VoIP telephones ?
 

My mother's Assisted Living Facility is using VoIP telephones. I'm not very familiar with these. Her phone is a large corded base unit. I'd like to swap it out for a cordless model. How could I go about doing this ? Can I just connect the new phone, or does it need to be programed in any way ? Both phones will be from the same company.


Current phone...
SIP-T30P - Single line entry level IP phone | Yealink

Cordless...
W73H - Professional Business DECT Phone System | Yealink

A phone is a phone. Just swap it out and it should work. Usually, these cordless units come with a base unit that connects to a phone jack and several slave units that just connect to a power outlet. If the current phone connects to a phone jack, then the cordless unit must also connect to a phone jack. For less than $100, you can buy a master unit and 4 slave units. That way, you can have 5 phones, one in every room. Panasonic and AT&T are typically brands that are sold at Best Buy or Amazon.

No, there's no phone jack. These VoIP phones connect via Ethernet. Looks like a Cat6/7 cable. They work over the internet.

It looks like you can buy an ethernet to phone jack adapter from Amazon for about 10 dollars.

You will need to call the phone provider, but you should be able to swap out the unit, for a cordless type. There will still be a BASE unit required, and there may be some form of activation required. I did a quick look at the instructions for the unit you have and did NOT see any jacks for adding a wireless unit. I did not notice if an additional WIRELESS phone could be added.

Personally, I don't think you need to call the phone provider or do any activation. I think you need to get an ethernet to phone jack adapter, and connect a base unit to the phone jack. I would not use the current unit that you have, but buy a Panasonic or AT&T system with a base unit and several cordless auxiliary units. I could be wrong, but I think it will work fine. My opinion.

Might also ask the assisted living people as I’m sure your not the only one at the home to consider this?

You're not wrong - exactly right. We have VoIP - OOMA. Have it for 8 years, only pay Fed tax each month - like $8.

We have a Panasonic base unit to ethernet/internet connector and 3 cordless phones-remotes around the house. Works great. We use as a backup to our cell phones.

A VOIP phone is essentially a computer. There is no RJ11 connection (old-school phone jack), but an RJ45 (ethernet) connection. You will see the difference if you unplug the cord; there are four pins on the RJ11 and eight on the RJ45. Google search "VOIP phones for home" and you should find what you are looking for. I suggest Amazon, since her service provider might not allow devices not their own.

The OP is not asking if the phone will work on a VOIP system. Yes, most any phone can work on a VOIP system, with the proper "adaptor".

The OP is asking if the phone will work, with a proprietary, business phone system (that just happens to use VOIP). It's not the same thing as plugging a phone into a telephone jack or ethernet jack, to access VOIP lines that someone like Xfinity has provided to your home.

The answer to the question, is "yes" with some reservations. All functions of the system may not be available. Some modicum of "programming" may be necessary, depending on the functions the Assisted Living Facility has programmed into their system.

Yealink is one of the premier providers of commercial phone systems. When you plug the phone into the system, the phone should update automatically, with the compatible software. Some functions may not be available, without some modicum of simple "programming". [This from the Yealink website]

Is forwarding the calls to a cell phone a simple option? Maybe interim?

I've converted someone with, what they thought of as a "land line". What they REALLY had was a Comcast modem with a phone jack, they had the 3 deal (internet, TV and phone), to OOMA. OOMA replaces the need for a Comcast modem with a phone line. However, we had to notify Comcast that they were going to OOMA (took a few days). When they transferred the number to OOMA we just had to set it up. They pay about $8/mo. and they can get their own modem/router (which they could do before anyway) but save on the phone bill.

I interpreted the OP's post as just wanting to replace a corded phone with a cordless phone.

No problem, just swap it out with any cordless phone. Just try to get one that is different from her neighbor's’, to avoid crosstalk. You don’t want a party line.

I connected my old phones (Base unit which requires a hard wire signal and 4 satellites to a Magic Jack). Since I wanted the base unit in the kitchen and my router is in the study, I connected my Majic Jack into the router and then into the study phone Jack line which is part the house wiring. That takes the phone signal to my base unit which then connects to the satellite phones. Sounds complex but works great without need to buy new phones.

Two of the biggest time wasters in an assisted living unit. Staff can’t find the cordless phone or remote to the TV. After replacing the remote 4 times we finally gave up. They seem to take them out of their unit leave them elsewhere. There is a reason the phone isn’t cordless.

you also can use a cellphone, aka internet calling is the same thing.

Voip solution
 

Go to Best buy and buy OOMA box. plug into your ethenet port on your CPU. you can plug a single phone or phone set to have a phone in every room. you can get a new number or transfer your old number. The service is free except for taxes and 911 fee about 6-8 bucks a month. Iv'e had it for years and it works flawlessly. Me being a snowbird I take it with me and have the same number weather I'm up north or FL. Hope this helps.

[QUOTE=NYBob;2420152]My mother's Assisted Living Facility is using VoIP telephones. I'm not very familiar with these. Her phone is a large corded base unit. I'd like to swap it out for a cordless model. How could I go about doing this ? Can I just connect the new phone, or does it need to be programed in any way ? Both phones will be from the same company.
-------------------

We used VOIP for several years. First, check with the Nursing home to identify how they are connecting their internet to their phone system. it is likely they merely connect their modem to their telephone jack system that all the residents plug their phone into. If that is the case, any phone (digital) that is plugged into the wall jack should work. That's how I did our home. I plugged a phone cable from our modem into the wall plug in that room which put the signal through our home. The other way, which seems unlikely, would be each resident would have a modem in their room to receive their broadcast Wifi. Each resident would then plug their phone cord into their modem. I would doubt any facility would require their residents to purchase hardware to use their system. Another way (which again requires each resident be a little techno-savvy) would be for them to use the facility Wifi and make phone calls from the residents' device that would connect to the facility's Wifi such as a mobile device or computer or even Wifi enabled cell phone.
You should not need anything of your own other than a digital phone (not a rotary) that plugs into the wall as usual. The only thing for you to undestand about VOIP is that if the internet fails, so does the wall phone.

As noted in post #10, the solution the OP is asking about will require working with the existing system. Replacing it with an OOMA device will not provide what he desires.

There are likely special features provided with the current VOIP phone that are not available with an OOMA device. The residents may have the ability to call on-duty personnel with a single button on the phone. They may be able to reach other residents by dialing just the latest four digits. They may have integrated voicemail or other features provided by the existing VOIP system.

The service is free except for the monthly cost. "Just how much does that free <ticket/room/phone> cost?" Yes, $99.99 up front and only $6/month plus 911 service and tax is pretty cheap, but it isn't free.

The OP is dealing with what used to be called a "Switchboard". It's not a simple "Plug & Play" VOIP system like Xfinity or someone would provide to an apartment building. It's a "Phone System". You just can't plug any old phone into most commercial phone systems.

Internet comes from a provider, into the Asst. Living Facility's Yealink system. What comes out to the residents, isn't likely just a simple VOIP phone line. In other words, the Internet provider is not providing the VOIP to the site.

VoIP isn’t magic but requires a base that connects to your router or switch. Remember the old magic jack devices? I used OOMA which gave you the Ethernet interface and I plugged in 4 wireless phones to it, and each phone thought it was a land line. Not sure why you would do this know since any phone call coming into my iPhone, I can use my Apple Watch, iPad, or Mac computer to pick up the phone call and talk.

Sorry, but no. There are no phone lines involved. There is nowhere to plug in an older style phone. VOIP phones are connected either by an ethernet cable, or wireless.

You can buy an ethernet to phone jack adapter from Amazon for less than $10. See Post No. 4.

Having personally set up and worked with Cisco phones and Cisco call manager software, this system looks a lot like that. You cannot plug any phone into it nor get any adapter and have it work. Their call manager software needs to know and understand the phone to provision it.

I’d talk with the assisted living facility and see if they have a solution. I’m sure their networking group or IT group can help. It might be something as easy as a Bluetooth handset, or a separate cordless phone they would provide. But it would need to be set up in their call manager software before it would work.

The phone jack adapter from Amazon changes the size of the plug and possibly the pins used. That would work if the wiring in the wall carried a phone signal but since the phone unit specified is a VOIP device, it is highly unlikely that the phone jack carries anything other than an ethernet signal.

I don't think that is correct. Why does Amazon sell an adapter that doesn't work? Read the product description below and the reviews:

Amazon.com

I had a VIOP system years ago, and I used a regular cordless phone with it. Also, see Post No. 8.

Package includes:
2 * 6 inch RJ45 to RJ11 cables
2 * RJ45 Coupler female to female

This enables you to use the internet wiring in your home to carry your public switched telephone network (PSTN, RJ11, "regular" telephone line). Look at the details in the Connection Schematic (third image down).

If you have:
- VOIP phone service through Xfinity
- An Xfinity router that has an RJ11 jack for plugging in a phone to the phone service
- A home wired for internet with RJ45 jacks

Then you can use the wires and couplers provided by this kit to move the RJ11 connection from the modem through your house to wherever you want your plain old telephone to be.

In the VOIP system you had before, you plugged your regular cordless phone base station into the system using an RJ11 cable. Maybe you plugged your Modem into the phone jack in the wall using an RJ11 cable. You were able to do that because you had RJ11 throughout your home.

This adapter works for "smart homes" that are wired for RJ45 rather than RJ11. Why would anyone do that? Because no one uses a regular phone anymore, everyone uses a cell phone instead. But what if you're not "everyone" and you do have a regular phone? Well, this kit allows you to use the RJ45 wiring in your smart home.

NOTE: You would probably need a third Coupler to make this work. One coupler would connect the RJ11 from the modem to the RJ45 in the wall. The second coupler would connect the RJ45 from the wall to the RJ11 on your phone. But both of those wall connections need to be connected together in the wiring closet and for that you would need a third coupler.


POST #8:
This post suggests using an OOMA box. If you taped the OOMA box to the back of a plain telephone then you would have a less expensive version of the VOIP phone in the room. Both the VOIP phone and the OOMA box would connect to the ethernet connection in the wall. Both the VOIP phone and the OOMA box have a handset that you speak into. Importantly, both the VOIP phone and the OOMA box MUST connect to a management server that speaks ethernet on one side and PSTN on the other to provide a phone number and a dial tone. The server for the VOIP phone is likely in the basement of the facility while the server for the OOMA box is at OOMA headquarters.

The VOIP phone has a telephone number associated with it. To use an OOMA device would require either porting that number to OOMA, which is not likely to be allowed by the current VOIP provider, or getting a new phone number. If someone wanted to go that route, great, but at that point it would be simpler to just get a cell phone. The ONLY thing OOMA features that a cell phone does not is that it works over wires rather than relying on a cell signal and cell tower. On the other hand, if the facility provides wifi then the cell phone can be configured to use wifi-calling and take advantage of both the mobile network and the internet.

NOTE 2: This is one limitation to having phone and internet through T-Mobile: Both use the same cell tower so if cell service is poor to the phone then it is also poor to the internet and wifi-calling doesn't help.

Exactly correct.

A lot of folks seem to be missing the basic concept ... this is not a typical VOIP phone, it's being run through a proprietary phone/call management system.

There is a very simple solution, as the company in question, has compatible "mobile/cordless" phones, made to be use with the system in question, per their website.

I don't understand any of that, but I think the adapter is worth a try, if you just want a cordless phone. I have the Xfinity phone service, and I connected a regular cordless phone to the modem/router and it works fine. No kit needed. I have nothing connected to the wall phone jacks in the house, but I have a cordless phone in every room.

It's up to the OP if he wants to waste the $10.

Do you plug your phone into one of the Internet connectors on the Xfinity modem/router or do you plug it into the Phone connector?

Do you believe you could plug additional phones into the modem router using the Internet connectors and one of these kits?

If the adapter doesn't work, you just return it to Amazon. No waste.

I use the phone connector on the modem, but I don't think the ethernet connectors are set up for the phone service. I do use the ethernet connection for my desktop computer.

Exactly. The ethernet connection used by the VOIP phone in the room of the facility will not be set up for phone service either which is why the Amazon device will not work.

Again, why does Amazon sell an adapter that doesn't work? Apparently, the OP's phone system is set up to use a phone. The only way to determine if the adapter works or not is to order one and test it. Neither one of us knows what type of system the OP is referring to.

The adapter works perfectly well FOR WHAT IT WAS INTENDED TO DO. It provides a conversion from a telephone connector to an ethernet connector to enable using ethernet cabling to carry telephone signals. What it DOES NOT DO is convert an ethernet signal into a telephone signal.

The OP provided the model number of the VOIP device in the room. I have used similar devices and others on this thread have installed similar devices.

If you have an RJ-45 then you probably have the TCP/IP protocol or UDP or perhaps some proprietary protocol. A “regular phone” will not speak any of these. Converting to RJ-11 will accomplish nothing. If you see an RJ-11 jack then a “regular phone” will probably work. If you see an RJ-45 jack then you are probably looking at a VoIP phone. This could also be something like an Ooma box that plugs into an RJ-45 jack and then a “regular phone” plugs in the RJ-11 jack on the Ooma box. The OP should work with the appropriate staff at the facility.

"An RJ45 to RJ11 converter cable is designed to connect your RJ11 devices such as analog phones, answering machines, fax machines etc. through a VoIP RJ45 Ethernet port. Since the RJ11 only uses four wires, it will only work with 10/100 Ethernet. 1 Gigabit Ethernet requires the use of eight wires or leads. Jun 27, 2023"

If these adapters don't function as stated above, why are thousands of people buying them from Amazon? I cannot believe that these people are not using them to connect and use a regular analog phone to an ethernet jack. I used one myself when I had a VOIP phone service. I do agree that it is possible that the proprietary system used by the assisted living facility could prevent the adapter from working for security reasons.

From what I've read they are using the converters to carry the analog signal to their modem's phone jacks when they don't have a standard phone jack RJ11 in that room. They convert standard to ethernet then at the modem convert back to standard RJ11 and then plug that in the analog phone jack on the modem. Essentially just using the cable to carry the signal. However there does appear to be certain specific analog to digital converters that may work allowing the connection of an analog phone. They are pricey though...



What's the Difference Between Analog and Digital Phones?