On 8/29/25 8:38 AM, CAREY SCHUG wrote:
Thank you, that is possibly a good idea.
Up to now I have resisted giving up my copper line:
1. to have multiple accesses that should not all be down at the same time 2. Because Comcast was much less reliable than the phone company 3. "prove you are not a computer" kind of offends me philosophically
by having the maximum rings before picking up, and a very long outgoing message, I haven't had to answer a robocall in months or years. My phone does announce who is calling, so for my friends, if I am actually home, I pick up immediately. Just recently, if it is any kind of anonymous and there is a possibility I want the call (e.g., I have a doctor's appointment the next day, so it may be a reminder), I may pick up and then hang up if it is a robocall.
Maybe it is time to give up the copper line. Recently cable has been down less than the phone company, and I do have my mobile phone as backup. And it is expensive.
Perhaps I should try adding a VOIP service, and unless get too irritated by it, then switch my historical phone number to it (34 years).
With the VOIP services you can do more interesting things than your usual POTS phone. 1. You can have multiple phone numbers in multiple area codes 2. You can have things like ring groups. For example my home phone would ring a cottage land line and a SIP app on my cell phone. 3. You can have multiple SIP devices with their own call features. 4. You can manage your caller ID. 5. The cost is WAY lower than a Bell Landline or a cable company "homephone". 6. You can have SMS capabilities on any of your phone numbers. I used an inexpensive ATA from Amazon to connect my old answering machine with multiple handsets. The biggest problem I find is that there are so many features that your tempted to use more of them and then you are stuck with managing how they operate. If you want to take advantage of a fancy SIP phone then there is the programming of buttons and the like. The SMS features work well for the most part but I have found a few multi-factor-authentication services that do not allow SMS numbers from VOIP providers. -- Alvin Starr || land: (905)513-7688 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin@netvel.net ||