Same Problem, Solution = Vonage (Score 2, Informative)

I had the same problem, I live in one state, my family and my wifes family all lived in another state. So my Veri$on bill was outrageous. Solutions, almost 2 years ago now, I switched to Vonage, using my local cable provider for broadband access. The end result is rock solid service that has only gone down in price and up in features, service and quality, not to say it was bad to begin with. I have no land line service and I enabled the 911 service that is part ov vonage, that is that it calls geographically closet location and you need to tell them your address. As for soft phones , vonage offers a soft phone with a seperate number and seperate services with 500 minutes for an additional 9.99 a month. My recomendation is this solution, good luck.