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).

Carey

On 08/29/2025 6:46 AM CDT Alvin Starr via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
 
 
On 2025-08-29 05:38, CAREY SCHUG via Talk wrote:
When I do a web search, I find devices "preloaded with xxx thousand numbers" or room for me to add xxx thousand numbers, but IME, spam/robo calls never come from the same number twice, so that is a waste of me pressing the "block call" feature.
 
I want an answering machine including multiple cordless phones, and maybe that will connect to bluetooth to handle mobile calls too, that will:
 
About 4 years ago I moved and at the same time moved my land line to a VOIP provider(voip.ms).

On that line I have installed an IVR that asks the caller to press 1 to be connected.

This has cut down the number of robocalls to 0.

It also provides the usual features like messages but can also forward the messages as email.

The one thing I have now that I did not before is SMS on my home number which is also forwarded via email.

This will not solve your handset problem but you could get a cheap multi-handset answering-machine phone system and just disable the answering part. 


-- 
Alvin Starr                   ||   land:  (647)478-6285
Netvel Inc.                   ||   home:  (905)513-7688
alvin@netvel.net              ||
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