I switched my landline to a VOIP service called ‘Callcentric’ years ago. It’s been great for me. Really cheap. Lets me block unwanted calls. Voice mails are sent to me as email attachments. Setting up the VOIP box initially require a little technical messing around, but that’s been the only drawback.
Several other commenters offered suggestions. I have some questions.
1. This seemed like the best solution to me. What are the worst drawbacks?
2. We have a phone on each floor of our house. Can we use one VOIP box with multiple phones?
3. Are there useful articles out there that describe the process of using VOIP for this purpose?
4. Are there useful articles out there about choosing a VOIP box?
Here is a device I have used before going to cell phone only.
Linksys PAP2T
It has two ports for analog phones. You can have two phone numbers eg one for fax one for phone. You can use each port the same way you would use the standard phone interface. Multiple phones can connect through a sinble port. Each of those phones would have the same number. Its pretty easy to set up as well. Service has improved greatly over time. Bigger pipes in and out of voip providers explains most of the improvement.
1. If your internet is out, your home phone is out. But since you have a mobile phone, that’s probably not a big deal. It’s possible that voice quality can suffer if your internet is running slow, but I’ve found this to be rare and 99% of the time, the call quality is indistinguishable from my old dedicated line.
2. Yep, the VOIP box powers all the jacks in the house (I have a Linksys VOIP device also)
3. Sure. Whatever provider you select will have setup articles. In terms of using it to power all your phones, there’s nothing to it. Disconnect from the phone company’s box outside, and connect the VOIP box to any of your jacks and it will power all the others.
4. It’s probably more useful to pick a provider first and see what VOIP boxes they support/recommend. Some require you to buy their branded box.
Depending on your ISP, you might be using Voip anyways. Unplug your modem and see if your phones still work (though if they set it up correctly, there’s supposed to be a battery backup somewhere).
Since I looked into this recently. You used to have to get fancy phones, but now you buy a box that plugs into where the phone line splits to the rest of the house, then it wirelessly or directly plugs into your router. You then login to your Voip provider and activate the device. Think of it like a Chromcast, a dongle that lets your legacy devices work with your router. The cheaper services are basically piggybacking on google voice. This equipment isn’t cheap, usually like $30-$100 or more, and these services aren’t *that* much cheaper than a regular phone line, and you have to pay extra for 911 support. If you ‘have’ to transition a number to Google Voice, you’re probably going to have to spend another $40 on a burner phone, transfer the number there, then transfer it to Voice.
Once you add it all up, VOIP isn’t cheaper unless you’re going from a Cell Phone to voip or you’re using it to avoid excessive local taxes and fees.
Keep in mind, google voice could any day become the next Google Reader. I think they have some deal with Sprint, which is why they’ve held off canceling it, but they’ve threatened canceling it for years. If you have to switch VOIP services, chances are good you’ll both pay more and have to buy a new box, AND you might have to get a new number.
Honestly, Voip looks like a dead end.
Services like Skype and Google Voice seem to be getting out of hardware support. Skype no longer sells phones, and they’re backing away from supporting them in case you wanted to try ebay. Other Voip phones, which were very cheap just 5 years ago, have now risen again into a niche market similar to the way a fax machine will still cost you $60 to $200 or more – if you need one, you need one because you’re stuck on a dead technology.
Your best option might be to get a second landline and start using your new phone number until you eventually drop the first line.
Voice over Copper is archaic and has drawbacks, but remember that the future arrives unequally. The ‘real’ future is no phone at all, everything else is choosing between transitions.
So, just get rid of your phone completely. Call all your contacts and say if they want to reach you to send you a telegram or a letter in the mail, you’ll respond within six to eight weeks. 😉
This is for the Ooma Telo ~$100 that connects to your router/gateway/modem using ethernet. Their Premier service ($10/mo+~$4/mo taxes) offers two lines complete with caller id and unlimited community and personal blacklists and Google Voice integration. It works with your existing phones, no special phones needed. Fax typically won’t work over it due to timing issues.
Since it is internet, the phone will be down when the power or internet is down. If your phone line is disconnected and unpowered from the local exchange, you can connect your existing house line to the voip telo and your existing phones throughout the house or just connect a cordless base station to it with the handsets throughout the house. You can use distinctive ring for the two lines. The basic package (~$4/mo taxes) offers only one line and not the blacklists.
The main reason to have POTS is 911 service. 911 can locate you via POTS; even if your cell phone or VOIP is working fine, 911 can’t locate you by it. Home internet has nowhere her 5 nines reliability, POTS does. If you don’t immediately, invariably recall where in your house you put your cell phone, or it’s battery happens to be depleted, you’re screwed; a POTS phone is always in the same place. If your home’s power is out, your VOIP is down, but POTS has independent power. A POTS line with no long distance service is $20/month; buy it as an insurance policy and never give the number to anyone, never answer the phone.
My callcentric VOIP home services has 911 support (and I’m charged the $1.50 license fee for it). I assume the same is true of other VOIP services for home phones.
What do you mean by “has 911 support”? If you mean you can dial 911 on your VOIP phone, you will notice I never claimed you couldn’t. The question is, which of the other attributes does it support? You can test the self-powered attribute by shutting down your home power and checking whether your VOIP phone still works (some have a battery, many don’t). You can test the independent of internet attribute by disconnecting your internet and seeing if your VOIP phone still works (it won’t, and your internet connectivity is nowhere near 5 nines), To know whether your VOIP provider is transmitting your callback and location data to 911, you would need to ask.
The FCC has a information page about VOIP and 911: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/voip-and-911-service
We used to have Verizon POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) and dial-up internet. POTS had its own power. Then we got a FiOS “bundle”: phone, tv, and internet through fiber optic cables with a battery in the junction box to run things for a while if the power ever went out.
Well, we had trouble with the battery recently and the Verizon technician removed the battery and didn’t replace it. He said FiOS no longer includes emergency phone back-up because most people have cell phones and don’t need it.
Second the Linksys PAP2T if you’re keen on keeping traditional phones around. The truth of the matter is, there’s not really a great reason to do so. You would do equally well having wifi phones, each acting as their own VoIP endpoint. The fact that they have devices that issue a dial tone over the wire is just a comfort thing — and it demands that you sever your regular phone line so it doesn’t interfere.
In any event, try http://voip.ms. They have specific instructions for setting up the PAP2T (https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Cisco_Linksys_PAP2T), and they cost next to nothing.
My family has been paying around $3 per month for over 8 years. We have E911 (an address associated with our VoIP line), and all of our incoming calls go to email — we found ringing annoying, and decided to keep the phones around only as a 911 device for the kids.
Now that the kids are 8 and 10, at least one of them is going to get a cell phone, and then the VoIP is going to go away permanently. Happy to mail you my PAP2T, pre-configured for voip.ms in your area — you just need to set up an account, move your number (DID) — or get a new one for nearly free.
VoIP is indeed going to become completely irrelevant outside of offices — but the cost of a couple of bucks a month is very hard to beat, even with more flashy consumer focussed VoIP providers.