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The Most Versatile VoIP Provider: FREE PORTING
JUST RELEASED: Visit the Incredible PBX WikiInterconnect Incredible PBX 2020 to the Asterisk Mothership
The Holy Grail for a mobile VoIP solution is a simple way to connect back to your primary Asterisk® PBX via Wi-Fi from anywhere in the world to make and receive calls as if you never left. Let’s tick off the potential problems. First, many home-based PBXs are sitting behind NAT-based routers. Second, almost all remote Wi-Fi connections are made through a NAT-based router. Third, chances are the remote hosting platform blocks outgoing email from downstream servers such as a mobile PBX. Fourth, deciphering the IP address of your remote connection can be problematic. Fifth, the chances of experiencing one-way audio or no audio on your VoIP calls is high because of NAT-based routers at both ends of your connection.
For those that travel regularly or those that are living elsewhere during the Coronavirus pandemic and want to avoid the complexity of configuring OpenVPN, here is a quick thumbnail of the setup we recommend as your mobile companion. We use it regularly. You’ll never have a one-way audio problem again. In terms of hardware, you’ll need a Raspberry Pi 4B or 3B+ with its native WiFi support plus a Windows or Mac notebook computer for traveling. You’ll also need a NeoRouter VPN server to make this process seamless. If you’ve already set up an OpenVPN server platform, it will work equally well. One advantage of NeoRouter is that clients can be added from the client side without having to create a config file on the VPN server. All you need is a username and password. But the choice of VPN platform is totally a matter of preference. The objective using either OpenVPN or NeoRouter is secure communications to your home base. We don’t want to have to reconfigure either your home PBX or your traveling Raspberry Pi or your notebook PC based upon changes in your public and private IP addresses.
Today we’ll walk you through the easiest way to set up a (free) NeoRouter server on the Internet. It can be used to connect up to 254 devices on an encrypted private LAN. We’re delighted to have finally found a perfect use for the (free) Google Cloud instance.
Using a Raspberry Pi, build an Incredible PBX 2020 platform by following our latest tutorial. We’ll set this up on your home WiFi network so that you only have to throw the Raspberry Pi and its power supply in your suitcase when you travel. As part of the setup, we’ll download NeoRouter and activate private IP addresses for your notebook computer as well as both of your PBXs (using nrclientcmd). Next, we’ll interconnect the two PBXs using SIP trunks and the NeoRouter private LAN IP addresses. We’ll take advantage of a neat little Raspberry Pi trick by storing a wpa_supplicant.conf template on your PC for the remote WiFi setup even though we don’t yet know anything about the remote LAN. Once we know the SSID and password at the remote destination, we’ll use your notebook computer to edit the template and transfer the file to the /boot folder of your RasPi’s microSD card. When the card then is inserted and the RasPi is booted, it will automatically move the template to the proper /etc/wpa_supplicant folder to successfully activate your WiFi connection. We’ll also load links, a fast text-based browser, just in case you encounter a remote site that requires some sort of acknowledgement or password before establishing your WiFi connection to the Internet.
Setting Up a (free) NeoRouter Server in the Cloud
Because NeoRouter uses a star-based VPN architecture, that means the NeoRouter Server must always be available at the same IP address for all of the NeoRouter Clients (aka Nodes) to talk to. If you already have a cloud-based server that has a static IP address and can handle the traffic cop duties of NeoRouter Server, then that’s an ideal place to install NeoRouter Server. Simply download the Free flavor of NeoRouter Server that matches your existing platform and install it. Add an FQDN for your server’s IP address, and you’re all set. A detailed summary of available management options is included in our previous NeoRouter v2 article.
We devoted a couple weeks to Google Cloud instances, and it turned out to be a pretty awful platform for hosting Asterisk. But the free offering looks to be a perfect fit as a hosting platform for NeoRouter Server. You also won’t have to worry about Google going out of business anytime soon. So let us walk you through an abbreviated setup process on the Google Cloud platform. If you’re just getting started with Google Cloud, read our previous article to take advantage of Google’s generous $300 offer to get you started and to generally familiarize yourself with the mechanics of setting up an instance in the Google Cloud.
For NeoRouter Server, navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com. Click the 3-bar image 
in the upper left corner of your Dashboard. This exposes the Navigation Menu. In the COMPUTE section of the Dashboard, click Compute Engine -> VM Instances. Then click CREATE PROJECT and name it. Now click CREATE INSTANCE and Name it nrserver. The instance name becomes the hostname for your virtual machine. If you want to remain in the Free Tier, choose f1-micro instance as the Machine Type and choose a U.S. Region (us-central1, us-east1 or us-west1). For the Boot Disk, choose CentOS 6 and expand the disk storage to at least 20GB (30GB is available with the Free Tier). For the Firewall setting, leave HTTP and HTTPS disabled. Check your entries carefully and then click the Create button.
When your virtual machine instance comes on line, jot down the assigned public IP address. We’ll need it in a minute. Now click on the SSH pull-down tab and choose Open in a Browser Window. Now we need to set a root password and adjust the SSH settings so that you can login from your desktop computer using SSH or Putty:
sudo passwd root su root nano -w /etc/ssh/sshd_config
When the editor opens the SSH config file, add the following entries. Then save the file and restart SSH: service sshd restart
PermitRootLogin yes PasswordAuthentication yes
You now should be able to log in to your instance as root from your desktop computer using SSH or Putty. Test it to be sure: ssh root@server-IP-address
Before we leave the Google Cloud Dashboard, let’s make the assigned public IP address permanent so that it doesn’t get changed down the road. Keep in mind that, if you ever delete your instance, you also need to remove the assigned static IP address so you don’t continue to get billed for it. From Home on the Dashboard, scroll down to the NETWORKING section and choose VPS Network -> External IP Addresses. Change the Type of your existing address to Static and Name it staticip. Next, choose Firewall Rules in the VPS Network section and click CREATE FIREWALL RULE. Fill in the template like the following leaving the other fields with their default entries. Then click CREATE.
- Name: neorouter
- Target Tags: neorouter
- Source IP Range: 0.0.0.0/0
- Protocols/Ports: check tcp: 32976
CAUTION: Before this firewall rule will be activated for your instance, it also must be specified in the Network Tags section for your instance. Shut down your instance and add the neorouter tag by editing your instance. Then restart your instance.
Now we’re ready to install NeoRouter Free v2 Server on your instance. Be sure to choose the Free v2 variety. Log back into your server as root using SSH/Putty and issue these commands:
yum -y update yum -y install nano wget http://download.neorouter.com/Downloads/NRFree/Update_2.3.1.4360/Linux/CentOS/nrserver-2.3.1.4360-free-centos-x86_64.rpm rpm -Uvh nrserver-2.3.1.4360-free-centos-x86_64.rpm /etc/rc.d/init.d/nrserver.sh restart nrserver -setdomain <DOMAINNAME> <DOMAINPASSWORD> nrserver -adduser <USERNAME> <PASSWORD> admin nrserver -enableuser <USERNAME> nrserver -showsettings
Finally, add the following command to /etc/rc.local so that NeoRouter Server gets started whenever your instance is rebooted:
echo "/etc/rc.d/init.d/nrserver.sh start" >> /etc/rc.local
Installing Incredible PBX 2020 on a Raspberry Pi
Configuring NeoRouter Client on Your Computers
On Linux-based (non-GUI) platforms, setting up the NeoRouter Client is done by issuing the command: nrclientcmd. You’ll be prompted for your NeoRouter Server FQDN as well as your username and password credentials. Perform this procedure on both your home PBX and the Raspberry Pi.
To add your Windows or Mac notebook to the NeoRouter VPN, download the appropriate client and run the application which will prompt for your NeoRouter Server FQDN as well as your NeoRouter credentials. Once completed, you should see all three machines in your NeoRouter Free Client Dashboard: your PC as well as your home PBX and Raspberry Pi-based Incredible PBX. Make note of the private VPN addresses (10.0.0.X) of both your home PBX and your Raspberry Pi. These VPN addresses never change, and we’ll need them to interconnect your PBXs and to set up a softphone on your notebook computer.
Admininistrative Tools to Manage NeoRouter
Here are a few helpful commands for monitoring and managing your NeoRouter VPN.
To access your NeoRouter Linux client: nrclientcmd
To restart NeoRouter Linux client: /etc/rc.d/init.d/nrservice.sh restart
To restart NeoRouter Linux server: /etc/rc.d/init.d/nrserver.sh restart
To set domain: nrserver -setdomain YOUR-VPN-NAME domainpassword
For a list of client devices: nrserver -showcomputers
For a list of existing user accounts: nrserver -showusers
For the settings of your NeoRouter VPN: nrserver -showsettings
To add a user account: nrserver -adduser username password user
To add admin account: nrserver -adduser username password admin
For a complete list of commands: nrserver –help
Interconnecting Your Raspberry Pi and Home PBX
To keep things simple, our setup examples below assume the following NeoRouter VPN addresses: Home PBX (10.0.0.1) and Raspberry Pi (10.0.0.2). Using a browser, you’ll need to login to the GUI of your Home PBX and Raspberry Pi and add a Trunk to each PBX. Be sure to use the same secret on BOTH trunk setups. We don’t recommend forwarding incoming calls from your Home PBX to your Raspberry Pi because most folks won’t be sitting in their hotel room all day to answer incoming calls. Instead, add the number of your smartphone to a Ring Group on the Home PBX and don’t forget the # symbol at the end of the number. On the Raspberry Pi side, we are assuming that whenever a call is dialed from a registered softphone with the 9 prefix, the call will be sent to the Home PBX for call processing (without the 9). For example, 98005551212 would send 800-555-1212 to the Home PBX for outbound routing and 9701 would send 701 to the Home PBX for routing to the 701 extension. You can obviously adjust your dialplan to meet your own local requirements.
On the Home PBX, the chan_sip trunk entries should look like this:
Trunk Name: raspi-remote PEER DETAILS host=10.0.0.2 type=friend context=from-internal username=home-pbx fromuser=home-pbx secret=some-password canreinvite=no insecure=port,invite qualify=yes nat=yes
On the Raspberry Pi, the chan_sip trunk entries should look like this:
Trunk Name: home-pbx PEER DETAILS host=10.0.0.1 type=friend context=from-internal username=raspi-remote fromuser=raspi-remote secret=some-password canreinvite=no insecure=port,invite qualify=yes nat=yes
On the Raspberry Pi, add an Outbound Route named Out9-home-pbx pointed to home-pbx Trunk with the following Dial Patterns. For each Dial Pattern, prepend=blank and prefix=9:
dial string: 1NXXNXXXXXX dial string: NXXNXXXXXX dial string: *98X. dial string: XXX dial string: XXXX dial string: XXXXX
Tweaking Your Raspberry Pi for WiFi Mobility
wpa_supplicant.conf config file to the /boot directory on the card once you arrive at your destination and know the SSID and password of the local WiFi network. When the Raspberry Pi is subsequently booted, the operating system will move the config file to the /etc/wpa_supplicant directory so that your WiFi network will come on line. Here’s what a typical wpa_supplicant.conf file should look like using your actual credentials. The last network section handles open WiFi network connections (think: McDonald’s) if you want to enable them:
country=US
update_config=1
network={
ssid="your-SSID"
psk="your-SSID-password"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
scan_ssid=1
priority=5
}
network={
key_mgmt=NONE
priority=1
}
The other gotcha is that some public WiFi networks require some type of web login procedure before you can actually access the Internet even though an IP address may have been assigned to your Raspberry Pi. To handle this situation, you’ll need a text-based web browser on the Raspberry Pi that can be accessed through your notebook PC using SSH and your Raspberry Pi’s VPN address. Our favorite is links which can be installed on your Raspberry Pi before you pack up.
apt-get install links -y
Once you arrive at your destination, connect both your notebook PC and Raspberry Pi to the same WiFi network, login to the RasPi with SSH at the VPN address assigned to your RasPi, and run links to start the browser. Press <esc> to access the links menu options. If you can’t access your RasPi at the VPN IP address, try its WiFi-assigned local IP address.
Adding a Softphone to Your Notebook PC
For Windows PCs, we recommend VitalPBX Communicator. It’s a free download from here.
Another good choice is YateClient for Windows which also is free. Download it from here. Run YateClient once you’ve installed it and enter the credentials for an extension on your Raspberry Pi. Then enter the VPN IP address of your server plus your extension’s password. Click OK to save your entries.
If you are a Mac user, another great no-frills softphone is Telephone. Just download and install it from the Mac App Store.
Adding a Softphone to Your Smartphone
Enjoy your pain-free Home Away from Home!
Originally published: Tuesday, April 2, 2020
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Coping with Coronavirus: Working from Home with Asterisk
If one can only claim to be an expert in one subject matter, ours would be working from home building and deploying Asterisk®-based VoIP servers. We’ve been doing it for more than a decade. And, as the need for social distancing becomes imperative with the spread of COVID-19, working from home is by far the best antidote. For those with jobs in an actual office, you still need your computer and you still need transparent office phone call access. With an Internet connection, we will assume you can handle setting up a home computer on your own. So our focus today will be on showing you how to add your office phone to your home with VoIP to make and receive business calls with less pain than a WalMart checkout lane.
Here’s what you need:
- Home Internet Connection (15DN/5UP Mbps or faster)
- WiFi Router (Google Nest strongly recommended)
- Desktop or Notebook Computer (recent vintage)
- SIP Telephone (Incredible PBX SIP Phone recommended)
- Incredible PBX 2020 platform (VirtualBox or Raspberry Pi – both are free)
- VirtualBox software for your PC/Mac or a Raspberry Pi 4 for stand-alone PBX
- A quiet room at home with no screaming kids or barking dogs
- Smartphone with SIP software (optional for those that continue to travel)
We’ve written extensively about most of the components listed above so we will refer you to appropriate articles as we proceed. The plan is to build a free Incredible PBX® platform in your home and use it to receive calls from your office number and to make calls spoofing your office number so that those on the other end of the calls never know you’re not sitting at your desk in the office but are instead working from home.
Choosing an Incredible PBX Platform for Home Use
Once you have your network and desktop PC, Mac, or notebook computer set up at home, you have a decision to make. You can either run Incredible PBX as a task on this computer using VirtualBox, which means the computer needs to be operational all the time, or you can elect to build your Incredible PBX platform on a $35 Raspberry Pi 4 in which case your PBX is independent from your desktop or notebook computer. If you elect to run Incredible PBX on your home computer as a VirtualBox virtual machine, then follow this tutorial to install VirtualBox and the Incredible PBX 2020 virtual machine. If you decide to go the stand-alone route using a Raspberry Pi 4 as a dedicated platform for Incredible PBX 2020, then follow this tutorial to put all the pieces in place.
We typically run our remote systems using a Raspberry Pi 4 and a SIP phone, both with Wi-Fi connections. This means you can find a quiet place in your home to set up your office without worrying about network cables. Assuming you have good Internet service and a modern WiFi router such as the Google Nest device, you’ll never miss a beat. You can even drink on the job.
Choosing a VoIP Provider To Make & To Receive Calls
Even with your own PBX, you still need a connection to one or more VoIP service providers before you can communicate with those outside your network. Because we want to emulate your office phone environment, you probably will want a dedicated phone number and separate telephone to receive incoming calls from your office. This preserves the caller’s perception that he or she is dealing with you in your business capacity. We don’t want Junior answering incoming calls and shouting, "Daddy, somebody wants to talk to you."
We’re assuming that most business phone systems have the capacity to forward incoming calls to an external number. In this case, we recommend a new phone number known as a DID in the VoIP world. For outbound calls from your dedicated SIP phone, we will show you how to reset the outbound CallerID number to match your existing office phone number. Thus, both incoming and outgoing calls will appear to be emanating from your office.
As some of you know, in the VoIP world with Incredible PBX, the VoIP merchant providing your DID for incoming calls need not be the same as the company providing outbound call service. The cost of DIDs typically ranges from a few cents a month to a dollar or more. Most impose a per minute charge of about a penny a minute or less for both incoming and outgoing calls. The only mandatory requirement is that you choose an outbound call service that allows you to spoof your office’s CallerID number on the outbound calls. You probably will also want a CallerID Name (CNAM) service that associates names with incoming calls.
Both the Incredible PBX for VirtualBox and IncrediblePBX for the Raspberry Pi articles (links above) have extensive tutorials to deploy the various VoIP providers that we recommend. Just keep in mind that you usually get what you pay for. Cheaper isn’t always better when it comes to business communications.
Setting Up a SIP Phone for Incredible PBX 2020
You can connect virtually any kind of telephone to your new PBX. You don’t want callers and people you call to think you’re living in a tunnel so we recommend dedicated hardware for your SIP phone. The Incredible PBX SIP Phones are second to none and are very reasonably priced. In the FreePBX® GUI, simply navigate to Settings -> Clearly Devices. Here’s a tutorial to get you started and link your phone to the preconfigured SIP extension 701 on your PBX.
If price is your primary consideration, take a look at the Grandstream WiFi SIP phones. Refurbished Grandstream GXV3240 phones (a favorite of ours) are available for under $120.
Configuring an Inbound Route for Your Business Calls
For purposes of this tutorial, we will assume that you connected your new SIP phone to extension 701 on your PBX. Now we need to tell the PBX to route incoming calls from your office to your newly registered SIP phone on extension 701. Using a web browser, open the FreePBX GUI by pointing to the IP address of your PBX. Login as admin using the password you configured with /root/admin-pw-change. Once the FreePBX Dashboard displays, navigate to Connectivity -> Inbound Routes. Add a new route using the 10-digit number of the DID you acquired. As the Destination for the calls, choose Extension: 701. Click SAVE and reload your dialplan when prompted. Be sure you have also forwarded your office number to the new DID. Then place a test call to your office to verify everything is working properly.
Configuring an Outbound Route for Your Business Calls
A Default Outbound Route is automatically configured for Incredible PBX 2020. We need to modify it to route calls to your preferred trunk provider AND to specify the Outbound CallerID number for the calls as your 10-digit office number. In the FreePBX GUI, navigate to Connectivity -> Outbound Routes. Click on the pencil icon to the right of the Default route. In the Route CID field, enter the 10-digit number of your office. Change the Override Extension field from NO to YES. In the top entry of Trunk Sequences, use the pulldown menu to choose the Trunk Provider you want to use for outbound calls. Then click Submit and reload the dialplan when prompted. Place a test call from your SIP phone to a smartphone and make certain the incoming call displays your office phone number. If not, check with your SIP provider for the necessary steps to enable CallerID number spoofing.
Taking The Show On The Road
Once your home PBX is operational, there’s no reason you have to be tied to your desk at home all day. It’s easy to take the show on the road with an Android phone to make and receive your office calls. We use Android phone advisedly. Our experience with VoIP softphone connections using iPhones has always been hit and miss. And, with your business calls, we don’t think the platform is sufficiently reliable to recommend it. When you get incoming calls from your PBX, you want your smartphone to ring. When you make or receive calls on your smartphone, you want both ends of the conversation to be crystal clear. On the Android platform using the VitalPBX Communicator (free), it just works. We’ve had very different results using an iPhone.
If all you care about is receiving business calls (not making them) when away from your home, then an iPhone will work just as well as an Android phone. To set this up, just add your 10-digit cellphone number plus a # symbol after the number to the 777 Ring Group and make that ring group the destination for the Inbound Route for your office number in the FreePBX GUI. But if you prefer to make calls in both directions just as if you were sitting at your office desk, you’ll need a softphone on an Android device. Keep reading to learn how to set this up.
To get started, you’ll need to set up an OpenVPN server on some platform with a static IP address. Many businesses already have an OpenVPN server in which case you can ride on that one. Our OpenVPN tutorial will walk you through setting up your own and adding OpenVPN clients to both your Raspberry Pi and your Android smartphone. Once you have the clients installed, write down the private VPN addresses of both the Raspberry Pi and your Android phone. Next, on your Android phone, download and install the VitalPBX Communicator from the Google Play Store. In the FreePBX GUI, choose one of your preinstalled extensions to host the Android softphone and make note of the extension number and its password. Then use the Account Assistant in the Communicator to configure the connection on the smartphone end. Once it is registered, place a test call to make sure everything is working. Next we recommend changing the destination of the inbound calls to Ring Group 777 which will attempt to ring all five of the default extensions. Place a call to your office number and make sure that both your SIP phone and VitalPBX Communicator on your Android phone ring.
Continue Reading: Interconnecting a Mobile PBX to the Asterisk Mothership
Originally published: March 15, 2020
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the VoIP-info Forum.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
The Very Best Cellphone Plans and Smartphones for 2019
You can read reviews of the best cellphone plans and smartphones until your eyes glaze over and still end up scratching your head when it comes to making a decision. Our approach is a little different. It’s about making smart choices based upon the specific requirements for you and your family. Let’s get the obvious criteria out of the way first. The cellphone provider that you choose has to work in your home, on your way to work, at your office, and in the places to which you typically travel. In the United States, that used to rule out everyone except AT&T, Verizon, and their MVNOs. Not any more. T-Mobile’s coverage now rivals that of the Bell Sisters, and Sprint isn’t far behind. The second important criteria is how many phones you need. If it’s a plan just for you or you and your spouse, it’s a very different landscape than finding suitable providers for a family of four or five. Age also matters. If it’s just two of you and one of you is at least 55 years old, there’s at least one incredible deal. Another important consideration is how much of your cellular usage is from locations with good Wi-Fi coverage. With most providers and newer smartphones, WiFi usage doesn’t cost you anything when it comes to your monthly cellphone bill. And, last but not least, is a careful analysis of how you use your phones. Binge watching Netflix and sending hundreds of high resolution photos every day through cellular connections is very different than using a phone primarily to make calls, send text messages, and retrieve text-based email. Equally important is whether you need your smartphone to also provide Internet connectivity for a tethered computer or tablet.
Let’s get the easy choices out of the way first. If you’re shopping for no more than two phones and one of you is at least 55 years old and one or both of you consumes enormous amounts of data without WiFi every month, T-Mobile is the hands-down winner at $70 a month with no tax/fees for two phones with unlimited talk as well as text and 50GB of data in 210+ countries. You may wish to consider the T-Mobile One Plus add-on if you do considerable traveling or regularly use tethering.
Excluding WiFi, the average cell phone user today consumes between 2GB and 8GB of data per month. If you have an existing cellphone plan, check your bill and see where your usage typically falls. If you’re within the range of 3GB and 12GB per phone per month with no WiFi coverage, then MintMobile’s $15 (3GB), $20 (8GB), and $25 (12GB) plans with unlimited talk and text using the T-Mobile network are the clear winner. HotSpot tethering with a PC is allowed. The only wrinkle is having to pay for a year of service after your 3-month trial ends.
If you’re part of a family of four or five with heavy cellphone usage, the best "unlimited" deal is probably Cricket Wireless which is an AT&T subsidiary and uses the AT&T network. If you don’t mind data speeds reduced to 3 Mbps with unlimited streaming at 480p, then their $100/month plan for four phones is a great deal even with the usual AT&T throttling after 22GB of data usage per month. Add a fifth phone for $25. Tethering is an extra $10/phone.
If Sprint works well in your surroundings and you have your own compatible phones, then Sprint’s Unlimited Kickstart offering is worth a careful look. Up to 5 lines can be purchased for $25/month each, but there is no guarantee as to network speeds, streaming is limited to 480p, and there is no tethering. You can move up to their Unlimited Basic Plan with up to 5 phones for a total of $100/month plus taxes and fees for 2 to 5 phones until June 30, 2020.
MetoPCS from T-Mobile has an offer similar to Sprint’s for 4 lines with unlimited data up to 35GB/month for $100/month with no taxes or additional fees. Pricing escalates to $40/line for two phones and $30/line for three. Tethering is not supported.
If Verizon is your preference, the least costly unlimited plan is offered by their Visible subsidiary at $40/month with data speeds limited to 5 Mbps and video streaming limited to 480p DVD quality. Tethering is permitted. iPhones and Galaxy S9/S9+ phones are supported. Or you can purchase for $99 or swap any Android phone for the Visible R2 phone from ZTE.
Things get murkier and more expensive from here. One consideration we haven’t touched upon with the low cost providers is bundling. Depending upon your Internet service provider and cable TV provider, the cost of your cellphone plan can change dramatically. For example, AT&T bundles DirecTV service for 4 TVs plus 4 cellphones sharing 15GB of monthly data for $200/month with lots of fine print. Xfinity/Comcast mobile service on Verizon’s network is available to existing Xfinity Internet customers for $12/GB with no line access fees on up to 5 smartphones. Or you can sign up for "unlimited" service at $45/phone with 20GB throttling. Spectrum has a similar mobile offer using Verizon at $14/GB or $45/phone for Spectrum Internet customers. And Google offers their GoogleFi service for $20/phone plus $10/GB of data actually used. Additional lines are $15. Google uses both T-Mobile and Sprint for service.
The elephant in the room with all of these cellphone plans is data throttling. All of the providers do it with impunity, and the short answer is you’ll simply have to choose a provider whose terms of service you can live with. While T-Mobile’s 50GB cap is considerably higher than AT&T’s 22GB, there are plenty of weasel words in T-Mobile’s terms that allow them to do what is necessary to "protect" their network. On the other hand, AT&T actually has locations (including ours) where data throttling reportedly isn’t used at all. We actually have a MiFi device on AT&T’s network that, during some months, has recorded over 100GB of data usage without throttling. So the bottom line is your mileage may vary, and it behooves you to shop around until you find a provider with whom you are comfortable based upon your own usage patterns.
We haven’t touched upon choosing a smartphone up until now. We all have our favorites and some providers have extremely favorable pricing if you bundle phones as part of your initial signup. If you don’t mind a 2-year-old model of an iPhone, these often can be free. The same holds for older Android top tier phones from Samsung and other providers. Just last week, Google offered its latest Pixel phones at half price for new GoogleFi customers. Whatever we listed today would probably be old news before you finished reading about it. We will mention one incredibly versatile Android phone, and that’s Motorola’s one-year-old Corning® Gorilla® glass, unlocked Moto G6 which can be found for under $200. In appearance it is indistinguishable from Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge, and it compares favorably to almost every feature in Apple’s latest $1,000+ iPhone with the possible exception of the camera (see photo above). It’s compatible with all of the carriers mentioned above except Visible. As with many of the newer smartphones, the G6 supports Wi-Fi calling as well as OpenVPN connectivity.
Originally published: Monday, May 6, 2019
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Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
Cellphone Hell: 2017 Minefield Navigation Guide
Well, it’s been an interesting week. RingPlus, a Sprint MVNO, has gone belly up after Sprint pulled the plug on them. Lawsuit details are here. Then, not surprisingly, Sprint announced a new "unlimited" talk, text, and data plan: 5 phones for $90 with a free iPhone with trade-in. After first year, Sprint price escalates to $160 for 4 lines or $190 for 5 lines. And then, Verizon surprised everyone with an "unlimited" plan of their own: 4 phones for $180. With both of these plans, you pay through the nose for the first phone, and then the remaining ones are either free or almost free. So you might as well have some more babies and give them each a phone. For our weary followers that have been with RingPlus, you are about to be introduced to the Sprint Gotcha. Unbeknownst to you, when you inserted that RingPlus SIM and turned on your phone, Sprint locked the phone to their network. And guess what? RingPlus can’t unlock it, and Sprint won’t claiming that you’re not "their customer." But, alas, if you’ve bought your phone, you’re still entitled to use it with a provider of your choice. And, if your phone supports other CDMA carriers such as Verizon or GSM carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile, you’re in luck. There’s a terrific guy with a company called GSM Zambia, and he will unlock your Sprint phone for $10.84 assuming you have a Windows PC with a USB connector and cable to plug in your phone. For those lucky enough to have a Google-branded phone such as a Nexus or Pixel, you have no worries. Google unlocks it automatically when you insert a SIM card from a different provider.
There are more gotchas awaiting those with iPhones. You see Apple actually makes an iPhone that supports all four of the major U.S. carriers: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile. The problem is you probably didn’t get handed that phone. Instead, you got one that was locked to the Sprint network or the AT&T/T-Mobile GSM network, and both of them are missing the necessary radios to support other carriers. But there’s good news. If you’re a loyal customer and have AppleCare for your iPhone, chances are pretty good that Apple will work with you to swap out the phone for one that will work with the carrier of your choice. You have to say this for Apple. Nobody else in the cellphone business would even give you the time of day if you made such a request. So, yes, we are a FanBoy and for very good reason. Apple bends over backwards to help out its loyal customers. Just be advised that you probably will need to speak with an Apple Store manager, and he will probably have to call Cupertino to obtain the document explaining how to handle the transaction. In our case, it was several phones under Apple leases which made things even more complex. But Apple solved it, and they were pleasant about it.
AT&T has had a new "unlimited" plan for about a year, but there were several gotchas in addition to their fine print about what unlimited really means. First, you had to also be a DirecTV customer, but they eliminated that requirement today. And, second, tethering was prohibited. While we’ve previously noted that you could work around the tethering problem by purchasing a ZTE Mobley portable device for your car that could be used outside the vehicle with an adapter. But the wrinkle was AT&T wanted another $40+ a month to cover the device on your unlimited plan. While AT&T boasts that the fourth phone on the unlimited plan is free, it turns out the car device doesn’t meet their definition so, if you only need 3 phones, you still have to cough up the $40 for the mobile device.
T-Mobile also had an "unlimited" plan, but it also restricted tethering. However, T-Mobile is not one to leave money on the table, and they quickly removed the tethering limitation once the Verizon plan was announced. So the bottom line on the 4-phone unlimited plans as of today looks like this: Sprint $90 (10GB tethering), T-Mobile $160 (10GB tethering), AT&T $180 (no tethering), and Verizon $180 (10GB tethering). All four carriers describe their plans as "unlimited" while none truly are insofar as 4G data is concerned. The new buzzword is "deprioritization" which means the carrier reserves the right to slow your data speeds once you reach a certain threshold. Also be advised that zero-rating of certain services is likely to become less of an issue with the Trump administration. In T-Mobile’s case, you get unlimited streaming of certain music and video services at reduced bandwidth. With AT&T, you get streaming of DirecTV movies at reduced bandwidth. With Sprint, you get HD video streaming at no extra cost plus a free iPhone7 for the next 18 months when you trade-in certain older phones. Unless you live in a very busy metropolitan area, user reports suggest that deprioritization shouldn’t be a concern. Here’s the Reddit thread with everything you need to know.
Despite our extreme dislike for almost everything about the Sprint organization and the way they do business, if you happen to live in a city with good Sprint coverage, you really can’t beat their 5 phones for $90 "unlimited" deal at least for one year. After that, Sprint is no bargain at all. If you’re using RingPlus, then that probably means you already have endured Sprint so the change will be easy for you. Just be advised that there are plenty of Sprint reps out there that will try to tell you your phones don’t qualify because they were "prepaid" phones and the plan is only available for "postpaid" phones. A better approach is to visit a Sprint store and advise them that you wish to port your existing phones to the new Sprint unlimited plan. That seems to work although YMMV. Remember, it’s still Sprint you’re dealing with. Good luck!
Feb. 27 Update: The Unlimited Data Plan competition continues to escalate. Today, AT&T sweetened its unlimited plan offering by adding 10GB of free tethering to each phone on its plan beginning Thursday. And T-Mobile announced that customers now can register three phones on its unlimited plan for only $100/month. Unlike Sprint, the T-Mobile offering has no one-year discount cutoff for customers taking advantage of the special pricing. All four major carriers in the U.S. now offer 10GB/month of tethering for each phone on an unlimited data plan.
Published: Thursday, February 16, 2017 Updated: Monday, February 27, 2017
Need help with Asterisk? Visit the PBX in a Flash Forum.
Special Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors
FULL DISCLOSURE: ClearlyIP, Skyetel, Vitelity, DigitalOcean, Vultr, VoIP.ms, 3CX, Sangoma, TelecomsXchange and VitalPBX have provided financial support to Nerd Vittles and our open source projects through advertising, referral revenue, and/or merchandise. As an Amazon Associate and Best Buy Affiliate, we also earn from qualifying purchases. We’ve chosen these providers not the other way around. Our decisions are based upon their corporate reputation and the quality of their offerings and pricing. Our recommendations regarding technology are reached without regard to financial compensation except in situations in which comparable products at comparable pricing are available from multiple sources. In this limited case, we support our sponsors because our sponsors support us.
BOGO Bonaza: Enjoy state-of-the-art VoIP service with a $10 credit and half-price SIP service on up to $500 of Skyetel trunking with free number porting when you fund your Skyetel account. No limits on number of simultaneous calls. Quadruple data center redundancy. $25 monthly minimum spend required. Tutorial and sign up details are here.
The lynchpin of Incredible PBX 2020 and beyond is ClearlyIP components which bring management of FreePBX modules and SIP phone integration to a level never before available with any other Asterisk distribution. And now you can configure and reconfigure your new Incredible PBX phones from the convenience of the Incredible PBX GUI.
VitalPBX is perhaps the fastest-growing PBX offering based upon Asterisk with an installed presence in more than 100 countries worldwide. VitalPBX has generously provided a customized White Label version of Incredible PBX tailored for use with all Incredible PBX and VitalPBX custom applications. Follow this link for a free test drive!
Special Thanks to Vitelity. Vitelity is now Voyant Communications and has halted new registrations for the time being. Our special thanks to Vitelity for their unwavering financial support over many years and to the many Nerd Vittles readers who continue to enjoy the benefits of their service offerings. We will keep everyone posted on further developments.
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