Trying to Figure out the Mobile Plan. Help!

[oldtoyota]

Good evening!

I think AirVoice sounds fantastic. I've read MMM's blog post about AirVoice and the SuperGuide here at the forums.

AirVoice--has coverage in my area and the areas I most visit. This works for my cell phone needs.
Mobile Data--Am I correct in thinking I can catch a wifi at my house, in a library or park, etc? So, I do not need to pay for internet via my phone?
GoogleVoice--I'm getting rid of my land line. Would GoogleVoice both replace my land line as well as complement the text messages I'm allowed in the AirVoice plan?

The above is how I understand what I've learned thus far. If yes to the above, then it's sounding pretty good, I think.

Is there anything I am missing?

OldToyota

[Daley]

Howdy!

Mobile Data--Am I correct in thinking I can catch a wifi at my house, in a library or park, etc? So, I do not need to pay for internet via my phone?

Yes. So long as your phone is on a WiFi connection, you do not utilize your cell phone's data connection.

GoogleVoice--I'm getting rid of my land line. Would GoogleVoice both replace my land line as well as complement the text messages I'm allowed in the AirVoice plan?

Eh. One, if you're wanting to port your landline number over to GV, it's not going to happen... they port cell phone numbers only. Two, not without utilizing GV with an ATA like the Obi100 at home or a SIP bridge like Talkatone on your phone and leaving your phone connected to WiFi at home. Personally, I'm not a fan. GV isn't a service I'd entirely call reliable. Frugalman's a great case study if you won't take my word for it. You get what you pay for.

You could reduce text costs with it, though... but there's better alternatives to that by using SMS alternative chat services with your heaviest messengers, either oldskool or balkanized newskool. Yahoo, Skype, Google Talk/Nimbuzz/XMPP, Kik or the latest cross-platform darling on the scene XMS (real-time push notifications on Symbian S40!).

Is there anything I am missing?

My blog's got a VoIP primer, maybe give it a read since you're weighing home phone alternatives. My biggest concern is that you're prepared for the realities of the usage level the $10/month plan has if you go that route, but that's a concern born out of so many others who have come and gone burning through their balance within a week because they didn't know what their average usage levels were like. If you're already barely using your phone or are aiming for one of the $30+ plans, just ignore that last part.

Good luck, and feel free to drop me a line if you need any help!

[N]

I. P. Daley, I love your committment to helping us figure out the cell phone dilemmas. again, for me, its like trying to read another language...but Im getting better. :)

[Daley]

I. P. Daley, I love your committment to helping us figure out the cell phone dilemmas. again, for me, its like trying to read another language...but Im getting better. :)

I'm happy to be of service... and keep it up! Practice makes perfect, and soon you'll totally grok all this stuff. :)

[the fixer]

If you can do so on your phone, I recommend turning off mobile data for a while to test out what it's like being on a no-data (or very expensive data) smartphone plan. It took some getting used to for me. Occasionally I would turn data back on to do something, but I would later check my monthly data usage and compute how much that month would have cost on Airvoice. So it took a couple months, but when I made the switch I knew without a doubt it would work for me.

[Rickk]

We switched out our land line to Ooma - if you want to keep your old number and use of a "normal" phone then this might be an option for you.
There is a cost for the hardware device ($150 from them, $100 from Woot which has it every month or so) + $30 porting fee.  Then we just pay around $4.50 a month for the service - all the calls are free for us.
Check out ooma.com and you can see what they offer.
Overall we have been happy with the savings and retaining the use of our regular house cordless phones.

[Done by Forty]

If you can do so on your phone, I recommend turning off mobile data for a while to test out what it's like being on a no-data (or very expensive data) smartphone plan. It took some getting used to for me. Occasionally I would turn data back on to do something, but I would later check my monthly data usage and compute how much that month would have cost on Airvoice. So it took a couple months, but when I made the switch I knew without a doubt it would work for me.

I second this: turning off mobile data is, at least for us, a key component of making the $10 per month work (we're on PTel).

For what it's worth, when I'm at home I'll use google voice to make outbound calls through my computer, but I do run into some technical problems (maybe 25% of the time).  The fix seem to be hanging up, closing Chrome, and calling out again.  I, personally, think the quality is better than with Talkatone and I am willing to deal with the inconvenience for the price of "free" but, hey, I'm cheap. :)

[Daley]

We switched out our land line to Ooma - if you want to keep your old number and use of a "normal" phone then this might be an option for you.
There is a cost for the hardware device ($150 from them, $100 from Woot which has it every month or so) + $30 porting fee.  Then we just pay around $4.50 a month for the service - all the calls are free for us.
Check out ooma.com and you can see what they offer.
Overall we have been happy with the savings and retaining the use of our regular house cordless phones.

*sigh* Another Oomite who hasn't done the math or explored the competition (or the guide).

Let me just leave these links here:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/communications-tech-isps-voip-cell/msg47654/#msg47654
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/landline-simplest-most-mustachian-solution/msg66868/#msg66868

Please don't take this the wrong way, Rickk... but you're being hornswaggled.

[Rickk]

We switched out our land line to Ooma - if you want to keep your old number and use of a "normal" phone then this might be an option for you.
There is a cost for the hardware device ($150 from them, $100 from Woot which has it every month or so) + $30 porting fee.  Then we just pay around $4.50 a month for the service - all the calls are free for us.
Check out ooma.com and you can see what they offer.
Overall we have been happy with the savings and retaining the use of our regular house cordless phones.

*sigh* Another Oomite who hasn't done the math or explored the competition (or the guide).

Let me just leave these links here:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/communications-tech-isps-voip-cell/msg47654/#msg47654
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/landline-simplest-most-mustachian-solution/msg66868/#msg66868

Please don't take this the wrong way, Rickk... but you're being hornswaggled.

Well - who would have thought!
No hard feelings here - I have made plenty of poor choices before - and will probably continue! 
 
That is great information you posted (Thanks for posting it) - too bad I didn't read it 6 months ago when I decided to switch!

The good news is that I am still saving quite a bit having dropped the AT&T land line which cost a fortune every month.  My family who won't let go of the land line is also happy because it works like a phone (standard cordless phone that has a dial tone when you pick it up).  So I guess I don't feel "hornswaggled" - but perhaps not as optimized as I could be.
We also are not paying for any extras - so while I am paying more than I should it is still less than $5 a month, which I guess was a good first step!
So I guess "let this be a lesson" to everyone else - don't do what I did if you want to optimize your mustache!

[oldtoyota]

Thanks! Oh, yes. I did not think GV would let me port over my land line number. That would be nice though!

Good pts here about data. I think I could go without it by using my laptop at home and free wifi when I'm out. Not having access to email all the time would be a pain, so I guess I have that part still to figure out. I check FB because it's there, but I could go without that too. I really do not do much online with my mobile.

[oldtoyota]

I.P Daley--Thanks so much! I got lost with your post and the lingo, yet I'll go and read that VOIP primer. I'm not sure what ATA is or Obi100 or SIP is, but maybe you mentioned it in one of your articles.

[Daley]

Well - who would have thought!
No hard feelings here - I have made plenty of poor choices before - and will probably continue! 
 
That is great information you posted (Thanks for posting it) - too bad I didn't read it 6 months ago when I decided to switch!

The good news is that I am still saving quite a bit having dropped the AT&T land line which cost a fortune every month.  My family who won't let go of the land line is also happy because it works like a phone (standard cordless phone that has a dial tone when you pick it up).  So I guess I don't feel "hornswaggled" - but perhaps not as optimized as I could be.
We also are not paying for any extras - so while I am paying more than I should it is still less than $5 a month, which I guess was a good first step!
So I guess "let this be a lesson" to everyone else - don't do what I did if you want to optimize your mustache!

This is very true... you are definitely saving far more over the traditional land line even with Ooma, but the hornswaggling is purely in equipment costs and fees in relation to other VoIP providers. I wouldn't recommend you switch as you're in now, you might as well ride out your money's worth until the equipment breaks... but when that time does come, you're at least better prepared for your next VoIP carrier. As I've said before, if you're already in, might as well take advantage of what you can of it. It's just not the best deal going for people making the switch

I.P Daley--Thanks so much! I got lost with your post and the lingo, yet I'll go and read that VOIP primer. I'm not sure what ATA is or Obi100 or SIP is, but maybe you mentioned it in one of your articles.

Glad to be of help, and you'll find that VoIP primer actually goes over all that lingo. :)

Also, email doesn't chew as much data as you might think so long as you disable downloading attachments and HTML, and stick with raw text and polling no more frequent than about 20 minutes. It's the other stuff that turns into a pit.