The idea of a home phone has changed drastically over the last decades. When you mentioned a home phone, it used to mean a landline phone that had no connection to the internet. It was also generally billed by a phone service rather than an internet provider or digital phone service. There were also very few additions and features you could have on these phones. Today, you can go through your internet service provider for a virtual or internet-based phone plan. If you are considering this, here are a few of the features you may want to know about. 

Digital Voice Mail

Voice mail is something most people want to have on their home phones. This is for several reasons. One of the reasons is due to screening calls. You may be working, having visitors over, eating dinner, or simply just not feeling up to talking to anyone. With a digital voice mail system, you can turn off the ringer on your phone and go about your day with no interruptions. At the end of your day, when you are ready to check your messages, you can go back and review the voice mail from your home phone, cell phone, and even online. 

Digital Call Blocking

There are many reasons you may want a call block feature. For most people, it is to stop robocalls that can become harassing. There are some telemarketing calls that can come in several times a day, too early in the morning, or too late in the evening. With a digital call blocking system, you can block certain numbers easily. You can use the feature on your home phone. However, with many internet providers, you can block the calls directly from your online account. This makes it easy to block the calls at any time from nearly any location.

Forwarded Calls

You may not think of forwarded calls as being a feature you need. The truth is, there are multiple events that can happen in your daily life that cause the need to forward calls. For example, you may have an illness in the family that requires you to relocate to a family member's home for a short time. You can use the call forwarding feature to forward calls to your cell phone or family home during the time you are away from your home phone. You can also forward calls to your office, your mobile phone, and a different business line if necessary. 

These are just a few of the features you can add to an internet provider based home phone. If you still believe you want this type of phone service, contact your local internet provider. They can help you with adding the phone line to your billing statement. They can also inform you about specials they are having, features you may not know about, and adding those features to your bill.

For more information on the benefits of a home phone, contact a company near you.