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Originally Posted by OwnedByJezebel  Ours is really confusing, it's all through the cable line but it's not bundled.
Digital Cable TV through Comcast.
High speed internet through Earthlink, but it's billed by Comcast. If we have technical problems, we call Comcast. We've had it for about 10 years, and the price hasn't gone up (suspect we are flying under the radar on price increases because we signed up with one party who did the pricing and are distanced from the company that provides the service).
Phone service is VOIP (through the cable line) and the provider is Phonepower. I used Vonage but they kept switching us to more expensive packages that were ridiculous bases on our low calling needs. I was also getting aggravated at the high number of scammer robo calls and wanted a service that allowed me to block calls.
I vaguely remember setting up the VOIP in our house about 8 years ago when switching from and AT&T landline to Vonage. I had to go out to the little box on the side of our house, open it up, and change something around. I can't recall what that was, but they provided the diagram and it was very simple. That somehow switched us from the incoming AT&T phone line over to being able to make phone calls through the computer. Took less than a minute. Then I connected the phone adapter to the computer and into one of the wall jacks, and that made all of the wall jacks VOIP.
If you want to go back to a landline, you (or the installation technician) are going to have to make that simple change to the box outside of your house and you will have to un-bundle your service. This could be a problem if you have a contract, even if you are staying in the AT&T family and keeping them for your landline. And AT&T landline service prices are ridiculous, IMO. Still, it may be worth it to you to bite the bullet, pay to break your contract, pay more for the un-bundled cable and internet, and pay their landline prices.
Another thing you can consider that is much simpler than the above, it's what we do with Phonepower but I don't know if AT&T has a similar service: We can log into our Phonepower account online and indicate our preferences, change settings, block numbers, etc. We can go into our preferences and give a "fail-safe" number, and in the event of a power outage (or anything that interrupts phone service, like a problem with my router or the phone adapter), any calls to our home phone will be automatically forwarded to that number, which is my cell. |
Thanks for this info....I am printing this so I can read it to the next person I get on a phone...maybe someone can come do this or help me do this....at least it is a solution....I just can not believe I am the only uninformed person on this forum, that is sitting there, thinking you have a working phone jack, (if the tv/computer/phone is bundled)and you do NOT!! That handy little bundle system goes out with a power shortage and you have nothing coming from those phone jack holes in your wall!!! All those "emergency princess phones" you have plugged into phone jacks in separate rooms that you are thinking have absolutely NOTHING to do with your computer or tv, they are all DEAD when you loose power!!!! I did find out I have an emergency modem thingie that provides emergency power if the electricity goes off, but it does not last forever, and I had no idea what that little box was back behind my tv, so of course, it is dead....if I had known I needed to be sure it was "powered up, charged, changed out, WHATEVER", periodically, that thing is like a battery pack and will keep phones up for awhile.....but I have to get the plug in outlets for phones in each room, activated so that phones plugged into those outlets, WORK, whether you have electricity or not!
The realization that I had no phone service if power went out, was as stunning/shocking/unbelievable to me, as if my
gas stove did not work in a
power failure! In my senior mind, all that is separate stuff......if your water goes off, that has nothing to do with your phones.....if your gas goes off, that has nothing to do with phone service or lights......if your power goes off, that has nothing to do with phones or your water!!!! I am beginning to believe the conspirator theories....."they" have us all hooked up to ONE source of energy, so all "they" have to do is flip ONE switch, and we are all left with NO SERVICE to ANYTHING!!!!!!