Forum Discussion
VOIP
Backstory: I am about to lose my ADSL Broadband. It's clear that, sooner rather than later, Openreach will 'convert' everyone in the area to fibre. For several reasons it makes more sense for me to opt for mobile (4G) broadband now; there's a good signal at the top of the house even though there's a poor or no mobile signal over much of the rest of the house even though my 3-handset cordless phone system works perfectly throughout the house and garden. I need to keep the cordless system for personal safety (75 and living alone) and I've found a 4G router with an analogue phone port. I'll keep my landline for as long as possible, but I need a fallback for when it becomes 'obsolete'.
Does Smarty support VOIP? If so do I need a Voice SIM or just a data SIM?
17 Replies
SMARTY use CGNAT and CGNAT is problematic for VoIP. CGNAT is likely deleting the NAT rule for SIP after the "short time". SIP OPTIONS should fix that issue if the interval is short enough.
I have a similar problem, I bought a 4g Huawei router that has an RJ11 socket on the back for a phone to be plugged in, my mother is 89 and i only need broadband to monitor cameras we (my sister and i) use to keep an eye on her to make sure she hasnt fallen etc, she has no idea what the internet is and wont use a mobile, Problem im having is sometimes when you ring her it says this number is unavailable, i didnt get a data only sim i got one with calls on it too (dont know if that makes any difference) Huawei support say it should work but im just wondering what the problem is??? Perhaps i might get another sim and put it in a "Landline looking" mobile phone ??
GrahamT_2540620 You say that the sim is in a router? This is working on mobile data and I do not see how you are ringing your mother if she has no mobile phone.
Hi, yes the sim card is in the router and there is a phone plugged into the router in the RJ45 socket on the back marked tel 1 ....Huawei customer support seemed to think that should work fine and whilst id got them on my mobile phone they called the sim in the router and it worked fine , Iv called it and made calls from it and most of the time it does work...
GuyAttf_2056631 Regardless of anything else, Smarty do make it clear that you should not rely on mobile signal to replace traditional broadband.
If a mast goes down then you would be without an alternative for contact.
Is the parent companies home broadband any different?
Traditional Broadband is even less reliable - frequent short interruptions while Fujitsu are working to extend Openreach's fibre network. My local 3 mast is on top of the local exchange building (380m, almost line-of-sight), I don't know whether our exchange still has a stand-by pair of diesel generators but I understand that Openreach have been removing them progressively . Most likely scenario is a power outage - no power = no broadband, no phone, no mobile. I still have a gas stove with manual ignition - at least I'll be warm!
