Your Cell Phone as a Home Phone:

You get a box that connects wirelessly to a nearby cellular site. You then plug a regular corded telephone into the box, or connect it to your household wiring through any nearby phone jack, or into a cordless phone base that connects to one or more cordless handsets throughout the house. Prices for a wireless home phone base range from $20 to $100, and monthly service varies from $10 to $30 per month. One new $10/month plan is now available!

► Pros & Cons for Wireless Home Phones

A box or plug that connects to your router or computer can link you to worldwide telephone service at very low cost and in some cases, no monthly cost.  Prices for VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) or Internet-connected phone equipment range from $30 to $200, and service charges range from Free to $30 per month.

► Pros & Cons of Internet-Connected Phones

The wires that come into your home from the telephone company are still the most reliable way to connect to the public phone network, but it's expensive, the features are overpriced and you're stuck in one spot. But the landline has had decades of improvements to make this connection to your home phone rock solid.  Prices for a basic landline range from $10 to $100 per month but most features cost extra. We also have strategies to keep your landline and still pay less.

► Pros & Cons of the Landline

Unless you live in a one-room apartment, there are advantages of maintaining multi-room access to phone service: safety, security and convenience top the list.  Nearly every home in the US is wired for such service, but with multiple cordless phone sets even that isn't necessary.

For the simplest Home Phone, cell phones by themselves are woefully inconvenient because they're almost never nearby when a call comes in.  They also run out of battery at the worst possible time, and they're notorious for dropping calls in rooms where signal strength is poor.  We found ways to make your cell phone work as your home phone without paying more than necessary.

All these Home Phone Alternatives allow you to keep your old Home Phone Number. Most of them will let you move your number for Free. You can also request a number from a different city or area code, or you can save the number for a family member who is cutting the cord. We have a whole collection of great ideas for Preserving Your Home Phone Number.