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SP1 and SP2 confusion with traditional corded phone

Started by Lafong, October 27, 2013, 08:58:31 PM

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Shale

Anveo CNAM is optional at $0.009 per incoming call that is not in the contacts list. Off by default. CID is free. No tax.

ProfTech

I'm in Illinois and there are no added fees whatsoever with Callcentric. I can't speak to how Anveo works with their default call flow but if you decide later that you want to do a few things like forward your calls to another number for a week or two [or your cell phone], have callers get a busy signal at 2 AM while you're sleeping, etc You can arrange for any of those things very easily on Callcentrics web page and they are free. I tried to build a call flow with Anveo to simulate some of the simple stuff I am doing on CC and it looked like it was going to take 20 or more items in their call flow, which you have to build yourself and if you are using more than 10 blocks you must pay more. Some of the blocks are considered "Pro" and are extra cost. You mentioned anonymous numbers. I think CC can block some of them, also free although I don't use the feature. The possibilities are many and can be changed any time you want or need to. [I don't work for CC but been using them for about 2 years now.]

If you want one of the lowest prices with "no frills" you might want to consider CallWithUs. One thing with them, though you can't "port in" a phone number. You must pick a new number from a list they give you but most of them include 2000-3000 minutes of incoming calls per month for about $3.00. Outgoing will cost you about 1 cent / minute in US. I have them set up as a secondary on my Obi. Haven't used them much but my daughter uses them all of the time and they seem very good. They offer voice mail but I don't know anything about it.

Lafong

#22
OK, thanks Proftech.

I've still got my old phone service at the moment. My current plan is to watch the Obi for a couple of weeks to see if it fails or if there is noticeable downtime.

If all is well in a couple of weeks, I'll probably go with Callcentric E911, cancel my old phone service, and retain Google Voice as the only inbound/outbound provider on the Obi.

I am nervous about being without phone service entirely for whatever reason. That could be modem failure, phone failure, Obi failure, power outage, or loss of high speed Internet for any reason. I'm aging and live alone, so it's not a comfortable situation.

I know I could configure another VoIP provider with the Obi on the cheap, but that won't protect me from most of the failure points mentioned in the prior paragraph.

Contemplating a "prepaid" throwaway cell phone as an absolute last resort emergency phone, but I have NO cell phone experience and have tried to keep it that way.

Any ideas about emergency phones or last resort ideas that ideally would never even be used? For all I know, these prepaid cell phones I hear about are unreliable.

Shale

Quote from: ProfTech on October 30, 2013, 03:04:53 PMI tried to build a call flow with Anveo to simulate some of the simple stuff I am doing on CC and it looked like it was going to take 20 or more items in their call flow, which you have to build yourself and if you are using more than 10 blocks you must pay more.

I doubt that. First, you would get 10 included for each extension, so what would have been so complex?

ProfTech

#24
hmmm... I certainly don't claim to be an expert on their call flow builder. I have basically 3 treatments set up on Callcentric.
1. Plain old forward my calls at my whim to another number. [without using the Obi at all].
2. If the Obi isn't registered, forward to either a system message or my home number based on time of day / day of the week and if the caller is in my phone book.
3. If the network goes down on weekends all callers get an error message from the system except those in my phone book, who are forwarded to my land line.

If the Obi is registered, ring the phone. Send to voice mail after 30 seconds. Nothing fancy. I only have 1 DID so don't know what you mean by extensions.

ProfTech

LaFong,
What part of the country are you in? Where I'm at a land line is less than $19 from ATT for a plain "it just rings" [no long distance] line. But I know it varies a lot. I don't recollect which Obi you are using but a 110 and I'm pretty sure the 200 with the adapter could work quite nicely for you. I use the 110 with my land line and have the best of both worlds. Even the throw away "no contract" cell phones can run $20 a month. As you say, I like the security of having the land line. Until VOIP is more mature and internet service is more reliable I plan on keeping it. I just use the internet service for long distance. Depending on where you live you can configure the Obi pretty easily to automatically use the land line for local calls and the internet for long distance. And do everything with one phone set. You could try Google Voice for a while for free and see how everything works before setting up with a paid VOIP provider.

Just some thoughts.

Lafong

#26
Proftech:

The cheapest land line around here is between 15 and 20 monthly after taxes.

My Obi is a 202.

The premise of getting the Obi was to get rid of the land line from the old provider entirely, saving the 15 to 20 a month.

I know nothing about cell phones, prepaid or otherwise.

I had assumed that if you got one of the prepaids, you would have NO charges if you didn't use it (which I wouldn't barring a calamity). Apparently I'm wrong about that, since you said they can be 20 a month? So, exactly what is "prepaid"? Does that term simply refer to the fact that you bought the hardware outright but did not buy "phone service".

I gather there is no zero monthly charge phone device that can be tossed in a drawer and ignored, breaking it out only maybe to charge it, and have any expectation of it working for 911 purposes?

If I wanted to pay 20 a month, I'd have stuck with the old provider.

I'm not on the phone over an hour a month most months anyway. So with Obi and say Callcentric, I could have 911 and still pay under $4 a month after the setup charges.

It's highly unlikely you know anyone who uses the phone less than I do. As I said earlier, my ringer is off. I never pick it up for an incoming. My speaker is inaudible. I never even know I'm getting a call. All callers must leave a message or never talk to me. The blinking message light on my phone's built-in answerer is the only tip I have that anyone has called.

I got the Obi primarily in response to my old provider's cable TV/Internet/phone bundle going up to $182 from $140 in 2 months. It grates on me.

Wise me up to "prepaid" cell phones or any other method you can think of for someone in my position.

ProfTech

I'm not a huge cell phone user myself. My wife has one that requires her to pay $20 every 90 days whether she uses the phone or not and her minutes do not expire. But they don't offer that plan any more. I think a lot of them now require at least $20 each month but if you have a Wal Mart in your area I would start your search there.

Question: You said you have a Google Voice number that you plan to use for people to call you on. You can also use Google Voice for calling out. Then all you have to do is configure Callcentric on the Obi just for 911. If you use it that way your monthly charge from them would be a flat $1.50! It's just a matter of pretty simple configuration of the Obi to make it work.

sdb-

Quote from: Lafong on October 31, 2013, 05:09:34 PM
I had assumed that if you got one of the prepaids, you would have NO charges if you didn't use it (which I wouldn't barring a calamity). Apparently I'm wrong about that, since you said they can be 20 a month? So, exactly what is "prepaid"? Does that term simply refer to the fact that you bought the hardware outright but did not buy "phone service".

I gather there is no zero monthly charge phone device that can be tossed in a drawer and ignored, breaking it out only maybe to charge it, and have any expectation of it working for 911 purposes?

"prepaid" simply means you pay in advance for service, instead of having a contract where you agree to pay whatever the charges come to after you make your calls.  Usually you buy "minutes" and those minutes are used or expire after some time so that you have to pay periodically.

WalMart has their "Simple Talk" prepaid.  Don't know much about it.  But widely available.

I use T-Mobile prepaid.  Pretty widely available.  Cheapest I could find a few years ago.  I talk on the cell phone a few minutes per month, or sometimes more.  Buy a phone as cheap as $20 (target, walmart, etc), then the cheapest way to keep it active is to spend $100 on 1000 minutes and they will be good for a year.  Or you could do $10/month for the first 10 months (each $10 getting you 30 minutes of call time).  Or spend 4x$25 or 2x$50.  Whatever, after spending $100 on minutes you are a "gold" customer and then your minutes are good for 1 year.  So after that first $100 you spend $10 per year, or spend more if you need more minutes.  As long as you never let your minutes expire, the new payment adds to your pool of minutes.  Pay a day late and your old minutes are gone and you start fresh with the just the amount you paid.

My Mom uses TracPhone.  They have lots of games you can play to get double, triple minutes.  But I think you have to buy every 30 days (or was it 60 or 90?) instead of of my T-Mo once per year.  And I think for an idle phone it is considerably more expensive than my T-Mo.

And remember, with prepaid you have no contract so the terms can change any time.  T-Mo has been good about keeping the same basic voice service plan.  But they have tried all kinds of other plans and addons over the years.  You just never know.

Shale

One common difference is that pre-paid phones have no free periods-- no free nights or weekends.

But the rates are generally cheaper, but need some attention. You could squirrel a prepaid phone away, but you would not get phone number until you activated. Stop buying minutes, you can lose that phone number, but you can get a new number later.

Lafong

Proftech:

I already have Google set up for incoming and outgoing at no charge. I'll likely add Callcentric for 911 at 1.50 per month. If I some day choose to get rid of Google, I'll probably go with Callcentric for 911 and incoming/outgoing on a per minute basis. I figure that would be about 3.45 per month plus roughly a dollar an hour I'm actually on the phone. Total bill should rarely be even $5 a month.

My remaining concern is the uptime reliability of my new phone service, which has multiple fail points: Google, Obi, Callcentric, Internet provider, power outage, or the Panasonic phone itself.

I've been without Internet service for about 10 hours in the last year and without phone service for only 2 or 3 hours. It remains to be seen how much Google, Obi, and Callcentric would add to the phone downtime.

Thus the search for a last resort cheap fallback emergency method. Anything that is say $10 a month or more is pointless—I'd be better off without the Obi and just use my old service at maybe $15 or $18, with greater reliability.

SDB:

It doesn't look like T-Mobile or TracPhone have much application to my situation, particularly since as you say they can change the terms at any moment.

I may take a look around Walmart.

In the meantime, I'll keep evaluating my uptime with my current configuration and decide if I want to risk simply not having phone service from time to time. That generally wouldn't bother me, excluding police, fire, or medical emergencies.

Any further ideas welcome--particularly your personal levels of phone downtime using VoIP.

ProfTech

Regarding downtime - Most of my down time has been a result of my internet service provider. That said, I've been using them since 2007 and they have only been down 2 or 3 times but the longest was about 2 days.  :(  As another poster said, Callcentric did have issues back in September / October 2012 but I am satisfied they were hacker related and they corrected them. These days if you're going to use the public internet for anything at all stuff like that can happen. When the hurricane hit NYC I was amazed they were only down for about 48 hours. Anyway, your mileage may vary.

sdb-

Quote from: Lafong on November 01, 2013, 06:04:09 AM
It doesn't look like T-Mobile or TracPhone have much application to my situation, particularly since as you say they can change the terms at any moment.

I may take a look around Walmart.

While they can change, Walmart is in the same situation.  And while I don't trust T-Mo very much, I trust walmart even less.

It's hard to beat spending $100 plus the phone for the first year of cell phone service and $10 per year after that. (Actually that first year could be 395 days if you wait for the full 30 days after activating the phone before applying the $100 refill.  I'd refill a day early just to be safe.)