Get two years of unlimited home phone service for $199

A Linksys phone adapter is included free when you sign up for ViaTalk

(Credit: Linksys)

If you've been thinking about saving money on phone service by switching to voice over IP, allow ViaTalk to entice you: Sign up now for the standard $199-per-year rate, which includes unlimited local and long-distance calling, and you'll get a second year free.

In case you're unfamiliar with them, VoIP services leverage your broadband Internet connection to let you make and receive phone calls. The experience is virtually identical to using a landline, and in most cases you can keep your existing number.

ViaTalk provides a boatload of calling features as part of their "vt_unlimited" plan, everything from voice mail and caller ID to call recording and scheduled wake-up calls. You also get a free phone adapter, which plugs into your router or broadband modem.

Last summer I reviewed ViaTalk for PC Magazine, and dinged them pretty heavily for poor customer service. But things have improved considerably since then, and I haven't needed customer service even once in over 7 months. (Full disclosure: I'm a ViaTalk customer, but otherwise have no affiliation with the company.)

Bottom line: ViaTalk was already a deal at $199 per year, but $199 for two years? Well, that's twice as good. Of course, if you really want to talk cheap (and don't need all the fancy features), look no further than the MagicJack, which offers a full year of service for just $40 (and $20/year after that).

[tarrantm]

I switched over to VOIP and Gizmo Project a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed not having to pay for a regular phone service. 35 bucks a year for a phone number and then 10 bucks every 3 months for pay as you go with the added benefit of having full control of my SPA3200 which means I can forward calls to my cell phone after X number of rings and even better, I can make long distance and international calls with my cell phone by calling into my voip box.

[Rinoferoce]

I bought a MagicJack and experienced problem after problem with it since. First, it arrived 30 day later and never worked properly. Moreover, I have lost about 20 hours total chatting with them without any results. Secondly, they refused to replace it, even though they admit it is defective. Thirdly, they refuse to give me back my money.

If I can recommend 1 thing to everybody that reads this, it is to stay away from that company and its products.