In the past, I have tried Yahoo’s VOIP (Voice over IP) and Skype’s VOIP services to call people on landline phones for cheap long distance and a few times international long distance.  Both services average the same quality and when I used them charged by the minute.  When Skype came out with an unlimited national calling plan for 2 bucks per month, I jumpped at it and ditched Yahoo.  I’ve been using skype on and off until last week.

The quality of both Yahoo and Skype are very similar, calling computer to computer is crystal clear and perfect.  When I called landlines, I’d often have a lot of echos in the line that would make using a landline (and paying a lot more) a better option for the call.  In my opinion, Skype and Yahoo are meant for computer to computer calling and calling a land based telephone line isn’t the focus of quality in their eyes.

Another bit of history that you should know about is I use Skype and Yahoo only at the University at Buffalo.  I have had satellite internet at home for the longest time and know that even on computer to computer calls, there is a massive lag (usually 4 seconds).  I know that with this lag, a normal landline would just drop the connection.  Now that I have EVDO though, I tried skype and computer to computer calls are quite clear and good sounding (just a hint of lag).

I’ve heard about the MagicJack for some time now and for 35 bucks (with a free year) on ebay, I decided to try the unit for the heck of it because frankly, what do I have to lose?  If I don’t like it, I will go back to skype.

Why did I want to even try the magicjack?  The reason is because I like the idea of using a land line phone, I’ve always liked having a landline available to me and the feel is better than using a headset or any cell phone that I’ve ever seen.  Talking to a computerized cell phone that can surf the web just isn’t my cup of tea, call me old fashioned if you’d like   In addition, I can use the MagicJack service in conjunction with a thin client or VOIP adapter (I don’t endorse the adapter method as it violates the magicjack terms of service).  I will likely setup a thin client eventually for it.

So with all that said, I plugged the magicjack in when I got it.  Like they said, it was about a 2 minute install on my quadcore and a few prompts the first time asking who I am and what number I would like for my first year of service. After all that was done, they sent me an email verifying I was real then registered me with my local 911 office.  It is nice that I can use this with 911, although I wouldn’t depend on my connection to be up all the time, a landline connection is still the best option for this.

My first call was to the landline in our house. I could hear a delay just under a second and there was an echo.  I guess that echos are typical of all VOIP services.  I then decided to call my aunt in Florida with it.  We talked for about a half hour on it.  Although it held the connection, it cut in and out during the duration of the call like a cell phone would in a weak signal area.  I’m almost certain this is because I’m using a cell phone for internet and the signal could be fluctuating between great and good.  I will be coming back to this topic in 3 months after I get back to the University to verify this and give a more thorough review.

For now, I believe that if used on a land connection with good speed and low latency, the MagicJack would have crystal clear quality except for the slight echo and slight delay.  I doubt that the connection drops would be present.  I’d recommend it to anyone with DSL or Cable as a 2nd landline for long distance calling.  I’m going to keep mine