have you looked into VOiP? We paid $200 for the entire year, that included hookup, 2 free phones and all taxes. We have unlimited US calling, plus we get a free 100 minutes a month international calling.
Jack delete if you want - we go through sunrocket, you get all the stuff above, plus you get up to 3 lines. It is nice because you can designate one for work and work for personal.
I have been reading some articles and most of the major phone companies are cutting their landline advertising budgets and putting it strictly towards VOiP.
So far the only downfalls are 1) sometimes (very rarely) you will get an echo 2) if you lose your modem, you lose your phone.
I know 2 problems they had before were 911, which most offer now and you couldn't hook your house alarm to it. This has also been fixed, I think most charge about $50 to come in and set it up so your alarm works.