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Use A Regular Phone For Cellphone Calls
nizo writes "Not too long ago I decided to get rid of my landline, however I miss being able to make a call with a regular phone, especially long calls that might drain my battery. It would also be nice if I didn't have to hunt for my cellphone at home when it rings. Well, it looks like there is a simple solution with a Cell Socket, a cradle for your cellphone that can be used to attach your cell line to one or more regular phones." Even better, for those with a landline or VoIP phone, would be a system that automatically picks the cheapest route out for any given call.
We've discussed this before.
Why is this same joke being modded funny on every story where it gets posted? If anyone were to bother to RTFA, they would see it is a pretty straight-forward article. What could there even be FUD about?
Homme petit d'homme petit, s'attend, n'avale
Cingular offers a device called a fast forward. You put the device in a cradle that connects to the landline and it automatically forwards all calls to your landline while charging your device.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:ZWgMwpNIwucJ: www.cellsocket.com/+cellsocket&hl=en
You can often get them on eBay, they're known as Pokias (check out pokia.com for the bloke who started it all)
The Dock-n-Talk seems to be a much better product than the Cellsocket.
http://www.phonelabs.com/prd05.asp
It claims to work with over 400 cell phone models and has a bunch of features not found in the Cellsocket.
While we are on it, does anyone know of a product that allows you to make landline calls THROUGH your cellphone? Here is my idea:
1) Landline phone hooked up to a cell phone (Phone A)
2) You have another cell phone (Phone B)
3) Both cell phones are on UNLIMITED Mobile-to-Mobile plan.
4) You place a call from Phone B to Phone A and tell Phone A to dial a number through your landline.
5) You chat on the phone for 3 hours AND USE UP NO MINUTES since you are on Mobile-to-Mobile connection.
Viola, UNLIMITED PEAK MINUTES AT PRICE OF 2 CELL PHONES, CHEAPO 2-PHONE PLAN, AND UNLIMITED LANDLINE!!
Basically, you're looking for something like Least Cost Routers (anybody wanna translate this?). These things have been very popular in Germany ever since the telecom market was deregulated. In Germany you can use other (landline) telecom providers through a Call-By-Call system, dialing the provider's prefix before your actual phone number if you want to use a provider other than your default one (e.g., 01033 for German Telekom, 01013 for Tele2). There's whole websites dedicated to providing lists of the cheapest call-by-call providers. These LCRs can store such lists of providers and their rates for different types of calls (i.e., local, long-distance, other countries, cell phone networks, etc.) at different times of the day/week, and the automatically prefix the number you dial with the cheapest provider's. Of course, lists can be updated manually or automatically. Now, I'm not sure if anybody has built such a device with cell vs. landline vs. VoIP in mind, but if that exists, other Slashdotters who can be bothered to look it up instead of working ;-) will surely post links...
FWIW, there's also an isdn4linux-based LCR tool and corresponding phone rate databases (see English summary at bottom) available. For cell/landline/VoIP solutions, if there's nothing else available, there is probably a good starting point.
I had a Cell Socket for a while, then it died. Plus, I couldn't upgrade that one phone either since it was only compatible with a few models.
What I settled on was a Telular box. It's a company that makes high end boxes for companies that need phone service where there isn't anything but cell. They've got a bunch of products and it works pretty good for most needs. You can even hook it into a phone system so you can route your companies long distance through it to use free long distance minutes.
FYI, Sprint is doing a trial with Telular boxes in selected cities as a way to replace your land line.
according to an advertisement in CE magazine this cordless phone from uniden will allow you to make calls from your cellphone using the handsets in the house...via the dead bluetooth http://www.uniden.com/productpop/00_productpop.cfm ?prd_code=ELBT595
When SBC first started offering DSL (many moons ago), they would only install it on a second line. This second line did not require a phone number. They have since moved away from that, but for reasons too long to get into, I still have service setup that way. Whenever I talked to them, they always encourage me to switch to the Yahoo DSL branded offering. They really want the line back.
Asterisk is an open sourced pbx project that has really matured. Some people still gripe about its scripting, and difficultly to set up, but I find it a breeze. If you're relaly interested check out the Asterisk Wiki.
time is a perception of a being's consciousness
time is your 6th sense, the wierd ones are 7+
Another option would be to get a VOIP phone (i.e. Vonage) for home, and have it simultaneously ring your cell phone when it's called. Then you can just have people dial the VOIP phone when they want to reach you, leaving you to decide which line to pick up.
Of course, this means you'd need to get a new line with a recurring fee if you don't already have a VOIP line, which will cost you $20+ per month instead of whatever fixed rate the cell-socket costs. But its worth considering.
Another advantage of this that nobody's noted yet is that you don't have to worry about reception. My apartment gets such poor cell coverage that I drop calls just walking around. With one of these I could put my cell in the spot where it got the best reception and leave it there. Or I could just stop pacing maniacally, but then I'd have to cut down on the coffee...
Now here's a question... Or an insight; whatever... I have been using my GPRS data connection for a while, through my cell, to make data connections. While being slower then wifi of any sort (except for these damn congested hotel networks), it is a great tool for say, traveling on a train, and making my connection. Cingular does not make this a vey easy thing to do, but thanks to a lot of patience, and research, i found a few web sites that really helped me out with getting this connection made. With Cingular/AT&T, the data package for full on GPRS all the time is 20 dollars a month, and it's always on as long as your in the GPRS network. The speed seems to be higher then regular dial up, and keeps me connected.
: www.cellsocket.com/+cellsocket&hl=en
1 1 Gotta search for the word cellsocket, can't seem to find an anchor to sink my digital teeth into.
:)
Link:
http://www.taniwha.org.uk/gprs.html Great link to scripts to make this possible in many ways with many phones.
Now the future as I see it is using something similiar to Skype, or VOIP technology to enable this as a way that i can be making calls through my computer, and paying for a GPRS connection that is always on. While it's nice to be able to just ring through on the cell, I think 20 dollars a month for a VOIP connection anywhere I can recieve GPRS would be FINE and Dandy! Feel free to add to this if anyone has done any other legwork into this idea.
Now, I figure this might be rate as offtopic, in fact, I fear it, but I see this as being related to some of the other things people have said so far on this topic. Now, I have looked at this product, (thank you anonymous coward for the easy link to the cached site
(here) http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:ZWgMwpNIwucJ
Now this is interesting.. This was mentioned in an earlier article, on Nov 22, 03.
Are we behind in the times?
http://boogle.cc/index.php?blogid=1&archive=2003-
I guess this seems like a neat product, but I want more. And I also question why this wasn't released as ?news? on slashdot till now? Hmmmmm
Well, let me know if anyone has any ideas on the other stuff I went rambling off on. Always on VOIP everywhere would rock my world harder then any hardline home phone thingamajig... Let's make the most of our collective brains, and start up the saucestorm of knowledge.. let it flow free
`B Flicks, `Cool Lick'ah, `Sweet Talk' `in' ManG'
watch your ass on that one... from Verizon's site:
Airtime applies to forwarded/transferred calls even if you send the call to wireline telephones. When forwarding calls to phone numbers outside your local calling area, you'll be billed for any toll, long distance, and airtime charges incurred. Additional per-minute charges may apply to all forwarded calls.
I know here in Central IL, it's 10 cents per minute plus airtime for all forwarded calls. I got out of my contract 3 years ago when they implemented that.
Someone doing Pokia style bluetooth handsets did one [its just a bluetooth handset, but you just stick the phone in your pocket]:e gory=42393&item=2282460229&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&cat
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Verizon may be nice, but at least with my T-Mobile plan, I get a seperate pool of "Call Forwarding" minutes (500 per month). When forwarding I have two options: 1.) If I use the option on my phone which says "Forward when unable to answer" (which lets the phone ring first, THEN forwards it), it pulls from the special "Call Forwarding" minutes. (That's good). 2.) If I "Forward all calls" (the phone forwards the call immediately), it pulls from my regular "Whenever" minutes. (That's bad.) So, I just let it ring on my cell phone first before forwarding. Hopefully, you'll have the same luxury (at least, if you are with T-Mobile). Just be careful; T-Mobile got me with this one. HTH, --CptnSbaitso