The Daily Tangent

Dry Loopin’ DSL and switching to Vonage.

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!