I recently fired my telephone company.  I just knew I could survive without them.  I really thought it would be easy -- not so.  My encounter with Magic Jack was totally unsuccessful.  Ditching my local telephone service and talking for virtually free over my DSL connection seemed like a great idea.  Unfortunately, each call that I made sounded like I was talking to Charlie Brown's teacher on the other line. 

The call echoed and "froze up" on numerous occasions.  While this might be convenient when I'm talking to my mother-in-law (just kidding, Carol), it certainly isn't acceptable on a daily basis.  Now, I'm going to try to hurry and ship my Magic Jack kit back to wherever this device came before my free trial period expires and my credit card is charged $96.30.  For some reason, I am very anxious about returning the Magic Jack in that I'm fearful that my credit card will be charged regardless of whether I send it back or not.

For those of you desiring to sign up with Magic Jack, please save your money and buy a couple gallons of gas.  I thought that the problem might be with the speed of my DSL service, so I upgraded to the fastest DSL connection with AT&T for an additional five bucks a month.  It didn't help.

Clark Howard has spoken fondly of the Magic Jack. and I'm perplexed as to why it didn't work for me.  Maybe Clark doesn't have to audibly connect with and understand the person on the other end of the line. 

If anyone has any suggestions on another alternative, I'd love to get your thoughts.