Help me cut the telephone cord! (re: using home telephones for voip)

[sofakng]

Right now my wife and I both have iPhones (3G and 3GS) but we also still have a land line because my wife thinks it's more comfortable to use a nice large phone when talking for a while.

My cellular provider is AT&T and broadband is Comcast (business class).

All I want is something cheap to allow my wife to make calls every now and then on the house phone with minimum latency (we've tried VOIP before and it was pretty awful) and the ability to use our existing phones.

What options do I have? I just want something cheap here that sounds good...

EDIT: Also, Google Voice seems like a nice idea so I can "hide" my real phone numbers so any solution that implements that is good too.

 

[vshah]

i've been using OOMA at home for a while... plug it into your existing house wiring and of your phones will continue to function as they do. 199 one time fee...i think in 2 years they'll start charging an $11 a year regulatory fee or something. quality and service has been great so far.

google voice can sit on top of any phone number, so you're set there too

 

[JS80]

I have the Vonage retention plan. It's $4.99/mo and I pay by the minute.

 

[Binky]

You could try your luck at the Ooma pyramid scheme. Who knows when it will crumble. For less than $200, it might be a great deal.

Viatalk and phonepower both have 2 year prepaid plans for about $199 ($230 or so shipped with other fees). They provide the ATA adaptor needed. They also charge about $3.50 per month in fees/taxes (I know viatalk, and assuming phonepower is similar), so be sure to figure that into the cost. Calls are basically unlimited, but almost all providers have a maximum of about 5,000 minutes. I have my mother on this plan and it has worked very well for 2 years.

For minimal use, you could also check out a pay-as-you go plan. Callcentric has a good plan. For $2.95/month you get a phone number. You need to pay 911 fees of $1.50/month unless you tell them you live outside of the U.S. (technically not legal, i think, but it works). Outbound calls are $0.02/minute or so. International rates are competative but not always the best. You probably have to buy an ATA adaptor. Check out the Grandstream 386/486 and the Linksys PAP2. There are many other models, these are just common models that almost every provider supports.

Edit - if you plan to plug any VOIP system into your house wiring, you must first disconnect your house from your local phone provider. Those lines can carry power, and you could break things if you just plug something in.

 

[sofakng]

Thanks for the replies!

I've actually purchased a Linksys/Sipura SPA-3000 ATA and I've setup Asterisk before, etc. Everything worked fine (and it was fun to learn/fool with) but the quality was awful. It's been a long time but I think there was a lot of static and I'm not sure how the latency/lag was.

Is this just a terrible adapter or could it have been something else? Every other VOIP/ATA adapter (eg. Vonage, OOMA, etc) is doing the exact same thing but just with different hardware, right?

 

[Binky]

If I were you, I'd try the Callcentric pay-as-you go plan first. You can set it up for free if you don't choose an inbound number. Deposit $5 into the account, connect your adaptor, and try some calls.

Was your asterisk setup linked up with googlevoice? If yes, that is probably the source of some of your latency. GV doesn't give the same quality (but...its free).

 

[pm]

Yeah, I'm using Callcentric too with a Linksys SPA-3000. Their customer support is pretty good for resolving voice quality issues, but we've generally had a hit or miss experience with Callcentric and I'm not sure that I'd wholeheartedly recommend them. We've been using them for over a year and most of the time it works well, but not always. We have a fair number of dropped international calls. I'm contemplating switching to someone else because my wife has not been happy with how often she gets disconnected.

Rather than VOIP, how about something that links a home phone to a cell phone? Like the Panasonic Link-to-Cell?
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Expandable-Bluetooth-Enabled-System-Handsets/dp/B00138AJPO

Or something that's not tied to Panasonic handsets like the Xlink BT
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00135XU7Q/

 

[ZXT]

Right now my wife and I both have iPhones (3G and 3GS) but we also still have a land line because my wife thinks it's more comfortable to use a nice large phone when talking for a while.

My cellular provider is AT&T and broadband is Comcast (business class).

All I want is something cheap to allow my wife to make calls every now and then on the house phone with minimum latency (we've tried VOIP before and it was pretty awful) and the ability to use our existing phones.

What options do I have? I just want something cheap here that sounds good...

EDIT: Also, Google Voice seems like a nice idea so I can "hide" my real phone numbers so any solution that implements that is good too.

I get good call quality using a Grandstream ATA with my Onesuite VoIP account. Did you check your latency or actual DSL speed? I was thinking its not the VoIP provider but rather something in your end.

I have Google Voice too and you can make free calls without a computer or internet but you need a landline to make the call. Not sure if Google readily gives out Google Voice account now because the last time I checked its purely by invites only.

 

[WildW]

Right now my wife and I both have iPhones (3G and 3GS) but we also still have a land line because my wife thinks it's more comfortable to use a nice large phone when talking for a while.

So, it sounds like what you want is the ability to use a nice comfortable handset with your existing phone? How about http://www.thinkgeek.com/interests/exclusives/8928/

 

[randomlinh]

your wife is right. she could just get a bluetooth headset if comfort is the only real issue. otherwise, I'm using voicepulse because we don't want to lose our number. Quality has been pretty good. It's $15.89/mo after taxes/fees for me.

 

[vshah]

ooma spanks my parent's vonage call quality all over...way less static. slightly more lag though, but its barely noticeable.

 

[Binky]

OOMA is a great deal as long as they don't go belly-up in the next 17 months. The lowest cost "unlimited" VOIP plans are about $12/month after fees and taxes. There's just no possible way that a $200 for life plan can live forever.

 

[ZXT]

OOMA is a great deal as long as they don't go belly-up in the next 17 months. The lowest cost "unlimited" VOIP plans are about $12/month after fees and taxes. There's just no possible way that a $200 for life plan can live forever.

I agree. I think it will begin to belly up when no one is signing up for a new account. For those who doesn't need unlimited service I think a prepaid voip service like Onesuite is a better choice.

 

[Fox5]

Get a local google voice number and just dial into it manually?

What VOIP schemes have you used before?

 

[jjmIII]

http://www.magicjack.com/2/?mid=308001&a=55959&s=726

My buddy is using Magic Jack and it sounds like a regular land line. I intend to give it a try too. How can you go wrong for the price?

 

[Fox5]

http://www.magicjack.com/2/?mid=308001&a=55959&s=726

My buddy is using Magic Jack and it sounds like a regular land line. I intend to give it a try too. How can you go wrong for the price?

There are privacy concerns with magicjack. Probably just targetted advertising, but you never know, they grab inputted text though. But they are the cheapest, even factoring in the power usage of a computer that's on 24/7 to use them. (the magicjack program won't allow a computer to enter suspend or hibernate, btw)

Also, if you already have a land line, google voice offers identical functionality for free.

 

[abaez]

Get a local google voice number and just dial into it manually?

What VOIP schemes have you used before?

This is what I do in conjunction with Gizmo. Dial in works fine. Dial out consists of dialing your GV number, waiting a bit, hitting 2, hitting * then the number you want to dial. Or do it from the GV site.

All totally free. I'm curious if I could buy a regular handset that could do this without me being at a PC. Hmm.