Catnapper, we use Comcast for cable TV and internet. They don't have the phone available here yet either, but the prices for myself ended up being the same anyway, so I chose to stay with regular phone because if the power goes out phone still works, no battery backup needed, also I didn't want to pay the hookup fees whe it ended up being about the same as regular phone. I beleive it's about 47 dollars. I don't use much long distance though, because I use my cell phone for that for free, so that might make a difference in the price for you. It would still be worth it for the TV and internet though. We got rid of our dish too. You can always add the phone feature later, as well, if it would save money.