 2 19:09 UTC 2006 |
re #141
I think Verizon and a few other carriers have rechargable plans. Phone models
vary by carrier.
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gull
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response 146 of 290:
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Feb 2 20:13 UTC 2006 |
Re resp:144: I think Vonage offers a little widget that plugs into your
network and has an ordinary phone jack on it, so you can use whatever
regular phones you own. I'm not sure, though. I'm required to have a
cell phone for work, so I just use it for everything.
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tod
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response 147 of 290:
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Feb 2 20:25 UTC 2006 |
I used Vonage and basically they send you a modem. The LAN connector goes
in and then there's an output for phone jack and output for fax machine jack.
Vonage wouldn't work sometimes if there was heavy traffic in my neighborhood
and with moderate to high traffic the phone audio sounded like talking into
a long tube.
You had to program your 911 through their webinterface. The webinterface was
nice though because it gave you extensive auditing of all your
inbound/outbound calling. Plus, the modem is portable to anywhere in the
world that has a decent pipe.
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marcvh
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response 148 of 290:
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Feb 2 20:36 UTC 2006 |
Yeah, they do. My impression is that Vonage (and other VoIP services)
still haven't yet reached the point where they're seamless, and you
still end up with niggling annoyances like what shows up on caller ID
when you call somebody else using it. But we may be heading toward a
world where the only people with POTS are poor people who get their
rates subsidized (although if everybody else opts out of the system
there won't be anybody left to do the subsidizing.)
On the other hand, many people are willing to make those trade-offs.
Using a cordless phone reduces quality and reliability in exchange for
convenience, but tons of people have used them for decades today, often
using them exclusively (which means they have no phone that will work
in a power failure.) A fair number of people are also willing to put
up with the reduced reliability and quality of VoIP or other digital
services. Comcast now offers digital phone service in my area, but I'm
not sure I want it because one of the main uses for my landline is to
wait on hold for a Comcast service representative during outages. :-)
Heck, why have a coax OR twisted pair going into your house? In
principle all of that stuff can come over the same wiring you use to get
your electric power. Once we master the art of matter replication that
same wire can also handle water, natural gas, sewage and garbage.
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nharmon
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response 149 of 290:
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Feb 2 20:50 UTC 2006 |
Is it true that if you have your POTS line disconnected that 911 service
is always still available on it?
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jep
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response 150 of 290:
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Feb 2 21:01 UTC 2006 |
It was true for me. A year after I disconnected my land line, I could
still call 911 or the phone company using that line.
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nharmon
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response 151 of 290:
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Feb 2 21:05 UTC 2006 |
Well, then there you go. There are cheaper VoIP providers out there if
you provide your own equipment. Load up an asterisk system and plug your
disconnected POTS line into an FXO card. Program the PBX to route 911 to
the POTS line and everything else through VoIP.
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gull
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response 152 of 290:
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Feb 2 21:07 UTC 2006 |
Incidentally, faxing is pretty unreliable over VoIP, even on services
that claim to support it. The digital compression messes with the
signal too much. Modems have the same issue.
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keesan
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response 153 of 290:
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Feb 3 16:36 UTC 2006 |
If you buy rechargeable phones from other companies, is there a monthly fee
or minimum?
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rcurl
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response 154 of 290:
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Feb 3 17:22 UTC 2006 |
POTS is useful for more than 911 when power goes out. You may want to contact
the power or gas company, or city utilities, and friends or relatives for
assistance, etc.
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tod
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response 155 of 290:
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Feb 3 17:37 UTC 2006 |
re #153
My understanding is that there is an expiration date due to inactivity.
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mcnally
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response 156 of 290:
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Feb 3 17:57 UTC 2006 |
re #153: Many pre-paid rechargeable cellular plans are structured
to cheat you out of your minutes by expiring them aggressively if you
don't use the service. They want you to pay them lots of money, not
use the phone once every month for two minutes..
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keesan
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response 157 of 290:
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Feb 3 18:15 UTC 2006 |
I am trying to look up 'rechargeable minutes' and 'cell phones' and I just
learned that some school has banned cell phones for kids (they need to go
through a metal detector and a body search every day) because they might use
them for bomb threats or drug dealing. And that most children now carry them
everywhere. The school is in D. C. and the hired security staff is no longer
authorized to confiscate the phones, meaning they have to have an (assistant)
principal at the front door. 30% of the children have cell phones and use
them to call their parents for taxi service. (I would that thought they would
live close enough to walk in such a big city, or have bus service).
I found www.wirelessguide.org/plan/prepaid.htm (prepaid, not rechargeable).
The minutes expire in 30 to 90 days. You can sometimes automatically recharge
via credit card, or pay by phone or online. Tracfone has cards valid up to
1 year. Verizon has 10 cents/minutes. Liberty Wireless lets you use then
pay. Verizon also costs $1/day on top of the per-minute charge, but you can
call free at night. Liberty seems to be $30/month including 300 minutes.
Virgin Mobile (associated somehow with Amazon.com) has no monthly charge, but
you need to pay at least $20 every 90 days, and use it at least once every
60 days or it expires. Long-distance is no extra charge. They let you
automatically charge to your credit card via the phone. 25 cents/minute first
ten minutes of any day, then 10 cents/minut. text messages received free,
sent for 10 cents each. Reviews indicate that coverage is spotty. 7-11 seems
to be cheapest for low usage - how is reception around Michigan?
ZD Net reviewd 7-11 Speak-Out prepaid phone service. No contract. $50 after
rebate for the Nokia phone. Cards must be used within 45 days and cost at
least $25. This comes to about $15/month. Virgin Mobile is half that.
Someone's blog mentions that they use their cell phone as a PDA, for email,
and to send watch and listen to music and movies. Now they want 1GB storage
and a USB port so they can read mpeg4 videos from a flashdrive. How big are
these LCDs.
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