A few months ago I reviewed a cordless Wi-Fi phone from Panasonic that let’s you make Skype calls off of your computer. For Skype users this is a great product, but it comes at a steep price of about $300. You also are limited to Skype and you can only use the phone where your Wi-Fi network provides reception. Thankfully there are some other options.
For about $100 you can buy an adapter that will let you convert a VoIP SIP signal to an analog signal that you can use with any regular corded or cordless phone.
When you sign up for certain VoIP carriers like Vonage or your local cable company, they give you this adapter, but usually the adapter is limited to work only with their service and certain features may be disabled. You can get your own adapter that will work with any service that supports BYOD, or bring your own device. There are several such services like Broadvoice and Callcetntric. Usually you even save money using your own device, either in the initial set up fees or on the monthly recurring fees. Not all VoIP carriers support BYOD, in fact the biggest ones Skype and Vonage do not. BYOD is only recommended for advanced users.
This week I’ll be reviewing some of the BYOD adapters currently on the market.
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