How is Verizon's Wireless Home Phone plan?

[E.B.]

I want to reduce the $100/month I'm currently paying for my cordless phone landline. Verizon told me about their Wireless Home Phone plan, where I buy a special little router from them, plug it into my existing cordless phone, and get Verizon Wireless service instead of copper line service, for $20/month. You have to buy this little router, which is a one-time fee. The usual router costs $29 and lets you get phone service, but you can't use your fax machine. There is a $49 router they also sell (Novatel T1114v) which WILL allow you to use your fax machine as well, which is the one I would purchase. I never had a contract associated with phone service before--this involves a 2 year contract with a $175 early termination fee which dissipates by $10 each month you keep the service.

Has anyone signed up for this program, and if so, how do you like it? I live in NYC, where Verizon coverage is quite heavy.

Thanks.

[Amethyst_Owl]

My 2 year contract is up today. I loved it. Zero issues, works like a champ for me.

[E.B.]

My 2 year contract is up today. I loved it. Zero issues, works like a champ for me.

I went ahead and subscribed to the Verizon Home Phone service. So far, I like it. The only issue I'm having is an occasional chirping sound when I use the speakerphone, which is an artifact of the echo cancellation manufacture of my Panasonic cordless phone. The sound quality seems the same or very close to the Verizon landline service. Also, the caller I.D. restriction I used to have on my landline, which prevents those you call from seeing either your name or the number you're calling from, is not available. Your name does not appear, but your telephone number that you're calling from does appear on the caller I.D. of the person you're calling.

[ctsurv553]

My girlfriend has it, and the audio quality is horrible. I have a regular copper landline with Frontier, and every time I talk to her, she sounds like she is in an echo chamber, a million miles away. The problem with this service is that it isn't a landline, it is a non-mobile cell phone, meaning it is connecting you to a cell tower somewhere over a microwave radio link. If your house is in close proximity to a Verizon cell tower, and if your house is a regular wood frame house, you might be okay. But if you live in a reinforced concrete apartment building, like my GF, the signal is so badly attenuated by the thick walls and steel rebar that you would be better off just using a regular cell phone and go outside to make your calls. And of course it is subject to all of the usual cell phone problems like dropped calls. Most annoying is that, since Verizon Home Service isn't a true landline, but is in fact a cell phone, it isn't Full Duplex: only one person can talk at a time, and this can get confusing, especially if one of the callers is on a real landline and is used to their phone calls being Full Duplex.

[E.B.]

My girlfriend has it, and the audio quality is horrible. I have a regular copper landline with Frontier, and every time I talk to her, she sounds like she is in an echo chamber, a million miles away. The problem with this service is that it isn't a landline, it is a non-mobile cell phone, meaning it is connecting you to a cell tower somewhere over a microwave radio link. If your house is in close proximity to a Verizon cell tower, and if your house is a regular wood frame house, you might be okay. But if you live in a reinforced concrete apartment building, like my GF, the signal is so badly attenuated by the thick walls and steel rebar that you would be better off just using a regular cell phone and go outside to make your calls. And of course it is subject to all of the usual cell phone problems like dropped calls. Most annoying is that, since Verizon Home Service isn't a true landline, but is in fact a cell phone, it isn't Full Duplex: only one person can talk at a time, and this can get confusing, especially if one of the callers is on a real landline and is used to their phone calls being Full Duplex.

I just went through a horrendous customer service episode with Panasonic. I kept having worsening voice quality with my Panasonic cordless phone with the Verizon Home Phone service, to the point where I could not hear the other party clearly at all. My $20 flip phone allowed me better voice quality than the new Panasonic cordless phone. Panasonic told me to return the apparently defective phone. Panasonic actually made me pay the shipping for the phone to be sent to their McCallen, TX facility! That itself was outrageous---you produce a lemon phone and then require me to pay to ship it back. They sent me a new phone, which seems to be working better. I do live in a building, and I still have a volume problem with the other party when I'm on the phone, especially when I use the speakerphone option, which is what I prefer. The weird thing is, the very first time I used the new phone, the volume and clarity were great, but all subsequent calls were lower in volume. This is particularly apparent when I have to listen to a voice menu or to reps wearing headsets, instead of speaking to someone with the phone resting on their cheek. So although I really like saving like $75/month, the voice quality is NOT as loud as my former landline provided.

Another problem is that I was told if I purchased the $49 router which allows you to connect your phone to the wireless service, I could send faxes from my 4-in-1 printer. No. It turns out that for the $20/month fee, you get VOICE ONLY, you cannot send faxes. Those are considered "data" and to send faxes, you'd have to spend $35/month for VOICE/DATA combo service. So that was a very misleading statement given me by the Verizon sales rep. For the few faxes I send per year, it's not worth spending $15 extra every month to send them. I brought this up with Verizon and they said for $2 they would grant me data capability for 24 hours. That still seemed like a lot to send a single page to one's doctor, accountant, whatever.

[whacker]

Do you have a standard corded phone to plug in to the VZW cellular device to use as a standard with which to judge phone audio quality (including volume level)? That would be my starting point.