It's all here in one post

What kind of phone user are you? You can answer by identifying yourself with one of the following two profiles:

1. You are on the phone all the time. You must have the latest, smallest, coolest, most multi-function phone. You were one of the first "new crazies" who walked down airport concourses apparently talking to yourself--only a small cord hanging from your ear betrayed you. Now, of course, you look like an alternative life form with a Bluetooth earphone perpetually perched on your ear. Your total phone bill per month would feed a village. You may stop reading now.
2. You only occasionally use the phone. For you, it is a convenience, not an obsession. It is often annoying when the phone rings, because it interrupts reading, conversation, or thinking. You have high speed internet access, because you find the internet to be a great source of information and a non-intrusive way to communicate. You have been concerned with the cost of your phone infrastructure, which you don't use that much. You might find it interesting, however, to be able to have unlimited calling to any landline or cell phone in the US or Canada from your computer for a few bucks a month. Read on!

I have discovered an alternative to the massive "phone print" that many people have inadvertently fallen into. It makes use of:

• A free phone number where you control whether it rings your cell phone or sends a voice message to email
• A service that for a few dollars a month allows you to make unlimited calls from your computer
  
• A cell phone that gives you:
• Portability
• Non internet-based emergency and outgoing and incoming calls
• Ongoing costs of as little as $5 per month

Initial costs will be a bit more, but what I am talking about here is ongoing phone service whose total cost is as little as $8 per month! And you get such advantages, which you almost certainly don't currently have, as voice mail sent to your email.

Here is how easy it is to implement this strategy:

1. Sign up for a free account at Grandcentral. This will provide you with a lot more function than you may ever use, but it will give you a phone number that will always be yours, and which you can forward to the cell phone you will acquire in step 3.

2. Get an account at Skype. You have some choices, but at the time of this writing Skype Pro will give you unlimited calling to landlines and cell phones in the US and Canada for $3 per month. If your computer is not equipped with a microphone, you will need to get one, or a headset with mike (could be as little as $10.)

3. Get yourself an inexpensive cell phone and service. Tracfone and Net10 are two good choices: they are prepaid services that feature inexpensive phones, predictable low costs, and no contracts. One source has suggested that Tracfone is appropriate for expected use of 100 minutes or less per month, Net10 for greater use. But this strategy should allow you to make very little use of this phone--see below. But, the choice is yours. Once you have laid in a modest supply of minutes--which will be provided with the inexpensive phone you order--ongoing service after the initial period provided by Tracfone can be as little as $5 per month.

You are good to go! Now,

1. Set up your Grandcentral number with your cell number. Give out your Grandcentral number to all your contacts. Email works great for this. Now, you have the choice to:
   

• Have all calls to your Grandcentral number sent to voice mail, which can be accessed through your email or through the Grandcentral site

• Have calls to the number ring your cell

• Have only certain incoming calls ring the phone, according to whether an incoming call is coming from groups called friends, family, work, or others.

2. If your calls are set up to ring your cell and it rings, well...you know what to do. Then, you can minimize cell minutes by telling your caller you will call them back, and call them through Skype.

You are about to be able to experience no ringing phones and minimal phone expense and the smug feeling that comes from sticking it to the man! Congratulations! Questions? Realitymensch@gmail.com