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How easy is it to manage the calling allowlist for those providers? That seems to be the key value proposition here; the parent app that controls the allowlist.
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And again. Please avoid this kind of fulmination and sneering. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
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Yes, get a trunk from someone like BulkVS, SignalWire and run your own freeswitch or asterix. You can set up arbitrary “allowed” lists. Hell you can even get fancy with lookups and decide on the fly to allow a call or not. There are other comments about providers, but my way is way cheaper and you can run you EPBAX on a pi or even get a pre made VM from Azure, Amazon, etc. Damn I hate paying rent.
Whoa, love this. Do you have any recommended resources if I wanted to try this out? Any comments about FreeSWITCH vs Asterisk, or BulkVS vs Signalwire for a simple setup like this?
Highly, highly, highly recommend you enable 911 calls by default on all plans -- let parents disable it if they want. Cell phones do this, even without a SIM card. Don't gate safety for $9.99/mo. Edit: "The FCC requires that providers of interconnected VoIP telephone services using the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) meet Enhanced 911 (E911) obligations." https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/voip-and-911-ser…
I vaguely recall that there was a time when cellphone companies were required to provide free 911 access. People that only wanted a phone for emergencies were advised to get one and not pay for service because it could still dial 911.
There's a cheaper alternative, if you don't mind some manual setup: - buy an ethernet -> phone adapter (Grandstream, Cisco, and Poly sell these) and a cheap analog phone. - get an inexpensive VoIP number[0] and set up the phone adapter to log into the service you set up. - set up a Google Voice[1] number if you haven't already. When you want to make an outgoing call, use the Google Voice app to initiate a call to you…
There's a cheaper alternative, if you don't mind some manual setup: - buy an ethernet -> phone adapter (Grandstream, Cisco, and Poly sell these) and a cheap analog phone. - get an inexpensive VoIP number[0] and set up the phone adapter to log into the service you set up. - set up a Google Voice[1] number if you haven't already. When you want to make an outgoing call, use the Google Voice app to initiate a call to you…
Is this just an ad for a VoIP service? Your residential internet provider will probably already sell you VoIP that you can plug a real phone into. Put that old hamburger phone to good use.
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Look, people fall into all sorts of categories based on various individual characteristics. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. It sounds like maybe you don't like seeing ideas that aren't best for you? Let me encourage you to just keep scrolling if someone's idea doesn't fit you personally.
But all you did was to mention Google Voice, not exactly an obscure VoIP product and which, again, does not provide a whitelist. A whitelist is fundamental to this product's raison d'être, and to its appeal to parents. If you can't understand that, I don't know what else to say.
Is this just an ad for a VoIP service? Your residential internet provider will probably already sell you VoIP that you can plug a real phone into. Put that old hamburger phone to good use.
And Dropbox is just rsync. The value is in the app for the parents. I would pay $10 not to deal with shitty VoIP interfaces.
For rsync, a person would have to study it to learn it. They might want to look for potential gotchas in how they configure it, too. The experts at Dropbox already did all that for us, though.
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Then I'm sure you're willing to donate the cash to make it happen.
This should be such an infrequent occurrence that the cost should be negligible. Surely their $10/month plan has enough margin that this can be covered?
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This is a really good point, though E911 probably costs the provider something. I wonder if they could offer 911 support at actual cost ($1-2/month).
> probably costs the provider something Yes, So what? Eat the cost. Any life saved was worth it.
Most will probably hold back some or all of that money. They'll make it someone else's problem. If not, they'll limit how much they eat the cost of saving others' lives. Their justification will be to put the money into their own needs or pursuing more of something. Which is what the companies do when they don't eat the cost.
If it's right for most people to charge to cover their costs (or ignore other people's problems entirely), then it shouod be right for the companies, too. If they must be selfless at a huge loss, then so must any who demand they do thay.