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Home > Smart Spending > Archives > 2009 > February > 05
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Dialing up a phone option: Is MagicJack really magic?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While reclining on the sofa five days before Christmas to watch college football’s MagicJack Bowl on TV, I pondered two mysteries:
Why do we have a thousand and one college bowl games?
What the heck is a MagicJack?
A little research determined that it’s a simple device, sold by a firm of the same name, that provides local and long-distance phone service for peanuts.
The website promo makes it look easy. Plug the MagicJack into the USB port your computer, which must have Broadband Internet access. Then plug a (land) phone line into the other end of the gizmo.
The cost is $40 for the first year, $20 annually thereafter. Call-waiting and other luxuries supposedly work.
Have you given MagicJack a go? Or any similar alternative to the established phone companies?
If not, think it’s worth a try?
Web-registered complaints abound, particularly with tech support and customer service, but also with malfunctions. Of course, you will be deluged with far more gripes about the AT&T/BellSouths of the world.
I’m eager to sample MagicJack but am hesitant to experiment because my burns still are scabbing from an ill-fated cable TV/Internet provider switch.
I suspect we will soon be overwhelmed by inventive choices for phone service — much like the overwhelmed college football fan during bowl season.
