Things are expensive today and saving money just makes good sense. If you have Broadband Internet at your home through a Cable TV or Phone Company Provider there are some ways that you can use that connection to reduce your overall monthly bills.
In other how tos we will talk about using your broadband for TV Service but today we are going to look at the different methods to use it for Phone service.
Home Phone Service really hasn’t changed that much since it became widely available. The Phone Company provides you a number and if people want to talk with you they can use it to connect with you. In the 1980’s we saw wide adoption of data services over our home phone lines. Most people connected through the use of a Modem that would translate Digital Data Signals to Analog Voice Pulses and then back to Digital when they reached your Internet Service Provider. Other forms of Data Transfers were Faxes and still some businesses use them but for the most part they have been replaced by Email.
Today everything is digital or moving in that direction.
If you have broadband you are still connected by a wire but it could be copper or fiber optic and it may or may not come from your phone company.
Physical connections are still the Fastest, Most Reliable and Cheapest ways to reach out and touch someone.. but with mobile services like GSM LTE you can gain temporary access to the Net or make calls while you are untethered.
So what is needed to get phone service over the web?
It really depends there are a variety of methods so lets take a look.
If you have a Cellphone like most people then you probably already know that you can install an application such as MagicJack or Google and place free calls over WiFi. If you have broadband it is really worth your investment to purchase an inexpensive WiFi Router and use your phone through the internet at home. Some services provide dial out only for free and others will give you a phone number for a small fee so others can call you.
The next step you might want to take is installing a small device like a MagicJack on your home network so you can connect your home phones and get free or lower cost Phone Service.
The initial cost of these devices range up to about $50 and once connected to your broadband router you can connect a single phone, a wireless phone base station with more than one phone or you can reverse wire your home’s phone wires (depending on the type).
You can’t get data services over these devices so Faxing, Modems and Alarm Systems probably won’t work if they need to send Data. That is not to say that you can’t hook your Alarm System directly to the internet just that it can’t dial out over phone service and use data you may however still be able to use it if your alarm company accepts voice connections.
Another option might be to purchase an inexpensive Android Phone and instead of registering it with a phone provider simply use it with a phone service application over wifi. This way you could have it in your living room available for use and you won’t have to give kids, relatives or visitors access to your WiFi network to place a call. Then again they can always use their minutes.
For advanced Media Center users there are Android Boxes that come with a Camera that will allow you to use your Television for Skype and other Video Chat systems. You can expect to pay about $100 for one of these devices and your service provider may be free or require a fee.