So it seems my ATT landline now includes unlimited free calling to Mexico...

[mstevens]

You still have a landline?

I certainly do. Cellphones don't work at my house or anywhere near it.

VOIP can work fairly well under the right circumstances, but I lose cable internet vastly more frequently and for much longer times than I lose landline service. I also lose power quite frequently, sometimes for weeks at a time. I'm obligated to be reachable and to be able to respond to pages on my beeper (yep, those still exist, and are extremely reliable), so... landline.

I actually have an old rotary-dial traditional phone under the bed that I can plug in when the power goes out. It works so reliably when the power is out that I can't recall the last time I didn't have phone service.

 

[gcawad]

I was checking my cell options before our trip in February and ATT includes free mexico calls and 2gb data per line now on many plans.

 

[backprop]

I was checking my cell options before our trip in February and ATT includes free mexico calls and 2gb data per line now on many plans.

I posted about this earlier in the thread. The Mexico bonus includes only 1GB of data:

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/international/mexico-roaming-bonus.html

Includes unlimited talk and text in Mexico & from Mexico to the U.S. (with texting to additional countries), plus 1GB data use in Mexico (overage: $20/GB; Mexico data does not roll over).

 

[gopbroek]

I switched my cell over to T Mobile last summer for unlimited 4G data (new plans now 10G), calls and text anywhere in Mexico, Canada and the US. It also included 7 G of tethering to run my tablet or laptop. So far it has worked where ever I tried it in Mexico. Since then the other carriers have rolled out 'me to' offers but when you listen to the disclaimers and limitations it becomes clear that it is basically a gimmick and they still have 'gotcha penalties' and costly bump charges for their services.

 

[DandyDon]

I certainly do. Cellphones don't work at my house or anywhere near it.

VOIP can work fairly well under the right circumstances, but I lose cable internet vastly more frequently and for much longer times than I lose landline service. I also lose power quite frequently, sometimes for weeks at a time. I'm obligated to be reachable and to be able to respond to pages on my beeper (yep, those still exist, and are extremely reliable), so... landline.

I actually have an old rotary-dial traditional phone under the bed that I can plug in when the power goes out. It works so reliably when the power is out that I can't recall the last time I didn't have phone service.

Thank you for discussing landline service.

I didn't think rotary phones would work on touch-tone lines? I guess that'd vary with location and local switches.

I really wanted to pass the word that some of us have free calling to Mexico on our landlines now, in case some don't know - like I didn't. It may be a Voip benefit only - with ATT anyway?

 

[backprop]

Rotary phones will work with any true land line service - the switches in the central office recognize it - but not with U-verse voice. You can still talk on them, and they will still ring, but you can't dial out.

 

[cvchief]

We used to practice dialing using the hangup on the rotaries. We still get 9-1-1 calls from water in the phone boxes that simulate a rotary dial and eventually tap out 9-1-1.

 

[DandyDon]

Rotary phones will work with any true land line service - the switches in the central office recognize it - but not with U-verse voice. You can still talk on them, and they will still ring, but you can't dial out.

My daughter & SIL got one at a thrift store and used it as a novelty at one time, just for answering I suppose - then they got Uverse. Back in ancient days, I remember you could dial a call on one by keying the number on the receiver if you could click carefully.

We used to practice dialing using the hangup on the rotaries.

Yeah, that.

 

[mstevens]

I didn't think rotary phones would work on touch-tone lines?

It works, in any event.

I'm in a little time-bubble where the local phone company was NEVER "Ma Bell" but rather a locally-owned independent company. When I moved here, you only had to dial a 3-digit prefix if you were calling another town, and all numbers in-town could be reached by dialing 4 digits. I'm told that just a couple of years earlier (this would be early 1990's) you could just fiddle with the switchhook and get Mabel to connect you.

 

[BRT]

It works, in any event.

I'm in a little time-bubble where the local phone company was NEVER "Ma Bell" but rather a locally-owned independent company. When I moved here, you only had to dial a 3-digit prefix if you were calling another town, and all numbers in-town could be reached by dialing 4 digits. I'm told that just a couple of years earlier (this would be early 1990's) you could just fiddle with the switchhook and get Mabel to connect you.

Ahh! I remember those days when 3775 would reach one Grandma and 2345 would reach the other. We were really put out when we had to start dialing 10 digits to reach the next town and 7 to dial locally. Our phone lines are still copper here and when long distance is down we can still dial locally.