Verizon Home Phone Connect

danemayer

Well-known member
We replaced our home telephone with the Verizon Home Phone Connect a few weeks ago. For $20/month, you get home phone service that replaces your old landline. It's actually a cell phone transceiver with unlimited nationwide calls. Your regular telephone device plugs into it and you have a dial tone. No need for an internet connection as with Vonage, or MagicJack or similar VOIP devices.

There are 2 jacks on the back. I have our kitchen phone plugged into one jack. It's actually a base station with wireless receiver, that also supports 3 additional phones around the house. The 2nd jack is connected to the phone jack in the kitchen. That puts dial done all through the house. Our bedroom phone is a standalone that plugs into the wall jack and gets its dial tone this way.

The best part is that it's a portable device. I brought it along with the kitchen phone on our latest trip to San Angelo, TX. We now have unlimited calls in and out while traveling, and it's our home number. I haven't tried it, but they don't exclude using it for a dial-up internet connection, so it might do that if you can't get a broadband connection.

So far it's working great and saves our cell phone's limited minutes. So my DW can talk to her mother for an hour a couple times per week without worries.
 

Invizatu

Senior Road Warriors
Just got one myself. My neighbor is a Verizon store manager and he talked me into it when I was asking him a million questions one day. I was paying $40 a month for AT&T unlimited home phone and couldn't take it with me! I have a Verizon cell tower about one block from my house, so I get a great signal. Lots of truckers are starting to put them in their trucks. A small inverter and it plugs into a power outlet in your car and truck, can be used just like a cell phone as long as you have power.
 

Invizatu

Senior Road Warriors
There are a few limitations with the system, a couple are... It won't support a fax machine or a home alarm system. I believe there might be a couple of others, but they were not of concern to me. Otherwise, it works great!
 
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recumbent615

Founding MA Chapter Leader-retired
I will have to look into this - I can see this as a big plus - set it up in the RIG on an inverter and a wireless phone for the truck you could use this even when you are traveling... and boon-docking too. I will have to look into the "limitations"

Thanks for pointing this service out!

Kevin
 

jimtoo

Moderator
This is first I heard about this system,,, wonder why it will not do fax?,, not that I need one that often, just wondering. Going to check into this for sure.

Jim M
 

Westwind

Well-known member
Don't know if I have this straight or not, but a friend had it and realized after checking with Verizon that his house alarm system wouldn't work if he used it. We have a system that calls us if the temp in the house drops below 45 degrees and if there is water on the floor in the basement while we are traveling. So unfortunately it wouldn't work for us.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
There's some discussion about this device elsewhere on the web that suggests that 1) Verizon did not have the manufacturer enable fax/data/alarm usage and that 2) the Verizon switching equipment may also preclude it. So no fax, no alarms, and probably no data.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Unless something's changed in technology, you need a land line for a monitored alarm system. So it's not something we could use, either.
 

recumbent615

Founding MA Chapter Leader-retired
There's some discussion about this device elsewhere on the web that suggests that 1) Verizon did not have the manufacturer enable fax/data/alarm usage and that 2) the Verizon switching equipment may also preclude it. So no fax, no alarms, and probably no data.

Correct no data - but I did confirm that the USB port can be used to power the device... so no need for a converter when boon-docking or on the road.

Kevin
 

jimtoo

Moderator
Well,,, I just ordered one... So no fax,,only used it once every 3 months anyway... no alarm system you can turn off...don't have electronic anyway.. got something else.. neighbor with 12ga. :) ..it don't get cold (or rain much) in S. Texas, so don't need or have temp sensor and no basement to collect water.. :)

Hope it works good... if not,,, Dan is responsible..it will be all his fault. :)

Jim M
 

danemayer

Well-known member
By the way, I use *71 to conditionally forward calls. If we don't pick up the phone after 3 or 4 rings, it forwards the call to my cell phone.

The only problem so far has been all the calls from politicians running for Mayor and City Council. :p
 

Nabo

Southeast Region Director-Retired
The Verizon Store told us about this phone service a couple of months ago when we upgraded our cell phones. He told us we can keep our current home number so that was a plus. He also told us about unlimited long distance calling coast to coast - another plus. Was heading down this coming Friday to do more investigation since the cost would be 1/2 of what I am paying ATT for basic service.
 

TXTiger

Well-known member
Why does one need a replacement land line (with no ability to fax or data) when on the road if you have a cell phone? I would think that you could just terminate land line and use your cell exclusively.
 

Bobby A

Well-known member
Thats so funny, as I was reading this thread/posts, my wife was talking to her friend on the cell and her friend just got one of these devises, she said she loves it so far, plus its saving her a bunch of money per month. Go Verizon !!
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
We dropped our landline last year. It seemed the only calls we got on it were solicitors and wrong numbers. We have cable Internet service only. We use our (ATT) cells as our primary phones. We have never approached going over our plan minutes, because we have rollover and because mobile-to-mobile minutes are free... most of our calls are to each other or others' cell phones.

I can see how this Verizon service would be great if you need the current reliability of a phone in each room of the house, or you talk a lot to long-distance, non-cell numbers. When we got rid of the landline, we also upgraded the security system to a cellular-use service. They added a 'box' that calls out via cell-signal, rather than land-line. I don't recall the price, but it was reasonable.

Erika
 

hogan

Past Mississippi Chapter Leader (Founding)
We use the Verizon Home Connect; Plus column- we have multi phones when we are home, it is on 24 hours a day, long distance free, good back up in case your cell hides, dies, takes a day off.
Minus column- Politicians, spammers, telemarketing
Overall, we keep it at least for now.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Why does one need a replacement land line (with no ability to fax or data) when on the road if you have a cell phone? I would think that you could just terminate land line and use your cell exclusively.

Depends on your cell plan, where you are, and how long you talk. DW has long conversations; often an hour or two at a time. She's
on a $40/mo VirginMobile Plan with 1200 minutes and unlimited data. Works great at home and in lots of other places. But it has no roaming so it's dead in a lot of places around the country. $20/mo more for Vzw Home Connect gets her unlimited calling pretty much anywhere there's a cell signal, and Verizon has better signal in many places. Switching her to another carrier with roaming would have cost way, way more. I was actually in the Verizon Store pricing a family plan with enough minutes to support her. It would have cost way more than her current plan plus the Home Connect.

If while at home, you sometimes fax, and already have a broadband internet connection, a MagicJack Plus will plug into your internet connection and give you an extra phone line with Fax support. $20/year. I don't know about alarm support.
 

Wolfpackers

Member
The 2nd jack is connected to the phone jack in the kitchen. That puts dial done all through the house. Our bedroom phone is a standalone that plugs into the wall jack and gets its dial tone this way.

I find that the employees in my local Verizon store are just not in tune with details such as the above statement or I may have already purchased one. They also did not know the details of suspending the MiFi I bought in January...now I find that I can only suspend it for a max of 180 days per year. The big downside to getting the home phone connect is that it doesn't give you internet, so I would have to keep my AT&T DSL line, which I have heard that AT&T is wanting to do away with and I believe they are slowing down the speed to get current DSL users to switch the their U-Verse service.
 
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