My home office needs a landline - it's the only way to answer the door in the property, as the intercom at the building entrance dialls the occupants for authorisation. I've been looking for a way round this, as I object to paying a not insignificant monthly fee simply to answer the door. We really have no other need for a landline. It's possible to link a mobile phone number to the intercom, but then only one of us can answer the door!
Voice-over-IP has provided the solution. We now have a free SipGate Basic account which operates on a pay-as-you-go model. To be able to continue using our existing handsets I bought a Cisco SPA112 box. This creates a bridge between VoIP and traditional handsets. I didn't want to get rid of the handsets for the same reason I couldn't simply link a mobile phone number to the intercom - it restricts who can answer the door. We often have a need for guests in the house to be able to answer the door.
There are a couple of additional benefits as a bonus:
- The SipGate account can be simultaneously connected from our Android phones, so we can answer the door for the postman while we're in the garage or over the road at the shops.
- SipGate offer some very reasonable international rates which we make extensive use of.
It's all working very well, more convenient than before and no more landline tax.
