Taken with instagram
Taken with instagram
Moments before the cat strikes.
[video]
I have successfully transferred over from a roughly $40 phone bill to a $9.99/month plan.
I never even had to talk to Verizon, by Jan. 6th my number was succesfully transferred and I still have my old number.
Call quality is excellent, no one knows it’s VOIP.
Now, I didn’t get away scot free. Blasted Verizon is no dummy and saw my dry loop maneuvers coming and decided to raise my DSL rates from $36/month to $45/month for their “dry loop plan”. Meh. Whatever, still a huge savings.
Now debating the switch to a different DSL provider but I’ll save that for later.
I’m feeling gutsy with the new year approaching and have decided to attempt a covert operation on Verizon.
I’ve been a slave to mama bell since forever, shelling out about $40 a month for a landline (my friends laugh when they learn I still have one, some call it out of novelty). I also give them about $35 for DSL.
I always thought my home phone was a monkey I couldn’t shed off my back because of my DSL internet. They want you to think a home phone is required for this gateway to the interwebs known as DSL.
However, that same very interwebs tells me that since I pay both bills separately, I should have an easy time at converting to what they call a “dry loop” or “naked” DSL configuration. I guess not everyone can do dry loop but I can, there are sites that can pre-qualify you if you want to check yourself (see below for extreme dsl link).
Given that my accounts are indeed separate and not part of any bundled nastiness *and* I’ve been out of contract with Verizon for a few years now (paying about $4 more than you contracted folks) all I think I need to do to go “naked” is sign up at Vonage and have them switch my current phone number.
Just like when you transfer a cell phone number from carrier to carrier, your new carrier will do the nasty job of contacting your old carrier to cancel. So Vonage is currently attempting to cancel Verizon for me and get my number switched over.
At that point my DSL *should* continue to work (hope, hope, hope) and I will essentially have completed a dry loop DSL connection with very little effort.
If there’s any interest I can update this blog with how it works out.
I went from $40ish a month down to a $9.99 plan and got to keep my number (at least until the 814 goes kaput).
The next brave attempt may be to fully dispose myself of Verizon and attempt a “takeover” via Extreme DSL or another dry loop DSL provider. What I pay about $35 for a month Extreme DSL wants to give me for $25. By the way, you can use their “qualify” tool on the site to see if your DSL will qualify for dry loop or not.
Edit: Working so far! Bwaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaa!
I’ve been using this service for well over a year now and I LOVE IT.
It just recently went “live” and you can now sign up without any invite required. Go and claim your new local number!
There was a real shortage of LOCAL ERIE area numbers in the past but no longer… there is a bevy of 314 numbers available that are a local dial for most Erie County residents.
I used to have an odd 732 number for my business but now proudly sport (814) 314-WEBS which you can call and reach Erie Simple Sites.
Do you need a website or other technology for your small business? Feel free to reach out to me, I’ve got tons of ideas like using Google Voice that can help you accelerate your business on the cheap!
Jeeesh. I’m not even surfing the web that much today and Chrome is again trying to save my skin (thanks Google!).
This time it’s GoErie and their obituaries. That is the only portion of the site showing any ill effects.
This is an illustration of what can happen when you “farm out” parts of your site. The obituaries for GoErie are actually powered by Legacy.com (http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/erietimesnews/), I wager other news agencies leveraging Legacy for their obits are getting the same warnings out of Google Chrome and other “aware” browsers.
Want a malware free site for your business that’s affordable? Check out my services and prices at ErieSimpleSites.com.
