OK....I'm not going to run down ALL your options...there are many. I have a Landline. I pay tax of $5.28 each month otherwise it's FREE. I have an Ooma unit($100), it takes messages, unlimited long distance and has free caller ID. It has to have high speed internet to work.

In my area I can NOT get really fast internet speeds through Comcast, everyone/other providers uses their cable/copper and costs more. The slower speeds cost less($40 a month....that's ALL I pay!).

Most everybody here has Direct TV.

Check out this rundown of what you can get with DirectTV. In particular, look what it has to say about Hughesnet, and also Verizon (if you're in a FIOS neighborhood--I'm pretty sure there are some in your general region).

Hughsnet is satellite based internet and it's not cheap; not certain of the reliability and/or speeds but it's very expensive (nice for those who travel in an RV though). When we lived in IL, we had Comcast cable internet and had no issues with it. AT&T internet is DSL based and won't be as fast as cable. If you have Verizon Fios available, go for that. My brother has it (western suburbs) and it's great for him!

jim, too late now, but you wouldn't have had the email address change problem if you'd used one of the open hosts, like gmail, yahoo mail, etc. etc. instead of using email from your service provider.

chisue, I believe the satellite providers can't (or don't) offer sat internet service to homes that have either DSL or cable or both. As plog's link shows, sat company bundles are just partnerships that include internet via DSL from a telco. True sat internet (for homes in remote locations) is slow and the plans offer usage limits that are much too low for streaming video regularly.

As mentioned, the best choices and maybe the only reasonable choices you have for internet service are DSL from the telco, cable, or fiber-optic in a growing number of urban locations. Cable is always faster than DSL. I switched to Comcast over 5 years ago and beyond the significant speed increase, the service has been very good. I'd previously had a DSL connection that was fast enough to stream video.

You can port your landline number to a Comcast phone service (likely a bit less per month). Or, there others like Vonage (about $20-$25) or Ooma as Nicole mentioned. I've used Ooma for the last 5 years, the service is terrific and it's very cheap.

I have a landline with att, cell phone with att, TV is direct TV not bundled with anything, and my Internet only is with Comcast Cable because it's the fastest available here. I definitely didn't want att for Internet no dsl ever again if I can help it. Now Att has a little better option but still doesn't compare to Comcast. So as you can see you can pick and choose to get anything you want from who ever you want. You can get a basic landline for very cheap and add direct TV with it from att, get Internet from Comcast. I have never had a problem with Comcast services, I highly recommend it. At the farm in Oklahoma we have a basic land line we only use for local calls, we use our cellphones for all other calls. We have direct TV. There's currently no Internet service at the house but I carry a portable WiFi device with me connected to my att cell plan and we use it for Internet. We don't do any streaming stuff with it. I absolutely love it for travel.

Added to say we feel having a landline is important living in areas like Oklahoma and Texas, and Louisiana. If the power goes out we still have a phone. With the voip and Internet connected phone you don't. We found during Rita and Katrina getting through on cellphones was near impossible. Of course lines can and do go down but it is worth keeping to us.

You probably know that most cell phones can be used in what's called "tethering mode" to act as a wifi router, to supply an internet connection via wifi signal to other devices like PCs and tablets.

As for true telco landlines, in 5 years they may be as rare as dinosaurs. It's funny that as their market share plummets, the phone companies haven't been lowering prices to be competitive with the alternatives people switch to (for those who have something in addition to a cell phone). Is it obstinance, or stupidity, or something else?

I did tethering for a while. The benefits of the unique WiFi device over just tethering was worth it for us. The speed is much faster and more devices can connect with less loss of speed. I don't know if it's the same with all the company's but with att the Unite device was free with the account and data plan we got and my data rolls over. I did see recently at best buy that several of the go phone type services now have portable WiFi devices for pretty decent priced plans. We have stayed with att because they have excellent coverage in the areas we are in most frequently. It's what works for us.

Interesting. I use Verizon, which as you describe for you with ATT, seems to have the best network in my area. The ATT network has gotten better around here, it used to be pretty sad. I don't have any circumstances when a cell-enabled mobile hotspot would be useful for me but I can see how they'd be great for someone who does.

Since peripherally on the topic of "land lines", that's another alternative for a home phone - there are little devices some cell systems offer that connect to the cellular networks and then you plug them into an old fashioned analog phone or a wireless home phone base station and voila - a home phone. Verizon calls it a "wireless home phone". As with an Ooma box, it's useful for people who have two homes, you just set up your "home phone" wherever you happen to be.

Gotta start dinner, but will get back here. THANKS to ALL! I'd be lost without you.

We have Ooma too!. (3.63/mo) Love it!!!.. We stream for the most part but have Dish very basic and local channels for news and local channel shows (27.00/mo) but it's a package that's no longer available. Our cable is Comcast because my husband says it's the fastest and nothing else is even near as good in the area. We have the upgraded speed for smooth streaming, 68/mo..