You have probably by now seen the infomercial for the Magic Jack VOIP phone.  It claims that you can easily get a phone number and all you need is a internet connection anywhere in the U.S. and you are connected as easy as plugging it in and then plugging in any phone.  The ads claim huge savings over landline phones and that everyone is accepted - unlike landline companies like AT&T which run a credit check with or without your permission to determine if you can have their landline service.

I purchased a Magic Jack for a relative and it has worked very well.  It has saved them a bundle of money on long distance (AT&T was killing them on their long distance phone calls).  The Magic Jack is basically a VOIP (Voice over internet protocol) telephony service and just like with Lingo and Vonage (The 2 biggest VOIP retailers) allows you to use your internet connection to get a set monthly flat rate for both local and long distance phone calls.  Why couldn't they have had VOIP technology or the Magic Jack while I was in college? I wouldn't have gotten stuck with the long distance calls from my roommates and such.

VOIP technology makes the high phone bills from the past disappear forever.  Instead you get a flat fee of under $25 or so per month.  The Magic Jack takes it a step further and is only $20 or so per year!  The first year is around $35 as I just saw it was reduced on TV from $69 or so to about $35 and this includes the cost of the Magic Jack adapter and shipping.  That's a great deal.

All VOIP setups whether they be from Magic Jack, Lingo or Vonage are easy to setup and don't require any technical experience.  The quality is the same as with a landline.  It used to be that in the early days of VOIP that you had to worry about quality and possibly dropped lines.  This has greatly improved over the past 5 years and the quality is the exact same as a landline like through AT&T, but without the numerous fees and such - I remember having a landline and with long distance the monthly bills would average around $100.  Now with VOIP I stay below $25 per month - I use Lingo at one location and Vonage at another.

The only catch with the Magic Jack or VOIP in general is that you cannot have a slow internet connection like dial up.  You need braodband and it has to be either high speed DSL or cable (must be 1 mbps or higher).  There have been some problems with customer service at Magic Jack.  They are not the quickest to fix outages or connection problems and I have found my service through Lingo and Vonage is a little more reliable, however the price is great with any of these VOIP phone companies.

So, do I recommend VOIP - obviously yes with a loud resounding yes at that.  Who on earth would want to pay outrageous landline phone fees with the advent of VOIP?  Do I recommend the Magic Jack?  It is great for colloege kids and such, but for more reliable service and better customer service I recommend either Lingo or Vonage.  Either way you can't go wrong and will save a ton over your old landline!

Lingo can save you over 50% off your traditional home phone service.