Travel Technology - Home Long Distance Service

This question is for US Residents that still have a regular phone line (as opposed to those using VOIP or their cell phone as their primary phone line).

If there is anyone on this forum that still uses a regular phone line at home, I'm curious to see what alternate long distance service people are using and are you happy with it. I'm looking for services that offer low rates and no monthly fees and no "low usage fees". For example, the names Pioneer Telephone and ECG seem to appear quite a bit.

Thanks

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space have been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

I have local service and ADSL via landline, use the cell for long-distance.

Just go to http://www.abtolls.com/ and look up rates.

my company pays through the nose for my land line. My cable/internet/phone company hasn't heard of digital phone. For the number, unlimited long distance, and caller id it is $60/month.

If you live in a place with digital phone (pretty much any national cable provider like Time Warner or Charter) I think that's a pretty good deal.

...I'm looking for services that offer low rates and no monthly fees and no "low usage fees"...
How much are you projecting your monthly long-distance usuage? Internatioanl included?

If you monthly usage is "low," it probably won't make any sense to go for the digital phone package. And forget about all the long-distance carriers. All the monthly fees/taxes will kill you if you don't make too many long-distance calls. Their rates are not competitive either.

I stopped subscribing to any long-distance carrier years back when I realized the best combo for me is (local landlane + pre-paid phone cards). On top of that, all the mileage sign-up incentives/promo were no longer available. :pThere are a couple of threads on pre-pard phone cards already. You can dig them up and look into it. Just watch out for the expiration dates (60-day vs. 180-day) and the hidden costs, such as monthly maintenance fee, connection fee, rounding methods (1-minute vs. 3-minute). Just don't buy a large value card that you can't use up before the expiration dates.

Or even better, if you have high speed internet access at home (I know you mention no VoIP;)), just use Skype and buy some Skypeout credits. The rates are reasonable and credits don't expire for 6 months. Skype using dial-up is feasible also if you don't have high-speed available.

I have been using AT&T International One Rate calling plan which allows me to call anywhere for 10 cents a minute and I call back for 12 cents a minute. When you consider the time differences, it works out well. I can be in Eur., work/play all day, go have a great meal, come back to the hotel and get organized and everyone is still in the office.You do get a better connection on a land line anyway. We have been using this plan for several years and have been very happy with it.

I have Pioneer Telephone for my long distance. I think I've had them for several years at this point. They are very reliable and have good customer service. My calling would fit into the low usage category. There have been months when my long distance bill has been $0.00. On an average month, I have a bill that is less then $1.00, and I think my highest bill has been $10.

I have their "Rate Buster" plan. This is 2.7 cents per minute out of state, and since I'm in PA, for instate calls I'm paying about 5 cents per minute. This plan uses 60 second billing.

They have a package that uses 6 seconds interlat, and 30 second billing intralat. Since most of my calls are intralat, I'm saving about a penny per minute on my current plan.

They do have a $0.99 cents low usage fee if your bill is under $15, but if you sign up for automatic payment to a credit card this is waived.

They also have a Refer-A-Friend feature each person that you recommend to them, you get a $15 credit for long distance and Pioneer Telephone long distance to Pioneer Telephone long distance calls are 1.9 cents a minute.

I don't call much internationally, but when I do I use Skype.

Two dial up lines here, one for the dsl, the other because the alarm company insists their alarm is on it's own line without any dsl on it.

Until last year I was using onesuite for all my long distance, at the time it was under two cents a minute, no other charges. Then last year to get a great savings on the dsl at four times the speed for less then I was paying I had to add all distance to my landline, so that takes care of my ld.

But I love onesuite, still use it everywhere but home.

I've been DELIGHTED with the Opex long distance at ny house. <$.03 interstate and <$.02 intrastate. International is quite but not the cheapest. Call quality is excellant. And they give me an 8% discount for prepay!

When I started up with Opex, I didn't see my free 100 minutes of new customer premium so I called their CS number. The agent explained that I did get a credit, then said that she would issue another free 100 minutes since "She wants my business"!

That agent taught me a lot about great customer service!

I use Covista. They're at covista.com. $2/month (I've had them for years and this is waived for me) and 2.9c/minute for domestic long distance.

I am happy with the onesuite.com service and rates. Typically 2-3 cents/min USA to USA or USA to most countries. They have 800 numbers to call or cheaper rates with many local numbers. No joining, monthly or per call charges.

MisterNice

If I had my way I would eliminate the home phone. But Mrs. Boraxo vetoed it (again!)

So we have sprint LD, there is $0 monthly fee if you have sprint PCS i.e. cellular service. You also get 50 min free but we never use them as most outgoing calls are placed thru our cells.

There really is little need for home LD anymore, which is why we saw ATT and MCI swallowed up in the last few years.

I use my cell for domestic long distance and a dial around service (10-10-XXX) for international calls on my land line.

I also use the Sam's Club AT&T card with a landline. have no LD carrier associated with my landline. Am considering getting rid of landline and moving # to a mobile.

For in-state calls, the PA state tax bureaucrats must have caught up with AT&T on these cards, because for the longest time, app. 1996 - 2005, there was no tax on calls made with the cards whatsoever (except sales tax if you bought or re-upped the cards in a state with a sales tax). At 2.9 to 3.1¢ per minute that was a nice deal. But now for in-state calls in PA, it charges five or six units per minute, which is both a change and an increase over a prior scheme that deducted a few units per call. So it's costs more, 6X more, for instate long distance as it does for intra-state LD.

I'd be interested in hearing peoples experience who have ported their home landline # to a mobile number, and do without a landline.

www.onesuite.com -- easy, great rates & service. All done on line, have other products/services related to phones also. Love the online history.

I've been using ECG for a long time. Call quality is solid to US, Canada, and UK (I haven't tried other countries.) Rates are under 3 cents per minute domestic, and very reasonable overseas (generally 5-10 cpm.) No monthly minimum, credit card payment accepted. I've never had to wait more than a few seconds for customer service. Bills are sent via email. ECG is one of the few services I never have any problems with. Rock solid company, been around for years. I think they buy service through Broadwing, who buys from Level 3.

I use CogniWorld (http://www.cogniworld.com).

* 5.4cpm to Sweden
* 6-second billing
* No monthly fees or under-use charges
* Their on-line customer service website sucks, though

I'm probably going to give up on them, switch to my local carrier's long distance plan (to get an additional $5/mo off my phone bill), and use OneSuite exclusively.