AT&T Wireless Home Phone

[kf4uda]

Does anybody have this from AT&T? It is $20 per month for unlimited nation wide calling. I am looking at this for my Mother. Her wired service is not clear all of the time and cost $75 per month.

 

[k0ua]

Does anybody have this from AT&T? It is $20 per month for unlimited nation wide calling. I am looking at this for my Mother. Her wired service is not clear all of the time and cost $75 per month.

We had it for my wife's mom when she was in assisted living, except it was with Verizon not ATT. It was the same $20 per month, and we had to buy the unit. I still have the unit, and the single line analog phone to go behind it. It was far far easier than getting service set up with ATT for a local land line, and less expensive to boot. Best thing we ever done. Total installation time was less than a minute (by me). Plug it in the wall, and plug in the analog telephone, check for dial tone. Done. The thing worked flawlessly. Highly recommended. I don't know why anyone would have a land line over copper installed any more. It even had battery backup to power it for a few hours if the power failed. The best way I know of of getting an analog phone connection to a location in a hurry.

We thought about getting her a flip phone, but even then she would not have been able to operate and charge it. So we gave her an interface she could still operate (analog 2500 series phone). I still have the Verizon base unit around here some where. She is gone now.

 

[k0ua]

I've been interested in doing the same thing at my QTH. I gather that this is nothing more than running your old analog phone through a cell service with the same cost benefits.

Yep the analog phone can be anything from some old touchtone thing you have in the closet to a cordless base with multiple handsets to a key system's input, anything. This unit we are talking about is a very small black box that is nothing more than a simple cell phone with battery backup built in and a wall wart for power and a little antenna sticking up out of it.

It is ready to go when they give it to you at the store or you order it. It contains a ring battery and talk battery supply inside of it to power and ring the analog phone. We used it with a standard 2500 type analog phone. Something with absolutely no buttons on it but the dial pad.

This person had dementia, and of course it didn't get any better, and she had a lot of difficulty telling the difference between a TV remote control and a cordless telephone. But an old analog telephone she was familiar with and could still operate, until closer to the end.

The cell phone cost was $20 per month (plus some taxes), it worked every where Verizon cell service works, which is just about everywhere. With its little external antenna, it probably works better than some cell phones. Anyway it solved a BIG problem for us and in a hurry.

 

[japody]

I have the same thing from Straight Talk purchased at WalMart. Total cost including tax is $15.76/month. Works great.

 

[coldsteelva]

I have/use the AT&T Wireless Home Phone - it's a cell phone with no buttons; black box with SIM card, wall-wart, antenna and a phone cord. Works great, is only $20 and is on the bill with my Mobleys.

 

[skipmarcy]

We too have had the Verizon home phone for about 5 years now and it works great. We were able to keep our original landline phone number too when we switched. I plugged it into one of our house jacks and use any of them we want. We run a cordless base with 3 phones and also an old princess analog phone for when the power is out. The battery in the unit will last about 3 or 4 hours after the power is off, plenty of time to call the electric company to report the outage. Our landline was killing us on long distance charges, this has been $20 a month unlimited for 5 years now.

 

[k0ua]

We too have had the Verizon home phone for about 5 years now and it works great. We were able to keep our original landline phone number too when we switched. I plugged it into one of our house jacks and use any of them we want. We run a cordless base with 3 phones and also an old princess analog phone for when the power is out. The battery in the unit will last about 3 or 4 hours after the power is off, plenty of time to call the electric company to report the outage. Our landline was killing us on long distance charges, this has been $20 a month unlimited for 5 years now.

And that is why the local landline phone company will go broke eventually. Hard to compete with something like this.

 

[kf4uda]

Thanks for all of the great feedback guys. It sounds like the wireless home phone is the way to go for my Mother. I can get 3 bars of service from my mobley or iphone at her house. The wireless home phone needs 2 to operate well, so I guess we're good there. Changing the service from a landline will save her over $630 per year and should be much clearer sound. I believe I will make the change after the holidays. She is 90, so. I am careful what,when and how I change things.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

I wish I could do something like this but the web is tied to the phone company. I have dsl but it's cheaper having phone and service provider together than just service provider alone. The phone company we have in this area has been here for a hundred years and is the only one around. We don't have the ability to have cable or ma bell or anyone like that. It's kinda like a monopoly they have you could say.

 

[von-mil]

If you cancel your old landline service and plan to use the wireless home phone with your existing telephones and your home's internal phone wiring, be sure to first physically disconnect the old land line wires. This can usually be easily done inside the terminal box where the external wires enter your home. You want to keep any potential external voltage from the phone company's lines out of your new wireless system.