Want a Landline Phone? Set Up a Completely Free Landline Service

Here in the North America, it must truly be one of the most crazy market observations of the day that there are people who actually pay for their non-mobile telephone service, the kind of service that until just a few years ago, used to be called a “landline.”

The landline lives among us. It lurks in all manner of deals, triple-plays, dual-plays and quad-plays; disguised as a service you need to pay for. “$20 unlimited US/Canada!” “$20 Unlimited world” (by “world,” they only mean “US/Canada and three other countries). All manner of other bizarre promotions exist.

But my question is—if you live in the US and Canada—why on earth would you want to pay for telephone service in an era when Google Voice exists, and there are a zillion ATA devices out there? I enjoyed free phone calling goodness for all 2011 through 2013, and in 2014, it appears like Google has every intention of keeping Google voice payment free for USA and Canada calls.

In the “good-old days” age of telephony, PSTN-based telephone companies were all the rage, and they needed physical telephone wires to be laid all the way into your home. This means that the cost of the telephone service was to p ay for the labor, maintenance of the cabling to your home and your neighbors’ and the infrastructure that needs to be maintained at the core. The great side effect of the Internet-based transport of telephony data (or VoIP) is th at the rapidly expanding infrastructure for Internet communications laid by the same companies that are selling you “landline” plans can also carry your telephony data. Psst: here’s a dirty secret: that is precisely what these co mpanies are doing when you pay them for a “landline—“ you are not exactly using a telephone wire very much any more.

My question is: why are you letting them do that?

I have been using free phone service via Google Voice and my regular, “landline” phone devices (Uniden phones or even an old fashioned corded one!) for nearly a year now, and I was a late entrant to this party! It is possible through the magic of an ATA device like ObiHai 110 and a Google Voice account, which is free, and already available to you if you have a Google mail account on gmail (that is, no additional crap to sign up for and maintain the password). I spent a total of $50 USD circa spring of 2011 on the ObiHai 110 device, and powered it up and connected it to via Ethernet to m y router in the basement. I also connected a “landline” cordless phone’s base to the phone (RJ11) port on my ObiHai 110 using a telephone jack. I then configured the ObiHai 110 device to use my Google Voice account details. Lo and behold! I now have a dial tone on my landline device, and you can use your cordless phone to make/receive phone calls in the USA and Canada.

Yes, it is really that simple!

Do it!

PS: There’s just one caveat to all of this—you cannot make 911 calls with the setup I describe above. Rather, for making 911 calls, you have to register with an old-fashioned phone company and pay only for their 911 service (don ’t you just hate that!). Read a crisper introduction to some hacks on this front.