Ask HN: Best way to get a land line for my kids?
As we start the new school year, I want to add a "land line" to my house so I can tell them "devices are off at 8:30! If you urgently need to make a call, go ahead and use this land line."
I am hopeful this will mean they don't "just need to text someone" and then get sucked into the void of their smart phone addictions until all hours of the night, damaging their fragile sleep patterns.
Of course, I don't really want a land line. I want a SIP phone that connects via Plivo or Twilio. I've been looking on eBay and others to find an inexpensive cordless version that I can easily connect to Plivo.
I'm confused, however, what the difference is between a SIP phone, a DECT phone, Bluetooth and a WiFi phone, and if those can all be used with Plivo/Twilio.
For example this link:
https://www.voipsupply.com/voip-phones/cordless
Anyone have suggestions on going down this path? Do I need to run a PBX on one of my machines?
I figure the least expensive way is just direct to Plivo. The pay-as-you-go plan seems to be about $0.005 a minute inbound, $0.01 a minute outbound. That's easily worth my sanity.
https://www.plivo.com/pricing/
Why those providers? have you considered voip.ms (afaik, based in Canada, despite the domain name) ? $0.85/month for the line, $1.50/month for e911, about a penny per minute; and home phone is one of their specific use cases.
> I'm confused, however, what the difference is between a SIP phone, a DECT phone, Bluetooth and a WiFi phone, and if those can all be used with Plivo/Twilio.
DECT is cordless phones; some DECT base stations are setup for POTS, some do SIP. The easiest way forward (and what I've done) is to pick up an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA), and use something designed for Analog POTS. Something like a Grandstream HT801 should do well.
My current “land line” is VoIP through my internet provider, and when the power or internet are down I have no way to communicate (given my cellular also rides the internet, using a Verizon femtocell, bc the local signal stinks).
It'll be a bit more than a DIY SIP phone, but a hell lot less hassle.
Also, it's probably easier to just use the smartphons' parental controls.
But, I'm unclear that this is very cost effective. For example, is this the kind of device you mean?
https://twenty7tech.com/product/pots-adapater/
That's $300 and then requires a SIM card as well, right? So, let's say I use a cheap one from Tello that is $6/mo.
That's still a lot more than using Plivo/Twilio with a SIP phone, right?
DECT phone uses local RF (like cordless home phones, think of it as the "phone to headset via bluetooth" portion), a SIP phone uses the internet directly, and an LTE base station provides a fake bridge from POTS button presses to a mobile call dial.
You can also buy a very stupid phone, with a tiny screen and plastic buttons. It still has SMS, a camera and a browser but you must type the ULR in T9 that is as fun as it sounds. The main feature is that you can't use WhatsApp (that is super popular here), so nobody can contact you unless they realy want to speak.
https://youtu.be/fdM1V98iIQI
This is naive. They'll want their phones just as much as before. The landline won't make any difference.
Maybe the goal is to entertain your children? "Oh dad and his 1980s technology, what a goofball"
And, I'm in the process of divorcing. I want them to have the psychological safety that they can call their mom when they need to.
Kids are all about trying to establish some kind of control in their lives. My son especially says "I'm texting mom!!!" at 10 pm. I want to provide him the access to reach his mom if he really needs to, but avoid him staring at a screen, which is what he is really trying to do in between waiting for the text from his mom.
I know there are parental controls that would help with this kind of thing. That requires both parents are aligned on the way those controls are used. It isn't that simple in my case.
https://www.cell2jack.com/setup.html
But, be honest, did you just vibe code this site once you read my question?
Respect, either way. I love it.
You are suggesting I get the kids to use a SIM I control?
My kids split time at my house and their mom's so I don't see this being an easy solution. But, it is an interesting idea.
Just add an actual land line. It’s not that complicated.