Straight Talk’s home phone service

Still stuck paying $35 or more forahomepho n ethatyoucan’t or don’t want to give up? I have an option that could lower your cost for the same service to $15 a month.

Several years ago, Verizon and Straight Talk tea meduptointroduce a wireless home phone base station, which offers unlimited local and long distance calling, voicemail, caller ID, three-way calling and more, all with no contract.

This home phone service does not require an Internet connection. You basically purchase a $50 wireless base station that you put wherever you happen to get a good signal in your home. From there, it operates just lik ea normal landline phone. I t’scompatible with your existing corded or cordless phone. And you can even port your number over from the monopoly local phone company.

Want to really be thrifty? Consider buying a reconditioned model of one of these wireless home phone base stations. That will cut the price of the device in half to around $25.

Either way, what this kind of thing does require to operate is the purchase of either Straight Talk’s $15 Unlimited Plan/30 Access Days (Unlimited Nationwide Calling) or $30 Unlimited International Long Distance Plan/30 Access Days (Unlimited ILD Calling), both of which you can buy online.

One word of caution: This wireless home phone base station is not compatible with home security systems, fax machines, DVR services or medical alert systems. (This is true for many home phone systems now, and so each of these industries has adjusted to allow you to connect different ways, such as with medical alert systems and burglar alarms that work free of a home phone line.)

Important info for 911 callers

Should you have to call 911 in an emergency situation using one of these wireless home phone base stations, Straight Talk says you should be ready to give your address and exact location inside your home to 9 11.The 911 call center will not alread yh ave your address as they normally would.

In addition, if the phone you plug into the base needs external electric power to work, you won’t have service or the ability to call 911 in the event of a power outage.

Meanwhile, the lithium-ion battery lasts for up to 13 hours in standby mode and provides three hours of talk time on a single full charge.

Features include

Here’s a recap of the features on this affordable landline alternative:

■ Three-way calls

■ TTY and TDD compatible

■ Voice mail

■ External Antenna

■ Rechargeable battery

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