Landline phone

Mint

My mom has had a home connect phone from Verizon for many years.  It has worked well.  She got to keep her landline number.  The  box she has is becoming obsolete at end of year.  There is a replacement but see quite a few bad reviews on it.  Does anyone on here have experience with the new white one from Verizon?

There is another company communityphone.org.  They have a home connect phone available also.  It seems simple to use like the one now.  Has some bad reviews but less than Verizon has it seems.  does anyone have experience with this phone?

Does any one have suggestions for something else where you can keep your landline number.  I fear my mom is going to refuse a phone altogether if I can’t find something to easily replace what she has.

My mom does not have memory issues, she is all about aggressiveness, can’t reason with her, can’t have a conversation.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

SusanB-dil

Hi Sayra - 

What about porting the landline number to a cellphone?  Moving your landline telephone number to a mobile phone is possible if you are staying in the same geographic area, but you should check with the wireless carrier you want to use to make sure the company can handle it. 

loveskitties

I had to look up to see what a "home connect phone" was.

It appears to be one that uses cell phone towers rather than usual wiring for true land lines.  The difference between this and true cell phone is that it does not have all the bells and whistles such as texting, internet access, etc. which cell phones have these days.  That is also why the pricing is so much cheaper than cell phones.

The reason it is being discontinued is that it operates on the G3 technology which is being phased out by all cell carriers.

I would think that a look into reviews for cell service in your area might be a start, but there is no guarantee they will offer this service.  

If she has not had issues with Verizon, you may just need to stay with them.  They are upgrading to G5 technology which is why they are phasing out G3...reusing same towers.

Good luck with your search.

Mint

Appreciate all your replies.

That is right Marie.  It saved her a lot of money each month, can call any where you want, and she still felt like she had a land line.  If she would go to a home, vacation etc it can go with you.

I’m pretty sure my mom will not accept even a flip phone.  Did find out that I can get her a Verizon flip phone and she can keep her same number she has had for years.  Cannot see her being accepting of it regardless of how much trouble that would cause me.  They do have an upgrade box for 5G.  What bothers me is it has quite a few bad reviews as not working near as well as old one.   We have had it quite a long time without any trouble.  If I have any trouble with it, if she decides it is too modern, she is liable to refuse a phone.  She is extremely challenging on a lot of fronts.  Probably will go with Verizon but would like to find out peoples experience with community phone if I could.   Their connect box looks very similar to my mom’s present box.

Thanks again

Joydean

Sayer, we have the same phone as your mom. I do have smart phone but dh can not use one. He want even use home phone but I keep it just in case he would have to try dialing 911.  Anyway changing the black box for the white one is not complicated. The only difference I can see is it you are on the phone people could still leave a message on the black box but the white one does not. Which to me is just one more robo call to delete! One thing I will say, when I went to sign up for the white box the manager at this Verizon store (which I hate to go to) is a know it all . I had been told by customer service be sure and ask manager for your new password. Manager told me I didn’t need one. Got the box and sure enough it asked for password! I had to go back to Verizon! Just FYI!  Oh, when you disconnect the black box, take batteries out before your install white box! I didn’t know that because it’s not in information, so 3 hours with a very patient tec support guy we got it to work! Those 2 steps will save you all the frustration and may be why the review’s are not very good. Best of luck!

Mint

Joydean thank you,  thank you.    This is exactly what I was hoping for.  Someone I’m familiar with and trust.  I don’t care for the Verizon store near me either.  There’s one not too far though where my BIL goes and likes it.  So will try there and thank you for the hints.  

Think I may take the phone to my sisters house, BIL is tech savvy.  Will get it set up,  then I will take it to her.  This will hopefully help her not to become frustrated if it would take us a bit.  I had no trouble setting up the original one.  If it would take me three hours to get it set up that would frustrate my mom and stress me out dealing with her.  Do you know of any reason this plan would not work?  Supposedly you can take it anywhere you go , so this is why I’m thinking it will work.  Thanks again you made my day.

Joydean

We have not had any problems with it! Works just like the old one! I was only on the phone so long because I didn’t know to take the battery out of the old one before setting up the white one. The black one with the battery kept the white one from picking up the information. And the tech told me the what ever (I’m not tech savvy) only gives you one shot at it. Thank goodness I had not thrown the box away that it came in because he needed all those numbers! Honestly I can’t tell any difference except the white one does not record more messages. Which I don’t need more from robo callers! Hope this helps.

Mint

Very helpful.

MonicaG

I got my mom community phone because she wanted a landline. I felt it was unnecessary at first, but she kept insisting. So it didn’t go as smooth as they make it sound. They make it sound like you just plug it in and it works. It’s a little more involved than that. My husband took over that task of setting it all up. I will say they have really nice customer service.  So the reason for the landline is in case she doesn’t answer cellphone, right? Here are the pitfalls. And these are the pitfalls with the disease and not having anything to do with the phone itself. The phone itself is like a wireless phone. So in order to answer, you have to hit the button that says talk. To hang up, you need to hit the button end.  Now, with the old landlines with cords, you just pick it up and hang it up.  So I’d call my mom’s cell, she wouldn’t answer. So my husband would say, call the landline.  She didn’t pick up. So we take a ride over there. She’s in her apartment. I said, why didn’t you pick up phone? She had the phone, but didn’t realize/remember/know that you have to press talk. Not only that, she wouldn’t know how to call from the landline unless we called her from the landline and then our numbers are in there. So it really depends on the person’s ability to use the phone in my opinion. I hope this helps.

Mint

Monica thank you.  Your reply is very helpful.  My mom would not like those extra steps.  She could still do that though.

With the Verizon phone my mom so far can just pick it up and hang it up like she always did and no trouble with this so far.  

jfkoc

So I came home from Verizon with the small white box for my landline. It is my understanding that I plug it into the wall and then plug my existing phone into it....same phone.  Yes, it is dependent of the strength coming from the tower so we will see.

This is the future. Cox's landline service  has gone to this also.