Last week I did a review/update on my continued success using Vonage for my phone service. However, like most things I write about there were some that suggested other products. One of the suggestions was MagicJack. The funny thing about MagicJack is that my 60 year old aunt (who is very non-technical) told me about it a couple of months back. She came up for a visit from Georgia and I received a couple of calls from her from a number that I didn't recognize. When I asked her about the number, she replied "oh that's our MagicJack number. We use it to make all of our long distance calls." Honestly, I kinda blew it off at the time until one of my blog readers mentioned it again. So I decided to check it out.
Unlimited outgoing/incoming calls in the US or Canada for only $40/year!
That's what MagicJack allows you to do. If you have a computer connected to the internet (guess that's how you're reading this now), then you can plug the MagicJack dongle into your computer (Mac or PC) and make unlimited calls for only $40/year.
I went to the MagicJack website and ordered one. It arrived a couple of days later in the mail and last night I decided to check it out with some real world tests. See my video of the MagicJack in action:
The Bottom Line
Granted I've only used MagicJack a few times, but I have to say that I'm impressed with the audio quality so far. Once I got it and found out that you can use it with or without a standard phone, that made it even more attractive to me. Like anything there are pros and cons:
Pros: Make unlimited calls to any number in the US or Canada for only a flat rate of $40/year. You can even get multi-year discounts.
No monthly phone bills
Great for travel!
Call quality is better than cellular and almost on par with a landline
You get a phone number in the area code of your choice.
You get voice mail and call forwarding
911 service works and is directed to the address you register with.
You can use it to call other countries. Rates here.
Cons: You have to leave your computer on and awake to make/receive calls.
Will not work if you lose your internet connection.
Mac Users – Only works with Intel Macs (not PowerPC Macs).
Doesn't work in a USB hub. Wants to be plugged in to one of your built-in USB ports.
UPDATE: As many have pointed out in the comments below. The annual cost is actually on $20/year after the initial $40 for the MagicJack itself. Even better 🙂
Also if you want a site that covers the MagicJack in great detail check out these MagicJack guys.
I want one! OK, you can get one at Amazon here and at any of these at several local retailers like Best Buy, Radio Shack, CVS, etc. You can also order one directly from the company like I did at magicjack.com. They have a risk free trial going on.
$40 bucks for the first year, second year (and beyond) is even better at $19.95 USD per year. Phone line plugged into the wall jack from the computer and you have a whole house of phones connected to magicjack. We freed ourselves from the local telephone company.
Hi there . I wanted to share my experience with Majic Jack.. Yes the price is awesomme.. 19$ a year / unlimited. us & Canada calling .
. the trila period was excellent. then I prepaid for 5 years. suddenly , I am having dropped calls every time I call . Ive spoken to tech support more times then I care to mention.
They had me reformat this N that. download this N that.
change the port. open a port.
.
I am so frustrated .
I spoke to their tech again. now they tell me the unit may be faulty. so if I want a replacement. I must pay 48$ more . & then they will send me a new one.
well sincve I do not have a credit card.
now they tell me . they cannot send me a new unit .
Grrrrr!~!~
Plus when I told them to refund my money . no they dont do refunds
so. now I have this Majic jack that is faulty. & no one will replace it
I hope it doesnt say sucker on my forehead.
I refuse to reccomend Majic Jack to anyone after this terrible experience
Terry, Great blog! I had the same experience as you with the magicjack, but the deal breaker for me is that magicjack doesn’t support faxes. Also since magicjack as yet cannot port your old number, I couldn’t justify it for my photo business.
Otherwise, a great product.
I use it for everything and it works great, yes it does work for faxes. If you are having problems it is usually because your computer is not up to the task.
Biggest issue I’ve found with Magic Jack is that some phone systems don’t know that the numbers the MJ system is using are active, so when I’ve tried to dial my number (from my office or my Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go cell phone, for example), it tells me the number I’m trying to reach is a non-working number. I can call from my MJ to the phone. The phone company says that MJ needs to submit the request to have the extensions activated and until they do, I’ll have trouble from some exchanges.
I work with several people in Virginia that use MagicJack. On conference calls (using a dial in conference bridge) the MagicJack lines cause lots of echos on the conference. The echos cause the person speaking to be lost in the noise and make it so nobody can understand anything. Muting the MagicJack line helps but not always. Despite the echos the voice quality is very good (like Terry says “better than cellular”) and on direct phone calls I can’t tell its a MJ.
My first question was whether you could use a standard telephone to make and receive calls, rather than a headset like some VOIP solutions. Terry, you didn’t make that clear outside the video, so I’m spelling it out here: yep, any old telephone with a standard RJ-11 jack will work!
We’ve got a Uniden wireless phone that broadcasts to handset stations throughout the house, so we could simply plug in the base station and use the wireless phones on all three floors.
I’m really considering this…
-=-Joe
Would you choose this over Skype? For a multi-computer household I like that Skype does not require a piece of hardware in order to use it. Also Skype works on my Linux based Netbook.
Is the main advantage ease of use for non-techie people?
Jim, I think the main advantage here is that you can plug in a regular phone, a regular cordless phone, a multi-handset cordless phone system. So although it is one piece of hardware, you’re not having to make the calls through the computer itself. You can use the existing landline based phone that you already own and are used to. Since you can plug in a cordless phone, you don’t even have to be anywhere near your computer to use it.
I have been using this for over a year…..Great service and value….I was in India for a week and used this to call home with no issues….I use a regular phone set and it is way better than the experiences I have had with Skype.
We started using this at our cottage for the summer, in Washington state. They did not have a number with local area code so we have one from Alabama. This worked great for the first couple of weeks but now we have issues with sound quality at various times. Can’t figure out what causes the ‘beeping’ sound we hear, from time to time, which sometimes is so severe you cannot make out what the other person is saying. Other than that, it’s great.
We’ve had magicjack phone service in our house for over a year now. Definitly beats our past experiences with traditional phone service and vonage. The con you had about needing your computer to be on and awake to make or receive calls is right, however you can set you monitor to go off after a few minutes and spin you hard drives down and it will still work. My only complaint is no ubuntu driver, so I’m forced to run redmonds piece of junk for phone service.
We just bought ooma (www.ooma.com) and its great. $249 for the device and free domestic calls with no extra charge unless you need their “premier” features (which we do not). Love it.
Terry said, “Doesn’t work in a USB hub. Wants to be plugged in to one of your built-in USB ports.” I’ve been using MagicJack for 6 months now and I have it plugged into a 7-port CyberPower hub, which is AC powered. Initially I had the MJ dongle plugged into my MacBook USB port and I used a Plantronics headset but the static was so bad it was useless. When I Googled for a fix the main recommendation was to get a POWERED hub. Once I got the powered hub and a $14 V-Tech phone from WalMart I’ve had extremely high quality service.
Also, the yearly fee for MJ is $19.99. The $40 you mentioned is the initial price for the MJ dongle and one year of service.
Hi Terry, not sure you got my earlier comment…could you please take a look on Ooma another voip…it is also very good but no monthly charge.
Terry;
Please check out Ooma! I have had it for 3 months now and am totally satisfied! You can get it through Amazon for $199. One time fee; nothing more to buy ever! Then all calls within the USA are free, for life! Beats the pants off anything else I’ve heard of!
Even with MJ at $40/year, (which last I checked was only $20) you would have to pay for 5 years before you matched Ooma’s high “one-time” price of $199… making MJ the more sensible, economic way to go at the present. In 5 years there will be something better.
My parents have MajicJack and I have ooma. Ooma blows it away as far as sound quality and features. I wouldn’t use a MajicJack for free. Ooma paid for itself in less than 4 mos for me ($60+ monthly verizon bill)
Our 9 year old TiVo is the only reason we still have a landline. Any idea if this thing can handle modem calls?
Magicjack has evidently just launched a new free conference call service (www.freemagicconference.com) which on the surface seems really cool. The problem is that I only discovered this when I picked up my magicJack phone tonight to call a free conference call line in the 212 area code (new york) and was shunted to the magicJack conference call number, where it was NOT possible to get through to the conference I was trying to join. Bottom line: I could not use my magicJack to reach the conference call line because MagicJack automatically redirected my call to their own conference call center, and would not allow me to call the line I wanted to reach. Since the majority of the value to me is the ability to call long distance and not worry about charges, that has just vanished. I have been a magicJack enthusiast up to now, but if they don’t change their blockage of other conference call sites, I can’t recommend it to anyone any more. I’m not even sure that what they are doing is legal. Any opinions?
Not sure where you are getting your pricing, yes it is $40 at first but that is justto buy the product. I signed up for 5 years for only less than $50…Soooo, that would be $10 a year and not $40. Also hook that up with your google voice number and you get an even better deal!