Alexa anounces incoming landline CID

[tuicemen]

Yesterday we switched our Phone line to cable.
We have a phone that announces CID and I've always had this available on my PC (first program I ever created provided this)
We very rarely get phone calls with the kids now gone so I forgot about this running on my PC.
Last night the Phone rang and My dot announced Phone Call from .....!
 My wife flipped out "Hey how does she know who's calling?" she asked.

I had paired my PC to our Dot to provide Alexa with some additional functionality and forgotten I had the CID program running. 
 

[mike27oct]

What device/method etc. did you use to switch your phone line to cable (i.e. Internet)?

I have my own router & modem, and although I have Comcast/Xfinity cable TV and internet service, I have avoided their phone service since I do not want to use their rental router/modem unit, and phone service is part of that device.  So, we have kept the landline on separately with the phone company, but really want to avoid that extra cost.  Another reason for keeping phone line separate is it is on 24/7/365 unlike internet phone is subject to not do every time electric or internet is down.

[tuicemen]

We used the cable companies phone router. They were offering a 2 year deal that included the phone with CID for 11$ more a month then our current bill.
Phone company bill was 45$ per month and set to go up which only included CID. So the switch became a no brainer.

My reason for holding off so long before switching was the same as yours. The phone modem has a battery which we're told allows it to work during a power or internet outage. I'll report if that is truly the case.
However we still have a cell phone so a power or internet outage isn't a big deal.

[mike27oct]

Our landline includes CID and answer "machine" feature.  Also, we added long distance so we can call out of area and both talk at same time.  I think we pay around $60/mo.

OK, we will keep things the same, but need to check other services such as magic jack and ooma device again to see what's new with it.

[tuicemen]

I'm told we get the answer machine service too but this wasn't needed as our phone has that feature.
I found calling up your ISP and just asking questions will get them to offer you what ever special is going that month.
They usually have a couple package deals one may fit your needs.

Our daughter has used Vonage for over 10 years and loves it, neighbours have magic jack and love it too!
It has taken us a few years to finally drop our phone company even after they cut us off saying we cancelled! (still think that was just to get us off paper billing)

[mike27oct]

>>>   I found calling up your ISP and just asking questions will get them to offer you what ever special is going that month.

I do this often.  I call Comcast at least once a year (or see our bill spike up), and select "discontinue service" from phone menu and immediately I am linked to their retention (loyalty) center.  I tell them I am a long time customer and I do not want to drop the service, I just want to renegotiate our plan and be sure to get the discounts and freebees the "switcheroos" from other services get.  They bend over backwards to keep me and give me other services for free.  This reminds me, it is time to play this game with the Starz service which has been free for six months, and time is about up for that.  Gotta renew it.   

Wife does same with her Sirus radio each year she gets a renewal notice at twice the price.  She just calls them and tells them there is no way she is going to pay that price, and gets the same price she previously had for $100/yr.  Still too pricey in my opinion.  Too bad we can't do same with gas and electric company.   

[tuicemen]

  Still too pricey in my opinion.  Too bad we can't do same with gas and electric company.   

Nor the Phone company in my case they basically said they had been under charging us  but would give us 10$ off for 2 months then it was going up,  if we didn't like that go with some one else, so we finally did.

I guess we were suppose to have been paying 55$/month so we could get hassled by telemarketers ? (got more of these per day then we made calls each month)
I doubt that telemarketers calls will change as we kept same #.
I'm just surprised the PC CID program still works with this.

[jwlv]

I've had just about every VOIP telephone service ever since VOIP became available, including Magicjack, Vonage, Ooma, Packet8, and a few others that has gone out of business.

The most recent one that I cancelled was Ooma. Yea, I'm a cheapass because I didn't want to pay the $3-something cents every month in taxes. Now I use Google Voice, which is completely free. You can choose any area code you want with Google Voice. If you already have a Gmail or Google account, just go to www.google.com/voice and grab a phone number. You will also need to get a SIP device that hooks up to your telephone and router. I use the Obihai Obi202. Amazon sells it for $68 currently. I got it for $56 during a Lightning deal. Setting it up is not plug & play like the pre-packaged systems like Vonage or Ooma.

In case of power outages, I have my cordless phones, router, and Obihai on a 450VA UPS Backup, which can power all the devices for at least several hours.

[mike27oct]

Yea, the answer from the Frontier landline, was to sign up for the Frontier cable company and put the phone into the plan.  No thanks! 

Frontier was previously Verizon FIOS, but they ticked me off some years ago when Verizon came into our new neighborhood after it was only a few years old (and Comcast cables were already installed underground from the getgo here) and proceeded to tear up the neighborhood sidewalks and front yards with ditch witches.  What a mess!  I swore then and there I would never have them as my cable company!

Thanks for mentioning Vonage as well, I will check them all.

[mike27oct]

jwlv,

Taxes aside (which, like death, we cannot avoid), what was your best, most affordable and favorite VOIP service?

[jwlv]

jwlv,

Taxes aside (which, like death, we cannot avoid), what was your best, most affordable and favorite VOIP service?

Google Voice is my first choice. Never any problems. But it may not be free forever. In fact, about 3 or 4 years ago Google announced they would end the free phone service. They decided that it would continue to be free year after year. Who knows how long that will last. But take advantage of it while you can.

My second choice is Ooma. It has always been very reliable. But there was one thing that I found a bit odd. As I understand it, every phone call has some sort of routing fee that the phone companies pay for. Whether it's a local or long distance call, somebody has to pay to route the call. From what I found out, it is usually the origination caller's phone company. These are just fractions of a penny but there is some kind of contract or agreement between the phone companies to settle these payments. The one thing that I discovered with Ooma is that any calls to me from the local school district will result in a busy signal. But if I make the call to the school district, they all go through just fine. I believe the school district uses Cox Communications. I've never gotten to the bottom of this, but I think it has to do with the agreements of the phone companies between the school district and Ooma. Perhaps it's the school district being cheap and not paying their obligations to route these calls. Or maybe there's a lack of an agreement between the two phone companies. Other than that, I have never had anyone else tell me that their call wouldn't go through. During my research on this topic in the past, I've read many instances of this happening with Magicjack users. Many people have concluded that Magicjack was not paying their obligations. Years ago when I had Magicjack, there were several phone numbers that I could never get through to. It always ended in a busy signal. In retrospect, I think it has to do with the above.

Just doing a quick Google search, I found a discussion about this topic on DSLReports (from 2010 -- 7 years ago)
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r24604558-Outgoing-call-busy-signal

All this was several years ago. I have no confirmation that any of this is still true and ongoing.

[mike27oct]

jwlv,
Thanks for such a detailed reply.  Lots to think about and decisions to make.  I will learn more about Google Voice, too.

[coyote]

I've had just about every VOIP telephone service ever since VOIP became available, including Magicjack, Vonage, Ooma, Packet8, and a few others that has gone out of business.

The most recent one that I cancelled was Ooma. Yea, I'm a cheapass because I didn't want to pay the $3-something cents every month in taxes. Now I use Google Voice, which is completely free. You can choose any area code you want with Google Voice. If you already have a Gmail or Google account, just go to www.google.com/voice and grab a phone number. You will also need to get a SIP device that hooks up to your telephone and router. I use the Obihai Obi202. Amazon sells it for $68 currently. I got it for $56 during a Lightning deal. Setting it up is not plug & play like the pre-packaged systems like Vonage or Ooma.

In case of power outages, I have my cordless phones, router, and Obihai on a 450VA UPS Backup, which can power all the devices for at least several hours.

Actually you don't need a SIP device. Google Voice operates on mobile Wifi devices. Right now I have it running on my iPad, on a cheap Android tablet, and on an HTC phone. That said, if I were to move out of state or something and not be able to take my home phone#, indeed I'd go with just the GV # and a SIP device. That covers comm on the continent. For international free comm, nothing beats Skype video calling.

[GaryDZ]

Our landline includes CID and answer "machine" feature.  Also, we added long distance so we can call out of area and both talk at same time.  I think we pay around $60/mo.

OK, we will keep things the same, but need to check other services such as magic jack and ooma device again to see what's new with it.

Take a look at OOMA. VoIP.  I have had it for 5 years.

It is a 1 time purchase and the basic bill is about $4/month.  That is for taxes and 911.   Basic includes Voice mail and any where in USA.   International calls are cheap

For $10 a moth it will e-mail you your voice mails and you can turn on a Call Blocking filter that will stop most robo calls.

Its nice because even if you move or travel... all you have to do is bring the box with you.