the Price of Telephone Service

Local landline telephone service with no features

A lot of people these days are using their cell phones as their primary phone, but want a landline in case of emergencies. I'm no different, except that my landline is used for my work-at-home job. One of the requirements for my job is that my home telephone must have no features on it. It cannot have call forwarding, call waiting, three-way calling, voice mail or any other type of feature. I don't call out a lot and when I do, I use my cell.

For that reason, I checked the phone company's website for their absolute cheapest plan. What I found was a plan that cost a little less than $23 per month. With this plan, I get 50 outgoing calls per month, unlimited incoming calls and no time limit. I have no long distance service, but can call any toll-free number. I can also access long distance using a prepaid phone card.

The charges break down at $14 for the actual calling plan, $5 for the federal access charge, and another $4 for surcharges and taxes.

Because I ordered my initial service online, there were no salespeople trying to pressure me into getting more than I want. My service was connected within about 72 hours, which was within the time-frame estimated in the automated email confirmation I received. I received my new telephone number in that same email. Since my initial order, I have contacted my telephone company for internet service. The salesperson tried to upsell me on my phone service, but as soon as I explained to her that I cannot have features due to work restrictions, she backed down very nicely.

When you are looking for telephone service, it's not mandatory to accept everything that is offered. Some deals sound really sweet, but if they are more than you will use, there is no sense spending the extra money. Incidentally, I've found that prepaid phone cards are cheaper than having long distance service. My husband calls overseas on a regular basis. For $5 he can talk to his family for an hour. On most long-distance plans, that international call would cost more than $5 to connect.