[dustenm]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone knows how I can make a setup to allow me and my family to make unlimited mobile calls. I know there are some companies that do this on a commercial level so it is possible I just do not know how to set it up.

Ok, my family all has tmobile with m2m so we would use this and then setup 1 phone to somehow connect to a voip line. But what would we use for this? and how can we make it so say all 3 people can make outgoing calls at once. Does anyone know what kind of setup we would need to use?

[bbbeavis]

I was kicking around using Asterisk connected to an ATA which would then be connected to a cellular phone cradle (I've seen some on e-bay for about $30). the idea would be to make the cradled phone act as a trunk into Asterisk so that if you dialed in it would then redirect the call to an actual trunk for outbound calling. The outbound trunk would pass it your user selected caller-id so that any call backs would be connected back out (via DID) to the call phone at no cost. There are a few drawbacks. In order to call out you would have to dial the cradled phone connected to Asterisk (speed-dial would help) and wait to connect and get an outgoing trunk from the Asterisk server before dialing the actual destination. It also doesn't become economical unless you have 3 or more users and you create at least 2 trunks on the Asterisk server (see the T-mobile family plans because they give free t-mobile to T-mobile minutes). You would have to manually hunt for an open line into the server if your first choice was in use (with only two trunks it wouldn't be much of a hunt, but still a nuisance). You would have to maintain DID's for all phone used in the field in order to have proper incoming routing or you could use Asterisk's automated attendant feature. With all the hardware and signing up for the service plan it is a little bit of a commitment and it may not work all that well and/or it may be to cumbersome to use. If you have two T-mobile phone accounts you could try one of the cradles from e-bay and get an idea of the quality (you will also need a voip account and ATA). I don't know if you are experienced with Asterisk but, if not, a simple ATA setup combined with a cradle and a couple of t-mobile phones should do the trick but your monthly bill would probably be reduced with Asterisk as you could pool the trunks with your home or business lines. Voxilla sells the Dock-n-talk station for $139. The units on e-bay may or may not work as well but the price is more attractive.

[mberlant]

You can accomplish this by using a Dock-n-Talk connected to a Sipura SPA3000's PSTN Line. Attach a compatible T-Mobile cell phone to the Dock-n-Talk and you will be able to make calls via that connection.

[edongp]

Originally Posted by dustenm

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone knows how I can make a setup to allow me and my family to make unlimited mobile calls. I know there are some companies that do this on a commercial level so it is possible I just do not know how to set it up.

Ok, my family all has tmobile with m2m so we would use this and then setup 1 phone to somehow connect to a voip line. But what would we use for this? and how can we make it so say all 3 people can make outgoing calls at once. Does anyone know what kind of setup we would need to use?

The easiest way is to belong to the same network that has free in-network calling like Verizon (I am not sure if tmobile has the same thing). You can then install a cell socket or dock 'n talk, put your extra cell phone in the cradle and bridge it to the VOIP line with one of the Sipura adapters. However this setup will allow only one call at a time and you would need to configure the ATA to work with the cell socket. One other way is to change your cell provider to Sprint/Nextel and get incoming calls free. Install a DialMate CM1003 (see www.woodtel.com) on your VOIP line (get a VOIP provider with Call Return and Call Transfer features) and program *69 as the call back number and call transfer as the switching mode. Whenever one of your family members calls the unit and rings it only once, they will get a call back (it is a free call since it is incoming) from the CM1003. After entering the PIN and the destination number the CM1003 will transfer (connecting the caller directly) the call to the destination number and hang up. The CM 1003 is now ready for the next caller. Thus, your family members can make calls through the VOIP line unlimited almost at the same time. And you don't need an extra land line or cell socket to access your VOIP line as well as having to configure anything.

[dustenm]

Originally Posted by bbbeavis

I was kicking around using Asterisk connected to an ATA which would then be connected to a cellular phone cradle (I've seen some on e-bay for about $30). the idea would be to make the cradled phone act as a trunk into Asterisk so that if you dialed in it would then redirect the call to an actual trunk for outbound calling. The outbound trunk would pass it your user selected caller-id so that any call backs would be connected back out (via DID) to the call phone at no cost. There are a few drawbacks. In order to call out you would have to dial the cradled phone connected to Asterisk (speed-dial would help) and wait to connect and get an outgoing trunk from the Asterisk server before dialing the actual destination. It also doesn't become economical unless you have 3 or more users and you create at least 2 trunks on the Asterisk server (see the T-mobile family plans because they give free t-mobile to T-mobile minutes). You would have to manually hunt for an open line into the server if your first choice was in use (with only two trunks it wouldn't be much of a hunt, but still a nuisance). You would have to maintain DID's for all phone used in the field in order to have proper incoming routing or you could use Asterisk's automated attendant feature. With all the hardware and signing up for the service plan it is a little bit of a commitment and it may not work all that well and/or it may be to cumbersome to use. If you have two T-mobile phone accounts you could try one of the cradles from e-bay and get an idea of the quality (you will also need a voip account and ATA). I don't know if you are experienced with Asterisk but, if not, a simple ATA setup combined with a cradle and a couple of t-mobile phones should do the trick but your monthly bill would probably be reduced with Asterisk as you could pool the trunks with your home or business lines. Voxilla sells the Dock-n-talk station for $139. The units on e-bay may or may not work as well but the price is more attractive.

hmm I really do not know anything about asterisk so this all seems kind of hard. Do you know if asterisk is very hard to hookup? Also do you mean that I would call the cellphone and then the server would call me back but show a tmobile number so it thinks my other mobile phone is calling me back?

I see they sell some servers on e-bay that are all setup for $50 here is a link do you think they would work?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pre-Configured-A...QQcmdZViewItem

[bbbeavis]

You can set up Asterisk on an any old pentium class spare computer for home experimenting (which is the good part), it's open-source (also another part of the good part) and it can quickly occupy way more time then you ever anticipated (arguably not part of the good part unless you have time to burn). If you want to give a go of it I recommend Asterisk@Home 2.1 which is the most recent release. When you install it it will automatically format your hard disk, install a Linux OS, install Asterisk and some of the more popular third party add-ons for Asterisk. In order to avoid a lot of typing and, in all likelyhood, hopelessly misdirecting you, I recommend going to www.nervittles.com for full instructions on setting up Asterisk plus some cool tricks. It's not all that difficult but it does require a bit of time and effort. There is a lot of support for Asterisk, especially in the Voxilla forums.

That said, the idea I had does not require the server to call you back. For outgoing calls you would place a call from your T-Mobile phone to another T-Mobile phone that is sitting in a cradle/adaptor that allows it to connect to an FXO connection. The The FXO adaptor/card would then connect to the Asterisk PBX server (my previous post suggested an ATA connection to Asterisk which is the wrong animal). Asterisk would then connect your call to an outgoing trunk and you would get a dial tone. At that point you would dial your destination number and enjoy unlimited outbound calling. Inbound is handled by people calling the Asterisk server on a preconfigured line that would be routed out of Asterisk to the FXO adaptor/card, from the FXO adaptor/card to the cradled T-Mobile phone and then on to your T-Mobile phone.

I did mention in my first post that you could eliminate the Asterisk server and just use an ATA. Just for the record, I have no idea what I was thinking when I said that and if I post a clearer explanation about how that is accomplished please contact me and let me know exactly what it was that I talking about :?

Also, if that last paragraph sounds confusing you should try it from my end. I know, I'll ask my girlfriend; she always tells me what I really meant when I said something whether I was aware of it or not.

[dustenm]

Ok, I just did a test and found something out. I called my moms tmobile phone from my home phone by using a calling card that is made for spoofing numbers. So I just spoofed my tmobile number to show that is the phone I am calling from. Now when I checked my moms call records it comes up as a free tmobile to tmobile call and shows my mobile number as the person calling her even though I used my home phone.

So now my question is how can I make an easy setup that will call me back to my mobile phone when I call it and let it ring 1 time but when it calls me back to have it spoof and show say my moms tmobile number even though it is the voip line calling me to let me make calls?

I have the woodtel CM1003 which does callbacks but is there anyway to have it spoof the number? or any other device I can use such as a sipura that will allow the calling from number to be spoofed?

[bbbeavis]

mberlant,

Does the Doc-N-Talk require an FXO or FXS connection (or is it selectable)? I figured it would act as a trunk instead of an instrument.

Umm, nevermind, I see you were suggesting the the Sipura 3000 PSTN side.

dustenm,

I wouldn't recommend spoofing your t-mobile number from a voip line. T-Mobile might discover that the call did not originate on their system and their server logs might put you in the crosshairs.

[dustenm]

I have a prepaid 2 verzion phones (one on verizon prepaid and 1 tracfone) so I think I am going to use this one. I will just show my one prepaid phone is calling the other one.

[bbbeavis]

Your destination phone may record the caller id you spoof, which is great; but, since you are in the same system (T-Mobile) they can detect whether or not you went through them to originate the call. Whether they will or not is a guess. I'm not adverse to sticking it to them; just do it with care.