VOIP

Hermann

ScratchyCat said:

I gave A&A a phone today. Lady was very helpful. Call charge prices seemed good. But the cost if the ATA adaptor was quite a bit. They said i could buy one online cheaper but id need to configure it myself.
So now thinking for the costs is it really worth keeping the landline vs number of calls/people that have the landline number.

Ive just seen another company that says you can port your landline to a mobile. They call themselves Air Landline. Has anyone any experience of them please.
Other things ive read online say its not possible to port a landline to a mobile so im confused.

There are various ways to use a mobile with VOIP.

One is to have an app on your mobile that the VOIP service uses to transfer the calls to the mobile.
This can be unreliable and typically you pay for incoming calls as well as outgoing. So every incoming scam call can cost you.

Another is to use a dedicated sim in a mobile for the VOIP to use as the landline number. A&A does these for £10 a month.  Be aware you either need a separate dedicated mobile for that number or a dual sim mobile phone.

A lot depends on what use you want to put the old landline number to once on VOIP. 
Is it just for incoming calls?
Or are you going to make outgoing calls? This will indicate which package to go for as if making outgoing calls better to have an inclusive deal rather than pay per minute.

I've found the A&A basic package (£1.44 a month) with a used £20 Yealink VOIP phone from Ebay worked well for me, Yealink was simple to set up with plenty of instructions online.
I only use it for keeping the old landline number alive for incoming calls. Outbound calls are made from my separate mobile using that sims unlimited mins.

I'm not sure what Digital Voice services are available from EE, possibly included with a broadband subscription so that needs investigating but when last looked it was more cost effective to use a cheaper broadband only supplier (mine was Plusnet) with a separate VOIP service from A&A.

QrizB

Hermann said:

There are various ways to use a mobile with VOIP.

One that isn't mentioned above is to run a softphone app on your mobile.

I used Grandstream Wave on Android. My incoming VOIP calls ring on my mobile and use my data, so no extra cost to me. I can make outbound calls via the app too, if I choose to - but I usually use my mobile phone for that!

Murmansk

I have a VOIP local phone number via Voipfone which costs about £5 per month, I only use it for incoming calls for my business and I use the Voipfone app on my mobile so calls come in at home on the "landline" and they ring on my mobile too when I'm out (and indeed when I'm in!) 

I can recommend Voipfone they are very helpful and help you set it all up, they also respond quickly in case of problems or queries. You have to plug a device ("ATA") into your router and you connect your phone sockets to that. They provide the ATA all programmed and set up as I remember, it might cost maybe £40 or so.