Magic Jack – It sounds like the perfect alternative to a home phone. How can you beat “Unlimited calls for less than $20 per year.”? Dollars and cents-wise, you can’t. The closest available option is Vonage, another VOIP system for about $25 per month. A difference of $280, but what do you give up in exchange for that? Seems like not a lot when it comes to calling features and call pricing. I know of several households that use Magic Jack as their land line, and their experiences are mostly favorable.

Here’s the but part…Magic Jack depends upon a computer in the home to be on and connected to the internet. So, if you lose your internet connection for any reason, phone service is interrupted. If your ISP has issues, your router has a problem, or there are any problems with your PC locking up or crashing, you may not have a phone, and worse of all, you may not even know if you are not in front of your computer. I have called families with Magic Jack as their home phone and gone straight to voice mail because “Oops. I turned the computer off.” Another time was that the computer had locked up and nobody noticed for 2 days. An emergency needing 911 right away could have been ugly.

The bottom line for Magic Jack is:

• It is great as a way to get an extra phone line, or even a number for a really low price.
• If it is going to be your primary home phone, make sure you have battery back up for your computer, router, cable/DSL modem, etc. that is needed to maintain Internet to your Magic Jack.
• Set up 911 services with Magic Jack IN ADVANCE, so in an emergency, responders will know where you are calling from.
• Try to have the computer hosting the Magic Jack in an area that it can easily be seen to verify it is on and working.
• Lastly, the families I know using Magic Jack as their home phones actually use it (all members have their own cell phones) as their phone line for International calls. The rates are much better.

There are of course advanced Magic Jack tips that I have discovered and I will post those a bit later. Really cheap voicemail, International calls for free, multiple lines, and more.