[ale] [OT] Building a home 'landline' using the cellular network

Alex Carver agcarver+ale at acarver.net
Sat Jan 25 03:47:52 EST 2020


It's funny, the ISPs that provide VoIP service via the modem jump up and
down about users making sure there's a battery backup for maintaining
phone service.  But, if my place loses power there's a 99.9% chance the
box outside lost it, too and no amount of battery backup inside my place
will keep my phone operating.

On 2020-01-24 12:02, Joey Kelly via Ale wrote:
> On Sunday, January 05, 2020 06:58:54 PM Stephen R. Blevins via Ale wrote:
> <snip>
>> Typically, the POTS system works when the power is out.  Just a thought.
> 
> Not anymore. Once they run fiber to the neighborhood, they run out there and 
> put out small gas generators in a mocking attempt to keep the POTS crap that 
> runs to your house up when a hurricane comes through. In New Orleans (where 
> I'm pretty much from, and where I'm back to since June) power was out for 5 
> days a few years ago, and all you'd get from a landline was a nasty static. 
> Phones and DSL were both out until the power came back on.
> 
> --Joey
> 
> 
>>  YMMV
>>
>> Stephen R. Blevins
>> stephen.r.blevins at gmail.com
>>
>> On 1/5/20 4:03 PM, Robert Tweedy via Ale wrote:
>>> Hi Ale,
>>>
>>> I'm entertaining an idea (currently months/years out on implementation,
>>> should it turn out to be feasible) of trying to build a simple in-home
>>> phone system that would run over a cellular network (specifically one of
>>> the GSM networks like AT&T or T-Mobile, so that I could simply swap out
>>> the SIM card should I ever want to change providers), and I was wondering
>>> if anyone else here has tried to do this and could offer any pointers.> 
>>> >From what I've looked at so far, it looks like I'd need a GSM gateway or
>>>> similar device to ultimately make the connection to the cellular network,
>>>> along with a Linux system running something like Asterisk or FusionPBX
>>>> and the associated cards/hardware to interface with the POTS wiring
>>>> inside the house (just looking for a simple party-line style setup at the
>>>> moment; no need to handle multiple extensions/numbers and no desire to
>>>> buy expensive VoIP/business-class phones). Any suggestions on where to
>>>> start with something like this, or any pitfalls that you may have
>>>> experienced when setting up something like this yourself?>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Robert
>>>
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>>
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