Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
Three low-cost alternatives to pricey, traditional home phone services.
If you’re buying home phone service from a traditional provider, you’re paying too much. Internet phone products sell service via your broadband connection at dirt-cheap rates. Here’s how three stack up.
Extra features. Ooma Telo is a stylish, wedge-shaped box that’s roughly the size of your old answering machine. It costs $200, and the company advertises that it provides free, “unlimited” calls within the U.S. Caveats: There’s a 5,000-minute monthly limit on outbound calls (that’s more than three days of talk time), and you’re responsible for government taxes and fees. But these should add up to just a few dollars a month. Check your total at go.ooma.com/tax_calculator.
A glitch with the first Telo we tested gave us a chance to try out Ooma’s customer support, which was very responsive. The Telo has a one-year warranty.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
The device comes with cables to connect your router and cordless or corded phone, and setup is easy. You may select a new phone number, or port your current number for a $40 fee. The optional Ooma Premier service ($10 a month or $120 a year) offers free number-porting plus a bundle of advanced features. In our tests, Ooma’s call quality on a 6-megabit-per-second (i.e., reasonably fast) DSL connection was very good—in most cases it performs on par with landlines.
The product’s biggest downside is its $200 initial cost, but the Telo is pretty inexpensive over time. If, for example, the device runs five years, and your monthly tax bill is $3.50, your phone bill would average less than $7 per month. Can the cable guys come close to matching that?
As seen on TV. Its TV ads may be cheesy, but MagicJack Plus works rather well. Roughly the size of a matchbox, the $70 gizmo plugs into an AC outlet and has ports for your phone and for your router.
Although MagicJack won’t add to your desktop clutter, it lacks Telo’s convenient touch controls for accessing voice mail. And setup is a bit tedious: You have to plug MagicJack Plus into your PC’s USB port and work through a series of start-up screens. First, you select a phone number or port your current number for $20. What follows is a series of upsell offers, including one for prepaid international calls (at really low prices) and another for replacement insurance—useful if your dog decides MagicJack is a chew toy.
MagicJack Plus comes with one year of unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada, albeit with a few restrictions. (For instance, you can’t call more than 50 different phone numbers in a day.) Phone service costs $30 annually after the first year, or you can buy a five-year plan for $100. Taxes and fees total about $1.50 per year, the company estimates.
MagicJack Plus’s call quality was nearly as good as the Telo’s in our tests. Costs average less than $6 per month for the first year, and less than $3 per month after that.
Low-price leader. Want to pay even less? NetTalk Duo costs only $50 for one year of calls to the U.S. and Canada, with a 3,000-minute monthly limit. After the first year, the service is $30 annually. Setup is simple, and porting was recently free for a “limited time.”
NetTalk Duo’s call quality was on par with its competitors. Voice mail messages were easy to access: Press *98 on your phone. Like MagicJack Plus, however, NetTalk lacks the Ooma Telo’s advanced features, such as a touch-activated device for screening incoming calls and voice mail.
But for dirt-cheap phone service, NetTalk Duo can’t be beat. Averaging just over $4 per month for the first year, and less than $3 a month after that, NetTalk is the cheap-talk champ.
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.
-
Last Call for Fortnite Refunds: Parents Can Still File a Claim
The FTC is sending out $126 million in refunds to families whose kids were charged for unwanted items in Fortnite — and there’s still time to file a claim.
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Swing as Trump Scraps Canada Trade Talks
Despite a mid-afternoon slip, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the day at new record highs.
-
What Is AI? Artificial Intelligence 101
Artificial intelligence has sparked huge excitement among investors and businesses, but what exactly does the term mean?
-
Roth IRA Contribution Limits for 2025
Roth IRAs Roth IRA contribution limits have gone up. Here's what you need to know.
-
Four Tips for Renting Out Your Home on Airbnb
real estate Here's what you should know before listing your home on Airbnb.
-
Five Ways to a Cheap Last-Minute Vacation
Travel It is possible to pull off a cheap last-minute vacation. Here are some tips to make it happen.
-
How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
insurance When assessing how much life insurance you need, take a systematic approach instead of relying on rules of thumb.
-
When Is Amazon Prime Day? Everything We Know So Far, Plus Early Deals
Amazon Prime Here are the key Amazon Prime Day dates and details you need to know, plus some of our favorite early deals to shop ahead of the sale.
-
How to Shop for Life Insurance in 3 Easy Steps
insurance Shopping for life insurance? You may be able to estimate how much you need online, but that's just the start of your search.
-
Five Ways to Shop for a Low Mortgage Rate
Becoming a Homeowner Mortgage rates are high this year, but you can still find an affordable loan with these tips.