As I’m purging devices that aren’t regularly updated from my network, I purchased a Grandstream HT802 VOIP Analog Gateway to hook up our old analog phone system to go along with my Cisco IP desk phone and Voiper Android client, and it is only $39 with Amazon. Not a bad option if you have a good phone system as IP phone systems are more expensive. Converting our home to VoIP.ms which is $0.85 a month per DID number with a $0.009 per minute charge is cheaper than our previous VOIP provider Magicjack ($3.33/mo unlimited). VoIP.ms also has unlimited usage with a $4.25 per month DID fee if you use it enough to be more economical. And with VoIP.ms you have access to more codecs and higher quality audio, more servers, features….
The thing that made me choose the Grandstream gateway is that they actively update the firmware having just released version 1.0.47.4 with a new beta 1.0.49.2 already in development. Being a business product, they take security seriously and have pretty good documentation (check certificate update guide for encryption which may need updating requiring a factory reset before programming).
And in combination with VoIP.ms you have access to many of their enterprise level features and configurabilty. Unfortunately there wasn’t a complete guide for setup, so I had to figure out the proper settings to get it working and add encryption, but this VoIP.ms encryption guide gives you the important parts. There was also a new section in configuration defaulted to yes that had to be changed to no get codecs working with Voip.ms.
And because I wanted it to ring my IP desk phone along with the Grandstream connected phones and Android client, I had to setup a ring group for my DID number (Direct Inward Dialing is a business/enterprise feature where inward calls to a telephone number can be routed to the correct phone usually via PBX, and no telephone number is needed for outbound calls, and multiple DID numbers can be used from a single phone…). And each phone system has its own extension like a PBX, and call parking was added so a call can be put on hold and picked up from another extension (#6 flash to park, then extension 70x to pick up, *277 for list of parked calls). The only other step needed was to enable and setup E911 so calls to 911 would complete and show my name and address properly. One of the perks of moving to Voip.ms is improved latency with closer servers, along with improved audio quality with choice of better codecs with more data.
So if you need to update your gateway, or have an analog phone system you’d like to use, or want to save a lot of money over an old school landline, Grandstream makes some nice gateways (or go IP phone system) at reasonable prices, and they take security seriously and regularly update their firmware. And its just not good to use your cell phone for extended conversations if not on WiFi, as there has always been good evidence that prolonged cellular use causes cancer, and with 5G they’re moving the frequencies up much higher into the Gigahertz frequencies with more power, far above what your microwave oven uses.