Just get a device from Obihai and connect your Google Voice account to it. No monthly charge
Google Fiber Phone
71–80 of 134 posts
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#72A landline phone service seems a bit anachronistic, but there is a place for it. The future of telephony is here, but it sucks. Many here on HN probably don't even remember this, but phone calls actually used to be intelligible. Before cell phones and VOIP, before packet-switching and aggressive digital compression, calls traveled over Ma Bell's glorious circuit-switched network. You could actually understand what pe…
You could also have a conversation in real time, and not delayed by a second. Cell phone delay has made it impossible for me to carry on a meaningful conversation with anyone. There's also value in having a phone number for a house or a family, separate from phone numbers of individual people. I don't want my utility company or my cable company having my cell number. But I'm not the only person that can make decision…
This is why I keep a voip line as a home phone, with voicemails being forwarded to both myself and the wife. Very few select people get our actual cell numbers. All businesses, etc just get the home line number.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#73A landline phone service seems a bit anachronistic, but there is a place for it. The future of telephony is here, but it sucks. Many here on HN probably don't even remember this, but phone calls actually used to be intelligible. Before cell phones and VOIP, before packet-switching and aggressive digital compression, calls traveled over Ma Bell's glorious circuit-switched network. You could actually understand what pe…
Do you remember the long distance charges as well? We all owe MCI and their microwave towers - without that pressure Ma Bell would still being excusing their insane pricing with "Its this or pneumatic tubes."
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#74A landline phone service seems a bit anachronistic, but there is a place for it. The future of telephony is here, but it sucks. Many here on HN probably don't even remember this, but phone calls actually used to be intelligible. Before cell phones and VOIP, before packet-switching and aggressive digital compression, calls traveled over Ma Bell's glorious circuit-switched network. You could actually understand what pe…
It's amazing to remember how crystal clear phone calls used to be. I wonder if there's a niche for the first service willing to use more bytes and sacrifice efficiency in the name of analog-era call quality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wideband_audio
and more specific to cellular phones:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_Wideband
Search for "HD Voice" from the big cellular companies in the US. It usually requires handset support.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#75A landline phone service seems a bit anachronistic, but there is a place for it. The future of telephony is here, but it sucks. Many here on HN probably don't even remember this, but phone calls actually used to be intelligible. Before cell phones and VOIP, before packet-switching and aggressive digital compression, calls traveled over Ma Bell's glorious circuit-switched network. You could actually understand what pe…
It's amazing to remember how crystal clear phone calls used to be. I wonder if there's a niche for the first service willing to use more bytes and sacrifice efficiency in the name of analog-era call quality.
Frankly I doubt it. With Facebook, Skype, whatsapp etc all offering free, high quality calling, it's more likely for it to fade away than be replaced by a higher quality product.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#76I recall reading almost three years ago about a pair of Google engineers who won a prize in the FTC's Robocall Challenge, but at the time weren't pursuing it further. I wonder if that is what's powering Fiber Phone's spam filtering?
I have a free Ooma landline, which isn't tied to a specific ISP, but if someone can truly crack the problem of call spam, I could definitely see that being a valuable service many would be willing to switch and pay for.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#77A landline phone service seems a bit anachronistic, but there is a place for it. The future of telephony is here, but it sucks. Many here on HN probably don't even remember this, but phone calls actually used to be intelligible. Before cell phones and VOIP, before packet-switching and aggressive digital compression, calls traveled over Ma Bell's glorious circuit-switched network. You could actually understand what pe…
Do you remember the long distance charges as well? We all owe MCI and their microwave towers - without that pressure Ma Bell would still being excusing their insane pricing with "Its this or pneumatic tubes."
Long distance charges are still the norm in Canada...
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a shame that a lot of this innovation, while radically increasing flexibility and dropping cost, has degraded call quality. On the other hand, calls between certain compatible LTE handsets (AT&T calls this "HD Audio" in my market) sound far better than classic landlines ever did. Ditto for good Skype calls and Facetime Audio.
Facetime Audio is great. Very big difference compared to a regular cell phone call.
With iOS 9.3 you can set WiFi calling as the default (when wifi is available).
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a shame that a lot of this innovation, while radically increasing flexibility and dropping cost, has degraded call quality. On the other hand, calls between certain compatible LTE handsets (AT&T calls this "HD Audio" in my market) sound far better than classic landlines ever did. Ditto for good Skype calls and Facetime Audio.
> AT&T calls this "HD Audio" I believe the generic term is VoLTE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_LTE
Not really. VoLTE is Voice over LTE[1], which most likely implements HD voice (wideband audio[2],) however, with carrier and device support HD voice could be done over 3G and 2G networks as well.
Re: Google Fiber Phone
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's amazing to remember how crystal clear phone calls used to be. I wonder if there's a niche for the first service willing to use more bytes and sacrifice efficiency in the name of analog-era call quality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wideband_audio and more specific to cellular phones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_Wideband Search for "HD Voice" from the big cellular companies in the US. It usually requires handset support.
It is correct that both parties need this for better quality?