OOMA, and Magic Jack

[Dan/Panther]

The normal landline telephone exchange companies are in a world of hurt since cell phones came on the scene.
Then Magic Jack came out for $19.95 a year, that had to hurt even more.
Now we have a one time purchase fee of $249.99 for OOMA. OOMA like magic Jack uses the highspeed internet connection for your phone, they claim all phones work, ( I highly Doubt that, Where does the voltage for the ringers come from ). Plus it's free to use after the initial purchase price. They claim for a small one time fee you can get your same phone munber, 911, caller I.D. the entire ball of wax.
I fear that the use of vintage phones is rapidly approaching a critical point.
How long can standard phone systems survive against FREE competition ?
D/P

[Dan]

My friend has magic jack, and it only has enough juice to ring one WE500. (He tried to split the line between rooms). I feel landline service will always be an option.

[JorgeAmely]

Or you can try to get an old Panasonic PBX. You can connect that to OOMA and all you vintage phones to the PBX.

There are some available on ebay with 8 or 16 extensions that work very well with AE or WE phones.

[Phonesrfun]

I have a panasonic 16 line PBX and it works great.  I also have an 8 extension one too.  Hobie Sport has the 8 line Panasonic too.  They are great for collectors.

[Dan/Panther]

I'll have to admit, I know what a PBX is, but how do they operate.
Don't you have to push a button to make individual phones ring ?
D/P

[Phonesrfun]

The Panasonics are an electonic PBX from the late 70's designed to handle 3 incoming lines and 8 extensions (308) and 6 incoming lines and 16 extensions (616) and they also make a larger 1232.

They work with both proprietary extensions and regular phones, so they call this a hybrid system.  You dial a 9 to get an outside line from a regular phone or press the appropriate outside line button on the proprietary phone.  You dial an extension number to make other phones ring.  You can place calls on hold or transfer between extensions.  They use rotory or tone dials.  Rotary pulses are translated to tones for outgoing calls.

It is, for the most part, plug and play.  All RJ-11 jacks and plugs, although all the extensions need home-run wires to the PBX, which is a plastic wall-mounted box about 18 inches high by about 12 inches wide by about 5 inches deep.

Out of the box default programming makes it such that programming is not usually needed, although to do any custom programming, you do need one proprietary phone.

They do not have voice mail or caller ID in most cases, although I think the 1232 has a provision for adding voice mail, but don't quote me.

They are great for testing and demonstrating phones, and in a busy household could be helpful to hold and transfer calls.

Here is a picture of a 308 next to a 500 for size comparison

[bingster]

I wouldn't worry about cell phones having a lasting impact on traditional landlines, Dan.  It's true that more and more people every day are dropping phone company lines, but more and more medical organizations every day are coming out with studies that show a link between cell phone use and brain cancer.  There has always been talk about that, but as time goes on, the studies are getting more frequent and more clear.  One day I predict that one day there will be a great reversal, with people flocking back to landlines.  

Kreskin of the phone lines has spoken.  Write it down.

[Dan/Panther]

Bingster;
Does that mean I shouldn't dump all my hard wired phones
D/P

[Phonesrfun]

D/P:

Let me give you my address and you can send them here.....

Like I need one more phone!

-Bill

[McHeath]

We keep the landline around for the alarm system, and for the times when the power goes down.  While cell phone are real handy, they are simply not trustworthy enough for us to rely on them all the time, our power goes out every so often, and there are many times that cell service drops for no reason, while our landline never seems to give any trouble at all. 

I too have been reading over the years the stuff about EM waves and cell phone antennas.  So far they keep saying, they being the industry and the main health orgs, that nothing is to fear.  However I'm sure that cell phones are going to eventually be found to be bad for our health just like the following modern things have been found to be:

all food
all water
all drinks
all air
cars
indoors
outdoors
all artificial items
all natural items

[Tonyrotary]

I still have my landline in addition to our cell phones. And just recently my phone company came out with a cool bundle package. I now have unlimited long distance to anyone in the US and Canada, DSL internet, and 13 free calling features all for 49.99 before taxes. Before my DSL and Phone line total cost $30 dollars more with less features and long distance was 5 cents a minute. Same phone company. I just called them and asked if I was eligible and I was and she changed my plan for me. So there are deals to be had with landline phone companies. And the price is not supposed to go up for life, of course subject to certain conditions which would allow them to raise the price.

Makes you wonder though why I have to ask to change my plan to get the savings when they should do this kind of thing automatically to save people money? I mean who would want to stay on the old plan that costs more withe less features?

[bwanna]

d/p said it in the first sentence of his post. ("telephone companies are in a world of hurt")

just 10yrs ago copper lines were booming. most homes had 2 POTS lines. one for talking & one for dial up internet. many homes even had a third line for the kids. then along comes DSL, allowing the customer to surf the net without tying up the phone line. cell phone pricing decreases, so all the kids get cell phones. now the cable companies offer hi speed internet& VoIP. heck, even ATT is cutting our own (copper) throat, so to speak. the price package for UVERSE w/VoIP is much cheaper than UVERSE + POTS.

on friday, we were told the company is concentrating on fiber build ups to cell towers. the trend in metro areas is definitely towards wireless. i think wireless TV service is even in the works. copper will stay in place in the rural areas, as the customer base is not large enough to warrant the cost of fiber build up.

i still contend that POTS is the most reliable. i am glad some people agree with that. i need 10 more yrs

tony, regulatory rules mandate the phone co needs permission to change your package. otherwise, they could add all kinds of features/plans at a higher cost.

ok, i'll get off the soapbox now.

[Dan/Panther]

Bwanna;
No soapbox, we need as much up to date inside information as we can get.
It just seems common sense to me, that if people can get for very little fees, or even for free, what we used to pay top dollar for, the people that used to provide that service, must be hurting, if they lost that source of income.
D/P

[McHeath]

Wireless TV service even, interesting.  Sorta like old broadcast but it would be cable instead.  Interesting.  I've read something recently about work on wireless electrical power. 

The idea of the old companies hurting from losing their revenue from their services being eroded is very true for the newspapers, especially the classified sections.  Our local paper is in a world of hurt, they've cut and slashed and it never seems to be enough. 

Will all the copper wires one day be abandoned in favor of fiber optics and wireless?

[bwanna]

heath, i think in larger metro areas copper could very well become a thing of the past. a fiber feed (as opposed to copper) to a cell tower provides a much higher capacity path for data transmission. this will make all the wireless data/phone services more affordable, thus eliminating the need for copper.

i work just outside of detroit in oakland co. in some areas there might be only 1 o2 POTS subscribers on the street. fortunately, we do have the uverse service that requires a copper loop from the node. but alot of feed cable is unused.

ATT still posts large profits. but the rank & file of wireline has diminished greatly in the last 5 years.

don't have any real info on the wireless tv. that is just a wide speculation at this point.