Adapter for "Landline" via TopUp Mobile Sim?

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miked

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#183624 23-Oct-2015 14:39

Hi

Looking to save money by removing a landline that is mostly used for emergencies. It serves a small Church building and adjacent Op Shop. Paying $40 a month line rental for very few calls is just not cost effective.

Other landlines used by the main church centre (on another site) are being ported to VOIP (probably 2Talk), but this is not an option for this remote Church Building and Op Shop since they not on internet and are 2km from the main church.

I could see two possibilities:

An GSM/UTMS to Landline Adpater which could take a TopUp Sim card so that calls are made via the mobile network. This would be ideal as I'm presuming it would allow for the existing wiring for the phones to used, so that both the Church and Shop could use their existing phones to route out over the mobile network.
An alternative would be a GSM/UTMS DeskPhone which I've seen available, but this would need one each for the two buildings (which are already linked by phone cable) and a Sim each, so this is less ideal.

In either case, I'm presuming that if we wanted to keep the landline phone number, we could port it to 2Talk and pay them to route the few incoming calls to the appropriate mobile number, at very little cost (compared to $40 a month landline).

I'm assuming running this as "mobile phone calls" rather than VOIP over a mobile data connection would be more reliable (and cheaper?), but I guess either is a possibility.

Using a TopUp sim means that potentially it might cost only $20 a year in call costs (as long as call volumes are small), although we'd need to figure in the cost of the hardware in the first instance to make it possible, (but that could pay for itself in the first 6 months).

So has anyone used any hardware like this and got any recommendations of products or brands to consider? (Either a GSM to Landline adapter box, or a GSM deskphone)

Any recommended product suppliers in NZ that I should be talking to? (or am I in "buy it myself from overseas" territory?)

Has anyone got any general advice about what works well and doesn't in this area? Or other ideas of how to axe this one phoneline and still keep a basic occasional phone service available?

Thanks in advance

Mike

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1604 posts

Uber Geek

#1412891 23-Oct-2015 15:51

Vodafone Home Phone Wireless? It comes only with one handset but potentially could add another? How far apart are your buildings?

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/help/home-phone-wireless/

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/shop/mobileDetails.jsp?selectionKey=homephone&skuId=sku6400020

Edit links

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miked

206 posts

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#1412905 23-Oct-2015 16:24

That is a very interesting offer from a mainstream provider! Thanks for those links.... I hadn't come across that service/device before.

For some people that device would be great, and perfect for their needs.

In our case, we'd prefer a TopUp Sim instead, so we are not tied to a monthly contract, to cut costs further (because call volume is so low!). We'd also like two physical phones (one in each building) sharing the same service.

In answer to your question, the two buildings that will share the service are about 20m apart with a phone wire connecting them so they share one landline currently. (But as previously mentioned these two buildings are 2km from the main church site where they have fibre internet and VOIP service).

I guess if Vodafone had a 2 handset version of this device, that would be worth at least investigating....

I'm sure there must be little adapter boxes available to plug a standard analogue phone into... that would take a TopUp sim. I guess I might be hunting on AliExpress or eBay if there is nothing locally. Be handy to know what such a device is called though, as it would make it easier to search for.

Thanks again,

Mike

coffeebaron

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#1412910 23-Oct-2015 16:42

You need a CTU. Not cheap, but I may be able to help.

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miked

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#1412921 23-Oct-2015 16:52

So some Googling reveals that there probably are extra handsets available for those Vodafone Home Phone Wireless base units (possibly product code FH88 to go with the F688 single phone base unit).

There are other models too, including a dual handset F111 model. Buying something like that from someone other than Vodafone would mean we could use any ToupUp sims and keep ongoing costs lower.

Not sure about the suppliers I've found so far, but certainly it is an option, that we could potentially make work if we can find a reputable supplier to buy an unlocked one from.\

Some other googling keeps returning me to 2N as a make of interesting looking products, but haven't managed to work out yet if one of their products does what I need it to do.

Mike

miked

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#1412923 23-Oct-2015 17:08

coffeebaron: You need a CTU. Not cheap, but I may be able to help.

Will Google CTU to find out more to see if it is the same thing... however I'd just found this page which I presume are the same type of devices you are talking about?

http://www.voicecti.com/telephony-products/26/gsm-mobile-telephony-solution

Clearly it would be better to find them more locally (or if having to bring them in from overseas myself, find a better price for the same thing!)

@coffeebaron - I'd be interested to hear from you if you think you can help (either here or in a PM).

Thanks

Mike

michaelt

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1412931 23-Oct-2015 17:38

Mobile internet could be an option. VoIP with a low bitrate codec doesn't use much data. A few hundred MB per month might be enough, and that can be had at a reasonable price these days.

A cheap (but quite messy) option would be to use a GSM-VoIP adapter to create your own VoIP line on a private network (doesn't need to be on the internet), then use an ATA to connect your landline phones to it as if it were a normal VoIP line.

There are usually some on trademe, but prices vary dramatically. http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/networking-modems/other/auction-952162677.htm or http://www.trademe.co.nz/electronics-photography/phone-fax/other/auction-967122714.htm

It's also possible to create your own. Set up an asterisk server (could do this on a PC or on a *WRT router, a Raspberry Pi or something similar) with a USB bluetooth adaptor, and use chan mobile (http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/chan_mobile) to interface via bluetooth to almost any old cellphone, as long as it supports bluetooth. Or you can use a supported 3G dongle instead of bluetooth + cellphone. Here are instructions for doing that with a Raspberry Pi - http://www.raspberry-asterisk.org/documentation/gsm-voip-gateway-with-chan_dongle/

richms

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#1412984 23-Oct-2015 18:56

If the 2km to the place is line of sight, then a couple of ubiquiti 5ghz bridges would get you a connection there for a voip phone and whatever IP cameras you end up installing for security in the place and are pretty cheap.

Richard rich.ms

miked

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#1413004 23-Oct-2015 19:50

Some great ideas here, Thanks.

I suspect that there isn't quite line of sight unfortunately.... but it might be close, so I'll do some nosing around over the weekend to see if there might be any possibility of using a wireless bridge.

(years ago before I moved to New Zealand, I remember being inspired by reading about some guys in Wellington who were linking USB Wifi dongles using "Chinese Cooking Utensils" as parabolic dishes to transmit Wifi up to 10km and beyond! Would be pretty sweet to have an excuse to dabble in such technology - albeit with proper kit rather than cheap cookware!).

I'll also explore the idea of using mobile data too. They have an asterix server at the main site, so being able to tie something in smartly makes sense if it is affordable.

Thanks.

Mike

michaelt

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1413012 23-Oct-2015 20:21

Some products on Aliexpress that seem to do what you want. Not sure about quality though, and none of them support UMTS 850 so you'll have to use VF/2D. For $USD30-$USD50 including shipping:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/12V-New-Fixed-Terminal-Cellular-Gateway-GSM-Dialer-home-security-alarm-900-180-Free-Shipping/1459188907.html
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/fixed-gsm-wireless-terminal-gateway-home-phone-sim-card-connected-desktop-phone-to-make-call/32272020030.html
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/100-Unlock-HSDPA-3-6Mbps-HUAWEI-B932-3G-Wireless-Gateway/1489227376.html
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Unlocked-Huawei-B683-3G-HSPA-WCDMA-900-2100MHz-28-8M-WPS-USB-Wireless-Gateway-WiFi-Router/32316239551.html

Have you considered the obvious and just using a cellphone directly instead of fixed phones?

miked

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#1413019 23-Oct-2015 21:08

Thanks for those links

Good to have some choices and at a reasonable pricepoint!

michaelt:
Have you considered the obvious and just using a cellphone directly instead of fixed phones?

Yeah! Should have said that we rejected the idea of a mobile phone due to the likelihood of it getting lost, stolen, going flat etc.

Mike

michaelt

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1413029 23-Oct-2015 21:40

There are also some cordless phone sets that link to a cellphone via bluetooth - http://www.panasonic.com/nz/consumer/household/telephones/twin-handsets/kx-tg7652azb.html . Could be an easy option as well.

hyperman

418 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1413035 23-Oct-2015 21:54

michaelt: There are also some cordless phone sets that link to a cellphone via bluetooth - http://www.panasonic.com/nz/consumer/household/telephones/twin-handsets/kx-tg7652azb.html . Could be an easy option as well.

or http://uniden.co.nz/NEW_ZEALAND/p_xdect8155_index.asp

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richms

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#1413051 23-Oct-2015 22:56

I would never suggest that anyone I knew bought uniden unless I hated them.

Richard rich.ms

coffeebaron

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#1413302 24-Oct-2015 20:21

@miked I have one of these: http://www.matrixtelesol.com/gsm-fct.html if interested? It's the non 3G version, so will only work on Vodafone or 2degrees 2G networks. I just need to test it's still good. Flick me a PM if interested. Would be on a "permanent loan" basis, i.e. it comes back to me if / when you no longer need it.
Cheers
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hyperman

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#1413307 24-Oct-2015 20:57

richms: I would never suggest that anyone I knew bought uniden unless I hated them.

neither..... but it is a option none the less

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer

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