Last November, most people were able to switch their cell phone carrier and take their number with them. The rest of the country had to wait until now. But the time is finally here! In a few days, everyone in the country can “port” his or her number. So far, about 3 million people have changed companies and kept their number. People can also take their home phone number with them, too. It's the way it should have been all along. But the cell phone companies fought until they couldn't anymore. Let's hope the companies are more customer oriented as a result of the change.

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In other telephony news, there are several companies competing for your home phone service business, which is slowing slipping through the fingers of the monopoly local phone companies. New technologies that allow phone calls to travel via Internet connection cost very little and work magnificently. Vonage started the trend and Clark was one of the first to try it out. He absolutely loves the service. And, today the company has cut rates again to $29 for unlimited local and long distance calling to the United States and Canada. Calls around the world are usually 2 to 4 cents a minute, and the call quality is crystal clear. The reason it’s so cheap with these services is because thousands of people are talking on that same “line.” The Internet telephony services also don’t charge the junk fees that traditional phone companies charge. The down side is that you have to have a high-speed Internet connection. Clark thinks that won’t be a requirement in the next year or two because people who don’t care about the Internet still want to place calls that way. We’ll keep you up to date!