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Originally Posted by Charlie
Last time I posted here, I mentioned that my phone bill was at $70. That was in 2019. Recently, it hit $105, and I finally had enough!
My cel phone is thru Verizon, and I found they had a cellular home phone service for about $25... and I got to port my original AT&T phone number. I am thinking this is the same service that n8nagel mentioned a few posts ago.
I have a little white box that picks up the cel signal, generates a dial tone, and acts just like the copper line. Plug your phone into it and presto! Works great.
I went outside and disconnected the wiring in the AT&T box on the house, and then plugged my white box directly into one of my phone jacks, and it sent the dial tone all throughout the house. So now, even the old phone on the wall works.
The only drawback (which is one I expected) is that I am not able to dial out with my rotary phones... but I have a cordless phone that I can use. My rotary phones ring loud and work great when an incoming call comes in!
There is also a battery in the white box that lasts for several hours if the power goes out.
My old Sony answering machine also works just fine with it.
Considering this is 80 dollars cheaper than what I was previously paying, I think the system works great and I am very satisfied!
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If you don't need a separate line and don't want to pay a subscription to use your old landline phones with the cellular network get an Xlink BT.... Basically it's a Bluetooth headset for cellphones that lets you use your old wired phones (Even rotary phones) as Bluetooth headsets...You can even dial out. IIRC there's even functions to dial the Google voice command system to control the smartphone if it's not in the room. My friend has a mystery control Philco and the remote lets you turn it off, but not back on so he has it plugged into an IOT outlet that his phone controls so I watched him turn it on by picking up his rotary phone, dialing 2 digits and saying "Computer turn on the Philco".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed in Tx
My AT&T VoIP phone is $32 a month plus taxes which runs it up to $45 a month. 50% Fed state and local taxes and fees! Audio quality is better than the old land line which was prone to static and noise. VoIP not as reliable though. The old wire line never lost power. After about 2 hours the battery in the modem that does the VoIP phone runs out, and takes about 8 to 10 hours to recharge, so not reliable for prolonged power outages. And yesterday I noticed I had not received any calls in 10 days. Got to checking, called the house phone with my cell phone and nothing, no ring, no indication of an incoming call! I called out to my cell phone and that worked, then tried incoming call again and it works now, rings the house phones. So I learned I need to check it occasionally to make sure everything is working. First time since 2015 that's happened.
I too disconnected the old line from the terminal box on the house. It was inducing an AC hum into the phone line. And I plugged the modem into one of the jacks in the house which connected all the house phones to the VoIP system. The AT&T installer at the time told me that wouldn't work! He had no idea why I had a hum on the line either. After he left I fixed it myself by disconnecting the old drop line from the pole to the house, wound up the wire and tossed over the fence. They have let the old wire system deteriorate like someone else mentioned with plastic bags over the terminal boxes etc.
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Many installers are not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree...The one that wired cable in our house was having a hard time figuring out how to run a line to various rooms without going on the outside of the building which ma didn't want....I noticed the phone lines traveled to the upstairs rooms through the vent ducts/which rooms they serviced suggested we use that method and we were able to get cable upstairs that way....This was back when I was in college and he was so impressed with that wiring solution he asked me if I wanted a job with them.