When is $7.45 really $20.57?

February 10, 2005 · Comments

When it’s your phone bill, of course.

We have a POTS (plain old telephone service) line that’s just for our alarm system. Our main phone line is VOIP through [Vonage](http://www.vonage.com). Eric also uses his Cingular Fast Forward cradle to direct calls to the POTS line so we’re not competing for phone time at home. All outgoing calls are through the Vonage box, since we pay per minute on outgoing calls on the POTS phone line. With no outgoing call plan, the POTS line is $7.45 per month. The lowest/cheapest service that [SBC](http://www.sbc.com) would give us.

I just got the latest eBill.

1 Per Call residence line: $7.45
1 Inside Wire Plus Service: $4.95
*We should probably cancel this, but they’ll likely charge me $30 to do it and we’re leaving in 4 months anyway.*

$.07 in outgoing calls - 2 minutes worth
*I guess Eric had to use the phone once while I was using the other line.*

CT and Federal tax: $1.54
911 surcharge: $0.19
CT Service fund: $0.05
Universal Service fund: $0.61
1 Federal Subscriber Line Charge: $5.71
*Whatever the heck that is.*

Total: $20.57

There’s just something wrong when the fees and taxes add up to more than the cost of the service itself. My Vonage bill is always the same, $24.99 plus $2.25 in taxes and fees for a total of $27.24.

We may not bother switching our phone number when we move. Yes, it will be a bit weird to live in New Jersey and have a 203 (CT) area code & phone number. Vonage doesn’t care where I am as long as my adapter box is hooked up to a cable modem. Lately Eric and I have been using our cell phones as our main phone numbers thanks to the Cingular Fast Forward cradle which forwards the calls without counting against our minutes. The cradle has done wonders for my cell phone bill. No more overage charges and I have about 1500 rollover minutes in the bank. I’m thinking of changing my cell phone to a local 609 number and leaving the Vonage line alone. We’ll work it out as the move date approaches.

Related posts: