TL:DR - Setting up a wifi landline-like device

[Krolic]

TL:DR - I want to be able to build a wifi enabled landline. I am a Canadian (so would need a Google Voice work-around). Any ideas?

 

Full Story:

 

The other night when driving home I got a flat-tire and need to call my housemate for assistance. Unfortunately, they are not the best at monitoring their phone (I know, a young person not crippling attached to their phone is surprising) and I was not able to contact them. Luckily, I had CAA so the situation was dealt with, but I digress. It got me thinking that in a serious situation that I would not be able to contact them if I truly needed it. It made me think about being able to not have their phone on silent so they would always be able to hear it if it went off and having it in a main part of the house... like a landline. It dawned on me that having a landline these days may not be as pointless as I thought originally. That being said, we are both graduate students that make measly pennies and would not be able to afford setting up a designated landline... Bell is expensive as hell. I then thought about how I could set one up myself. I started thinking about getting a Google Home and someone configuring a separate phone number account for it, like I could use with Google Voice. Unfortunately, again... Canada. I then thought about using a Raspberry Pi and with a VPN (I use PIA) set up the Pi to be only in the US and somehow jerry-rigging it up to an only landline phone I found at my parents (or at least know they have them). Have people tried something like this before? Does people have any ideas? Any help would be helpful. 

[NoRomanBatmansAllowed]

You could use cheaper VOIP options for a landline e.g. iTalkBB. Sure, not the same amount of reliability or quality, but it gets you that landline for (iirc) less than 10 bucks a month.

 

If you know how to code you could mess around with the fongo app. Maybe install an android distro or something that can run APKs on the RPi and try playing around with that. Even better, you don't need a VPN.

[Krolic]

Ideally I don't want to pay for a VOIP, or really pay for anything I do not have to. I could look into the fongo app, but my coding ability is pretty beginner. 

[NovaNightmare]

2 hours ago, Krolic said:

TL:DR - I want to be able to build a wifi enabled landline. I am a Canadian (so would need a Google Voice work-around). Any ideas?

 

Full Story:

 

The other night when driving home I got a flat-tire and need to call my housemate for assistance. Unfortunately, they are not the best at monitoring their phone (I know, a young person not crippling attached to their phone is surprising) and I was not able to contact them. Luckily, I had CAA so the situation was dealt with, but I digress. It got me thinking that in a serious situation that I would not be able to contact them if I truly needed it. It made me think about being able to not have their phone on silent so they would always be able to hear it if it went off and having it in a main part of the house... like a landline. It dawned on me that having a landline these days may not be as pointless as I thought originally. That being said, we are both graduate students that make measly pennies and would not be able to afford setting up a designated landline... Bell is expensive as hell. I then thought about how I could set one up myself. I started thinking about getting a Google Home and someone configuring a separate phone number account for it, like I could use with Google Voice. Unfortunately, again... Canada. I then thought about using a Raspberry Pi and with a VPN (I use PIA) set up the Pi to be only in the US and somehow jerry-rigging it up to an only landline phone I found at my parents (or at least know they have them). Have people tried something like this before? Does people have any ideas? Any help would be helpful. 

I don't know about Canada - but if you have a Google Home, you can use the broadcast feature - "Broadcast "Answer your phone, emergency!", and it will play in every google home inside your house with that message, either in your voice, or the assistants voice if neccessary. Additionally... and again, unsure because of "Canada" you can tell Google Home to "Call", it will do it from a "Private number", however that may just be outgoing and again, may not be in Canada.

[IntMD]

Could you not just get a cheap old school mobile phone or two (with a decent loud speaker), use a prepaid SIM, and keep it plugged in and the volume turned up and only each of you have the number? Should cost <$20 unless mobile providers in Canada are more useless than I thought.

[Krolic]

For the Google Home Broadcasts feature, it is interesting, but the answering is based on the person receiving the call knowing it is an emergency in the first place. 

 

In terms of getting a cheap mobile phone with a prepaid card... Ya, that could probably work. It is a very anti-climatic solution thought. Effective, but, wheres the fun in that.