Yep, I have a regular phone number. You pick the area code then the city within that area code and the last four are set by the service. The beauty of it is that you can choose any area code you want. So if you had family that was out of state for instance, you could pick a number that is local to them so they could call you free of charge, your long distance is free so you can can anywhere.
As for the 911 service, they (MagicJack) have submitted everything. There is an indicator on the software interface that lets you know when you are good to go with 911 service. In other words, all the work is complete and they know where you are when you call if you should need to.
The down side to all of that is that the service is designed to travel with you. So if you go out of town, you can technically take a phone with you and plug the magic jack into say your laptop and make a call. Granted its kinda pointless if you have cell phones, Im just saying you could do it. So in that situation, the 911 is pointless.
When I was in the military I had one of those watches that you could punch numbers into and then hit a button and it would put out DTMF from a built in speaker. I always got razzed for such a pointless thing. But by golly, we were overseas and in the middle of no where and one of our vehicles went over a cliff (this was before cell phones were really even on the market strong). No one was in it, the brakes let go and it took off. Well it had our military radio in it.
We needed to get in touch with the base and had no real way to do so. We went to the nearest pay phone. Well guess what. That sucker you could pick up and get a dial tone but several of the number pads didnt work, of course numbers we needed. Well guess who came to the rescue with his little crazy watch.
Just a story to show you never know. I doubt I would take my magic jack with me anywhere but I can see situations with my storm chasing that it could prove useful.
