The Cell Phone Junkie

The high costs associated with cellular voice minutes are at the top of consumer complaints when it comes to monthly phone bills.  The carriers know that the lowest tier, typically around 450 minutes, is not enough for the average person, so you’re forced to buy up to something with more minutes.  Naturally, this next tier offers way more minutes than you actually need, so you lose unused minutes the end of your cycle.  And while more cost-effective VoIP services like Skype and Truphone have been around for years, they never caught on with the mainstream consumer as a good day to day usage option.  Toktumi’s Line2 service has set out to change that, with the ability to make and receive unlimited calls and texts to the US and Canada by way of a traditional phone number.  Line2 lets you use your carrier’s minutes, or through VoIP with either a cellular or WiFi connection.  Line2 offers a free trial, and standard plans cost $9.95 per month.

How it works

Line2 works by assigning you a phone number in the area code of your choosing, including the option to port in a number you already own.  Use occurs over one of the free Line2 mobile applications, including options for the iPhone, iPad and most Android devices.  Other enhanced features such as 20-person conference calls and visual voicemail also come with the service, virtually adding a second phone line to your existing hardware.

Plan Options

Line2 compared to other services

Use and Results

I’m not someone that uses a lot of voice minutes, but when I do, it’s typically on lengthy calls catching up with family and friends.  Most of the time, these calls occur in an area where I’ve got a solid WiFi connection.  I’ve tried various VoIP services, but have never landed on one that I’ve stuck with and used.  I met Line2 CEO Peter Sission at CES, who took the time to explain the product to us in an interview for on TCPJ Unlocked Show #106, and offered us a trial of the service.

Since Line2 provides a traditional landline phone number, I was able to integrate it for both calls and texts into my Google Voice account.  The applications for the iPhone, iPad and Android platforms let me install and test the service across multiple devices.  While you can’t be logged in on multiple devices at the same time, this flexibility let me choose the most convenient platform for me, which surprisingly was often the iPad.

Making and receiving calls is as easy as using the built in phone app.  Running on iOS 5 or Android, the app is always connected in the background, so is extremely reliable, and I never missed a call during my testing.  Sound quality is great, as referenced by this test call using on the iPad 2:

Line2 Test Call.WAV

It should be noticed that if you use 3G on an iPad or smartphone to make your calls, you’ll still have a decent experience, but the quality is not quite as good as over WiFi.  Also, depending on your internet connection, the application does a great job of dynamically altering the quality of the call to the speed of your connection, but this could force it at times down to something that sounds worse than a call over the traditional circuit-switched cellular network.

Overall

Line2 offers plenty of of features and value for its $1o per month starting price.  With unlimited calls and texts on top of a simple interface and a traditional phone number, Line2 sets itself apart from the straight VoIP services.  If you have multiple devices that support the use of the apps, you can switch your account between them depending on your needs.  And because Line2 gives you a phone number, the flexibility to use it with services such as Google Voice or even forward all calls to a separate number make it one of the best options out there for anyone looking to add another line to their device, or simply save money on their phone bill.

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