Help me get unlimited calling on my cellphone so that the company can stop robbing me.

October 30, 2010 6:48 AM

What system would be the best for forwarding my cellphone calls so I can stop getting robbed by RoBelLus (rogers, bell, tellus). What I want to do is something like this, but I'd prefer to have control over it so that I can decide whether or not my call ident sends to the recipient properly (this isnt totally necessary but I do like the idea of running my own pbx). What I'm going to do is use the "Smart Dialing" option or some variant in my Crackberry or android phone (whenever it comes back from the repair depot), to call a PBX that will give me a dial tone than I want to have my phone automatically wait for a moment or two (to ensure the pbx has responded with a dial tone) than dial my desired number. This way I can add my PBX's number to a "My Five" (or whatever its called for my provider). Thus essentially giving me unlimited calling. Also forwarding calls from my pbx back to my cellphone would be ideal otherwise I would only be able to make outgoing calls from my phone and I want the best of both worlds. Suggestions or solutions for how I'm going to be able accomplish this task would be appreciated.

I also want to know which pbx software would be ideal for this task "Trixbox" or "elastix" if theres something better let me know but I also want to setup a home phone network. I have a pap2-tn that I would like to set up as well so that I can have a homephone or two setup again.

Seeing as I'm paying like 100$ a month for my cellphone I just cant see paying for a home phone being economical but if I can save $40+ on my phone bill I would very much enjoy the ability to have one again.

Also what are some good DiD providers with unlimited / cheap origination/termination that I could use in southern ontario (519)?

posted by Chamunks to Technology (6 answers total)

This may be too... simple? lowtech? lowbrow? I dunno... but I'm pretty sure that Google Voice is available in Canada now. I don't use all its features, but if you give your Google Voice number out to people, you can forward/route your calls to whatever phone you'd like, based on the caller (or not, you can do it with any/every caller, too).

And it's free, so that's nice. If you have a "My Five" or "My Faves" plan, you can use your Google Voice number as one of your five numbers, and place/receive calls from it, thereby rendering your plan unlimited at no increased charges.
posted by Leta at 7:58 AM on October 30, 2010

I'm pretty sure that Google Voice is available in Canada now.

Nope.
posted by ssg at 9:13 AM on October 30, 2010

How to use google voice in canada.. I have no idea if it works...
posted by HuronBob at 10:56 AM on October 30, 2010

Google voice in canada isnt going to be active untill next year AFAIK.. My issue is is the forwarding... Noones going to want to call the US number and its too much of a hassle to forward from a canadian Voip DID to google voice than back again... :S believe me I've ran through the scenario's

But I do currently use google voice for SMS on my droid.
posted by Chamunks at 7:41 PM on October 30, 2010

You can use some form of Asterisk to do this. Look for DISA. Direct Inward System Access. You will need good a security code for this. I also filter on my inbound caller ID to access the dial tone. If you want a fully wrapped PBX, look at PBX in a Flash. They go for security and stability first, then features. Mine has been running for years without any issues. Other than ones I have caused.

For termination, look at flowroute.com. I use them as my main termination provider. They have good prices for both the US and Canada. For origination, look at voip.ms. I use them as a backup for termination. I think they provide 2 channels for the flat rate plan.
posted by Climber at 8:40 PM on October 30, 2010

I understand your pain and mobile providers all over seem to be inflexible when it comes to forwarding.

I am using a stand alone IP pabx which also serves as my home router. It is strange but very cool product called Fritzbox which sits at home and does the job over my home broadband connection. You can register up to 10 sip connections (incoming or outgoing).

The software allows you to programme dialing rules where you can get calls from certain callers to be forwarded to certain numbers and in order to forward to a specific country you can get it to use the cheapest route.

Works like a charm and I can also log into it using a webbrowser and programme it if I need to make changes to routings while I am travelling.
posted by london302 at 5:39 AM on October 31, 2010