Ooma

[smihaila]

The Obi unit plugs into a phone jack, and then broadcasts to all the phone jacks in your home so that all your existing wired and wireless phones work as normal.

Yes, multiple phone jacks sharing the same RJ11 output port out of an ATA device, is another viable topology to use. Although one has to pay attention to impedance reduction on the line. But for a handful of phones, it should be ok.

 

[retire-early]

Why are those 3 cordless phones connected to telephone jacks? Is is because you have separate landline phone lines, each with its own number allocated by the telecom company?

Because otherwise, you could just have the base / main phone station plugged in, and all the other phones would wirelessly connect to the base. And DECT 6.0 is a solid wireless protocol, featuring less cross-band interference, and being audio conveyed digitally through a radio channel, you obviously don't get audio noise on the line, so the voice quality is superior.

I am not sure that the cordless phones are DECT 6.0
I have the box for the two that are AT&T branded so I will go check.
The other cordless phone is another brand.

Edit:
The AT&T set is DECT 6.0
The other is a Uniden and is also DECT 6.0

Because I don't know what I am doing the Uniden and the AT&T base are both connected to a phone jack.

.

 

[music-and-ski]

Which brand of ATA do you have?

From what I can tell is that the ATA connects to the router with an Ethernet cable and that a landline phone connects to the ATA. How do I connect the other landline phones in the house?

My Verizon landline service jumped by 25% this last month.

My ATA is old, you wouldn't it. I think it's Cisco. I was looking at buying a Grandstream GS-HT802 for my other house.

Generally, the land lines in your house are already connected together. So, you should be able to get a telephone line splitter, and plug one split into your phone, and another split into your existing wall jack, and that wall jack will carry the signal to the other phones plugged into other wall jacks. I haven't tried this, but it should work.

What I have done is connected a telephone cable directly into the junction box where the old telephone cable came in.

 

[JoeWras]

What I have done is connected a telephone cable directly into the junction box where the old telephone cable came in.

Right. And in general, if you backfeed your Ooma or OBIhia to your phone system, you should assure your line is disconnected from the phone network at the junction box.

 

[retire-early]

In Jan. 2019, Verizon came and put a box in my garage which converts fiber to signal for landline phones. I know I have to disconnect that box.

So if I get an ATA, it would connect to my router.

router --- ATA --- a phone jack

Connect landline phones to other phone jacks as before ?

Do I have that right?

 

[music-and-ski]

In Jan. 2019, Verizon came and put a box in my garage which converts fiber to signal for landline phones. I know I have to disconnect that box.

So if I get an ATA, it would connect to my router.

router --- ATA --- a phone jack

Connect landline phones to other phone jacks as before ?

Do I have that right?

I think that should work.

 

[smihaila]

+1.

But before connecting the ATA's RJ11 port to your internal phone wiring in the house, after you disconnect the verizon box, first check that the line is "dry" - to make sure it's not connected into anything.

 

[sengsational]

^Right. Usually, where the phone enters the house, outside, there's a 'network interface' box. Open that up and disconnect the house from the external phone network before "taking over" your internal RJ11 wiring.

 

[EastWest Gal]

My mom has decided to return the Ooma.
It was on clearance at Target for $24, but since she is already paying for a landline, she doesn't want to spend another ~$6 a month in taxes for the Ooma. She doesn't make that many domestic long distance calls to justify the money.

I don't think she understood how it works. You migrate your landline phone number over to Ooma. It replaces the cost of your landline without losing the landline experience. We've had it for several years and the service has been flawless.

 

[BeachOrCity]

I mostly keep an soma so I can have a landline number to give to people and businesses that I don't want to have my cell number.
I used the ooma today to make a call for the 1st time in months. Crappy call quality.

But I will keep paying the taxes because it lets me give a number where I could (possibly) be reached, but I don't get all the spam.

 

[rayvt]

We are on AT&T Uverse. When we switched to it several years ago they came out and installed it. For phone, they disconnected the phone wiring at the exterior box and inside they just put a RJ-11 cable from the "phone" jack of the AT&T DSL modem/router to the nearest phone jack in the wall. Everything is behind the TV.

So our landline has actually been VOIP for many years. We just changed the provider from AT&T to voip.ms, and used an OBI200 ATA instead of the one built-in the modem/router.
And lowered our phone bill from $48 to $3.

 

[Chuckanut]

And lowered our phone bill from $48 to $3.

Is the $3 mostly taxes and fee from government institutions?

 

[retire-early]

We just changed the provider from AT&T to voip.ms, and used an OBI200 ATA instead of the one built-in the modem/router.
And lowered our phone bill from $48 to $3.

It is a good time of the year to be buying tech.
I need to buy an ATA and I hope a deal comes up.

 

[rayvt]

Is the $3 mostly taxes and fee from government institutions?

No. Best yet, no gov't fees or taxes. $0.85/mo for PAYGO service, $1.50 e911 fee. 1 cent per minute for incoming & outgoing calls.

voip.ms, Anveo, Ooma ....all are very cheap for consumers. I don't see how they can sell the service so cheap and stay in business.

 

[JoeWras]

No. Best yet, no gov't fees or taxes. $0.85/mo for PAYGO service, $1.50 e911 fee. 1 cent per minute for incoming & outgoing calls.

voip.ms, Anveo, Ooma ....all are very cheap for consumers. I don't see how they can sell the service so cheap and stay in business.

I worked on VOIP in the late 90's and our vision is since it is over IP, it is essentially "free." Our vision pretty much came to fruition.

I just renewed my Anveo E911. I noticed some fine print that said you get 5 calls per year. So they also rely on customers not abusing the system.

 

[Hopeful]

No. Best yet, no gov't fees or taxes. $0.85/mo for PAYGO service, $1.50 e911 fee. 1 cent per minute for incoming & outgoing calls.

voip.ms, Anveo, Ooma ....all are very cheap for consumers. I don't see how they can sell the service so cheap and stay in business.

I use a company called Callcentric. It is $1 month for unlimited calling, caller id, call waiting, and an additional $1.50 month for 911 service. So $2.50 total every month. Another option for people to look into.

 

[Happyras]

So, we have had Vonage for over 20 years, maybe its 30? They just raised our rate to $11/mo, but with taxes it is going over $23. We mainly use it for fax. When we travel, I like the Vonage app which allows you to call internationally via wifi for pennies.

My question was just answered on taxes using VOIP.MS, but they state that you need a DID Fax line in order fax and their voice line is not guaranteed for faxing. So, you would need both lines to get fax function. Is this true, or true on other such services? I was wondering what Google Voice could offer. They also said you could use your cell phone to make wifi calls using an app. They did not say what app. I checked and there seems to be one that is a subscription service to use a landline on your phone for wifi calling. Its free with Vonage. So there are lots of pieces to consider can anyone help me get off of Vonage with the same services for less?