This article was written by Don VanSyckel, the club president, as a part of "The President's Pen". This article appeared in the December 2019 WYSIWYG newsletter.
VOIP Phones part 3
by Don VanSyckel
Last month I wrote about the Voice Over IP (VOIP) phone system we use at our home. I received several questions about it so I will go into more detail about some of the features. First, the phone adapter connects to my home network inside my router and plugs into my home's existing phone wiring. Note before using your home's phone wiring you need to disconnect from the telephone company's wiring because you never know what's going to get connect to those wires and you don't want any chance that the equipment in your home could be damaged. This is easily done by cutting the wire outside or disconnecting the wires at the connection block outside or inside.
The phone adapter I have doesn't support multiple phones so we got rid of the old desk phones we previous had and purchased a wireless 4 phone system. This has one base station to connect to the phone adapter. The phone adapter sits by the router and the phone base station is in the kitchen where it's handy. These items being in different rooms is possible via the "old" phone wiring. With the wireless phone I could have put the base station next to the phone adapter, but that's not where I wanted it for accessibility.
Configuration of the phone adapter is via web browser on the PC. The configuration is fairly simple and instructions were provided. You need the URL of the VOIP service you've chosen, CallCentric in my case, the account name and password, an internet time source, and you're all set.
When we signed up for CallCentric we choose to have our current phone number ported to our CallCentric account. Note CallCentric and any other phone system provider can only port "your" number. In other words, if you cancel your current phone number whether with a land line phone company or another VOIP provider, that phone number is no longer yours. Since that number in now not yours you can not have it ported. In general, you can not request a specific phone number from any phone company. Yes, special phone numbers are available but at special prices. If you don't care about an old phone number your VOIP provider will assign one for you.
At this point the basic setup is done and you're ready to make and receive phone calls.
First feature:
- low price, less than $9 a month, several plans are available
Before you sign up with any VOIP provider you need to decide what features you want. With CallCentric you can choose from the following:
- Have your own phone adapter. CallCentric supplies an extensive list of compatible devices. Some other VOIP companies might provide a phone adapter.
- Calls within the company or to other VOIP vendor customers are free (no phone company involved)
- Pay per call (CallCentric rate is less than 2 cents per minute).
- Plans can include a specific number of minutes for a fixed price. Several minute ranges are available. If you go over the minutes for your plan the per minute rate applies for the overage.
- Unlimited calling
- Above plans refer to calling US, Mexico, and Canada. International plans are available
With CallCentric you can switch between their plans at any time for a small service fee.
End of Article