[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Going VoIP-Only: Do You Still Need Cellular Voice Service? here

[blackwavecruiser]

I dabbled in fixed line VOIP for several years, first with AT&T's CallVantage, then Vonage. Both services were excellent and its too bad I can't say that about AT&T's other services. And even though their VOIP was good they could never really compete with Vonage. When they finally dropped their price to match, Vonage added more services. AT&T finally canned CallVantage. I haven't tried mobile VOIP yet simply because I really don't need it; I'm quite satisfied with Metropcs's all you can eat plan and when you add $10 a month for unlimited international calling in my opinion its a plan that's hard to beat. Not all international numbers are covered so definitely check any international numbers you need to call. All I can say is Metropcs has been perfect for me. I make at least $10 in international calls a day and I don't think any other plan, prepaid or otherwise compares, but do the math.

[dk3d]

Ever try to get a smartphone with a "No Voice Plan" option.

Doesn't exist.

The closest I got to going all VOIP was cancelling my iphone/voice/data plan. Keep my iphone, get a MiFi (data only) for $35 a month and use Toktumi $15 a month. I kept a watch on my data use and rarely went over 300 megs a month, and this was also using my iphone regular data the way I normally use my iphone.

Worked great... except, the Mifi battery lasted about 5 hours left alone and about 2 hours under use.

And of course I had to lug around and charge two devices.

But it did work and effectively I could make calls and do data stuff for $50 a month.

That being said, I opted to go back to a voice/data service (Sprint) for those main two reasons (1) two devices and (2) Batter life

Both of those are easy to solve: Force companies like AT&T and Verizon and Sprint to offer a data only plan for smart phones (just like they do for tablets).

But it'll never happen... anytime soon.

[simpleminded]

I'm still grandfathered in under Virgin Mobiles $25 300min talk/ unlimited text/ unlimited data plan. I was always scrimping on minutes and heavily relying on texting so I wouldn't run out of minutes in the middle of the month. I started using Groove IP in combination with a Google Voice account a few months ago. So now if there is WiFi or decent Sprint 3G available I use Groove IP to make and receive free calls over Google Voice and only have to use my minutes when there is no data available. At $25 bucks a month this setup is fantastic. $4.95 one time for Groove IP is well worth it.

[GraysonPeddie]

If Virgin Mobile uses a T-Mobile network and if my Optimus V is a GSM smartphone, I'd happily switch from Virgin Mobile to T-Mobile and save $5 a month for that. But that will never happen.

Of course, I am hearing impaired and I wouldn't use over 50 minutes a month. Mostly, I either use nothing or less than 10 minutes a month when I'm not at home or any places which uses Wi-Fi. I'd happily go for 100 minutes per month in a heartbeat.

[Evildave]

I use a T-Mobile 4G Hot Spot: That's cell phone data without voice. The 10GB plan costs as much as keeping an EVO 4G lit up, but going over the 10GB limit is kind of awful. ANY WiFi compatible gadget will connect to it.

The other carriers (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T) sell the same kinds of devices.

Or, just buy a tablet with integrated cellular. Just like a 'smart phone', only big enough to use comfortably. Some of the tablets are shrinking towards 'smart phone' size, even as 'smart' phones keep getting bigger. Of course, just like a cell-phone, you can only use the connection through THAT device without some heinous additional service charges.

Google voice works fine over the connection (even as I do other things simultaneously), most of the time. Just the same as it worked fine over the cable MODEM, most of the time.

I supplement it with a $20 tracfone. Google voice rings it when I get a call. It does what it needs to. I can make or receive calls when I don't have a computer on. Between Google Voice and the prepaid plan, the 200 (x2) minutes stretch out nicely over 180 days for $35 (it came with a 'double minutes' code, and minutes ordered online on a card are cheaper). So that's about $6/month to keep the phone working, when the VOIP supplements it and gets the heavy minutes on outgoing calls that I know will be 'long'.

[Kadidelhopper]

Worthless article. Nobody in their right mind would do any of that at this point.

[Kadidelhopper]

Evildave, on 10 November 2011 - 12:01 AM, said:

I use a T-Mobile 4G Hot Spot: That's cell phone data without voice. The 10GB plan costs as much as keeping an EVO 4G lit up, but going over the 10GB limit is kind of awful. ANY WiFi compatible gadget will connect to it.

The other carriers (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T) sell the same kinds of devices.

Or, just buy a tablet with integrated cellular. Just like a 'smart phone', only big enough to use comfortably. Some of the tablets are shrinking towards 'smart phone' size, even as 'smart' phones keep getting bigger. Of course, just like a cell-phone, you can only use the connection through THAT device without some heinous additional service charges.

Google voice works fine over the connection (even as I do other things simultaneously), most of the time. Just the same as it worked fine over the cable MODEM, most of the time.

I supplement it with a $20 tracfone. Google voice rings it when I get a call. It does what it needs to. I can make or receive calls when I don't have a computer on. Between Google Voice and the prepaid plan, the 200 (x2) minutes stretch out nicely over 180 days for $35 (it came with a 'double minutes' code, and minutes ordered online on a card are cheaper). So that's about $6/month to keep the phone working, when the VOIP supplements it and gets the heavy minutes on outgoing calls that I know will be 'long'.

Wow, that really sounds like a great plan. Real easy and seemless. What a joke, are you kidding with this?

[Evildave]

Nope. Deadly serious. I practice what I preach. Works great!

If you're carrying a computer, or even a tablet, you're probably carrying it in something. And the 'mobile hot spot' can stay in that 'something' and still work fine. Or plug it into the USB port and take a parasitic charge to keep it running, just as you'd do with a 'smart phone' that's 'tethered'.

I don't need a 'computer' everywhere. I work with the computer all damned day, so I rather like to take a BREAK from it. I only sort-of need a phone 'everywhere'.

If you have a computer on all day, right in front of you anyway, then VOIP works great, and takes a phone off your desk. That hours-long conference call doesn't cost a single minute. Just a few megabytes of data. You can do it with video, if you like, but it will run through the bits pretty quick. $6/month for voice versus whatever you pay? Yeah. The cheap little voice-only prepaid flippy phone works great!

I can take the connection WITH me, and I'm not totally screwed if a wind-broken tree takes down some wires. So it actually has some disaster preparedness robustness that both the cable and phone company lacked (i.e. no outages, and I'd have expected several by now, judging from my prior DSL and cable service). In most disaster situations, a downed cell tower will be fixed long before the last mile of wires gets patched back together. Though the likelihood will be that the wires get thoroughly broken, and the cell tower works the whole time, give or take a power outage extensive enough to consume all of the backup power.

[austinjones]

I don't like how they think everyone has a smartphone.

[mastaflasha]

I don't like how they think everyone has a smartphone.

[jimbochicago]

You can also get Skype on that boring candy-bar style Nokia - presumably, the C7 Astound. I've done that and also enjoyed the same thrills and spills you've chronicled.

[GrossTyro]

Because Internet coverage isn't ubiquitous.

[KieranBuckley]

I barely use the "voice" plan at all and wanted to use my iPod Touch with Skype and a Verizon MiFi. The problem is I keep getting screwed by Verizon because I don't have a voice plan attached to the account. I don't qualify for my Company Discount on the MiFi because there's no voice plan attached to it. I can't get the "double data plan" on the MiFi because there's no voice plan attached to it.

It's just another example of the lack of choice that the American consumer has. Whatever happened to "the customer is always right!"

[Evildave]

Well, you are 'right', as long as it's to your face.

As soon as you turn your back, it's a knife.

That's cellular.

Your opinion matters!

We just happen to ignore it, and you all keep bending over for more!

[JoanneG]

The voice component of Skype is so unreliable that we have been resorting to using Skype visually and simultaneously talking on our cellphones. Fortunately, it is with my daughter who is also my partner that I use Skype the most and our cellphone calls don't cost us anything thanks to friends and family.

[wrmacdon]

SKYPE warns that you cannot use their service in place of 911 and if you ever need 911, you're going to be out of luck just when you need some.

[MLStrand56]

On a Bad Day, you get 863Kbs down & 233Kbs Up on your cell phone!!! I have the Fastest DSL avail. in my area & on the Best days average 220Kbs down & 140Kbs Up. My Bad Days are 10Kbs down & 80Kbs up!!!

Come On Cell Boy, let me hear you complain again about your mobile data rate.

[Evildave]

Who's 'Cell Boy'?

[Gibby]

Gee Wiz, using Magicjack at $19.95 a year to call totally free otherwise any place in the US and Canada and to call Internationally at pennies per minute certainly elimates my need to have any other kind of phone plan or system.
Gil