Apartments - Staying Connected

You’re moving into your great, new apartment, so your phone service is one of many decisions you have to make, but unlike before, now there are so many options than before. They vary from landlines to wireless to voice over IP. Phone companies often offer a variety of bundled features that will best suit your lifestyle.

The landline is the traditional phone service with a telephone that plugs into a phone jack in the wall. You are billed separately for local and long distance phone calls on this service. The service is not dependent on your electricity or internet connections and you’ll generally have clear service anywhere throughout your home (and with cordless phones this can even extend out to your car, garage or parking lot). Landline services are provided by big and small companies. Some of the larger services will also offer bundled packages that include your phone service, DSL and satellite or cable t.v. A landline service is easy to obtain through large telephone companies online.

Wireless services include cell phones and other mobile devices. Cell phones are primarily convenient and a lot of people have begun to use them as their one and only phone, meaning no landline at all. Long distance and local calls are charged the same and aside from charging your own personal phone, you don’t have to rely on the power company for service. However, as most of you know already, cell phone reception can be really bad in some places. If you only have service on your phone while hanging out the apartment window and leaning on one leg, chances are you should probably consider having an alternative home phone.

Voice over IP (VoIP) is the latest and greatest in phone service. VoIP uses your broadband internet connection to make and receive calls. While voice over IP may be the cheapest alternative, you’re at the mercy of the electric company and your internet connection. Many service plans offer a variety of standard calling features and you can use any touch-tone phone. Some services don’t use a phone at all. You just simply use a microphone and your PC.

When deciding on which is best for you, consider a few factors. What time of the day do you make most of your phone calls? Where are the people located at that you call the most? Where are you when you make the most of your calls? Wireless plans are usually based on the amount of calls that you make during peak hours of the day. Wireless and VoIP services charge the same for local and long distance calls. However, this may not be important if all of your friends and family live in the same town. If this is the case, you may want to consider having a landline and a cellular phone for emergencies. While many choices exist for home phone services, remember to evaluate all the options and choose the one that best fits your lifestyle.