Help me (mother) ditch comcast for her phone and use voip (or something like it)

[Nvidiaguy07]

So my mother still insists on having a house phone. I was over trying to do what I can to cut her bill down as much as possible, but her having phone through comcast is the only thing I dont know what to do with.

She barely watches TV anymore, and would be perfectly happy with just a chromecast set up in the living room to watch a few shows. I have an extra modem for her, and ideally, I would like her to just pay for internet.

My first suggestion would be to port the number to google voice, and then get her a basic cell phone to keep at the house, that would use grooveip or something like it to make calls over wifi. (assuming she wants to keep her cell phone and home phone on different lines). With google voice being neglected for too long, and the news I might have heard a few months ago about google killing apps like grooveip I dont think this is the best idea.

I would still like her to be able to keep a phone in the house (cordless 90's style), but if I could set it up over her home network that would be best. I remember seeing things like this a while ago, but havent looked into it in 5+ years.

Keep in mind, it has to be somewhat reliable, and foolproof once I set it up, since I wont be there all the time to fix when it goes wrong. (not that comcraps phone is reliable either, but you get the point)

Lemme know what you think!

EDIT: Forgot about magicjack. Is that still around and any good? I guess I could try magicjack and google voice together. My only potential problem would be when she calls out, it would not be her ported google voice number. Ehhhhh i dunno....

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

No, don't do the whole GrooveIP crap. It's a solution for techies and it honestly doesn't make a lot of sense for the general user.

Try Ooma (http://www.ooma.com/). Got one and stopped those $30/month fees

 

[Torn Mind]

I would second the Ooma suggestion and advise that the modem and Ooma device be attached to a UPS so she can at least use the phone for a while after a power outage. If she wants a landline experience, the setup, whatever it is, will need to be like a landline. Nothing that looks like an extra step, even simple things.

The MagicJack Plus adapter from 2012 seems to be fine. Or you can do some traditional VOIP box with Callcentric or another provider.

 

[nickbits]

Obihai and anveo $40/year plan is what I use.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

I would second the Ooma suggestion and advise that the modem and Ooma device be attached to a UPS so she can at least use the phone for a while after a power outage. If she wants a landline experience, the setup, whatever it is, will need to be like a landline. Nothing that looks like an extra step, even simple things.

The MagicJack Plus adapter from 2012 seems to be fine. Or you can do some traditional VOIP box with Callcentric or another provider.

what would be the difference between magicjack and ooma? They seem pretty similar, but Ooma just seems a little more supported. Can I port her number to ooma? Or should I be going through google voice for either one?

I wish google voice could be set up to have a different ringtone, then maybe I could convince her to just port it and use her cell phone. This way she would know if someone was calling the house phone or her cell phone. I dont think she would like the idea of just everything now being sent to her cell.

 

[lakedude]

I've got an obi 110 that might be the ticket.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0045R...&robot_redir=1

 

[MAG1969]

+1 for MagicJack... $20/year. And can port your existing number for an additional cost.

Been using them for 6+ years now. Since MagicJack Plus has been out its been trouble free.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Gonna make the order tomorrow, its between magicjack and ooma.

Do both allow you to port your home phone number? Ive heard mixed reviews about the magicjack, but those were also from a while ago. If she cant call 911 its not a big deal because she has a cell phone that she uses frequently.

Also - comcast has my phone lines set up nicely with their own crappy voip, so all I have to do to get all the phones in the house to work is plug in the phonewire that is hooked up to their crappy modem/router and im in business.

 

[MAG1969]

I use a detect 6.0 phone. One base and multiple wireless phones around the home. I'd you have an old school setup all hard wired to one junction it may require more. I am not sure. 911 comes with magic jack plus. Magic jack is available locally at most stores these days. $40 investment/risk and that comes with one year of service.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

Ended up going with ooma. Cost a little more, but seemed like less of a gamble. Will report back on how easy it was, how it worked for her etc.

 

[JEDI]

Ended up going with ooma. Cost a little more, but seemed like less of a gamble. Will report back on how easy it was, how it worked for her etc.

so how is it so far?

I'm thinking ofgetting rid of my landline but have no idea who to use to port my #

 

[RossMAN]

Ended up going with ooma. Cost a little more, but seemed like less of a gamble. Will report back on how easy it was, how it worked for her etc.

Ooma Ooma Ooma you made the right choice.

A few years ago we switched to Nettalk which was OK, reliability and call quality weren't great though. So after the first year was up we shopped around for a n00b friendly VOIP provider. After switching to Ooma, the difference was noticeable. The reliability and call quality is well worth the $3.50/mo in taxes. My only regret is not signing up sooner. For the technically challenged, after the initial setup it functions just like a normal landline. Instead of using a corded phone we use this which pairs with our cell phones via bluetooth, awesome combo! Our local CostCo B&M had a 4 pack on sale for $79.99 after instant coupon.

http://slickdeals.net/f/7069674-oom...service-voip-phone-and-device-99-99-ar-amazon

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

so how is it so far?

I'm thinking ofgetting rid of my landline but have no idea who to use to port my #

Sorry I took so long to respond - I wanted to talk to her before responding. Ooma is awesome so far, besides the weird sounding dial tone, it is exactly the same as having a regular landline.

I know comcrap likes to bundle its shitty services together, so depending on how they screw you, you might not really save that much money, but to me it was definitely worth it. Call quality is great. She uses her regular voicemail machine, so i cant comment on the voicemail - but im sure its the same as any other voicemail box. Set up was really easy - and it helped that comcast pretty much had it all set up where I just had to plug one cable in and it worked throughout the whole house.

One more thing I should mention is that you end up paying about 4 bucks a month for fees and stuff (911), no big deal though.

My last tip is to port your landline to a cell phone first and then to ooma to make the port faster. I heard that porting from comcast to ooma takes over a month, but porting from a cell to ooma is a lot faster. So what I did was port her home phone to a sim card on our family plan (costs $10 a month), and then ported to ooma from there. Porting from comcast to att took a day or two, and then from att to ooma took a little less than a week. In that time when it was porting, I just had her home phone # forwarded to the temporary ooma number.

Any other questions lemme know!