Phone Calls Over WiFi
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@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I'm looking for something that would not need to connect to a PBX. Purely for non-business usage.
Does such a thing even exist?
No, because a PBX is needed to make the calls connect to the PSTN. Something has to be the translation point.
I used a PBX at home for this, works great. Provides a lot of cool functionality even for home use and you can provide access to family and friends, get video calling, control blacklists and all of that business type stuff that normally you can't get at home.
I also have T-Mobile Wifi calling.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I'm looking for something that would not need to connect to a PBX. Purely for non-business usage.
Does such a thing even exist?
No, because a PBX is needed to make the calls connect to the PSTN. Something has to be the translation point.
I used a PBX at home for this, works great. Provides a lot of cool functionality even for home use and you can provide access to family and friends, get video calling, control blacklists and all of that business type stuff that normally you can't get at home.
I also have T-Mobile Wifi calling.
Asterisks or something else?
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@thwr said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I'm looking for something that would not need to connect to a PBX. Purely for non-business usage.
Does such a thing even exist?
No, because a PBX is needed to make the calls connect to the PSTN. Something has to be the translation point.
I used a PBX at home for this, works great. Provides a lot of cool functionality even for home use and you can provide access to family and friends, get video calling, control blacklists and all of that business type stuff that normally you can't get at home.
I also have T-Mobile Wifi calling.
Asterisks or something else?
Yes, using Asterisk. It's nice because family members can each have an extension, you can use it for family to family calling, you can have desk phones, soft phones, use it from anywhere in the world, etc. Very nice to have, especially for travellers.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@thwr said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@BRRABill said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I'm looking for something that would not need to connect to a PBX. Purely for non-business usage.
Does such a thing even exist?
No, because a PBX is needed to make the calls connect to the PSTN. Something has to be the translation point.
I used a PBX at home for this, works great. Provides a lot of cool functionality even for home use and you can provide access to family and friends, get video calling, control blacklists and all of that business type stuff that normally you can't get at home.
I also have T-Mobile Wifi calling.
Asterisks or something else?
Yes, using Asterisk. It's nice because family members can each have an extension, you can use it for family to family calling, you can have desk phones, soft phones, use it from anywhere in the world, etc. Very nice to have, especially for travellers.
Yep, great piece software. You can virtually route between anything.
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Yes, totally flexible AND free. You can run it hosted for $5/mo with several different IaaS providers if you want to go that route. Or you can run it at home or at the office.
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I love having features like blacklists and extension numbers. You can basically eliminate spam calls like you can with email. It brings telephony for home use into the current era.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I love having features like blacklists and extension numbers. You can basically eliminate spam calls like you can with email. It brings telephony for home use into the current era.
I really surprised that someone hasn't offered this to home users yet.
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I love having features like blacklists and extension numbers. You can basically eliminate spam calls like you can with email. It brings telephony for home use into the current era.
I really surprised that someone hasn't offered this to home users yet.
PBX hosting isn't trivial. Like with most things, the best home user services are normally the commercial ones. No reason to need a consumer product for this.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I love having features like blacklists and extension numbers. You can basically eliminate spam calls like you can with email. It brings telephony for home use into the current era.
I really surprised that someone hasn't offered this to home users yet.
PBX hosting isn't trivial. Like with most things, the best home user services are normally the commercial ones.
But businesses don't advertise to consumers for this product.
No reason to need a consumer product for this.
You don't think consumers would like this? Would buy this? Something like this is the ultimate in portability. I have no idea of SMSing can be made to work with it, that would be about the largest drawback (though some others would say that e911 being broken would be a bigger drawback).
With a service like this, you could convert your cellphone into a data only device. of course the Cell companies would hate that, less billable for them.
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I love having features like blacklists and extension numbers. You can basically eliminate spam calls like you can with email. It brings telephony for home use into the current era.
I really surprised that someone hasn't offered this to home users yet.
PBX hosting isn't trivial. Like with most things, the best home user services are normally the commercial ones.
But businesses don't advertise to consumers for this product.
Consumers who care seek out products, they don't use what they are told to buy. I don't see this as a problem for customers who want a product like this.
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
No reason to need a consumer product for this.
You don't think consumers would like this? Would buy this?
That's not related. Consumer products are generally for non-discerning customers (we are all this in most categories, it's not a criticism.) Discerning consumers look for best of breed and know to look at professional or business products. Not having a consumer product makes it better for those users, not worse.
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I have no idea of SMSing can be made to work with it, that would be about the largest drawback (though some others would say that e911 being broken would be a bigger drawback).
Yes it can. Which is a big deal since you can't do SMS with traditional phones. e911 works the same as 911 does for any PBX. So what's the issue there?
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I love having features like blacklists and extension numbers. You can basically eliminate spam calls like you can with email. It brings telephony for home use into the current era.
I really surprised that someone hasn't offered this to home users yet.
PBX hosting isn't trivial. Like with most things, the best home user services are normally the commercial ones.
But businesses don't advertise to consumers for this product.
Consumers who care seek out products, they don't use what they are told to buy. I don't see this as a problem for customers who want a product like this.
I suppose that makes sense. The typical consumer already has a solution that they are apparently happy with.
I just wonder if someone did a blitz campaign if they could move the typical consumer to a new platform?
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
With a service like this, you could convert your cellphone into a data only device. of course the Cell companies would hate that, less billable for them.
There are cell companies that specifically offer this. Saw one advertising literally yesterday afternoon.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I have no idea of SMSing can be made to work with it, that would be about the largest drawback (though some others would say that e911 being broken would be a bigger drawback).
Yes it can. Which is a big deal since you can't do SMS with traditional phones. e911 works the same as 911 does for any PBX. So what's the issue there?
Because you won't be stationary. If you have Zoiper, and that's what you use for phone calls, and use that to call 911, your PBX won't know where you are.
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I just wonder if someone did a blitz campaign if they could move the typical consumer to a new platform?
No way. A private PBX is expensive (when compared to having nothing) and the average consumer, even the average prosumer, even the average IT pro can't manage their own PBX. If it's your thing, it's not a big deal. If this is a one off project, it's a fairly steep learning curve.
Most people don't have home phones today and live on cell phones. So this is very much an elite phone user category product. Has a lot of value, but it isn't for the 99%.
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@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I have no idea of SMSing can be made to work with it, that would be about the largest drawback (though some others would say that e911 being broken would be a bigger drawback).
Yes it can. Which is a big deal since you can't do SMS with traditional phones. e911 works the same as 911 does for any PBX. So what's the issue there?
Because you won't be stationary. If you have Zoiper, and that's what you use for phone calls, and use that to call 911, your PBX won't know where you are.
I understand that, but that's no different than any mobile phone scenario. And I've had it affect land lines before, even traditional POTS lines, so the issue is universal.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
With a service like this, you could convert your cellphone into a data only device. of course the Cell companies would hate that, less billable for them.
There are cell companies that specifically offer this. Saw one advertising literally yesterday afternoon.
Have you ever seen that in the USA? I haven't. I know that deaf people in the US can get a phoneline with no voice mins, but they still have a phone number for SMSing. Damn I wish we could get a FREE uniform way to instant message. Sure there are tons of free options, but they aren't ubiquitous, they rarely inter operate with each other.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I have no idea of SMSing can be made to work with it, that would be about the largest drawback (though some others would say that e911 being broken would be a bigger drawback).
Yes it can. Which is a big deal since you can't do SMS with traditional phones. e911 works the same as 911 does for any PBX. So what's the issue there?
Because you won't be stationary. If you have Zoiper, and that's what you use for phone calls, and use that to call 911, your PBX won't know where you are.
I understand that, but that's no different than any mobile phone scenario. And I've had it affect land lines before, even traditional POTS lines, so the issue is universal.
Well, Cell phones are suppose to turn on the GPS (granted doesn't always work) and report the info - though I hear that many 911 centers don't have the tech to read the info provided by the phones or some such shit.
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@scottalanmiller said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
@Dashrender said in Phone Calls Over WiFi:
I just wonder if someone did a blitz campaign if they could move the typical consumer to a new platform?
No way. A private PBX is expensive (when compared to having nothing) and the average consumer, even the average prosumer, even the average IT pro can't manage their own PBX. If it's your thing, it's not a big deal. If this is a one off project, it's a fairly steep learning curve.
Most people don't have home phones today and live on cell phones. So this is very much an elite phone user category product. Has a lot of value, but it isn't for the 99%.
I'm lost - I'm talking about a product for PBX to consumers like O365 is to end users. The consumers would log into a web portal, assign phone numbers to end points, etc. It would all be very point and click.
