Have you heard of the MagicJack?
My mom saw it on TV and I looked it up. You buy this usb device, for $40 and it has a phone jack on it. You connect a landline phone to it. You have to have a broadband connection, but you get unlimited local and long distance calling. They give you a phone number, call waiting, voicemail and caller id. The $40 includes your first YEAR of service and it's $20 a year after that.
We haven't had a home phone since 2003, since we use cell phones. I'm thinking about getting this so I have a home phone in case my mom or someone else, watches Evan at my house. My mom doesn't have a cell phone, so this would be nice to have.
The site is magicjack.com.
Re: MagicJack
Channel 9 news did a story on this the other day (which is probably where your mom saw it). Here is the link to the story and video on it...
http://www.kmbc.com/news/15428319/detail.html