Disconnecting from the phone company - good idea?

Faxes aren't an issue.  You can actually do that over the internet.

And you can do phone calls over the internet (by the way, a speaker phone may help with your hearing problem on the phone - you can crank the volume up - worked for my mother and her sister).

The only downside I see is what to do in the event of an emergency.  If you do need help I don't think you can depend on someone picking up an email or fax immediately.  VOI has different issues - there have been numerous cases in the press about the inability of emergency services to find the caller.

Have been without a phone since December 15, 2007. The decision was primarily about economics. But also because I didn't like the intrusiveness and annoyance of a ringing phone and the demand for attention it implied from the other end.

Ironically, the only ones who miss my having a phone are my two friends. They don't like not being able to hear my voice, although we've all learned to manage very well using email instead. (I'm online most hours of every day.) And if either of them got headphones, we still could talk to each other, using Skype.

In terms of getting by without a phone, I have managed quite well, although I still encounter some foolish resistance by some businesses - such as my doctor's office, which refuses to use email to communicate with patients; they do use it for other purposes, apparently. Have told them that it's not my intent to email THEM (though why they're concerned about this, I've no idea), but if they need to reach ME, then, short of snailmail, email is their only option. 

Oh, and I'm delighted to be depriving Telus of $500 a year.

Thanks for the reply. I'll talk to our social worker about communicating to the clinic. She's aware I can't use a phone already.

 Speaker phones are useless for me, I can't make out what folks are saying - that's how bad my hearing is. I can hear folks talking through the speakerphone, but can't understand them.

If you have access to high-speed Internet, you can access adaptive technologies like MSN or Skype video (lets you see the person your talking to, with chat.  they can hear you, if you are in a mode where you talk & they type their answers to accomodate your hearing.)

 Some modems can go faster than 48K, using dial-up.  I had an Internet provider that provided "high-speed dial-up" (115K) + hosting + email for $100 a year.

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Our only option is the wireless satellite - Globetrotter does not offer high speed dialup here.

 I'm considering another possibility - keep the basic TELUS land line for emergencies while disconnecting from Globetrotter and going with wireless satellite Internet service.

Boom Boom, who is the satellite provider? Is there more than one? What does the $700 setup fee inlcude? Would you be paying $30 a month with or without a contract?

The providers earn their money from the monthly payments. Probably the $700 dollars included equipment cost plus installation and setup on your computer. The dealer or ISP should be able to give you a break on the equipment or install fees. I must tell you, that is a lot. The monthly fee is reasonable, but probably what? 256k? In or around that level of service? If it is better, good deal.

But the equipment and setup costs seem very steep to me.

I'll have to find the information card - don't have it right now.

Might be better if you get a pay as you go cell if you can get good reception - seen some plans where you can keep it going for as little as $5 or $10 a month. Also heard somewhere you can still dial 911 on a dead landline but have never tried it.

Been without a landline forever. A cell phone sufices, and its pay as you go. Got rid of that pesky bill from telus who I started to hate for a variety of reasons. A basic package had at the time features I couldn't figure out how to use LOL Like call waiting. There is nothing more irritating than having a conversation with someone and having a peeping in your ear EXCEPT MAYBE having a conversation with someone who has to take their other line.GRRRRR Plus it gets rid of the telemarketers.

No cell phone service here, so that's out.

 I've just been told by a friend that internet via satellite uses the satellite for one way only - receiving. Outgoing email is done via phone. You do *not* transmit to the satellite. Does that sound right?

As far as I know, yeah.  Think about it for a sec, you'd have to have an uplink to the satelite.  I know, I missed that rather obvious end of it to, until someone pointed it out to me.  So you receive on the satelite, and send on the phone line.

Boy, did I have an exprience over the holidays with my internet service provider.

Was it the 23rd or 24th?  I forget, but we got a ton of rain on top of a whack of snow, and true to form, we got the crackling noise on the phone line, as has happened before.   However, we also lost our internet connection.  I figured it was the wet weather that caused both-- and I was right. 

However, I let the problem slide because we really didn't need the internet that much on Christmas day, and even if they would have sent out a tech person to fix the line connections, I didn't want to do that to someone on Christmas day.

But, the house was full of people who wanted the internet for stuff, so I called on Boxing Day, after of course, the kids had tried all their trouble shooting stuff. 

So, I negotiate all the voice mail options and such to get a hold of Bell, and they put me over to sympatico, who says our internet card was removed from the box a few blocks over.  Probably because we haven't paid our bill-- which we had, of course. 

So, they put me onto the tech support in India.  This person has me switching cables and reconfiguring my ISP and all kinds of stuff, all to no avail.

At each step of the way, I am explaining to everyone that I'm sure it's because of the crappy infrastructure, that rain does funny things to my phone line, and we had an extraordinary amount of rain on top of a shit load of snow, and I'm sure that's the problem.

But, what do I know?

The good fellow and his supervisor tried everything, and couldn't find a solution. 

They think it's the billing people who have cut us off.

That's the Friday, and the billing people aren't open until Monday.

So, Monday I call them, they say it isn't them, we have paid out bill, obviously, and they will send a person out to fix the line.

Which they do the next day, to no avail, but don't tell us, so another day goes by without any real progress.

Bell catches up, inquires about our problem, I say we still have the same problem.  The representative suggests that after we get hooked up, and if it happens again, I should tell all the support people I talk to about the rain issue, so they can problem solve faster.

I explain, laughing, that I had done this at every step, but no one believed me.

Yesterday, a connection tech came and worked, found that the cables were no good, and called in a cable tech.  The cable tech arrived late in the afternoon, and fixed the cable.

Ureka!  still no internet connection.

At this point, I am pretending I don't need the net, really.  Except I've been wondering about an author, Charles Kingsley and it would be handy to get some more background on the guy.  And, also, I wanted to know more about how flour mills worked in Ontario a hundred or so years ago.

So, I need the net?  What to do? 

Just then, another tech knocks on the door, and actually comes into the house.  To the computer.   He looks it over and finds two connetions done wrong-- product of both the instructions of the good fellow in India, and also one of my daughters not reconnecting something right.

So, much to your guys dissapointment, no doubt, I am back. 

And, according to the last technician, with the best lines he's ever seen. 

But, holy shit eh?  

Oh, for long distance, my eldest is using G mail to communicate with her b/f in Ireland.  I suppose however, you have to set the time up to talk via email or  messenger or whatever.   I talked to him with the ear buds in the ear, and a microphone, and actually prefer it to the phone.  I am more comfortable, and the sound quality is better than phone.   I find other people's cell phones are terrible most of the time.  My eldest, when she was in Ireland had a magic cell phone that picked up background noises better than her voice. Drove me nuts.  And other cell phones are too loud, and send too much distortion.

G mail seems good, and it's free.

The eldest was going to download skype, but since there was a fee that I'd have to pay, she declined-- though the fee was nominal.  We may still go with skype, down the road.

Does this mean I have to keep paying for my TELUS Globetrotter ISP service on top of the high speed satellite internet? Holy crap, that will be expensive!

No. Go up one and read what I wrote. Where do you live, anyway?

I live on the Lower North Shore of Quebec, just below Labrador.

http://www.highspeedsat.com/

This is the one I used once. No phone required: http://www.xplornet.com/packages.php?type=res

This is our high speed service:

http://www.xplornet.com/what.php

FM: thank you!!! I know what I'm going to do now.

I lost internet again, because some other technician disconected us while trying to fix someone else's similar problem.

 Yee haw.

 Difficult to blame Bell, though, I mean, who'da ever thought it would rain in Canada?