Best solution for porting home number, but likely no OBi
Rick:
I think I'm going to start with just porting their home number over to their cell line, which we're under contract to keep until the middle of next summer. We have plenty of minutes, so that's not an issue. Then, we'll see how it goes. I can always port it out again.
QBZappy:
This might be something of interest if you plan to port the number to a cell. This unit is cheap (abt $32) and looks like a land-line phone making it easy to use and understand for the elderly.
Wireless GSM Desk Phone - Quadband, SMS function
http://www.chinavasion.com/china/wholesale/Cheap_Mobile_Phones/Cell_Phones/GSM_Desktop_Phone-Wireless_Desktop_Phone
Rick:
Thanks, but it's Verizon ;)
They have a 2 handset wireless phone with base station answering machine. I will plug it into the XLink, connect the cell, and viola. Answering machine works as it always did, phone works as it always did. The only difference is they don't have to use the cell for long distance since that's already what they are doing without realizing it.
Rick:
Quote from: ianobi on November 07, 2013, 09:05:41 am
Option 1 - Get a cheap cell phone and connect to the XLink button 2. Port their existing landline number to it. Put the phone out of the way up on a shelf, maybe on permanent charge. Now you have a permanent incoming service and the answerphone will always work. The original cell phone connected to button 1 will be first choice for outgoing calls. If cell phone 1 is away from home, then outgoing calls will automatically go out through cell phone 2.
Option 2 - If you add some complexity with an OBi110, then you can use the Xlink as its "landline" and have a voip service as incoming on the ported landline number. This can also be set up as a simple "Trunk Group" with the Xlink / cell phone as first choice line, when that is missing calls automatically fail over to the voip service. It's added complexity, but you get all the OBi call screening functions etc.
Good luck. I've just set up something similar for my mother. She is presently using a normal phone connected to a cell phone, but does not know that - cell phone is hidden under dressing table and permanently on charge :)
So here's an issue I've come across, which I did find a reference to on an Amazon review.
A call comes in on the cell phone. It's not answered due to the person hanging up or whatever. Regardless, the cell sees a "missed call" and displays that on the screen. The linked phone can receive calls all night long, but cannot make a call until you clear the screen on the cell where it currently says "Missed Call. View Now, View Later".
So how does this work with a cellphone under the dresser? ;)
ianobi:
Rick,
I think that this depends on how “smart” the linked cell phone is. My Mother’s setup uses a really dumb old HP phone found in the back of a draw. It only has 3G and Bluetooth. My Mother misses many calls as she does not hear well – she needs to see the flashing strobe light on the phone to see an incoming call. For the past six months this setup has worked fine, she can still make outgoing calls. I will visit next weekend and have a look under the dresser to see what the HP phone is displaying.
I have two OBi110’s here for my setup. One of them uses Xlink and a very old dumb Nokia phone as a landline. I’ve just tested it calling in twice and not answering. It registered two missed calls. Then I tried calling out using my OBi connected phone through the Xlink and linked cell phone – it worked fine.
If you choose to use the Xlink idea as part of a Trunk Group, then check the “toggle battery” setting in “Advanced Settings” and the Xlink will remove the battery feed to the OBi when no cell phones are connected to it. The OBi sees this instantly and will fail over to the next service provider in the Trunk Group. A simple Trunk Group such as:
TrunkList: li,sp1
Would mean that all calls go out through the Xlink/cell phone until the cell phone is removed, then OBi will direct the calls through sp1. In this case I’m assuming that you ported their original number onto sp1, so all incoming calls come in that way regardless of whether or not the cell phone is there.
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