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Posted by ed on August 14, 2008, 2:59 pm
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For years I've maintained a pager/voicemail account and gave out that phone
number to companies and others I didn't want to talk with on their terms. It's
been sort of a mobile answering machine: the pager would beep, I'd call my pager
number from my cell phone, listen to the message, and call them back if I wanted
to.
But the price of paging service from USA Mobility (formerly Arch Paging) has
increased to about $20/month, so I'm looking for a more affordable alternative.
Instead of a pager, what's a good affordable service that would give me a local
voicemail number (215 area code) that would notify me of new messages via SMS or
email? A nice plus would be the ability to archive these voicemail messages as
files on a web-based service for future playback. (It would all have to cost
less that $20/month to be feasible.)
Thanks much,
-Ed
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Posted by Gary on August 15, 2008, 2:11 am
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>
> Instead of a pager, what's a good affordable service that would give
> me a local voicemail number (215 area code) that would notify me of
> new messages via SMS or email? A nice plus would be the ability to
> archive these voicemail messages as files on a web-based service for
> future playback. (It would all have to cost less that $20/month to
> be feasible.)
Vonage will do this, as will most of the other VoIP services.
Vonage's 500 minute a month plan comes in just under $20 with taxes
and fees in the Philly area. It includes voice mail, voice mail
notification via email, web access to voicemail plus a phone line with
lots of other features.
-Gary
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Posted by John Levine on August 16, 2008, 9:00 pm
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>> Instead of a pager, what's a good affordable service that would give
>> me a local voicemail number (215 area code) that would notify me of
>> new messages via SMS or email? A nice plus would be the ability to
>> archive these voicemail messages as files on a web-based service for
>> future playback. (It would all have to cost less that $20/month to
>> be feasible.)
>
>Vonage will do this, as will most of the other VoIP services.
Good thought. I'd suggest Lingo's "link" service which is $8/mo plus
the usual nuisance fees with no bundled outbound minutes (calls to 800
and other Lingo users are free) and voicemail which you can set up to
forward to e-mail. It can send you just a notice, or the actual
message as an attached mp3. Since I am a geek, I have my mail system
set up to recognize the incoming voicemail alert, pick out the
interesting bits, and send myself an SMS via Clickatell, but that is
perhaps overkill for normal people.
A straightforward way to archive them on the web would be to forward
the messages with attached voice files to a gmail account, where
Google will keep them indefinitely.
I checked, they have lots of 215 numbers available. If interested
send me a note, they have a referral deal where we both get a $25
rebate.
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, ex-Mayor
"More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.
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Posted by www.Queensbridge.us on August 15, 2008, 2:13 am
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> For years I've maintained a pager/voicemail account and gave out
> that phone number to companies and others I didn't want to talk with
> on their terms. It's been sort of a mobile answering machine: the
> pager would beep, I'd call my pager number from my cell phone,
> listen to the message, and call them back if I wanted to. >
> But the price of paging service from USA Mobility (formerly Arch
> Paging) has increased to about $20/month, so I'm looking for a more
> affordable alternative.
> Instead of a pager, what's a good affordable service that would give
> me a local voicemail number (215 area code) that would notify me of
> new messages via SMS or email? A nice plus would be the ability to
> archive these voicemail messages as files on a web-based service for
> future playback. (It would all have to cost less that $20/month to
> be feasible.)
Use a prepaid phone service like Virgin.
See http://www.virginmobileusa.com/
If you allow automatic charging to your credit card, you pay $15.00
every 90 days.
So it winds up costing you $5.00 a month.
It gives you free voice mail.
If you are interested, I could give you my affiliate code that would
give you some free time or money. Email me at BonusVirgin@queensbridge.us
Many plans to choose from, I have 18¢ PM at all times and text
messages at 5¢. I have Gmail send some of my Emails as TXT msg to VM
so I know if my photo lab has my work ready to pick up. Lab's
computer automatically send Email when work is ready.
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Posted by Herb Oxley on August 16, 2008, 2:02 am
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> Use a prepaid phone service like Virgin.
> See http://www.virginmobileusa.com/
> If you allow automatic charging to your credit card, you pay $15.00
> every 90 days.
> So it winds up costing you $5.00 a month.
> It gives you free voice mail.
<snip>
According to the Virgin Mobile Terms and Conditions:
< http://web.virginmobileusa.com/about/terms-and-conditions#TOS002 >
" Virgin Mobile phones and phone numbers may not be used for pager or
voicemail-only service, and Virgin Mobile may terminate any account if
usage is limited to pager service or voicemail retrieval service. "
So you'll have to make/take a few calls here and there to stay in
compliance.
--
Herb OXley
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