CenturyLink Phone Review 2020

Jump to: Plans and pricing | Long distance | Bundles | Deals | Final take | FAQ

CenturyLink phone service at a glance

CenturyLink isn’t trying to reinvent home phone service. The phones work the same. The features (call waiting, caller ID, etc.) are so standard that they don’t feel like features. The long-distance charges aren’t a joke. The bills can have puzzling and dubious fees.

So, yeah—CenturyLink home phone service is just like you remember from the days before smartphones. Minus the nostalgia.

Okay, maybe it’s not fair to say that landlines have no upsides. Ambulance drivers will know your exact location. You won’t have to charge your phone (as much). The phones don’t have tons of apps, games, and messages to distract you from real life. And retro-tech like this will totally boost your hipster cred.

Are we reaching for reasons to have a landline? Yeah, kinda. But that doesn’t mean your reasons aren’t important.

• Unlimited nationwide calling
• Great discounts in bundles
• No activation fee for Home Phone Unlimited
• Increased personal security

• No Price for Life with Home Phone Unlimited alone
• Activation fee for Basic Home Phone plan
• No Candy Crush support

CenturyLink phone plans

*Rate excludes taxes and voice fees/surcharges.
Data effective 12/12/2019. Pricing and speeds are subject to change. Not all offers available in all areas.

CenturyLink landlines come in two packages: Basic Home Phone ($24.25 a month) and Home Phone Unlimited ($60 a month).

Since Basic offers no long distance and no features, our favorite is the one that has those perks: Home Phone Unlimited. Something else we like about Home Phone Unlimited is that it has no activation fee (Basic has a $25–$35 fee based on your location).

Basic Home Phone doesn’t qualify for CenturyLink’s Price for Life deal, which promises no rate hikes as long as you have your plan.

Home Phone Unlimited qualifies for Price for Life only when you bundle it with internet service—but that’ll save you 22–32% per month, depending on the type of internet plan you can get. Locking in that discount via Price for Life would be a pretty sweet deal.

Now let’s talk long-distance rates (remember those?).

CenturyLink long-distance calling plans and rates

Data effective 10/21/2019. Pricing and speeds are subject to change. Not all offers available in all areas.

Long-distance calling with Home Phone Unlimited

Home Phone Unlimited includes unlimited long-distance calling throughout most of North America (50 states, Canada, and U.S. territories). But what if you have family in Japan or Australia?

If you need to call other countries, CenturyLink charges extra for long-distance calls, just like back in the old days. You’ll pay higher rates during peak hours (Monday–Friday, 7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.) and slightly lower rates on nights and weekends.

Of course, those rates are straight outta SayWhat-town. Calling Japan during peak hours with CenturyLink will cost $1.62 a minute. On nights and weekends, the same call will set you back $1.17 a minute.

Obviously, those prices aren’t ideal, but there is an alternative.

For an additional $6 a month, the CenturyLink Choice International add-on slashes your long-distance rate. That call to Japan, for instance, drops by 86–96% ($0.08–$0.22 a minute) with Choice International. And there are no restrictions on the time of day you can call.

See CenturyLink Choice International rates by country.

If you pick the Home Phone Unlimited plan, CenturyLink Choice International will bring your bill up to $66 a month (plus fees and taxes).

But do you really wanna spend 66 bucks a month on a landline? That feels like a lot of dough to blow on a service that’s almost obsolete.

Long-distance calling with Basic Home Phone

Bundling (discussed in the next section) is one way to get CenturyLink phone service cheaper. But if you don’t need or want internet service, you can save by going with only the essentials.

Let’s start with CenturyLink’s Basic Home Phone service ($24.25 a month). It doesn’t include long-distance calling. But if you can rely on your smartphone for long-distance calls, you’re done—and also richer by about $42 a month.

However, if you want long-distance service on your landline, you can add CenturyLink’s Easy Talk, which starts at $5 a month. You’ll get a monthly allotment of long-distance minutes to use that are valued at CenturyLink’s regular long-distance rates (discussed above).

That will bring your monthly bill to $29.25, which is still around $38 cheaper than Home Phone Unlimited with CenturyLink International Choice.

There are drawbacks to that method, though. Basic Home Phone requires a $25–$35 activation fee (Home Phone Unlimited doesn’t). It also has no calling features (call waiting, caller ID, etc.), but you probably won’t miss those as much as you’d love having 38 extra bucks every month.

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CenturyLink bundles and pricing

Data effective 12/12/2019. Pricing and speeds are subject to change. Not all offers available in all areas.
‡Requires a Price For Life Home Phone subscription. Additional fees apply. Rate excludes taxes and voice fees/surcharges.

Like we said earlier, bundling is the best deal.

You can bundle either CenturyLink DSL internet service ($49 a month for all plans) or fiber internet ($65 a month) with CenturyLink’s Home Phone Unlimited Plan ($60 a month), for a total of $85 a month.

These double-play bundles mean a monthly savings of $24 (22%) on the DSL bundles and $40 (32%) on the fiber bundle. That’s nothing to sneeze at—but only if you can actually use a dusty old landline.

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CenturyLink deals

Everybody loves a great deal. Price for Life is CenturyLink’s only active promotion—and it is great.

Our final take on CenturyLink phone service

Not everyone needs a landline. Many of us don’t even want one. But they can be handy in emergencies.

If you’d like that extra protection in your life, CenturyLink provides it at a decent discount—but only if you bundle. Otherwise, you’re better off with that high-tech, life-stealing smartphone.

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CenturyLink phone service FAQ

Do I need a phone line for CenturyLink Internet? 

You don’t need a phone line for CenturyLink Internet, but you will need a working phone jack.

Does CenturyLink have cell phones? 

CenturyLink does not currently offer mobile phone service.

Can I get CenturyLink at my house?

You probably can get CenturyLink internet or phone service at your house. Find out for sure with this quick address check.

What services does CenturyLink offer? 

CenturyLink offers internet and phone service. You can sign up for them separately or bundled together. (CenturyLink did offer satellite TV service through DIRECTV, but that ended on Jan. 31, 2020.)