I have new phone service and it's not from Qwest (hooray!) and it's very very nifty.

The phone number I have can travel with me. If I move to South Dakota or Oregon or Arizona, I can still keep my number complete with 612 area code for the Twin Cities (and I'm still a local call for my friends & family in Minneapolis and they're still a local call for me). I can add additional numbers with different area codes for a mere $5 each month (so I could have a number local to Seattle and one to Minneapolis all on the same phone bill, with the same features, ringing to the same phone).

You just need a high speed net.connection and a magic box from Vonage that you plug your phone(s) into. Who'd've thunk voice over IP would ever get this cool? They're got a whole array of calling features (caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, three way calling, voice mail) too, but without extra changes. So this ends up being cheaper than the "regular" phone service I had before.

Folks who call you won't know the difference-- you just give them the number. They may wonder why you have a Minneapolis phone number when you're living in Hong Kong, but so be it. Then you can tell them the geeky details if you want or let them wonder.

Calls still sound just fine to me. And I can get my voice mails on a webpage or via email if I want. Check my call log on the web. There's free long distance included (depending on the plan either 500 minutes or unlimited).

So Vonage is my new favorite company. Hooray! And 'cuz a friend recommended them to me, I got a month free and he got a month's service free (so if you decide to sign up, let me know and I'll give you a referral so you can get a month free & I will too; or just use my link above and that may work).