Battery Answerphone?

[Mick F]

I've tried Googling, but my question isn't "answered" or addressed.

We have an answerphone plugged into the landline, and a mains socket. The unit is in the livingroom.

What I want, is to move the base unit into another room where there is landline connection, but no mains socket nearby.
The present handset has rechargeable batteries (charged by the base unit) and the base unit where the answerphone system works from and is plugged into a mains socket.

Can you have a base unit battery-driven .......... obviously still plugged into a landline.

Also, can the base be WiFi connected to a landline on rechargeable batteries and not be physically connected to the landline and not powered by the mains?

[Jdsk]

Also, can the base be WiFi connected to a landline on rechargeable batteries and not be physically connected to the landline and not powered by the mains?

I don't know a proprietary device that can do that. The difficult bit is taking the 'phone line on and off hook.

What I want, is to move the base unit into another room where there is landline connection, but no mains socket nearby.
The present handset has rechargeable batteries (charged by the base unit) and the base unit where the answerphone system works from and is plugged into a mains socket.

Can you have a base unit battery-driven .......... obviously still plugged into a landline.

Yes, you can run anything that requires 240 V AC off a battery and inverter. It needs to supply enough current for whatever is plugged into it. If the base unit has an external transformer you could also use a battery and DC controller that matches the voltage and polarity of that power input and supplies enough current.

But it's an inelegant solution because it requires extra kit and wastes electricity and requires you to move the batteries and recharge them.

I'd much prefer to run a new mains spur or put it somewhere where there is already power.

The present handset has rechargeable batteries (charged by the base unit) and the base unit where the answerphone system works from and is plugged into a mains socket.

Is this a standalone answering machine or is the functionality built into the base unit? If the former I'd change to using the answering service of the 'phone service provider.

Jonathan

[Paulatic]

Might be worth considering your switch to VOIP now as wait until 2025.
I’m now over 12 months since I ditched the landline. Everything on 4G best move I ever made.

[Jdsk]

Might be worth considering your switch to VOIP now as wait until 2025.

Good point.

Jonathan

[bikes4two]

Hi Mick,
It might be worthwhile stating why you are wanting to move the base unit and/or stating what you want to achieve?

Many years ago I learnt not to spec technical stuff as I got what I asked for rather than what was needed!

[Jdsk]

Many years ago I learnt not to spec technical stuff as I got what I asked for rather than what was needed!

Wise words.

Jonathan

[tatanab]

Might be worth considering your switch to VOIP now as wait until 2025.
I’m now over 12 months since I ditched the landline. Everything on 4G best move I ever made.

From people who have VOIP I understand that you get voicemail and the answerphone is redundant. This means you cannot use the answerphone to filter calls as many of us do, instead you have to either pick up (to talk about double glazing) or call back if it is somebody you want to speak to. Is this right? Can an answerphone be used in conjunction with VOIP?

[thirdcrank]

Speaking as a numptie, I think it depends. Our neighbours across the road have a landline and mrs neighbour has a mobile which she doesn't always pay much attention to. Mr neighbour has no mobile. I've occasionally sent her texts for him and when she hasn't picked it up on the mobile, the landline has rung and when it's been answered it's read out my text, or a version of it. To cap it all, they thought it was some chicanery on my part as they keep their landline number secret.

When I say it depends, I presume it depends on how your set-up is configured. When we used to have a landline it didn't behave like that

[Paulatic]

Might be worth considering your switch to VOIP now as wait until 2025.
I’m now over 12 months since I ditched the landline. Everything on 4G best move I ever made.

From people who have VOIP I understand that you get voicemail and the answerphone is redundant. This means you cannot use the answerphone to filter calls as many of us do, instead you have to either pick up (to talk about double glazing) or call back if it is somebody you want to speak to. Is this right? Can an answerphone be used in conjunction with VOIP?

I’ve no experience of VOIP as I switched all my services to 4G.
I imagine thought it’s very similar to mobile phones. I screen by
1) different ringtone for people in my contact list I’d want to speak to.
2) look at the number displayed . If it’s a local number I usually answer it or a number which I might know
3) press reject or just ignore it
4) answer it and listen to the first line of guff, end call, select block.

We used call guardian when we had the landline and it saved us endless useless calls. Get very few of that type of call now.

[thirdcrank]

AIUI, the biggy is that traditional landlines are doomed and with only a short time remaining. Again AIUI, a "landline" will in future be a broadband phone pretending to be a landline.

[Jdsk]

Might be worth considering your switch to VOIP now as wait until 2025.
I’m now over 12 months since I ditched the landline. Everything on 4G best move I ever made.

From people who have VOIP I understand that you get voicemail and the answerphone is redundant. This means you cannot use the answerphone to filter calls as many of us do, instead you have to either pick up (to talk about double glazing) or call back if it is somebody you want to speak to. Is this right? Can an answerphone be used in conjunction with VOIP?

This is a lovely illustration of bikes4two's point about functional specification. That type of conditional answering and smart filtering and routing and voicemail is easy to provide with VOIP but it's all done in software.

Whether an existing answering machine or similar will continue to work is a different question. Here's how Ofcom put it:
"As explained above, for most consumers the migration from the PSTN to VoIP services should be straightforward and simply entail connecting their telephone to their broadband router instead of the wall socket. The move to VoIP may, however, be more complex for consumers that have downstream services such as telecare devices and security alarms that rely on the PSTN. In addition, some customers, such as landline-only customers, or those with a visual impairment or mobility issue, may require support from their provider when installing or using new equipment."
"The future of fixed telephone services":
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/ ... rvices.pdf

Jonathan

[Mick F]

Hi guys, and good morning.

Background:
We moved to Cornwall in 1985 and the house we bought had a telephone landline and a number of course.
We moved from that house in 1997 - only a mile or two away - and took our number with us. We are still here with the same number.

Back then, we had no mobile phone, no internet and no computer. Everyone we know, knows our number, and we know it off by heart, as do both our daughters. We don't want to part with that number, and we use the landline phone from time to time. Incoming calls much more frequent than outgoing ones.

If we give a number out to anyone we don't know personally, we don't give them our mobile numbers, but the landline number and tell them that if we're not in, there's an answerphone.

We are "rationalising" our livingroom, and as we don't use the landline much, we want to move it out of the way. The handset isn't an issue as it's portable, but the machine itself is "tied" to the phone socket and to a mains socket. If we move it out of the livingroom to somewhere else, we may not know there's a message. The router is plugged into a phone socket in the spare bedroom. The answerphone could be there too.

It struck me that there could be some sort of landline phone on an answerphone but with some sort of portable wireless battery powered tell-tale device that flashes(?) to say there's a message just as the base unit does now.

That way, the whole lot could be somewhere else, but the tell-tale would be sitting on the livingroom coffee table (for instance).

[Mick F]

PS:
I'm going off the air shortly as I'm turning off the lecky. As part of the "rationalisation" of the livingroom, I'm moving one of the double-sockets and installing a spur. It'll take me much of the morning.

[Jdsk]

The router is plugged into a phone socket in the spare bedroom.

With ADSL if the router isn't connected directly to the main 'phone socket it can cause a considerable loss of speed for data transmission. Sometimes this is easily fixable.

If you would like as much speed as possible it's worth checking this by stripping the network to just the router and a wired computer and measuring the speed when the router is connected to the various 'phone sockets.

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

...
As part of the "rationalisation" of the livingroom, I'm moving one of the double-sockets and installing a spur.
...

As above: that sounds like a much better solution than a battery and inverter.

Jonathan