Phone neophyte here: What are the advantages (if any) of VOIP over a spare cheap cell phone? Cost only? (An added line to our current TMobile plan would be $20/mo + the cost of the phone).
We switched to a higher speed internet service last year (FiberOptics). It bundles our home phone, and internet service. We asked if we didn’t like it, if we could return to the former service. They told us YES.
It was a mess! Needed a new router, and it didn’t broadcast throughout our home The old one worked fine, but would not work with the new system.
I was not aware that once they installed the FiberOptics, we lost the primary perk of having a landline! The landline still works – but only when we have power. ALL service comes through the FiberOptics box – which needs power. We lose power a lot in our area. Old poles,+ old trees + wind storms.
I asked to go back to the old system as they told me, and they now said “can’t be done”. Company is trying to install FiberOptics throughout my neighborhood, and once installed, they abandon all the former telephone lines. Didn’t think to ask, and wasn’t explained, but obviously their original “yes” wasn’t correct. After negotiating, they are lending a puck system, which helps transmit throughout our home, but oddly still not as good as the old router.
We want to keep the landline number. I still share it with sales reps, and people I may want to hear from once only. We’ve also had it for over 40 years, and occasionally a friend will use the old number. But it is a pain to check messages, and I often forget. Plus even as part of a package, it is not cheap. So, I’ve started to consider an independent VOIP or even a spare cell phone added to our current TMobile plan. I’ll never use it for anything but calls (maybe occasional texts).
One of the reasons that I have moved so slowly to get rid of our old landline is because it’s a permanent decision. Like described above, you can’t get it back once disconnected. You can only port to other VoIP options.
“ What are the advantages (if any) of VoIP over a spare cheap cell phone?” - We have friends who did this instead of closing a decease relative’s cellphone account when they moved to another house. In our case, we could easily add cellphone (with ported landline#) to our Verizon plan. Or opt for a Verizon home VoIP. We just thought for emergency purpose we’d rather have two different carriers. Extra cellphone actually might be better for power outages, but they are not common here.
Despite my own hesitance to relinquish the old wired landline, I did set up triple pay (cable, internet, phoe) in 2011 for my budget conscious dad in NY. I reasoned that his cellphone carrier and his cable company would never both be offline… but yikes, it happened the next month with Hurricane Irene.
Ooma does have a battery backup device. I think also some kind of 4G backup available for signal.
Today we called our internet provider (a city utility, one of the fasted internet services in US). To add landline/VoIP to our internet service would be $25/month ($36 with taxes and fees). The advantage would be we very easy installation (tech will come out to give us the new box), and we could use all our current phone/phone jacks (tech makes necessary wire box changes).
That’s higher than I’d like but still $30 less than current CenturyLink bill, which seems to creep up in price frequently.
We are in investigating some of the other options discussed above. But Comcast, about $30/month, will likely not be in the running. It would require more fussing and probably new phones. But I’m wanting to ditching Comcast internet down the road, once hubby is on board.
I do feel like someday we’ll ditch the landline too. But for now not quite ready to do that.
I am a dinosaur landline owner still. I’ve mentioned this before but need to continue to spread the word. Our lives got so much better when we moved to this phone:
It only rings for contacts in your “allow” list. All others need to go through a process to record their name as an announcement and only then will it ring through to play their name and then you decide if you will answer. Unanswered calls go to voicemail. In the many years we have now owned this system we have had ZERO spammers bother to go through this process. Nobody is going record “this is the IRS” etc. They just move on.
The downside (small IMO) is you need to program the allowed list. Also, you will miss inputting some allowed callers initially (infrequent pharmacy or dentist or veterinarian, etc) but I have found that those callers, as long as not automated, are willing to do the name recording process. It does fail on legitimate automated calls/reminders not yet in the list, where neither machine is smart enough to handle the extra process. Adding new legitimate numbers is pretty easy with callerid it’s just a few clicks to add them then they are good to go from there onwards. No more calls during dinner. No more car warranty BS, etc. Just peace with our landline.
I like that Smart Call Blocker idea. How do you find the audio quality on that phone?
If we keep the landline#, we want it to have good audio (not always the case with my iphone 12mini, inside case). My 95 year old dad has a contact list in his lively phone, but often he seems to find it easier to just call my memorized landline#. And yep, I am really blessed to have him in good health, upbeat and eager to chat often.
@Colorado_mom , for your city utility internet, if they add VOIP, it would cost 25/mo including the box? Using an ooma would be the cost of the ooma plus about $6 / mo.
I started with a used ooma purchased off of craigslist. It took a call to ooma to help me install probably because they had to cancel the link with the previous owner. I used my old landline phone, so no added cost there. I am using the old phone network - had to make sure the incoming landline was disconnected. As I said above, I opted for the premier package, which allows one to accomplish what @MWCDSS describes with their call-blocking phone. Call quality is fine - the same quality as I had with the landline. I believe that there is some dependency on the speed of your internet, and I have a fiber line so it is plenty fast.
I have my internet modem and network switch on a UPS, so that if there is a power failure at my house, the internet will keep operating off of a battery for a while.
Thanks for the helpful feedback. Our city utility internet phone service would be $25/month with box (tech would swap to a new router, with phone port). But with tax and fees it would be $36. Not sure if there is a fee to port the landline# (one time fee $20-$40 for other options).
I’m quite interested in Ooma (or maybe ooma premier). Hubby still skeptical, so I’m continuing to research.
“ I am using the old phone network - had to make sure the incoming landline was disconnected.”
Per others who might interested in the detail, yesterday I found this youtube video, showing how to do multiple VoIP phone extensions with
cordless extensions (the first diagram in video; we don’t want to do that since it would mean buying new phone system, having to plug in charging stations for the the extensions).
OR at outside box, disconnect the incoming phone service connector… after it has been shut off and obsoleted of course. Multiple phones with one magicJack - YouTube
Video was for MagicJack, but I assume same deal for Ooma etc
@Miles_Perrara - Please feel free to add any corrections or suggestions to my above info.
Has anybody used Nomorobo? It is described as follows in user guide for a local VoIP option we are considering, but I suspect it could be used with other VoIP systems too.
Nomorobo identifies recorded phone calls, spam calls, or other annoyances or scams, and actively blocks the calls.
To configure Nomorobo you need to create an account with the Nomorobo service at: Stop robocalls and spam texts with Nomorobo - You will need to create a free account on the Nomorobo website and use the voice web portal to finish the setu
Yes, we have used NoMoRoBo on our VOIP line for several years. It’s been very effective at filtering out spam calls; we hear one ring and then it hangs up on them. It’s not perfect; a few spam calls do trickle through. And once the reverse occurred - our car dealer tried to alert me that a part had arrived, but the call was cut off by NoMoRoBo. Overall I’d give it a grade of “A-”.
UPDATE: Kept the real landline for now but reduced the bill (from $66/month to $43) by removing long distance plan. We will revisit the decision again down the road.
The Details:
We’ve been taking a long time to sort through this decision, with a big factor being that my landline gives the best audio quality for conversations with my 95 year old dad. Getting rid of the real landline is a “one way decision”, and I’m not quite ready. I suppose it is good that one of us on the street still has one in case of blizzard blackout.
The long distance plan I had, and really had not used recently, was $14/month. Plus a $2.99 fee (not needed to make long distance calls, only needed to enable the unlimited long distance plan). Plus taxes on that. Total of about $23/month.
But Dad usually calls me, timed for his convenience when hearing aid is on. I already use my cellphone for other long distance calls.
I had been coming close to switching to VOIP with our phenomenal local internet provider (highly ranked by PC Week), the option hubby preferred. But with tax it would be $35/month. At this point I’m glad to have the $23/month savings… kicking myself for not having done it sooner.
In the end, my grand vision of ditching Comcast cable TV (which hubby likes) and landline phone bills didn’t happen. But we did get our Comcast bill down by about $44/month (no change of channels… just switched to a newer plan/box and a 1 yr contract). And phone down by $23. So the $67 savings per month is at least an improvement.
My husband is going to sign up for DirectTV streaming for watching Sports for $79.99for the first 6 months. He likes to watch basketball. This one has no contract.
I’ve mentioned before that we were very happy with our Ooma device which is a VOIP device. The only charge was $6/month which I think was for taxes for emergency services.
However our old Ooma box died a few months ago and I didn’t want to buy a new one because we get very few real calls on our old landline number anymore. I didnt want to give up that phone number though so I ported that number to Google Voice which is free.
Whatever we do, I definitely want to keep our landline # (many people know it, especially my sharp 95 year old dad who dials it a few times a week). And I’d like it to have local 911 capability, even though we both have cellphones. Ideally it would work during power outage too, since we are one of the few in the neighborhood who still have a real landline. But the complications with having an UPS (uninterrupted power supply / battery) seem too much trouble… unless hubby decides he wants it for other network/computer purposes.
I have a google voice # as well as the VoIP landline and my cell. If our ooma dies I may ditch the landline. We mostly use it for junk calls and don’t want them coming to
My cell
I’m trying to help an elderly friends, maybe could get some help here. Friend has Comcast triple play and a wireless setup installed by a neighbor. She just hates the little handsets, would like to make her old big-button phone work. Is there any way to enable her old phone jacks to work with the new system. (I did see a way for a different VOIP, steps at the at outdoor box… see post #29 above. Wondering if that kind of thing would work on Comcast system).