HomePhoneConnect
Latest
Verizon makes Home Phone Connect service available nationwide
Verizon just began trials of its Home Phone Connect service in New York and Connecticut in December, but it looks like it's already ironed out any kinks there might have been, as it's now made the service available across the entire U.S. As with the trial, it will run you $19.99 a month for unlimited domestic calling or $9.99 a month to share minutes on your existing family plan, each option of which will let you make calls using any old landline phone that's connected to the Home Phone Connect base station (included for free with a two-year contract). You'll also, of course, get all the usual features you'd expect from a phone service, including caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling, voice mail, and 911 service. Hit up the source link below for all of the fine print.
Verizon trials Home Phone Connect, turns your landline into a cellphone
We're aware of a few third-party products that pull off this trick by connecting to your cellphone via Bluetooth, but Verizon's throwing weight behind its own system called Home Phone Connect that'll connect your home phone into its wireless network. The system -- which seems to be available only to residents of New York and Connecticut at the moment -- includes some sort of base station that connects to Verizon's network on one end and your existing landline on the other; T-Mobile's now-defunct @Home service was similar, but used your internet connection to route the calls rather than the cellular airwaves. Subscribers pay $9.99 to add the landline to a Verizon family plan or $19.99 to grant it unlimited domestic minutes, which seems poised to cut into Verizon's legacy landline business just as much (if not more) than the unique Hub unit that got killed off a while back. Hard to say when (or even if) Home Phone Connect will go national, but these trials are often set up to test the pricing model just as much as they are the underlying technology -- so the question becomes, would you pay $10 more on your Verizon Wireless bill to use your old-school Slimline?
