How to Get Rid of Your Telephone Company

The Bell Telephone Company was founded in 1877, following on Alexander Graham Bell’s successful patenting of the electric telephone system. Thanks to the miracle of telephony, people around the world were finally able to communicate with each other instantly. Telephone systems led to other technologies, including the transmission of photographs and computer information. But despite all the advances they brought us, the traditional telephone company has become obsolete.

We live in an age of computers and cell phones and yet we still buy telephone service from the phone company.  Why do we do that?  Don’t you think it’s time to cut the cord to one of the most overpriced utilities on the market?  Here is how you can do that.

Buy Month-to-Month Cell Phone Service

If you just need a telephone number and you are not calling anyone overseas, then get a $10-a-month basic cell phone.   You can pay as you go and you no longer have to worry about long distance service fees because of what I share with you below.

Now, you may want to use a smart phone.  I have a smart phone myself.  But you can cut the connection to your wireless provider too if you don’t mind carrying two telephones.

Use Voice-over-Internet Phone Service

If you have a smart phone or want to make all your calls from your computer you can sign up with a service like MagicJack, Skype, or Viber and use VoIP instead of regular phone service.

Skype and Viber don’t give you phone numbers but MagicJack can connect with your landline or take over your phone number.

You can run Skype from the desktop or your smart phone.

Viber is an app you download to your smart phone.

As long as you can connect to a WiFi signal somewhere you can use Skype and Viber.  You do not need to connect to a wireless phone service.

Get a Voicemail Box

If you only want to recent calls to a phone number where people leave voice mails for you then you can subscribe to a free service like K7 or pay for premium service from a company like eVoice.

If you use a service like Skype or Viber to call regular phone numbers you may have to pay per-minute charges.

Some of the premium VoIP services offer free voicemail boxes and conferencing.  Check out the plan details from several companies before making that decision.

If You Are Not Ready to Cut the Cord to Your Phone Company

You can still use these services and pay for the very basic, most minimal service from your wireless or land line carrier.  The most expensive part of wireless phone service these days is the data plan.  If you’re downloading videos and songs over your wireless services you are doing it wrong.

Learn how to connect your smart phone to your computer over the USB cable that doubles as its power cord.  That way you can use your basic Internet service to get the downloads you want and copy them to your phone.

Of course it’s your responsibility to ensure you comply with all laws and regulations concerning downloadable content.

Use a WiFi connection wherever possible if you want to watch videos on your smart phone.  But remember that you could be exposing yourself to a man-in-the-middle attack by using free WiFi.  Be careful where you connect and what you connect to.

If you connect to public WiFi in a store or restaurant, always ask what the correct network name is so that you are not fooled by someone who sets up a spoof network.