Dock-N-Talk - Getting Rid of Your Wireline Phone Line

My wife and I had 2 Verizon wireline phone lines and 2 T-Mobile cellular phones lines. 4 phone lines for 2 individuals seems a little ridiculous. How can I use technology to reduce the number of phone lines we needed down to 2?

The obvious choice was to get rid of the 2 Verizon wireline phone lines and replace them totally with the 2 T-Mobile cellular phone lines. In order to accomplish this I needed to meet the following requirements:

1. 911 support
2. Using existing handsets when home
3. Home alarm connectivity
4. Tivo connectivity

Our national 911 system is moving towards Enhanced 911 which displays the phone number (phase I) and location a call came from (phase II). Each locality, cellular carrier, and VOIP carrier have been moving at different speeds implementing this new technology. I could not find any good status information on the internet so one needs to contact their local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Our local PSAP supports E911 phase II and provided me with a thorough explanation on choices. They believe and I agree that currently 911 operates best with a wireline phone line. Cell phones only receive GPS coordinates (if you have GPS enabled phone) and/or the cell tower you are connected to. These coordinates are then used in a mapping system to attempt to pin point the individuals location. The address is not evident with cell phones since they are so mobile. With VOIP some carriers provide the address, however if you move VOIP equipment the PSAP may not have received the updated address. Choosing a VOIP carrier is critical.

It is important to my wife that she be able to use the phones we have around the house. She does not want to carry her cell phone around the house with her, which is understandable. The solution I chose to remedy this problem is a little box from Phone Labs
called Dock-N-Talk. This device interfaces with the cell phone via a cable or Bluetooth wireless technology, and your home's telephone wiring. Since phones jacks in a home are usually wired in parallel you can plug the Dock-N-Talk in any outlet. The unit generates a dial tone for the local phones, and manages inbound and outbound calls from the cell phone. When the cell phone connects to the Dock-N-Talk, it is placed in hands free mode.

We have a wired home burglar/fire alarm system that connects to a central station via a wireline modem. This modem only works with a wireline phone line.  There is newer technology that can use cell phones but this requires a dedicated cell phone module and an additional cell phone line. I have not seen any viable internet technology that would allow the alarm system to report back via the internet but I would think someone is working on it.

The Directv Tivo digital video recorder has a wireline modem and requires a wireline phone line to make pay per view purchases using the remote control. Even though I upgraded my Series 1 Tivo to access the internet, I have not figured out how to get the reporting of pay per view purchases to use the internet. The alternative is to use the Directv web site or 800 number to make the purchase. This would taking a step back in terms of ease of use.

In the end I was only able to terminate one Verizon wireline phone line. I kept one wireline phone line for 911, the alarm system and Tivo. We are using the Dock-N-Talk for my wife's cell phone, giving her access to her cell on any phone in the house. We primarily use a Panasonic 5.8GHZ 2 line cordless phone system. My wife recently purchased a Motorola Razor cell phone, Phone Labs did not have a cable for it, so we purchased the Bluetooth module. It works well although there is good amount of background noise using the Panasonic 5.8GHZ handsets. Since I have an older Dock-N-Talk with firmware version .71, I am planning on upgrading. Phone Labs upgraded my last unit at no charge when I had a very early firmware version.

I think cellular and VOIP are the future but it is clear they still have some way to go.  I think the most promising technology is Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) described here. UMA devices use VOIP when connected to a WIFI network, otherwise they revert to their native cellular system. There are rumors that T-Mobile may have a UMA handset available before summer, hopefully that will pan out. All I will need is a solution for the alarm system  and I will be one step closer to disconnecting my remaining wireline phone line.