The cost of phone service has been going surprisingly quickly for years now. This has prompted a lot of people to look for alternatives to getting their home phone service from the traditional phone company. The good news is that land line phone service for many homes is available through cable TV companies.



This may come as a surprise to you initially. After all, you may be wondering what cable TV companies know about phone service. When you think about it though, it makes sense for cable TV companies to get into the phone business. Cables bring information into your home in the form of TV programming, and in the case of high speed Internet, those same cables can allow you to transmit data from your home as well. This two way transmission of information is all that's really needed for voice communication over the phone. Therefore, all the cable TV industry had to do in order to offer this service was learn the details about telephones.

The results of this endeavor are pretty impressive in a number of ways. For instance, the calling plans on phone lines from the cable TV companies consistently deliver better features, service, and value than the calling plans that you can get from the traditional phone company. For example, you can pay a small fortune for a basic phone line from the phone company. This is the kind of basic service that doesn't have any advanced calling features and sticks you with the most expensive long distance service. For roughly the same price though, you can get the cable company's basic phone line which has just about all of the advanced calling features that you could want, along with all of the domestic long distance calls that you care to make (including those to Canadian numbers) at no additional charge.

The calling features that come standard on the plans from the cable TV companies are extremely useful both for your convenience and your security. For instance, Caller ID can tell you who's calling before you pick up the phone so that you can simply ignore the calls from people you don't want to talk to and answer calls from people who you do want to talk to. Call Waiting lets you take a call from one person while you're on the line with another. This is especially useful for situations when you want to talk to one person even though you're expecting an important call from another. Voice mail is somewhat like an answering machine, but the messages are stored by the phone company and it can take messages even when you're on the line with someone else. It's a good way to deal with calls when you aren't sure whether or not you should take them.

Another advantage of getting a phone line from the cable TV company is that it's completely compatible with the existing phone system. This means being able to keep your existing number and being able to use 911 service with the confidence that your address will be relayed along with your emergency call. Those are two features that you won't necessarily get with the VoIP or mobile phone options.