According to the latest study by the US National Health Information Survey released in June 2012 (link),
from 2008 to 2012 the percentage of American households that only use
wireless phones went from 17.5% to 34%. All the while, the percentage of
households with a landline phone (with or without an accompanying
cellphone) decreased from 79.1% to 63.6%. The trend is clear. Consumers
are cutting their landlines in favor of cell phones at an ever
increasing rate. There are many reasons for this behavioral shift.
Smartphones are now ubiquitous. The majority of adolescents and adults
have or would like to buy a smartphone. You can carry it around with you
all day, others can reach you with one number, you can browse the web,
write/read email, play games, listen to music and some users even have
unlimited voice and data plans. It’s very convenient.
We
believe that the primary reason why users are giving up landlines it
that they cost too much. Why pay for 2 phones when you have one with you
at all times that does so much more? That’s a very good question, but
what if we told you can you can setup a home phone for practically
nothing? Would you be interested then? No monthly fees. You can use
regular phones and it’s free for life. Now that we got your attention, a
lot of common responses that we receive are “this sounds like a scam”,
“that’s impossible”, “must be terrible service”. Well, we have been
using this service for over a year without any issues. We have even
helped setup such a line for a couple of friends, also without any
problems. We’ve read reports that others have been using such a service
for over 5 years and they’re still happy with it.
Did we mention that you also get unlimited long distance calling in Canada? Oh ya, that’s free too.
What
I’m describing is a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) telephone line.
Before we go any further, you should ensure that you have 1) a high
speed internet connection, 2) a computer/laptop, 3) a regular landline
phone (we recommend a DECT 6.0 cordless phone with a base station and
3-5 handsets), 4) a wireless router and 5) an analog telephone adapter
(commonly referred to as an ATA device). Below is a diagram of how
everything would be connected.
- SIP Server address (sometimes called SIP Proxy)
- SIP User ID (in most cases this is the phone number)
- The password for the SIP account
To obtain these settings, you must contact Freephoneline and ask for your configuration file. There's a one time charge for this, currently $50 CAD + tax. They will send you a Word document with the settings.
Connect all the cables: power cord, an ethernet cable from your router (or modem) to the WAN port of the HT502, an ethernet cable from the LAN port to your PC and a phone to the Phone 1 port. Open a web browser and type in http://192.168.2.1. The login page will come up, enter admin to log in then click Advanced Settings:
- SIP User ID (in most cases this is the phone number)
- The password for the SIP account
To obtain these settings, you must contact Freephoneline and ask for your configuration file. There's a one time charge for this, currently $50 CAD + tax. They will send you a Word document with the settings.
Connect all the cables: power cord, an ethernet cable from your router (or modem) to the WAN port of the HT502, an ethernet cable from the LAN port to your PC and a phone to the Phone 1 port. Open a web browser and type in http://192.168.2.1. The login page will come up, enter admin to log in then click Advanced Settings:
