On a whim last week, I ordered me one o' them Magicjacks. This is a new invention that plugs into the USB port of your computer. You then plug any telephone into it and, assuming you have a good cable or DSL Internet connection, it gives you a new phone line complete with a new phone number, voice mail and other features. The Magicjack itself costs about twenty bucks and then you have to pay for phone service. At the moment, the first year is another twenty bucks, though they hustle you to order additional years now and offer big discounts if you do. I just went for the first year. During it, I will receive unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada, which is quite the bargain.
That is, if the thing ever works.
It doesn't, so far. I get a dial tone but that's about it. When you go to their customer support site, you have to type to a Customer Service rep in "live chat," even though those folks presumably have free unlimited phone service. It takes a long time to get an answer that way and the answer always seems to be either (a) unplug the Magicjack, wait 15 seconds and restart or (b) wait 1-2 hours as they're making fixes on the service. So far, neither has resulted in a functioning Magicjack but I'll try again later.
All may work out fine but right now, I'm at best a guarded optimist. I'm also a little concerned by articles I'm reading online that says the Magicjack software installs all sorts of things on your computer that can be used to spy on you. I need to investigate that further but right now, I'm more interested in seeing if it the device will function properly. I'll let you know what happens.