the Price of Telephone Service

This is the bare-bones cost of monthly telephone service in my apartment. This includes the dial tone ($15.00), federal and state taxes and a 911 fee. There is a line activation fee of about $50 dollars which the company allowed me to pay in 12 instalments. However, this does not include outgoing and incoming calls, which they charge me at $0.19 per call (local) and per minute for long-distance and overseas calls. Information (411) is not included in the package. The charge is now $1.50 a call. Compare this with the regular cost of a line with moderate features like unlimited local and long distance- which is around $41.99.

I did not want a landline, as I could survive on my cell phone. I was already paying upwards of $70.00 on my monthly cellphone service, and it already included free calls anywhere in the United States as well as discounted rates on overseas calls. The only reason I got the landline was for my internet. The dial-up internet service was very cheap at $14.99 monthly, but I needed to get a dial-tone so I got the phone. I was relatively happy with my land line especially when my cellphone has poor reception. There were a few instances, though of outgoing and incoming calls from out of state places that were charged to my account, but customer service agreed to credit the charges and gave me a personal identification number to safeguard from unauthorized charges. I am very happy with customer service response time, although I have not had any major complaints that required the repairman to come over.

Figure out why you need telephone service. Maybe the best way to go is to get a package from the cable or telephone company, so try to find out deals offered by companies in your area. Be careful when signing contracts because some companies offer good rates for only 6 months to 1 year then increase their fees dramatically after the promotional period.