Sunday, March 18, 2007

Media Overload

I am stymied by phones - ours seem to just keep multiplying. We have a home phone, my husband and I each have cellphones (now de rigeur) , plus we each have an at-home business line. My business phone even has a separate long distance service, since I like Working Assets Long Distance, which gives a percent of its profits to great causes.
We also have highspeed and cable TV, yet another provider. And for free we have skype, one more way to make phone calls. We are not hard to reach! Not only does it seem ridiculously redundant, it also means keeping track of six different accounts and paying six bills. (I just read in the NYTimes about GrandCentral, a new service which will ring all your phones at the same time. For some people this solves a problem, but for me the concept was terrifying.) I know young people are giving up land lines, but we like being listed, and having the phone ring throughout the house.
We just signed up for a new offer from Comcast. For less than we are now paying for TV and highspeed, they will add local and long distance phone service. From my point of view, it costs less (a $39.95 a month charge is now disappearing) and eliminates one bill/account. Though I am a little skeptical about how they can charge less and provide more. What am I missing?

No comments: