Landline alternative to AT&T in San Francisco?

May 7, 2013 8:47 AM

I have a land line in San Francisco. I'd like to switch to something other than AT&T - I really, really don't like giving AT&T my money.

I'd kind of like to keep it as a land line; I haven't had great audio quality with VOIP or cell. My current thinking is to switch it over to Sonic.net, but I already have one landline with their zippy DSL and I don't really need two. (Sonic doesn't appear to offer just plain landline service without DSL added on.)

I really only need the very cheapest no-frills setup.

Is there a non-AT&T super basic cheap landline service available to me in SF? Or is there another option I haven't thought of?

Priorities:

- avoiding AT&T
- keeping the number
- good audio quality

Thanks!

posted by kristi to Technology (5 answers total)

I have Sonic.net and they just give me one landline phone number with my DSL service, it all comes in on the same physical phone line.
posted by bradbane at 8:57 AM on May 7, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks, bradbane - just to clarify: I have two landlines. One has recently been switched over to Sonic.net, so landline A is Sonic.net plus DSL. So my next step is to figure out what to do about landline B.

Thanks!
posted by kristi at 9:09 AM on May 7, 2013

Are you using the Sonic.net landline for phone service? If not I think you can port your AT&T phone number to your Sonic.net account.
posted by jackmakrl at 9:10 AM on May 7, 2013

Here's the thing. If you want your phone service to come in on twisted copper pair, AT&T owns the wire, and will just lease it to a reseller. So either way, AT&T will get your money.

Unless a company is willing to actually bring NEW wire to your house, you'll be dealing with AT&T.

The issue is, at least if you're an AT&T customer, you can call repair if something goes wrong and they'll come out and fix it.

If you're a third party customer, you'll call your provider, they'll call AT&T and then AT&T may or may not come out to repair it, in about 50% of cases telling your provider everything is A-OK on their side, it must be them. Then you get hours and hours of finger-pointing and then after a lot of drama, your phone will be fixed.

If it's worth it to not deal with AT&T customer service, then that's as valid a reason as any to change providers. But don't delude yourself. If you're phone is coming in on wire, you're an AT&T customer.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:16 AM on May 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you get the Sonic "small business" Fusion package, you can get both physical copper lines bonded together to double your net speed. But even Sonic is leasing the copper from AT&T (it's going to Sonic hardware at the other end), and it's unlikely that anyone else can do that and make the phone service cheaper.

But if you've got excess internet bandwidth, how about a VOIP solution for your second line? Vonage or Skype or something?
posted by straw at 9:17 AM on May 7, 2013