Magic Jack connects via USB to your computer

I was on the lookout for a landline since, unfortunately, my T-Mobile mobile phone only gets reception in one corner of my apartment.  At&t wasn’t an opion.  Besides paying $30/month for the privelige and hugely inflated long distance charges, the bureacracy of getting a ‘real’ landline completely turned me off.  No long waits with customer service and technicians for me thanks.

So that left VOIP solutions like Vonage, SunRocket and Ooma.  I had tried, and had generally good experiences with Vonage before, although the $20-$30 monthly fee seemed a bit steep.

So I stumbled on some folks discussing a newcomer called MagicJack and I Googled for some info.  It seemed pretty janky, and the ‘As Seen on TV’ banners made me skeptical.  But, what the hell at $40 for the first year, and $20 for each additional it was worth a shot.  I popped into my local Best Buy for some instant gratification.

Read on for the full review.

Here’s what MagicJack promises:

- $40 for the first year of VOIP service.  Fee includes the actual MagicJack USB to phone line adaptor.
- $20 each subsequent year of service.
- Unlimited local and long distance calls within the USA and Canada.
- Pick your own phone number.
- Voicemail, Caller ID, Call Waiting & all the usual phone features.

Needless to say, that sounded pretty good.

I got home and spent a painful 3 minutes getting the thing out of the hard plastic, impossible to open clamshell.  You know the type of packaging that makes you wish for a simple cardboard box…

Luckily, that was the hardest part of getting MagicJack setup.  After that, I plugged the MagicJack device into my computer’s USB port.  (neglecting to read the instructions included).  Almost immediately, the software installed itself on my computer and the MagicJack application launched.  After a brief setup procedure in which I created a MagicJack account and chose a local phone number, it claimed I was done. I plugged my regular cordless phone into the other end of MagicJack and wishfully dialled a number.   To my amazement, it worked.

That’s was it.  Landline done.

The MagicJack application on your PC

So, after a few weeks, here are my impressions of using the service.

-You need to have a computer running in order for your phone to work.   No problem for me, since my server runs anyway.  But, I realize I’m a geek, and this might be an issue for some.  The MagicJack app uses very little resources by the way.

- Call quality is good.  Not quite landline good all the time, but def. more than acceptable for me.

- Long distance to other countries (Australia, England, etc) is cheap and easily purchased in blocks through your account.

- You need a broadband connection to use MagicJackk.  I tested with my high speed Comcast account and also with a very low speed 1mb down/500kb up DSL account and both worked no problem.

- MagicJack works well on PC and Mac