I Own My Phone, My Number AND My Dialtone!

For most of us who have grown up having a telephone, hearing a dial-tone when you lift the receiver is a sign of being privileged and prosperous. From the early days, it has been a big deal and often a reason for pride, to order and, after a waiting period, be provisioned to receive a dial-tone that would connect you to a loved one after the dialtone had been interrupted by multiple pulses manually, or by using a rotary dial or more recently, by DTMF tones.

In the mid-80's I recall letting go of my leased phone unit - going to a store and buying my first physical device that I could connect to the wall was a bold step. My friends called me brave to take responsibility if the unit went bad - no Ma-Bell to replace it 'for free' if it broke. I owned my own phone and not having to pay a monthly lease fee was liberating!

Notwithstanding, the ability to use the telephone continues to be a privilege for which a monthly fee is entirely expected and never questioned. An entire world population remains accustomed to paying a monthly fee for this privilege.

Yesterday, I took ownership of my number, the one I have had for almost 20 years. A few weeks back I took ownership of my dialtone. I bought it - It's mine; it is created in my home. I am now ultimately responsible if it does not work - much like when in 1984 I became responsible for my telephone unit. Except, I think this is bigger - because now we are changing a paradigm - not having to pay a monthly fee for the privilege - is a huge shift. Can it even be called a privilege any more?

In May, I embraced VoIP letting go of POTS by taking on AT&T's U-Verse Voice service. I have to say, my wife is not handling that bereavement well. From U-Verse I've now moved to ooma (I wrote about how AT&T Lost My Voice). Now with my number ported over, I have a definite sense of ownership - I wonder if sharing this feeling will replace her sense of deprivation of POTS with the pride of ownership of our own number on our own dialtone WITHOUT monthly fees! Will it?

Porting my number from AT&T U-Verse to ooma was entirely transparent and seamless. I'll write more about my ooma configuration over U-Verse in a future post.

Do you remain apprehensive of letting POTS go? Would eliminating an entire monthly bill get you over the hump? Am I making too big a deal about 'ownership' of my dialtone?

Banner: Parorama of Crater Lake, taken in July, 2007.

Why AT&T Lost My Voice

I have been a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) customer for decades.

My original service consisted of basic POTS: dial-tone and long distance; then came caller-ID, I paid for that. For a small additional fee call waiting caller-ID followed. Enhanced calling features came next, busy redial, three-way calling, call forwarding, selective call forwarding, and I paid for them too. With my phone service bill bloating, I called 611 and was introduced to bundled pricing for about a 30% saving. Privacy Manager and Unified Messaging were late entrants that helped rebloat my monthly bill bringing telemarketeer freedom, our voice messages in email as attachments and incoming FAXes. We had it all - for about $48/month. I've paid at that level for more years than I care to remember.

Then came U-Verse - AT&T's new bundled service delivering TV, broadband and VoIP on a single copper pair. In late April - U-Verse became available and the AT&T tech verified that I was the first one on the block to help light the fiber to our curb.

With UVerse installed on May 7th, I found the voice service much below par. I could hear myself talk, my own voice was clipped and came with a chirp - a call to 611 helped a little. There was no Privacy Manager, but that was acceptable. They allowed an online address book, but there was no way to import - like they think users were going to type in contacts by hand. Not happening. The killer was voicemail which did not come as an attachment - a feature my wife and I had gotten used to. No FAX either - an entire service removed. And I was now paying $30 per month. Considering the service reduction, I was not really saving anything. How does AT&T expect to introduce a lesser product and keep customers?

So - I have gone with Ooma and AT&T lost my voice business. For $229 one time charge, I get almost everything. Voicemail as an email attachment is part of their $99/yr annual option and I'll have to give up on receiving FAXes. My 20 year old number is currently being ported over to Ooma for a one time $39.99 fee - and then I am done! No more monthly bills.

What are you doing with your landline service? Are you as apprehensive letting go of POTS for VoIP as some of us? From up to $600/year to nothing - is that incentive enough to switch? Does the Ooma business model have legs?

In a future post, I'll talk about my Ooma experience. Stay tuned.

PS: In AT&T's defence - I have to say, UVerse broadband and TV service are excellent.

About the banner: A fascinating piece of architecture - if you recognize it, leave your answer in a comment!