MagicJack

I admit to being a big gadget freak. I also admit to being an As Seen On TV junkie ... our home is filled with these products. Some items are worth every penny I paid (like my Butter Butler), but others merely make money for the inventor and leave me, the consumer, feeling ripped off.

Normally, any junk email that sneaks past my spam filters will be manually deposited into the trashcan when I see it. Although I can't remember what the subject of a particular email was, I opened it and fell hook, line and sinker for the pitch. Within 5 minutes I was on their website forking out $39.95 + shipping for a USB device that promises me free phone calls in the US and Canada.

Was I skeptical? Yes. Was I put off by the price? No. I've wasted more than that on products which didn't live up to their claims. And what if this one WORKED?!!

We gave up on the phone company a year ago when we decided to get phone service through the cable company. Our package included internet, cable and phone service for around $150 a month. Being able to make free LD calls was great, as it allowed me to call family and friends in the states without watching the clock. Nor did I have to burn through my cell minutes if I wanted to talk to them other than on a weekend. I could no longer imagine life without digital phone service. We did experience some problems in the beginning - service outage and one very disconcerting time when I clicked to a second call and found out my call waiting did not put the first caller on hold, but left her able to hear my conversation with the second caller. It took close to an hour and several back and forth calls with the cable company to fix that issue and that was the end of any problems.

Enter MagicJack.

For $39.95, this company promised free LD to the US and Canada. The initial investment included the jack, a phone number and a year of phone service. Subsequently, I will pay $19.99 a YEAR for continued phone service. This was too good to be true!

MagicJack employs an existing internet connection; hard wired or wireless to provide VOIP (think Skypes). Instead of using a headset, you can use any regular telephone, so I wouldn't need to buy special equipment once I received it.

It arrived in a rather nondescript envelope. It's packaging was modest, and the devide itself is about the size of a matchbox. The setup was as simple as it gets, truly plug and play - all the software is stored on the device itself and it takes about a minute to get up and running.

My initial test of it was a call to my husband on his cell phone. I was using an ancient Western Electric Princess phone and aside from a bit of a lag, the quality was very good, rivaling traditional telephony.

I next used it to talk to a friend on her cell phone in Colorado. Again I was on my Princess and the call quality was horrible. She was cutting out and we ended up dropping 2 calls before I finally called her back on my digital line. Tracy was excited at the prospect of replacing her landline with the MagicJack until this phone call convinced her it was probably just a gimmick.

I was disappointed because my call to her on the digital line was fine, no cut outs or drops, so it seemed as though MagicJack may not be the greatest alternative. I noticed MagicJack's interface on my PC had a link to click which would allows the user to "optimize" the service. I clicked the link and installed the optimizer. I really wanted this gadget to work. And I really wanted to love it. We had just sold our home and were getting ready to move into a rental which actually costs more than our mortgage, but it is temporary until we move to Colorado, hopefully this year. Being able to cut out a phone line and use this in order to save a few bucks every month was what we were hoping for. Subsequent phone calls behaved as if I were using my digital line. IT WORKS!!!

While this device has what some would call "cons", I think given all that you get out of the MagicJack far outweighs these cons. But for the record:

* Not all area codes are available yet. I could not get an 808 (Hawaii, where I live) area code. I settled for 720 (which is Denver). There is no drawback for me to have a Denver area code, but only for my friends in Hawaii who may call me from their landline, as it will be a long distance call for them. However, if they use their cell phone, they won't pay additional to call me.

* I couldn't keep my existing phone number. Number portability will be available in the future for MagicJack subscribers, but not just yet.

That's about all I can come up with for cons, aside from the fact that if your electricity or internet is out, you can't use your phone. I deal with the same issues using phone service through the cable company.

MagicJack subscribers enjoy the following free services: Call Waiting, Caller ID, Call Forwarding and Directory Assistance as well as free Voicemail (I have to pay an additional fee for voicemail through my cable company).

I currently have my MagicJack installed on my laptop, but it can be installed and used on any computer we own. Highly recommended!