Dump Ooma and go with just iPhones?

[ShokWaveRider]

12 years and counting no landline, 2 android Cell Phones, works just fine.

 

[OldShooter]

Just for reference, one of the things to ask a cell provider is the status and duration of emergency power generator(s) at the tower(s) you expect to hit. I have a friend who is the head Verizon system engineer for our state and we had quite a conversation about generators one day. He told me that the Verizon top management philosophy was developed during wireline days where reliability of phone service was top priority. As a result, he claimed, they had backup generators with a good fuel supply for every tower, where the competition may not. This was engineer talk, not sales talk, so I believe him. Worth checking anyway.

Re Ooma, we have Ooma premium on the old land line and get about 20-30% spam calls. Unrecoginzed numbers go to voice mail, where they almost never leave messages. The last thing I want is for that phone number and those spammers to be coming through on our cells. Voice quality on the Ooma line is better than what we get on the cells, too, so that is my preferred line for outbound calls.

 

[Alan]

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.

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.

 

[pacergal]

We have not had a landline for several years.
So far no problems.

 

[Lsbcal]

We have not had a landline for several years.
So far no problems.

To be clear I am talking redundancy and not retaining a landline. We got rid of the landline long ago.

 

[Montecfo]

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.

Yes I agree this works. Mine is copper central office, so it's redundant in power outage also, but wifi enabled phones should work with cell towers down.

 

[Trailwalker]

We went from landline to Charter/cable phone to Ooma to cell phones. I miss phone books but not much else.

 

[Animorph]

We have a UPS hooked to the internet modem, router, and obi200 phone device. That gives us about an hour of internet and phone during a power outage. We switched over to PhonePower as a VOIP provider for $35/year (100 minutes a month) when Google Voice was looking flakey. They have a software phone as well, so I can receive (and send) landline calls on my laptop, home or away.

 

[Retiired]

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

 

[Cobra9777]

We've used Google Voice + Obi-200 for the last 8 years. It's very reliable and totally free without 911 service. You can add 911 for under $2/mo.

We ditched the old landline number that we'd had since 1981. Good riddance. That number was continually inundated with spam calls. The new GV number got zero spam calls the first 5-6 years. But it is starting to get some now, probably because we've started sharing it a little more for things like reward programs and a few websites. But still, probably only 2 or 3 unsolicited calls per week.

Google's anti-spam/robo filters seem to work quite well. Other features are similar to Ooma Premier. I get notifications and voicemail transcripts on my cell anytime we miss a call on the home phone. International calls are dirt cheap, typically 1-2 cents/min. The Obi hardware is cheap and not tied to any one VoIP provider.

I'm a little reluctant to go 100% mobile. Cell tower connectivity can be spotty at our house and I've found WiFi calling to be a bit unreliable. But we both have GV numbers on our mobile devices as well. So there's always a way to make voice calls as long as the home internet is up.

At some point, we will ditch the old clunky landline handsets, but continue to use the home GV number with PCs, tablets, and older Android phones.

 

[GTFan]

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.

Same here with Google Voice and the Obi, after the old Obi100's quit working. Never saw the need to buy the Obi200 because we never used the VOIP phones with decent cell service.

 

[pb4uski]

... Thoughts?

Get a generator.

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).

 

[bltkmt]

I’ve been cell phone-only for about 8 years. I don’t regret it one bit.

Same.

 

[steelyman]

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).

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).

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

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

Do you have a model number for your UPS?
I need to get one for exactly what you are using for it for and have been meaning to do it for ages now.

 

[ncbill]

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

 

[Lsbcal]

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

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.

 

[jimbee]

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).

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.

 

[steelyman]

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.

I think you may be referring to me (my post). My UPS is an APC BX1500, bought just for this purpose in 2019 when we experienced multiple outages.

It reports a low load because only the modem and router are plugged into it (16W, 1% according to the unit).

[ADDED] My current ISP is Spectrum. While they appear to maintain power/signal during general power outages here, I don’t know if that’s true elsewhere.

 

[MdaPetralia]

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?

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.

 

[GTFan]

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.

Cable goes out when your house does? You must live very close to the node servicing your area, because that shouldn't happen.

 

[Lsbcal]

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.

 

[steelyman]

Interesting. Ooma seems to have some nice features that they do not do a good job of informing customers about.

Yes. I took the free second number you get with Premier. I didn’t know about that for years, just stumbled on it on their website.

The one numerically after my number was taken so I took the next one (easier to remember).

 

[euro]

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.

Agree. A backup power source for the modem/router is all you need. That way you can maintain redundancy. Cell service can and does go down occasionally, so your Ooma line does provide redundancy you seek. Sounds like it works great for you - when Ooma went down you had cellphone backup. When cell goes down, you'll have Ooma backup, especially if you invest a few dollars in a backup power pack (a modem and a router won't take much juice, so you can buy the smallest/cheapest one).

Edit: I understand that there are tons of people who have cell ?service only" and are doing just fine. So, it may not matter much - until it does...! For what it is worth, I still maintain my Ooma line as well and given that it is extremely low cost, I probably keep it for the foreseeable future.

 

[ncbill]

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.

Some cellular plans allow your cellphone to function as a WiFi hotspot, though often limited, e.g. 5GB/month.

But even that should be fine for emergencies.

Were I running a business from home I'd probably sign up for something like T-Mobile's $50/month WiFi service as backup to my cable broadband.