I pay for a cell phone "family" plan and have four phones on it. At some point my kids can choose to "port out" and have their own plans, phones, etc. but for now, it works out about $30 each. It's just that I pay for them all, and that's okay--this way, if I need, I can take a look at their usage. I don't (though I'm always pleased to see my son sitting and whipping through texts to friends--they, and I, were frustrated that we couldn't text him with his old phone. When his other prepaid plan his dad had him on ran out of minutes, I put him on mine and we transferred his number over. His school friens on facebook were ecstatic they could text him, and I see he has taken to it like a duck to water.)

I may bundle the house phone and Internet. I spoke with the neighbor about her service--the AT&T line has been so noisy, but the cable connection is fine, and my house is wired to easily accommodate the cable modem for the phones. I just have two phones left to wire to the new pattern (they run from the connector on the outside of the house, not from the hub in the closet, like the rest of them. The hub has a line out to the connector, but that can easily be disconnected and the modem hooked to the hub.)

I know, it isn't easy to imagine. Star wiring pattern vs Ring wiring pattern are on this page--scroll down. Many homes used to have a ring pattern, meant that the wires ran between the phones. In my case, it was a star from a funky old outside connector hub and I'm simply moving the star hub from outside to inside, and using a much easier little board to wire to (not the "66-block" he shows, though I do have one a friend gave me, and they aren't as easy to figure out as you'd think).

SRS