We recently signed up to get phone service with Vonage. They offer local and long distance calling using your broadband connection. We wanted to try it out, so right now we actually have two phone lines, one with AT&T and one with Vonage.

I'm pretty sure we're going to go ahead and make the switch (you can use your existing phone number). I'm not 100% satisfied with Vonage, but the pros outweigh the cons.

Pros:

• We get away from the horror that is the phone company. My loathing of phone companies started back in 1997 with Pacific Bell (long story) and I have not been any more impressed with SBC/AT&T. They charge a ridiculous amount of money for very poor service.
• We'll save about $40 a month. For basic phone service with AT&T, including caller ID, voicemail, and NO TOLL CALLS, it costs us $38 a month. We use Working Assets for local toll calls and long distance, which is another $5-$20 a month. Vonage costs $16 for 500 minutes a month, plus caller ID and voicemail. (It's $25 a month for unlimited calling in the US and Canada.) Plus, 3 cents/minute to the UK.

Cons:

• If the power goes out, or our cable modem connection, the phone is dead. But that's what cell phones are for.
• Doesn't work with local Toll Free numbers. For example, when we called to put our newspaper delivery on hold, we couldn't use the 1-800 number, but had to use the local number. It won't cost us anything extra, it's just a pain.
• Sound quality not quite as good. It's not quite a clear as the AT&T connection. But it's good enough. Certainly better than a cell phone.
• Can't access 511. But again, that's what cell phones are for.
• Right now, only the phone by the cable modem is hooked up. We can try wiring it into the house phone jacks (which sounds kind of scary) or get some cordless phones.
• TiVo: we have a DirectTV/TiVO box. Sometimes TiVo needs to make a phone call. We're not sure how important this is. We've read that people have unplugged their TiVo box for 600 days running and not had a problem; I'm just hoping our service won't suddenly get cut off one day.

Anyway, I expect over time a lot of these issues will be addressed. I'm just so pleased to get away from the phone company giants and save a bunch of money.