Ah, thanks!

MVNO are basically mobile network resellers. Do a search on who the underlying providor is, if it is a verizon or att or sprint, great. If it is a t-mo or other, it might have coverage issues.

Roaming doesn't really work that. The new MagicJack will run independent of your cell carrier. Your phone will likely report that you're roaming but unless MagicJack reports that information to your carrier as roaming charges, AT&T or TMobile (as the MagicJack is rumored to be GSM only last I saw) will never know that you placed a call on your phone. It will see your phone sign off the cell network when it acquired the MagicJack network, but that's it.

Of course, all that may change once these things hit the market but I imagine that MagicJack is not working with any carrier and is thus going to make quite a few of them unhappy, especially the big cry baby that is AT&T.

Why would anyone use a cellphone rather than a USB phone or the softphone on the PC in this case?

I'm mindful of the potential radiation exposure from using cellphones too much. If I'm going to be at a static location with broadband & Magic Jack in the first place, I might as well use a cordless phone with better speaker phone capabilities or a wired phone and avoid the radiation + battery drain on my cellphone.

Sounds kind of redundant to the magic jack itself.

Also, since a lot of people are migrating to smart phones, for internet access on the go, plus doing texting, I don't see this as that big of a threat to the phone companies.

You do realize that cordless phones use radio waves too, right? ;)

I won't derail the thread with how silly cell phone radiation is in reality, but I will note that a lot of my contact and other pertinent information is on my Blackberry, and so it is useful to have it rather than have to pull information out of it and then use a softphone or other physical phone connected to the MagicJack. Call it a convenience factor, I guess. :)

Yes, but my point is the cordless speaker phone has *much* better speaker / sound quality, so I can hold the phone further away from my body, than sticking the cellphone next to my head to chat. And NO, the concerns of sticking a cellphone that is emitting and receiving wireless signals for hours right next to your brain is not silly.

Not only that, but when I'm using the cellphone with the magic jack, I risk not being able to get text messages, alerts on my smart phone, and maybe even regular cellphone calls depending on how the magic device will work. I see no advantage, other than being able to singly using the device to dial out. That's a one time action that I can easily manually do on the cordless phone or the softphone.

In fact I have a very good landline in my home office, that I will very often use to make calls because of the better sound quality and convenience of great speaker phone, than using my cellphone with unlimited minutes.

Make sense??

I think it may work as a roamer's tool, e.g. in a foreign country. I probably wouldn't want to use it to get cheap phone service at home.

One question is personal. How important is it for you to be able to wander around a little with your phone. If a portable cordless phone is important, this might be helpful. My next notebook will contain Windows 7 and I have a phone that can use TMobile's Hotspot at Home. Connectify plus one of these phones sounds like a better idea.

I own an Asterisks box at home and also have a Magicjack. I bought a $9 utility which allows me to use my Magicjack with with Eyebeam softphone client (dial, ring, hangup, etc). I basically use the traditional device as a soft ATA.

Just an update, used it in India in Jan w no real problems, besides having to validate my email addy every time.

Question: Can you call the UK from the US using Magic Jack without incurring additional costs?

No. However, the costs are very reasonable -- on the order of pennies a minute.

Have you checked magicjack.com? http://www.magicjack.com/international/

Confession time. I had read only the top 2 pages and the most recent couple of pages of this long thread. Users of MJ on this thread pretty much convinced me to ditch my landline ASAP. Before I actually do that, can some one share if & how MJ handles faxes? Currently, my landline is used to support a fax machine as well as voice.
Any feedback about MJ's ability to support fax (or not) will be appreciated. Thx.

Doubt it will handle faxes. If you need fax support, keep your landline or get an e-fax service.

I've used my magicjack all over Greece, as well as Mexico, Central, and South America with good results. Results are dependent on having a reliable internet connection.

Faxes don't work well with MJ. Some people have gotten it to work, but it is reportedly not terribly reliable.

Here is a post from elsewhere:

I can send faxes if I drop the transmission speed. I would not rely on MJ for this purpose, however, on any but the most casual basis.

Thanks everyone for your feedback re faxes on MJ.

Ptravel,
How do you drop the transmission speed? is it adjustable on the PC or on the fax machine (I use a multi-function HP printer for fax).

Your HP printer will have a menu option to change the speed.

Sorry. But how do you use Magicjack on a cell phone? I thought you need to plug in the usb thing on your computer. Any guidence would be much appricated.

MagicJack will be selling a different device for use with a cell phone:
MagicJack Providing Cell Phone Service With Their New Femtocell

Any update on this Fem to Cell device from MJ? Been almost a year.

AFAIK you can not use MJ on your mobile phone. I wish you quote who ever said using MJ on his/he cell phone.

For fax, better get an online fax service. VoIP, Magic Jack or not isn't fully compatible with fax. You may get away with a few fax but sooner or later you will get failed faxes. Online fax is cheap and the one I use with Onesuite is just $1/month for unlimited receiving. Outgoing fax service is available too.

Nope. My guess is "not gonna happen". Too many legal/spectrum issues.

There was some announcements and news articles that they were actually working on a femtocell device. You can find the articles if you search a site like engadget.com, just search for "magicjack". This would be a different MJ device than the current MJ device that just provides a phone jack and uses your computers internet connection.

You can actually buy a femtocell device from AT&T if you have service with them, but even though they use your internet connection, calls placed/received using AT&Ts femtocell still use your minutes.

-David

Most of the wireless services offer femtocells. I have one for Verizon -- works the same as what you've described of AT&T's.

Everyone else's femtocells also have a GPS chip in them and you can't use the unit outside your coverage area.

yes
 

I've use the AT&T one outside my calling area, on the east coast before. I know it won't do 911 calls properly, but the calls still come through.

It's not limited to being in your calling area. It's limited to being in an area where AT&T offers service. You couldn't take it to England and use it there, for example.

Personally, I like T-mobile's approach: build the capability into the phone to make calls over any wifi network that can connect to T-mobile's VOIP servers.

So whats the advantage of using Femtocell? Better signal? But is it cheaper for end users?

At least with Verizon, it makes no difference in price. However, my femtocell allows me use my cellphone in my apartment where I would otherwise have no signal.

Coverage area might not have been the best term, but your carrier has to have a license to operate where you are receiving a signal.

I just ordered OOMA. Its similar to magicjack for connects to your router so you dont need to have a computer on! Quality is better. No monthly fee but the equipment costs $175

I picked up an Ooma on woot.com for $125. It does appear to have better sound quality than MagicJack, though I've been using MJs happily for a couple of years now as my sole landline telephone (and for travel). The one advantage of MJ over Ooma is voicemail-to-email -- the service is free on MJ, but is part of the $10/month "premium service" on the Ooma. One nice feature of the Ooma is the ability to answer your cellphone over the Ooma phones in your house, though it requires use of the Ooma handset.

Okay so Ooma is like Magicjack but doesn't need a computer and it is also more expensive?

Ooma and MagicJack are both VOIP phone systems. MagicJack has a yearly subscription. Ooma is completely free. MagicJack needs a computer (I use mine with HP thin clients). Ooma does not. MagicJack's customer service is, for all intents and purposes, non-existent. Ooma's is somewhat better. MagicJack can't power a whole-house wired phone system (multiple phones on house wiring). Ooma can. MagicJack offers free voice-mail to email. Ooma requires buying the premium package (9.95/month). Ooma will also let you answer your cellphone via your house wired phones (using BlueTooth), but that's also part of the premium package. MagicJack voice quality varies and sometimes experiences echoes. Ooma has better voice quality and no echoes. MagicJack may or may not work with fax machines. Ooma usually works with fax machines.

Okay?

MJ is far from perfect. I use it as my "line 2" for my family to use on the days that I work from my home office. My work calls all go through Avaya and my POTS line when working at home.

My MJ is plugged into my file server in my basement for 24/7 service.

My wife has faxed out through MJ several times without problems. That was a surprise to me.

I beat the single phone issue with MJ by connecting a single base station for my 4 Panasonic cordless phones.

We now make all of our outgoing personal calls (except international - those use Google Voice) through MJ.

Call quality ranges from very good to sometimes poor.

I'd hate to not have a POTS line in addition to MJ.

not free
 

ooma isn't really "free" anymore. They don't charge more for the phone calling services, but most customers WILL pay about 25-30$ a year for taxes and regulatory fees.

That's true -- I forgot to mention taxes.

Unless you have an old OOMA account or bought a refurbished OOMA system that does not have taxes added. I just bought 2 refurbished once in a past 3 month and no taxes are added. Now, at anytime, I can still upgrade to their newer system (if I will ever need it) and still do not pay taxes and fees. This has been confirmed with OOAMA CS on several occasions.

Yes I have a couple of the original HuB oomas which don't have any fees at all. As for getting used or refurbished older oomas be careful. A used and deactivated older hub ooma MigHT have a new reactivation fee from ooma which is 75$ AND one would still have to pay the taxes and fees. It is a bit of a crap shoot at the moment when buying the older hardware. Some have reported getting original oomas refurbished that have no fees, others that r required to pay activation fees and still others which pay fees..

As for the option for a CURRENT hub owner-fee less to buy a new Telo hub and pay NO FEES that is news to me. My understanding of the fee requirement is that it is based on the device ID and not the customers account or grandfathering. I would certainly buy a telo to add to my setup but have always been told by ooma that they do require additional fees. Not a HUGE deal but I don't really need it anyway..

Has anyone tried MagicJack Plus? This newer version does not require a computer ad runs off your wireless network. I am trying to determine whether you need to plug MagicJack into your router (I don't see a USB port on mine) or whether you can simply plug MagicJack into the wall and it will find the wireless signal (like all my other devices do). Same question for Ooma.

I have both a MagicJack Plus and an Ooma. Both need to be connected to the router -- neither is a WiFi device. The MagicJack Plus has a USB port and an RJ45 jack. You can use the Plus like the older MagicJack and plug it in to a computer using the USB port (you have to do this to activate it). However, you can also use the RJ45 to go directly to the router (or, I suppose, a switch or access point), in which case the USB port is plugged into a wall wart and supplies power to the device.

The Ooma doesn't need to be activated by plugging it into a USB port. As I recall (it's been a while since I first got mine), a computer does need to connect directly to the Ooma to set it up (there are two RJ45 jacks -- there are a couple of ways to configure an Ooma as it can function like a DHCP server, or simply as a network device). If you pay for premium service, you can also get a Bluetooth adapter (it only works with the one provided by Ooma) which plugs into a USB port on the Ooma device and will let you pair your cellphones so that they ring through the Ooma system, and you can use your Ooma phones to answer cellphone calls.