Long distance landline phone services?

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Wow. I haven't heard of a phone company still charging people by the minute since the '70's.
 
MaryAguila, MagicJack requires internet connection and that's not an option for me since I have satellite internet which has a 2 second upload delay. It would also use my satellite's bandwidth and every Kb counts.
 
Zannej: what do you do for TV reception? If you have cable or fiber, there may be an option to get phone signals thru that route (sort of like FIOS....sort of).
 
slownsteady, I have DishNetwork for TV. Our reception even with antenna was really bad for regular TV. I'm in a rural area in a forest. I'm just on the other side of a "wildlife management area". No paved roads for about 7 miles, no snail mail delivery, and no trash pickup at my house. I have to drive my trash out about a half a mile and hope that they actually pick it up so there is space to put more out (but they don't do pickups on weeks with rain-- so no pickup this week because it rained yesterday).

No cable or fiber. My phonelines barely work. They aren't even good enough to get dialup internet. Trying to get through to AT&T about landlines nowadays is a total nightmare-- took me over an hour last time.

We joke that you'll hear banjos if you come out to these parts-- sadly, I don't think anyone around here is musically inclined.

Our cellphone reception is very spotty even though there is an AT&T tower about 10 miles away. The nearest towers for sprint and other services are much farther. Tried a signal amp and antenna but it didn't work.
 
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Sounds like a great spot to get off the grid...unfortunately, in this case, you want to be on it. I was about to joke with you about getting a banjo until I got to that part of your last post. Oh well, there is always that option.

At this point, I would think that the tallest antenna mast you can find, combined with the most sensitive receiver/amp you can afford is your only option. Maybe even a bigger dish.

You might even want to repost this question on an electronics or AV forum.
 
Since getting people to actually come out here is a problem, I don't think getting a larger dish installed is an option.

I've actually looked in to ways to convert a dish to boost cellphone reception, but it looked a bit too complicated. Plus the main vulnerability with satellite is the weather. My internet was just out for about an hour because of the rain. If it only rained once-in-awhile it wouldn't be so bad, but it rains a LOT around here.
 
First of all, if you have a good Internet connection I would absolutely recommend Majicjack. It really worked a lot better than I thought it would and one of my friends even connected her business onto it, so you know it works well enough to where even professional calls are coming in.
 
First of all, if you have a good Internet connection I would absolutely recommend Majicjack. It really worked a lot better than I thought it would and one of my friends even connected her business onto it, so you know it works well enough to where even professional calls are coming in.

That has been discussed and no he dosn't.
 
Thanks, neal. I'll have to look in to the calling the local number thing first. I wish that AT&T didn't have such hefty fees for their long distance, but what they want to charge is ridiculous.
 
Jungle, it looks like its still VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Or am I missing something?

How does it work?
 
Thanks, I'll look into that. and hooray for the + key to make the text bigger. That page has some small text.
 
Not sure about your cell phone, but I know for an old cell phone I had it was possible to set up an antenna on your rooftop and then connect the phone to the antenna. I would think one could now even boost reception with a wireless setup. 10 cents per minute in this day is pretty crazy - they do it because they can.
 
I've found that when I tried to use cellphone boosters/antennae it interfered with the signal for my routers or just didn't work.

I'll check out ooma. Thanks, Chris.

Edit: It uses "your highspeed internet". :-(
Talked to someone in their chat and was told that I need to have cable, dsl, or fiber and they will "not let (me) use the service if (I) will only have bad quality service".
 
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I know this thread started with a question about long distance service. But it has evolved into a list of services that are lacking in your area. It brings to mind how my cable company was formed (not my company, but my service provider); a farmer in PA was disappointed with his tv reception, so he put up a big antenna and distributed the signal to his neighbors -for a price. Legend has it that this was the first cable company. I never checked the story but it sounds plausible.
So you have a landline that comes to your house. On telephone poles? Do you have neighbors? How far back down the road does the line run before it branches?
I don't know exactly where this post is going, but I'm thinking you may be able to bring something down the same path if you can distribute the costs with others.....
 
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