Just signed up with T-Mobile’s internet service yesterday, which claims to be (up to) 150 mbs for $50 fees with receiver/router included - I presume it’s over 5G, as they’re just rolling it out now in our metro area. Prepaid price, but no contract, and claimed not to be a teaser rate. This compares to our current XFinity service at ~$90/mo (including cable modem/router rental) that gives us ~ 30 mbs (actual) and a landline (no cable TV).

Re the landline - yes, we all have cell phones. And most of the landline calls we get these days are crap (thank God for Caller ID). It’s just a bridge this old codger is hesitating to cross.

Has anyone used a VOIP dongle for a landline? It might be a way of easing us into the brave new world where we could eventually ditch it entirely. Can I port our current number to such a thing? Any other advice?

Ooma and it's devices.
Goog voice with the Polycom OBi are both popular here for VoIP.
We have Ooma. Never an issue, though we do pay $100/yr coz I keep forgetting to discontinue the "Premiere' service. Which adds the ability for you cat to dial the phone or something.
Since you're just starting out, pretty sure the OBi route is cheapest and many here will chime in that they are quite happy with it.

Wish we could get the T-Mo interwebs service here, but alas we have their cell spot coz there is no coverage.

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If there are spelling issues, please pardon, Owen the cat is sitting on my keyboard.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2020 09:44AM by Fritz.

Several years ago, 10? We crossed the bridge using [voipvoip.com] as the provider [ at another house ] and I want to say we ported our landline number to it. The way it worked was you paid them like $7 /mo for their service to connect you to the real world, and you prepaid a few bucks each month in case you called someone. It was about $11/mo overall I think.

I still have my Grandstream 286 if you’d like to try it out. The service was always reliable. If you don’t mind doing a simple configuration in the voip adapter and at the voip provider, it’s probably still cheaper to have than to pay the ISP to integrate their voip for you?

The only practical challenge to doing away with a landline is getting everyone you know not to call it anymore. Some owners will demand it “in case there’s an emergency and the cell phone doesn’t work.”

I tried to unplug the kitchen phone here (basic service comes with the IP) but was un-allowed to do so. This particular phone can’t have its ringer turned off or turned down. What joy.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2020 10:07AM by deckeda.

Quote
deckeda
Some owners will demand it “in case there’s an emergency and the cell phone doesn’t work.”

And if this is the reasoning behind wanted to keep the landline and move it to VOIP, that's a pointless endeavor when you're using T-Mobile as your internet source. Because if the cellular network isn't working, your VOIP line running over cellular isn't going to work either!

I believe someone here tried out the T-Mobile internet and returned it because it would only do 20Mbps? It's probably very location dependent and placing it in a window might help? Hopefully they have good setup instructions and tips.

If you want to keep the number, I'd port it to a pre-paid carrier and then port to Google Voice. Last I checked, GV would only port cellular numbers (for $20), thus the need to port to a pre-paid carrier first. You could just leave it like that for a bit. You'll get voicemails from GV, and if you find you really want the physical phone, you can deal with the VOIP adapter later, but I bet you won't miss it.

Ooma here, replaced our landline what, 5 year ago already? We just pay the taxes, no premier or anything. Basic voicemail is included, and can also be accessed via Oomas website remotely. We did have to replace out first Ooma unit when it bricked outside of warranty. There are other hardware configs. But as far as reliability of VoIP, ours has been rock-solid over our FiOS line.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2020 10:43AM by Acer.

Another happy Ooma user here. Helped my mother get switched and we both got $20 from the referral.

Had an Ooma for a long time. Works fine.

Ditto on Ooma. Only reason we had kept the landline was because our alarm was tied to it. Finally found it was cheaper to go to cellular for the alarm system. Went to Ooma something like 7 or 8 years ago. Never had an issue with it. Actually like its ability to block callers, and the fact that it sends me a text whenever someone leaves a message (we have the premier service).

At this point, if the cellphone network is overloaded in a mass emergency there is almost zero chance you will get through to 911 or any any other service. You are on your own.

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