Please help with ditching a landline in our rental

[Mustache Fatty]

We have a rental with a land line.  I know that when I am staying there I never, ever, ever use this line.  Cell service works just fine.  We pay $34 per month for this land line (no features, no long distance, etc....lowest cost plan they offer, as far as I know) and I want to drop it.  However, the rental company comes back to me with 2 good points: 1) Renters need 911 service where Operators know the exact location from which the call originated immediately and 2) some sort of VOIP option depends on the internet (and thus power) and the power goes out pretty frequently.  Both of these points are valid in that this rental is on an island 5 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.

I hate paying $34 per month, every month, for phone service that I suspect nobody ever uses, even occasionally.  Do any of you Mustachians have a solution that would address these issues and still save me this charge??  Thank you in advance.

[Daley]

What sort of power outage spans are we talking about here? A few minutes? A few hours? A few days? Do you know if internet services stay active during a power outage? (It should for the same reasons why the landline stays active, especially if you're using DSL. The way to confirm on your end is to have your modem connected to a UPS during an outage and see if you can get online. If you can, you're golden. If not, it's because the clods who designed your network didn't bother throwing batteries into the HFCs or MSANs.)

The thing to understand with VoIP and e911 is if the local PSAP supports e911, you should be fine. That requires a bit of research on your end, however. You can normally set up a test call with your local 911 PSAP, contact the local police department and they'll tell you how. Contact any prospective VoIP providers and see which PSAP they route to for your area as well (check with VOIP.ms first). If you can maintain internet access during an outage and the local PSAP can handle e911? Buy a decent UPS, an ATA, set up an account, and stick your modem, router and ATA on the UPS.

There's a whole section on 911 services via VoIP here (as well as a whole slew of info on frugal, quality VoIP providers):
http://www.techmeshugana.com/theguide/voip-providers/

Alternately, if you've got good AT&T wireless coverage in your area, you could probably pick up a cheap used AT&T Wireless Home Phone device like the ZTE WF720 for a song off Ebay and stuff an Airvoice or other AT&T MVNO SIM card in the thing (it should work, AT&T carrier locked devices will still do calls and SMS texts with AT&T MVNO SIM cards - carrier unlocking is only for data services and MMS on the device which this would need none of, or for taking it to a T-Mobile based provider). These things have built-in battery backups, too. The only downside is that the e911 service location is going to be based on wireless triangulation, so 100m radius unless the person calling is coherent enough to actually give an address.

[alsoknownasDean]

I imagine in the not too distant future, any emergency calls made on cell phones will be able to automatically provide GPS information to the emergency services.

I'm in a rental and have no landline, and I've managed fine for years without a landline.

It's probably almost cheaper to have a satellite phone for the real emergencies than it is to maintain a landline!

[HappyIntrovert]

We just replaced our landline with an Ooma.  When you register they get your address so 911 will work.  After paying for the box, all you pay is the 911 fee and taxes each month. For us the bill is $4.46 per month.  It uses the internet, so obviously you will lose phone service during a power outage.  You have to decide if avoiding that is worth the cost of a landline.  For us, cell phones are an adequate backup. If you want an Ooma, I can give you an referral code, just PM me.

[Daley]

Ooma.

Ooma’s actually a bit of a racket as their “unlimited” free phone service still costs about $3-5 a month for the phone number, e911 support and regulatory fees, their “unlimited” comes with fine print as well, and their hardware is proprietary and starts at $200. Unfortunately, the Ooma hardware also has a bit of a track record of dying due to shoddy electronics components just outside the warranty period (around the 18 month mark, likely cheap capacitors – as is the bane of all electronics these days) and the issues with customer support themselves. You also have the same limitations on flexibility with the service as you do with MagicJack, and all of the useful VoIP features that get given away with other providers (Canada included in call area, Caller ID name, call forwarding during outages, anonymous call block, voicemail to email, call routing rules, etc.) winds up costing more per month to add to the Ooma account than competitors charge in total for an equal number of “unlimited” minutes with all the same features and without the overpriced proprietary hardware buy-in.

If you’re still interested in MagicJack and Ooma despite the caveats already cited, read these posts on the math. It’s not pretty. If you insist on going with an ultra-cheap, proprietary service, go with netTALK instead. It’s forum user approved within limitations.

[HappyIntrovert]

Ooma.

Ooma’s actually a bit of a racket as their “unlimited” free phone service still costs about $3-5 a month for the phone number, e911 support and regulatory fees, their “unlimited” comes with fine print as well, and their hardware is proprietary and starts at $200. Unfortunately, the Ooma hardware also has a bit of a track record of dying due to shoddy electronics components just outside the warranty period (around the 18 month mark, likely cheap capacitors – as is the bane of all electronics these days) and the issues with customer support themselves. You also have the same limitations on flexibility with the service as you do with MagicJack, and all of the useful VoIP features that get given away with other providers (Canada included in call area, Caller ID name, call forwarding during outages, anonymous call block, voicemail to email, call routing rules, etc.) winds up costing more per month to add to the Ooma account than competitors charge in total for an equal number of “unlimited” minutes with all the same features and without the overpriced proprietary hardware buy-in.

If you’re still interested in MagicJack and Ooma despite the caveats already cited, read these posts on the math. It’s not pretty. If you insist on going with an ultra-cheap, proprietary service, go with netTALK instead. It’s forum user approved within limitations.

We paid about 1/2 of what you quote for Ooma's box.  I'm not sure what you mean by proprietary. Isn't everyone's HW in this arena proprietary?  You can't take a NetTalk box and attached to Ooma or vice versa. So I don't get that part of the argument.  Also, we never expected it to be "free".  We knew we'd be paying local 911 and regulatory fees/taxes. Still, $4.46 per month beats $48.00 per month any time, and the HW pays for itself very quickly.  Plus the Ooma hooked in quite nicely to our structured wiring in our home.  Not saying some of the other options don't, but that was a consideration in our choice.   We don't use the phone all that much, so going "cheapo" with lower quality is not a big deal. So it's up to the OP what they want to get out of this. I'm not shilling for Ooma, just passing along my experience with it.

[Daley]

Just read the Guide, HappyIntrovert. It'll rapidly clarify for you from there.

Right now, I'll researching a new VoIP provider addition to the guide that works on open standards. Effectively unlimited calling for $6/month or less with your own hardware, which means it'll be substantially cheaper for folks who actually know their usage needs. Trust me when I say that the math doesn't entirely work for Ooma, even at the numbers you're quoting. There's better for the same amount and less.

[frugalnacho]

Cell service works just fine. 

1) Renters need 911 service where Operators know the exact location from which the call originated immediately

this rental is on an island 5 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.

Who is going to be renting a house on an island 5 miles into the gulf that doesn't also own a cell phone?

It seems a lot of people are ditching land lines and using cell phones exclusively.  How does 911 deal with the fact that such a large volume of calls get placed using cell phones?