Re: Summary of status of Microsoft Support scam phone call today on Linux from Android

I pay Brighthouse for cable access, and that's a wire to my house. However, I could pay DirectTV for dish reception and not have a wire.

Costs vary depending on the extent of the service. I pay $160 a month, but that's for internet, cable TV with premium channels, and land-line telephone service.

I would like to eliminate the land-line, but my wife doesn't want to. We tried VoIP a few years ago with the land-line number ported over, but during the second week we had it there was a computer problem. My wife has a once-bitten attitude.

Her sisters and other family are not the type to switch over to our cell phone numbers. If they called the land-line number, and it was no longer in service, they'd assume we died.

I think DSL is somewhere around $50 per month, but it's not available to me as I'm way too far from the switch, they tell me.

So "I" get "my" internet from the sky.

The Ooma hooks to the router. And a standard telephone hooks to the Ooma.

Total cost is: Internet = $50/month (roughly for 10Mbps symmetric, although it varies) Ooma = $125 (one-time charge at Costco for the equipment) Tax = $4/month (state and local)

Here is a better model (this one has WiFi) than I have:

If I understand you correctly, your monthly charge (neglecting the cost of the $125) is $55.

That is about what I pay now for internet, long distance in the us and "local" calls to my area (whatever that is now; it's been shrinking as more area codes are added). I no longer make any calls to outside the US so I don't know what AT&T would charge for that.

Admittedly, this comes with the provision that I need to call up AT&T every six months or so and ask why they have changed my plan when it was supposed to run for a year.

I think I'm too resistant to change now to fuss with new-fangled gadgetry. More's the pity.

Yes. That's about right. About $50 a month for Internet, and about $4 or $5 for Oooma taxes. The Oooma itself is about $125 at Costco, and is a one-time charge. Of course there's also the hardware telephone.

But, after that, all calls to the USA are free, for life. If you make believe you are in the USA, then all calls from, say, Australia, to the USA are also free. Likewise for all calls from India to the USA.

So, the scammers *could* be getting their calls to the USA for nearly free (all they need is an Internet connection & pay the $4 or $5 a month USA taxes).