ShokWaveRider
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
12 years and counting no landline, 2 android Cell Phones, works just fine.
What if next storm blows down your nearest cell tower but no power outage?
You will want that land line.
This from the department of redundancy department.
We have not had a landline for several years.
So far no problems.
Not if your cell provider supports VOIP. (aka call over wifi as tulak points out). When we lived in the USA AT&T had this feature and we used it plenty while traveling abroad with our smart phones.
We held on to our Landline for a few years after getting cellphones, and then saw it got very little use, we dumped it and never missed it.
... Thoughts?
I’ve been cell phone-only for about 8 years. I don’t regret it one bit.
I actually have a battery backup that will power my Ooma, cable modem, router and cordless phone base unit... we haven't had a power outage long enough for me to test it (though I guess I could have just unplugged the battery backup and see what happens... didn't think of that until now).
Do you have a model number for your UPS?We pay $6.72 a month for our no frills Ooma service. It is connected to a network of 4 wireless phones throughout the house which also acts as an intercom. Also has automatic voicemail if the power did go out. For the small cost, it is well worth the benefits of having this number to give out for those that I prefer to not be hounded on my cell phone
We have had several power failures in recent years. Most recently our area got a big rainfall (7.8 inches in a day) and the power company equipment was stress tested. When this happened our Ooma was not functional (wifi needs power). Meanwhile our iPhones were our communication sources and data sources.
The Ooma was there to keep our old "home phone" number and for redundancy. But if it is not useful when the power goes down due to bad weather or fires, why keep it around?
Any thoughts on other redundancy schemes? We could port the "home phone" number to some cheaper cellular phone like Tracfone that uses Verizon (I think) since our current iPhones are on Tmobile. But we had to go with the whitelist capability on Ooma due to, I suppose, the ancient phone number being on scammers lists. I don't know if something like Tracfone would give us the screening capability we want.
So maybe just go with what so many people are doing and rely on our iPhones with Tmobile? We would just dump the old phone number and Ooma. Thoughts?
As another poster said:
"We have a UPS hooked to the internet modem, router, and obi200 phone device. "
I buy refurbished (including new batteries) SmartUPS units off eBay, e.g.:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/403208146543
I wasn’t sure either until there was an actual outage. I cut the power to the room with the equipment at the breaker box but even then I didn’t know if the ISP would maintain their signal during outages.
When we finally did have a real outage I was happy to see everything continued to work until the UPS battery was exhausted (about 4 hrs).
Yes, I saw that. But I don't know if Xfinity was up or not even if I got my cable modem powered. Plus I believe the poster said he had just 4 hours of power. Does he turn it off to stretch out possible usage needs? So I'm not clear on how this all works out.
We have had several power failures in recent years. Most recently our area got a big rainfall (7.8 inches in a day) and the power company equipment was stress tested. When this happened our Ooma was not functional (wifi needs power). Meanwhile our iPhones were our communication sources and data sources.
The Ooma was there to keep our old "home phone" number and for redundancy. But if it is not useful when the power goes down due to bad weather or fires, why keep it around?
Any thoughts on other redundancy schemes? We could port the "home phone" number to some cheaper cellular phone like Tracfone that uses Verizon (I think) since our current iPhones are on Tmobile. But we had to go with the whitelist capability on Ooma due to, I suppose, the ancient phone number being on scammers lists. I don't know if something like Tracfone would give us the screening capability we want.
So maybe just go with what so many people are doing and rely on our iPhones with Tmobile? We would just dump the old phone number and Ooma. Thoughts?
I wish my ISP worked like yours. When my house loses electricity, my internet service dies too. I have the house network powered with a UPS, including the cable modem, but no internet traffic in or out.
Note Ooma has a call forwarding feature where you can have it ring an alternate number (e.g. your cell phone) when your Ooma phone is down (e.g. power outage, no WIFI). Alternatively, you can "always" have it forwarded.
Interesting. Ooma seems to have some nice features that they do not do a good job of informing customers about.
I have a UPS that only services my modem and router, which is enough to keep Ooma Premier going during a power outage (assuming the ISP has their own backup power).
Cellular service isn’t a slam dunk in my home area.
Yes, I saw that. But I don't know if Xfinity was up or not even if I got my cable modem powered. Plus I believe the poster said he had just 4 hours of power. Does he turn it off to stretch out possible usage needs? So I'm not clear on how this all works out.
Might be a better solution to get cellular on a laptop or iPad. But then again iPhones (in our area) are quite handy for getting a lot of data. Can access Excel too for some minor usage but not for larger spreadsheet work. I can recharge the iPhones and iPads on the car battery.
I guess solutions depend on individual circumstances and what caused the power outage. Example, a large fire near you and plenty of smoke that you don't want exposure too plus the possibility of evacuation.