Ditch landline for cell phone + cordless units?

[Lsbcal]

I'm thinking of doing this to get rid of the landline:

1) Buy an extra cell phone just for the house phone.
2) Pay just another $10/month to Tmobile for the extra cellular line (we have 2 cell phones now) and port the landline number to this cell phone.
3) The new cell phone makes a Bluetooth connection to our current Panasonic cordless units. This gives us cordless access over the whole house so DW does not have to carry her cell phone around.

Does this sound like a sensible plan?

Any suggestions on where to buy a low cost cell phone for non-mobile use in our house? The only app I might need to download is maybe Mr. Number to reduce robo calls.

 

[97guns]

I'm thinking of doing this to get rid of the landline:

1) Buy an extra cell phone just for the house phone.
2) Pay just another $10/month to Tmobile for the extra cellular line (we have 2 cell phones now) and port the landline number to this cell phone.
3) The new cell phone makes a Bluetooth connection to our current Panasonic cordless units. This gives us cordless access over the whole house so DW does not have to carry her cell phone around.

Does this sound like a sensible plan?

Any suggestions on where to buy a low cost cell phone for non-mobile use in our house? The only app I might need to download is maybe Mr. Number to reduce robo calls.

I'm not familiar with a Bluetooth cordless phone, very interesting and I need to look into it,. I like idea #3, I've tried at&t's home base unit and it was garbage, dropping calls, calls not coming in, no dial tones, had to ditch it

 

[RunningBum]

I did similar but I didn't get an extra cell phone. Just one of me, but my Xlink device (which I'm assuming you are talking about to Bluetooth to your cordless devices, unless they can do it directly now?) can connect to up to 3 cell phones and distribute them to my house wiring. I don't know if you can do different ring tones. I actually wanted to get rid of my land line because it was on so many robocall lists.


The one thing about thing about the Xlink is that there is a pause before I can talk on it when I answer the phone. So I pick up the phone, count to 3, and then say Hello? Otherwise the caller never hears me and they are waiting for me to talk. A bit frustrating but I don't get that many calls. I do like not having to carry my cell phone around, especially since my coverage is spotty and it works best to keep it in a cradle with a booster antenna.

 

[Bruceski44]

Not sure if this is a concern in your area, of even if you'll care, but we keep our landline and one or two corded phones in case of disaster. When the Northridge earthquake hit near here in '94' the plug in phones still worked. I hear that many cell phone towers have backup power, but am not certain the ones near here will work when the SHTF, so we keep our landline and old plug in phone, even though we never really use it at all any more. I just disabled all the ringers due to unwanted call volume. Important calls can always leave a message, which we'll see.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Gave up the landline when we moved in 2010, and we have used only our cell phones since. Never missed the landline, and keeping up with the cell phones isn't that big of a deal for us (even DW!). Not much different than keeping up with cordless handsets, maybe?

Give it a trial run before spending money on gadgets you might find you don't need.

FWIW, my $0.02.

 

[Beldar]

Does this sound like a sensible plan?

Yes it does. We do something similar by only having 2 cell phones (no contract) and an internet phone (cordless, two handsets). Noisy landline went bye-bye years ago.


_B

 

[Cobra9777]

We use an Obi-200 device with a Google Voice number for totally free VoIP landline service. The Obi device is $47 on Amazon. Setup is simple and all your existing landline phones work same as before. No 911 service though, so you'll need your cells for emergencies. One feature I particularly like is getting a notification on my mobile phone when I miss a call at home, including the voicemail transcription (if any) as a text.

Lots of people here like Ooma as well, but the upfront cost is a quite a bit more and there's a monthly charge, although I think it's pretty minimal.

Assuming you already have a broadband ISP, there's no reason to mess around with another cell phone, bluetooth, etc. VoIP is simple and dirt cheap, typically less than $5/mo, or free if you go the Obi+GV route.

 

[mpeirce]

When we turned off our landline we got a google voice number and set it up to forward to both my and DW's cell phones. It works fine, but it turns out we rarely use that number. Using the cell numbers for everything turned out to be no big deal.


https://google.com/voice

Google Voice is a telephony service that provides call forwarding and voicemail services, voice and text messaging, as well as U.S. and international call termination services for Google Account customers in the U.S.

 

[cathy63]

I have the same setup as Cobra9777 and like it very much, especially the free part.

The only gotcha I found was that since I use Google Fi for my cell plan, I already had a Google Voice number attached to my Gmail account. I had to open a new Gmail account to port the land line over to.

 

[LastOfTheBoomers]

Another google Voice user - moved google voice to SIM card - then landline to SIM card and then to GV - you can't go direct - had a small window of no phone - 2 days? Consumer Cellular was great and gave me 10 dollar credit when I transferred each number!

Used to forward GV to cell but now just get missed call and VM.

All my spam calls went away and I was careful how I gave out my new cell number.

BTW - GV Voicemail with transcription is awesome - you just have to set it up on your cell phone and it just works. Great when you are traveling.

 

[Lsbcal]

I did similar but I didn't get an extra cell phone. Just one of me, but my Xlink device (which I'm assuming you are talking about to Bluetooth to your cordless devices, unless they can do it directly now?) can connect to up to 3 cell phones and distribute them to my house wiring. I don't know if you can do different ring tones. I actually wanted to get rid of my land line because it was on so many robocall lists.
...

I think this is the Panasonic units we have: Panasonic Link2Cell
It does not use the home wiring to get to the other rooms, just an HF signal. So the other units just need a power outlet. The base unit will talk to the cell phone via Bluetooth. It will announce calls if you have Caller ID.

Currently the landline comes into the Panasonic base unit. I'm thinking it will be quite easy to disconnect that and have the "home cell phone" take over. Just and extra $10/month and no extra billing issues. We need the Panasonic cordless units as DW does not want to carry her cell phone around the 2 story house.

 

[Lsbcal]

Not sure if this is a concern in your area, of even if you'll care, but we keep our landline and one or two corded phones in case of disaster. When the Northridge earthquake hit near here in '94' the plug in phones still worked. I hear that many cell phone towers have backup power, but am not certain the ones near here will work when the SHTF, so we keep our landline and old plug in phone, even though we never really use it at all any more. I just disabled all the ringers due to unwanted call volume. Important calls can always leave a message, which we'll see.

Earthquakes are one thing that made me just keep the landline. Plus the alarm system uses it but that can go cordless for some extra $'s in equipment cost. But in the Napa quake a few years ago, apparently there was no cell phone interruption. I think maybe the cell towers are pretty robust but not totally sure.

 

[RunningBum]

I think this is the Panasonic units we have: Panasonic Link2Cell
It does not use the home wiring to get to the other rooms, just an HF signal. So the other units just need a power outlet. The base unit will talk to the cell phone via Bluetooth. It will announce calls if you have Caller ID.

Currently the landline comes into the Panasonic base unit. I'm thinking it will be quite easy to disconnect that and have the "home cell phone" take over. Just and extra $10/month and no extra billing issues. We need the Panasonic cordless units as DW does not want to carry her cell phone around the 2 story house.

Ah, I'm using this: https://smile.amazon.com/Xtreme-Technologies-BTTN-Bluetooth-Gateway-Black/dp/B0018NWQPK which can either connect into your house wiring (you have to disconnect the outside connection to avoid big problems) or you can merge it with your landline and connect it to a single phone or the DECT type multi-phone system even if it doesn't have Bluetooth. I think I'd have gone with what you're looking at had it been available a few years ago.

I completely understand not wanting to carry the phone around. I could probably get used to doing it, but it'd probably get laid somewhere and forgotten and hard to find when I get a call, all while the battery is running down!

 

[Lsbcal]

We use an Obi-200 device with a Google Voice number for totally free VoIP landline service. The Obi device is $47 on Amazon. Setup is simple and all your existing landline phones work same as before. No 911 service though, so you'll need your cells for emergencies. One feature I particularly like is getting a notification on my mobile phone when I miss a call at home, including the voicemail transcription (if any) as a text.

Lots of people here like Ooma as well, but the upfront cost is a quite a bit more and there's a monthly charge, although I think it's pretty minimal.

Assuming you already have a broadband ISP, there's no reason to mess around with another cell phone, bluetooth, etc. VoIP is simple and dirt cheap, typically less than $5/mo, or free if you go the Obi+GV route.

I looked at this a bit and it sounds good but ...

The Comcast broadband signal comes into my computer room which is kind of cramped enough. The Comcast cable modem drives the Obi device I guess. How to get the signal from the Obi device to the Panasonic base unit? I think the Panasonic base unit would have to be near the Obi device but that means adding to my clutter in the computer area i.e. cable modem to Obi device to Panasonic base unit.

Note we want to keep our Panasonic setup as it distributes to all the other rooms and has a voicemail recorder. Could the Obi device send a signal through the existing landline house wiring and thus get to the Panasonic base unit? Would the wiring from the phone company need to be disconnected somewhere to make the house phone wiring passive?

Does the Obi signal have caller ID?

 

[Lsbcal]

Another google Voice user - moved google voice to SIM card - then landline to SIM card and then to GV - you can't go direct - had a small window of no phone - 2 days? Consumer Cellular was great and gave me 10 dollar credit when I transferred each number!

Used to forward GV to cell but now just get missed call and VM.

Not sure what you meant by the sentence in red. Do you mean that you forwarded the calls to your cell phone initially, but then later just set it up to go directly to voicemail? Sounds like a good plan.

All my spam calls went away and I was careful how I gave out my new cell number.

BTW - GV Voicemail with transcription is awesome - you just have to set it up on your cell phone and it just works. Great when you are traveling.

This all sounds like a "next step" after I do the extra cell phone trick. Our current home phone gets a fair amount of robo calls but we've had it 20 years. I would have to sort through which people and institutions I need to deal with.

 

[Lsbcal]

I have the same setup as Cobra9777 and like it very much, especially the free part.

The only gotcha I found was that since I use Google Fi for my cell plan, I already had a Google Voice number attached to my Gmail account. I had to open a new Gmail account to port the land line over to.

To use Google FI I'd have to get DW a new phone. My Nexus 6P would work OK. It does sound like a nice way to reduce costs assuming there are no weird gotchas.

 

[W2R]

LSBcal, I'm sure you are getting excellent advice on all these systems.

What I did, was just cancel my landline when I moved a couple of years ago. I just use my one personal cell phone, now. The stress of deciding to make that transition nearly drove me insane, but much to my surprise, it was EASY to figure out who needed my cell phone number and who didn't. I called about 20-30 businesses and friends, and that was all that was necessary. I didn't miss anybody. I was worried about 911 but even called it once in an accident and it connected right away with no problems and for some reason they could tell right where I was. Carrying it around the house has not been a problem at all. When the cell phone rings, I run to it just as I used to run when the land line rang. If I miss a call, either there is a voicemail or else I just call the person right back when I get to the phone, and it has never been a problem. I know that you live in a larger house, but I'd think that would work in your house as well. So many people are using cell phones only now, that people are used to the idea.

So maybe that's another option to consider.

I also went to a cheaper cell phone plan (keeping the same number), and so I am paying $30/month for phone service now instead of $105+ per month like I was paying back in 2015.

 

[cathy63]

I looked at this a bit and it sounds good but ...

The Comcast broadband signal comes into my computer room which is kind of cramped enough. How to get the internet signal from the Obi device to the Panasonic base unit? I think the Panasonic base unit would have to be near the Obi device but that means adding to my clutter in the computer area i.e. cable modem to Obi device to Panasonic base unit.

Note we want to keep our Panasonic setup as it distributes to all the other rooms and has a voicemail recorder.

Does the Obi signal have caller ID?

What you do in that case is get an Obi WiFi to plug into the USB port of the Obi 200. See here: https://www.amazon.com/Obihai-Technology-OBIWIFI5G-OBiWiFi5G-Wireless/dp/B01LXFA83I/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

The Obi goes next to the Panasonic base phone, wherever it's currently located. Then you just unplug the base phone from the wall jack and plug it into the Obi instead.

We also have a Panasonic cordless system that had been our landline. In our case, the cable modem is within 2 feet of the base phone, so sticking the Obi in between the two and using a regular ethernet cable was simplest, but if that hadn't been possible, then adding the WiFi adapter to the Obi would have been my second choice.

 

[Lsbcal]

LSBcal, I'm sure you are getting excellent advice on all these systems.

What I did, was just cancel my landline when I moved a couple of years ago. I just use my one personal cell phone, now. The stress of deciding to make that transition nearly drove me insane, but much to my surprise, it was EASY to figure out who needed my cell phone number and who didn't. I called about 20-30 businesses and friends, and that was all that was necessary. I didn't miss anybody. I was worried about 911 but even called it once in an accident and it connected right away with no problems and for some reason they could tell right where I was. Carrying it around the house has not been a problem at all. When the cell phone rings, I run to it just as I used to run when the land line rang. If I miss a call, I just call the person right back when I get to the phone, and it has never been a problem. I know that you live in a larger house, but I'd think that would work in your house as well. So many people are using cell phones only now, that nobody has acted surprised or said anything about it.

So maybe that's another option to consider.

I also went to a cheaper cell phone plan (keeping the same number), and so I am paying $30/month for phone service now instead of $105+ per month like I was paying back in 2015.

I talked with DW about just placing our cell phones near the Panasonic base unit when we were at home. Then the base unit transmits to all the rooms. But the unknown was what if we discarded the home phone number and there were some unknowns we found out about later? The porting of the current home phone number cannot be done directly from the landline phone to Google Voice, I think.

So for us, maybe the way to go is to use the "home cell phone" first. Then eventually port the home number from Tmobile to Google Voice. This would take care of weird things like a 92 year old lady we know that would have difficulty transitioning us to a new phone number (her poor eyesight plus weaker gray matter ).

 

[W2R]

I talked with DW about just placing our cell phones near the Panasonic base unit when we were at home. Then the base unit transmits to all the rooms. But the unknown was what if we discarded the home phone number and there were some unknowns we found out about later? The porting of the current home phone number cannot be done directly from the landline phone to Google Voice, I think.

So for us, maybe the way to go is to use the "home cell phone" first. Then eventually port the home number from Tmobile to Google Voice. This would take care of weird things like a 92 year old lady we know that would have difficulty transitioning us to a new phone number (her poor eyesight plus weaker gray matter ).

That sounds like a good idea, I agree.

My brother had his land line number ported to his cell phone years and years ago. I found out soon afterwards, when I thought I was calling him at home in St. Louis during a blizzard to check on him. When he answered he said he was lying on the beach in Hawaii. But anyway you could do that, and then deal with Google Voice later on.

 

[cathy63]

Forgot to answer the caller ID question. The caller ID is on the signal that's sent by the VoIP provider. If the Obi gets it, then it will pass it on to the phone set for display.

If you use Google Voice as your VoIP service, then Google provides only the phone number without the caller's name on the metadata. The Obi doesn't have a way to resolve the number to the name in this setup, but the Panasonic phone will do that if the caller is one that's saved in the phone's contacts.

 

[Lsbcal]

What you do in that case is get an Obi WiFi to plug into the USB port of the Obi 200. See here: https://www.amazon.com/Obihai-Techn...i5G-Wireless/dp/B01LXFA83I/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

The Obi goes next to the Panasonic base phone, wherever it's currently located. Then you just unplug the base phone from the wall jack and plug it into the Obi instead.

We also have a Panasonic cordless system that had been our landline. In our case, the cable modem is within 2 feet of the base phone, so sticking the Obi in between the two and using a regular ethernet cable was simplest, but if that hadn't been possible, then adding the WiFi adapter to the Obi would have been my second choice.

Hmmm....good idea. The good thing is I could set this up and test it independently of removing the landline.

Do you use caller ID with your Panasonic device? Currently if our son calls, it announces his name and DW gets very excited . Would this work the same or does one have to have the incoming caller programmed into the Panasonic addressing? The only reason we really like this is because of all the robo calls (maybe 2 per day).

Maybe you have other techniques to eliminate and/or remove robo calls? With a cell phone we have recently started using the app "Mr. Number" but don't have enough days experience to evaluate that.

 

[bw5972]

I am been cell phone only since 2003. Can't even remember what my last landline phone looked like.

 

[Cobra9777]

I looked at this a bit and it sounds good but ...

The Comcast broadband signal comes into my computer room which is kind of cramped enough. The Comcast cable modem drives the Obi device I guess. How to get the signal from the Obi device to the Panasonic base unit? I think the Panasonic base unit would have to be near the Obi device but that means adding to my clutter in the computer area i.e. cable modem to Obi device to Panasonic base unit.

Note we want to keep our Panasonic setup as it distributes to all the other rooms and has a voicemail recorder. Could the Obi device send a signal through the existing landline house wiring and thus get to the Panasonic base unit? Would the wiring from the phone company need to be disconnected somewhere to make the house phone wiring passive?

Does the Obi signal have caller ID?

No, the Panasonic base doesn't need to be anywhere near the Obi device. The Obi has 3 connections in the back: (1) power, (2) network cable to your router, and (3) telephone cable to any available phone receptacle in your wall. This will distribute the phone signal to all your existing landline phones wherever they are in the house. But yes, I think you need to disconnect the phone company's incoming connection, although I'm not sure about this.

Yes, the Obi supports caller ID. Paired with GV you'll get voicemail, voicemail transcription, call forwarding, call blocking, conference calling, all the usual.

And yes, IIRC, you cannot port your landline number directly to GV. You can port to mobile first and then from mobile to GV, as a prior poster pointed out. We used this transition to ditch that old number. Most of the calls were robo calls of one sort or another. We're very careful about providing our new GV number and we get zero unsolicited calls.

 

[Lsbcal]

No, the Panasonic base doesn't need to be anywhere near the Obi device. The Obi has 3 connections in the back: (1) power, (2) network cable to your router, and (3) telephone cable to any available phone receptacle in your wall. This will distribute the phone signal to all your existing landline phones wherever they are in the house. But yes, I think you need to disconnect the phone company's incoming connection, although I'm not sure about this.

OK, I'll have to investigate this or just use the obihai wifi mentioned by cathy above.

Yes, the Obi supports caller ID. Paired with GV you'll get voicemail, voicemail transcription, call forwarding, call blocking, conference calling, all the usual.

Great. Thanks.

And yes, IIRC, you cannot port your landline number directly to GV. You can port to mobile first and then from mobile to GV, as a prior poster pointed out. We used this transition to ditch that old number. Most of the calls were robo calls of one sort or another. We're very careful about providing our new GV number and we get zero unsolicited calls.

So as I understand it, I can port my home phone to a Tmobil prepaid SIM card without even buying an actual cell phone to test it. Then port that to GV.

In your case it sounds like you first ported your home phone number to GV. To me that sounds like a decent move because if one gets a new number that (recycled?) number could come with robo calls and bill collectors too. Then did you eventually just ditch your old home phone number by getting a new GV number? Or do you have 2 GV numbers (a primary and secondary as this link discusses: having 2 GV numbers ) ?