An increasing number of U.S. consumers are turning to "cutting the copper" when it comes to home telephone service, relying instead on their cell phones or Voice over IP (VoIP) service that uses their home's high-speed Internet connections. However, such systems can stop working during an emergency such as a power blackout, hurricane or other natural disaster.

In the wake of a season that included hurricanes, wildfires and an earthquake, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have teamed up to provide a set of tips to help consumers stay in touch before, during and after major disasters.

Have you ditched your landline phone? If you’ve been thinking that your mobile phone may be enough phone for you, you wouldn’t be alone.

In this era of snazzy, do-it-all cell phones, cordless phones get little attention, but don't hang up on them just yet. Cordless phones have a few advantages that make them a smart choice for at-home use.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation today released a report showing that American consumers pay nearly $2 billion each year when unauthorized charges are "crammed" on their phone bills.

Cable providers and high-speed phone companies offer bundled home-phone, TV, and Internet services as a way to save consumers money. But which ones offer the best deals--and just as important to many of us, the best customer support?

Thinking of ditching your landline phone? A service called Ooma promises to make that decision easy and inexpensive for you.

Click here to play the Sound Byte: Cordless home phone features. (MP3 software required.)podcast: Consumer Reports It seems that cell phones and smart phones have a lot of handy features—the bells and whistles that have made these mobile devices...

[Update 12/14/09: Thanks to everyone for participating in this questionnaire about your bundling experiences. It is now closed. Based partly on your great responses, we've completed our story. Look for it in the February 2010 issue of Consumer Reports magazine....

(Click to enlarge.) It may be a tad early to start your holiday shopping, but there’s a good chance you’ve at least been thinking about it. Maybe you’ve had a big-ticket gift—like a new TV or home theater—in mind...

They may not grab headlines much anymore, but cordless home phones continue to improve, as illustrated by the latest batch of models posted to our Ratings, available to subscribers. Much of the credit is due to a technology called DECT,...

The morning DJ's that jolly me through my miserable morning commute—Scott and Todd on WPLJ—had an amusing exchange this morning. Scott, the senior member of the gang and somewhat of a technophobe, said he stopped into some Verizon and AT&T...

As some of you have pointed out in our recent post, Using your cell phone as your home phone comes with a risk, some states do require local carriers to maintain a "soft" or "warm" dial tone, which allows you...

The economic downturn is causing more households to pare down services to save money. You'd think one of those might be service to the family’s cell phones, but according to a new Center for Disease Control (CDC) study, it's...

It’s amazing how much damage a pair of wire-cutters can do. Officials declared a local state of emergency in northern California yesterday after vandals pried up manhole covers and severed eight fiber-optic cables, resulting in the loss of cell phone,...