Verizon wireless home phone connect for rural areas:

[Jesse masterson]

My supervisor my wife haha has informede I was wrong I was talkingabout a unit called a z boost a totally different it sorry I'll just shut up now haha

 

[KPark]

I made the jump to Home Phone Connect a few months ago. We have cell service that is half-way decent, though. I just didn't want to keep paying $70/month to keep a land line in addition to the cell. The $20/mo for the new device is much easier to deal with.

The device works ok, though I wouldn't think a fax machine would take nicely to it (latency is enough to disrupt modem activity). The situation I would like most is to have the home # on my cell as a second line, but that is way more expensive, and I don't think my cellphone will take two numbers.

 

[MotorSeven]

No, fax's will not work on it, the salesman gave me let me know that ahead of time.

 

[rsewill]

In a few states the requirement that phone companies provide service to rural areas is being phased out because there are other options like cell service. Indiana and Wisconsin have recently ended the requirement and Alabama, Kentucky and Ohio are considering it. So if your phone service goes down in those states the phone company might just tell you, "Tough luck," even if you've had that phone (and number) for half a century. Just part of the push to end those nasty government regulations. Bend over and enjoy.

 

[woodchuckie]

AT&T has what they call AT&T 3G MicroCell. It was free for me because I don't get much signal. It uses your land line and does give you 5 bars all the time but there is a several second delay on my end of the conversation which makes it very hard to talk to someone so I quit using it.

 

[forgeblast]

For us to get dsl, we are required to keep a landline. We have verizon cells, (its the only thing that somewhat works in our house). I would really like to drop my landline and use this, I will have to see what the difference in my basic plan would be.
Can this boost more then one cell phones signal?

 

[MotorSeven]

Can this boost more then one cell phones signal?

Nope, it only boosts it's own signal both receiving and transmitting.

I took it over to a neighbors house that lives back in a holler....we could not get any signal. But another neighbor got one bar using the external and it worked fine. So, it seems that if it can get any signal at all it works. I already had a couple of other neighbors stop by and want to try it......I wonder if Verizon will give me a kickback:laughing:

 

[TeamNH]

I maybe a bit one sided since I own a Verizon Wireless store, and these home phone connect boxes are great. My father has one now for about a year and it works great.

A few pros are the battery that is in it, you can use it in a RV or something, although your cordless phone will still need power. The best part is that its a Verizon Wireless Phone number so any friends and family that have a cell phone thru Verizon can call it for free and vs versa. Also unlimited calling for $20, cant beat that.

Cons, they dont support faxing or security monitoring.

I will be switching my stores 3 phone lines over to them shortly. That itself should be a good statement to how good these things work.

 

[forgeblast]

Does anyone have any luck with a signal booster for a verizon phone. We get one bar if the clouds move the right way, text we can do if we go out on our deck. I can easily run something into the attic and down but I am unsure of the quailty of any products out there. Any suggestions, we are on a family share plan(cell), and everything is long distance for us, so we went with the landline, dsl, and unlimited calling.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

Sounds similar to an Ericsson W35 I had, except with the W35 Internet was supposedly the main feature and telephone the optional add on. External antennae were also available for the W35 - maybe for your gadget as well.

In my case it worked extremely well - especially since the cell tower was less than 1/2 mile away. The advantage was being able to have mobile Internet / Phone when traveling.