Need to Find New VOIP or Home Phone Provider

Topic

New Reply

I currently have my parents’ home phone service on a VOIP SIP Trunk from Nuso (formerly SoTel). I’m paying about $20 plus tax (which runs about $25-26/month total). We’re having reliability issues with Nuso, plus they’re now billing us for inbound scam calls instead of blocking them (it’s only about one cent here and there, but I don’t like the fact that I’m being billed for scam calls that the phone company won’t block).

I need to find a new home phone provider for them. Here are my needs I am looking for:

• Price: around what I’m paying to Nuso, if I can get it cheaper, great
• Setup: A “SIP Trunk” would still work since I don’t need a full-fledged hosted PBX. I really just need a single voice line to give them home phone service as a home phone replacement. I probably needs to be VOIP-based since I’m not aware of any other cost-effective alternatives.
• Handset/Devices: We’re using VTECH cordless handsets connected to a Cisco SPA122 ATA. We don’t need actual VOIP phones (an ATA would work). If there’s something compatible with the Cisco SPA122 ATA, great. if I need to get a new ATA from Cisco or the VOIP provider, that’d work as well (I can get Cisco to QoS it so it prioritizes VOIP traffic on my router). My router is a Cisco RV345.
• Calling Plan: Mainly unlimited local and long distance for the US. We wouldn’t need international calling on it. Call waiting and Caller ID we’d want. We don’t have hosted voicemail with Nuso at the moment (it rings the VOIP ATA then hands off to my iPhone using Call Forwarding if there’s no answer on the ATA or the power/Internet is out). If the plan comes with hosted voicemail, that’s OK, and I would like some way to access calls from my iPhone if there’s no answer on the ATA or if there’s a power/Internet outage.
• We’d need E911 Support (we also have Smart 911 setup with the number).
• We’d want to port our number from Nuso to the new provider.

I believe those are the main details. I can report back with additional details.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Replies

Years ago I had Vonage. I had excellent results with Vonage. Prior to getting Vonage we had intermittent internet issues – sometimes the connection would drop. After getting Vonage, our internet troubles all but disappeared – my thought was that Vonage was doing a lot of automatic error correction, resulting in our internet always being up.

We had a separate router and modem, which allowed me to plug the Vonage adapter into the modem, and the router into the Vonage adapter. In other words, Vonage got first dibs on the bandwidth. By having first dibs, Vonage always got enough bandwidth. However, it didn’t use much, so there was no negative impact on my other devices. If your parents have an all-in-one router/modem combo, they won’t be able to plug the Vonage adapter in front of the router, but it should still work with no issue. However, my gut tells me that it would be better to plug the Vonage adapter in first, and then the router to the Vonage adapter.

A really nice thing with connecting the Vonage adapter first in line is that if you don’t have an internet connection, simply pick up the phone to see if you have a dial tone. If you do, then you know you have an internet connection; a simple router reboot will likely fix the issue.

Vonage offered a ton of really useful features; and they impressed me as someone who really wanted my business. If I wanted a home phone today, I would look first to Vonage, based on my very excellent experience with them in the past.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Would MagicJack be the answer to your problem?  We have one in the UK, and can call all over North America for nothing.  We got ours at Target.  They once had famously awful customer service, but may have turned things round for the better.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

I’ve been using Anveo as a VOIP provider for several years (with an Obihai, now Polycom) Voip box. I pay $2.80/month for incoming + E911 and about $.001/minute for outgoing. They have higher priced monthly plans that include minutes. They well might meet your requirements and existing Cisco ATAs. Also look at Callcentric which is very well regarded VOIP vendor.

Good luck and expect your price to go DOWN! -Phil

P.S. With the Obihai I have a Google Voice number I use for outgoing only, plus my Anveo “landline” and another backup service for emergencies.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Here’s another option:

https://www.consumercellular.com/shopping/details/home_phone_base/details

This is a cellular adapter for your home – you plug a standard landline phone into the device. Or, you plug this device into one phone jack, and then all phone jacks in the house become live.

If I was looking for phone service for an elderly person, this would be the simple option, because it doesn’t depend on the internet being up in order for the phone to work. Sometimes VOIP can get complicated, because you have to have an internet connection in order for it to work. But not this device. All you need for this device is a cellular signal.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

[DriftyDonN]

Hi Nathan,

I am currently getting VOIP from Frontier FIOS (used to be Verizon) as part of a bundle. To block many of those robo calls, I use NOMOROBO.com  a free service for VOIP (not free for mobile phones. It actually blocks many, not all but what can you do? I have to activate simultaneous ring on my ISP account , enter a # in Wahington DC it turns out, and then when a call is intercepted, I get one ring then the call is sent to the other #. Maybe the calls go to a politicians desk? LOL  Perhaps this will help you out while you are searching for a new provider?

Frontier notified me that 911 calls will no longer be supported via my VOIP account!!! I hope my Iphone on Boost will….have to try to remember to check that out. Does your VOIP provider support 911? Just curious if that is a commonly disabled feature- doent seem right!

Don

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by DriftyDonN.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

[DriftyDonN]

Continued.  Since the election, Frontier has taken it upon them selves to disable the simultaneous call setting from time to time on my digital voice service. This disables nomorobo. Very reminiscent of the hardware co saying its the software and the software co pointing a finger at hardware.  Ourboros!

Frontier won’t/can’t do anything, nomorobo says they MIGHT contact Frontier. Neither one will fess up to having any kind of agreement with the other. Sounds fishy and stinks to boot, I’ve taken to turning OFF the ringers on my phones and periodically checking voice mail. More often than not there is nothing but dead air for a minute or 2 then end message. So I can no longer recommend Nomorobo. Sad. I have been using them for quite some time now. Suppose I cannot complain too much since it’s free on VOIP. Is HATE to strong a word for robocallers? I recall Wargames having a wardialer and I thought that was very cool. Dumb hippie I was.

So BEWARE ,esp if you are considering paying for it on your mobile phone. No support.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by DriftyDonN. Reason: wrong choice of word

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will look into them and see which ones would fit well for my parents.

Verizon also offers Home Phone Service over cellular (and I’m a Verizon customer, so it would be on my existing Verizon bill to throw it on there), but the hardware isn’t getting great reviews, so I am concerned about it.

I’ll also check out the NOMOROBO.com link. Nice to know they offer free scam call blocking for VOIP. For my iPhone, I use RoboKiller which has been quite effective.

We don’t have FIOS here (only AT&T which is outrageously expensive). I’ve never heard of a VOIP provider dropping 911 calls. That needs to be turned into the FCC for investigation.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Within the last month, NOMOROBO has prevented me from being hassled by over 300 robocalls.  Most of them were from 1) political pollsters trying to get a valid sample of voter sentiment, or 2) Companies trying to get me to change my MEDICARE providers.

If you hate robocalls as much as I do, give it a try.  It is free and very effective.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Nathan RE: 911 calls. I was able to get a clearer explanation about 911 call s. They do support 911 BUT I may have to give pertinent details regarding location, directions if necessary, name etc. Not sure why but seems GPS or some other reason location MAY be glitchy. So between their explanation and my understanding, there wasn’t a meeting of the minds. Bottom line- it sorta works but it may delay emergency response. Comforting thought, that – my wife had a stroke 15 yrs ago (pre FIOS actually- Verizon Landline).

What I wouldn’t give for a copper landline !!! Sorry for the confusion.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Does your area have access to Smart 911 where you can input in details that get sent when you call 911? We do here.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

Found out my VOIP provider doesn’t support it, but once I move to another provider, it should. Can’t wait.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote

We have used Vonage for years without a problem.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Nathan Parker

Reply | Quote