I don't recommend doing it if you live in the boonies. One of the houses I looked at was on 2 acres of land in the mountains. It was gorgeous, but no cell service, either on T-Mobile or Verizon, which meant I was going to have to get a landline for home/work.

Even my parents have gone to VoIP via VerizonFIOS, and we have a Vonage line at the shop so he can call Italy and France anytime he wants. The newest plan now gives you 250 minutes for foreign cell phones and keeps the unlimited for "landlines" (which include VoIP lines). We were even able to remove long-distance from the pizza shop and restaurant lines because of the Vonage line, and it's saved the business a TON of money.

My father also now has an iPhone. I don't know what this brave new world is.

Maria, I'm seriously considering it. I could save quite a bit of money over my landline. I'm not seeing a downside; all I want is for my phone to work and to be able to call 911 if I need to. Does it work at all if you travel out of the country?

Also, Daylight Savings Time is causing fun scheduling problems for us globally

Our Japan team has been complaining about the time change for two weeks now, but we are ignoring them because our weekly call is already 7-8pm and nobody is willing to make it any later.

I had Vonage when they were brand new, and the service was awful (calls were unintelligable and dropped constantly), and when I tried to cancel it was hands-down the worst customer service experience of my life. (Short version is that getting through to a cancellation agent was next to impossible and every time I did manage it, they HUNG UP ON ME before I could actually cancel. They played this game for long enough that my free promotional month ran out and they charged me for the next month's service, and THEN finally allowed me to cancel. I reported their shenanigans to the BBB but never got my money back.)

Anyway, I've heard from many reliable sources that they've fixed the call quality problems, but that bridge is burned forever for me.

I think when DH finally upgrades his phone, his old cell will become our house phone, if only to have ONE number people can call when they're trying to get ahold of the household and not one of us specifically. And eventually the kids will need a number to give their friends.

Does it work at all if you travel out of the country?

If you carry the Vonage adaptor/router with you and plug it into to wifi, yes. If you're trying to use it via your cell phone, yes, but make sure you're hooked up to wifi. If you're not you'll pay the normal outrageous data roaming fees. The Extensions app won't work with data speeds less than 3G.

Jess, I initially had issues too, with quality and customer service. It's been a while since I've had any problems though. I wouldn't give them gold stars for customer service, but they do what I need when I need it. I may not be as picky as I used to. Now CenturyLink? I can't decide if they or Comcase should die a fiery death.

I need to revisit phone/internet. I had the ball rolling and then stuff.

Senior review Monday. Acting head of mission is in the hospital, director of operations is retiring and as part of that, no longer on these reviews,acting director can only meet for 3/4 the time. If I didn't think this project was cursed from the get go, I would be convinced now. And I overheard some scuttlebutt that the support desk feels underprepared, EVEN THOUGH WE'VE BEEN WARNING THEM FOR 36 MONTHS AND THEY'VE DONE NO DUE DILIGENCE. I can't. Just can't.

I'd be wary about only having a cell phone if you work from home, but that's about it at this point. I get wanting to keep the number, though, Burrell. I would freak out if my mother ditched her home number.

CenturyLink is my current phone company. I haven't had any problems with them, but my unlimited-long-distance-flat-fee just went up to $77/month, and that feels like an awful lot to pay for seven-eight phone calls a week to my sister and my BFF.

I'd be wary about only having a cell phone if you work from home

That's me. My work cell is my only number for work; no landline. My personal cell will always stay separate. It was a pain in the ass to regain financial responsibility after I left my first job, and I lost my awesome grandfathered plan at the time.

I got rid of the landline last year, but not many people actually call me. I do a lot more communication with locals via Facebook, actually.

I'd be wary about only having a cell phone if you work from home

Calls to my work number already get routed to my home number anyway, because the softphone on the laptop never works right.