[LINK] Voice on the NBN

[Stephen Loosley]

Hi David,

With no chance of NBN fibre, our small Vic country town has just been NBN wireless enabled.

Hence, we’ve gone with a Dodo pay-as-you-go monthly wireless data plan, with an unlimited 25-5 Mbs (usually 23 Mbs) and with free phone calls to both mobile and landline phones mostly anywhere in the world, for $89 a month. We also included their Dodo $99 wireless router which clearly and reliably covers all the property.

In terms of our NBN landline handset, we bought this: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Panasonic-KX-PRW120AZW-Cordless-Phone-with-AUST-PANASONIC-WARRANTY-/281365927767?hash=item4182b75757:g:hBEAAOSwFnFWE1AB

It’s state-of-the-art, and fantastic. You only need this one NBN landline handset because it allows you to use your normal mobile phones as additional DECT landline handsets. That is, one simply downloads the excellent Panasonic app, and you can then make and receive your ‘free’ NBN voip landline calls over your normal mobile phone. And, use all of your stored mobile phone contacts.

We make many national and overseas unlimited phone calls, all for $30 a month, and using our normal mobile phones. The Panasonic app gives you a choice of making either normal mobile calls or NBN landline calls on your mobile phone.

Cheers,
Stephen



From: David Lochrin<mailto:dlochrin at key.net.au>
Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2016 11:35 AM
To: Link<mailto:link at anu.edu.au>
Subject: [LINK] Voice on the NBN

As I've remarked before, with an FTTN service it's advisable (probably essential) to isolate the house POTS wiring from the cable carrying the NBN VDSL2 signal.  I don't know whether this is done by NBN Co. when a service is connected, but it will otherwise normally require the paid services of an electrician.

So what should be done regarding the household telephones, assuming there's more than one?  The options seem to be:

(a)  Throw away the POTS 'phones.  Buy a cordless system with the required number of extensions and connect it to the modem's FXS port.  This was iinet's recommendation.

(b)  Bring the POTS house wiring out near the modem and connect it to the FXS port, making sure the REN ("ringer equivalence number") of the FXS port is >= the sum of the RENs for all connected instruments.  A POTS telephone normally has its REN shown on a label under the instrument.

(c)  Forget about handsets and use mobiles.

Does this sound reasonable?  Are there any other options?

Is the average non-technical user supposed to have the knowledge to realise what's involved and get it organised, and then be prepared to pay the extra costs?

David L.
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