OT: Telephone land line and DSL alternatives?

[Eric Shubert]

joe at actionline.com wrote:
> Are there any alternatives to Qwest for land-line telephone and DSL service?
> 
> Qwest has just raised their rates and I think some of the charges are
> unreasonable, particularly for voice mail and the portion of the DSL
> service that goes to M$ (which is the most irritating since I don't use M$
> for anything).
> 
> For the land-line phone service, I pay $37.99/month which includes a
> second land-line and voice-mail for one line. But then they charge $6.20
> for each of the two lines for "Federal Access Charge" (probably can't do
> anything about that).  But for voice mail on the second line, they charge
> an additional $7.95/month plus $3.95 for an extension mailbox. That part
> seems excessive to me. Surely there must be some other good alternatives.
> 
> The broadband charges  show as $38.00 for Qwest Connect Platinum
> plus $16.99 for Qwest Connect PLTNM w MSFT, less "bundle savings"
> of $5.00/month and a promotional discount of $15.00/month.
> So $54.99 - $20.00 = $34.99/month.
> 
> Any suggestions?
> 

I don't know of an alternative to Qwest for DSL.

If you have a cell phone, consider dropping the land line phone service 
entirely. I have Qwest DSL, with no phone service.

If you think you need a phone line for fax, reconsider your faxing 
needs. Try life without fax. When you need to send a fax, there are 
services that will likely cost less than your phone line.

If you must have a land line phone, consider using your own answering 
machine.

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'