Our condo building has a callbox with a physical landline. It’s reliable and low maintenance but over the last few years it’s become very clear that AT&T is no longer interested in being in the business of these old phone lines and is charging as such.
After fighting with AT&T for correct bills and looking at expensive alternatives I was able to keep the existing system and drive our month by month costs down to $5 with a VoIP system. This saves us about $3000 annually from what we would have spent if no change had been made.
AT&T Pricing
In 2023 our plan was $160/mo (~$2000/yr) for the line. In 2024 our legacy contract expired and the price jumped to $450/mo ($5500/yr). Even after negotiating down to $270/mo ($3200/yr) the risk and cost was high enough that it was worth looking at other options.
It was difficult to get AT&T to honor the newly negotiated price (despite the new contract, issued bills were not updated) and the experience highlighed how high we could expect the bill to jump in the future.
Reference: Original AT&T pricing was $2000/yr
Option 1: Stay with AT&T == $3200/yr with the expectation of future increases
ButterflyMX
I first looked at just switching out the system and going to something newer. ButterflyMX quoted us $1000 for the hardware (on sale from $3,995) with a software subscription of $1,200/yr.
We were looking at $100/month on top of the need to get internet for the box. I was interested in a model with integrated LTE, but those cost even more and still required a plan. The recommendation was WiFi and internet for the system would have easily added another $30-60/month and brought us back to where we had started with AT&T. This all works fine for a building with an office and easy WiFi, but not for a condo building with no public internet and an outside gate.
Option 2: Butterfly MX == $2000/yr + installation costs
Newer models from current manufacturer
I looked at newer models from the company that made our current box, and we were looking for a few thousand there again with the need to get internet.
Option 3: Newer “basic” box == $2-4k box + $1000/yr internet
Replace the landline
The core problem is the price of the phone line not the quality or reliability of the equipement that we have now. I just needed cheaper phone service.
I first looked into getting a new coax line run which would have cost about $360/yr all said and done. Luckily that didn’t work out and I had the idea of using an LTE backup. LTE backups (or just internet hotspots) from Verizon and other major phone providers are pretty expensive still and were far more bandwidth and quota than we actually needed for the call box. It just needed a VoIP liine to work.
T-Mobile sells prepaid sim cards for $10/month with unlimited mobile internet. That’s the key piece and then the rest is just wiring to make sure that the call box can actually call out.
Analog phone adapters allow traditional phone lines to work using VoIP. Paired with an LTE modem and router everything is ready to go.
I used Voip.ms as the phone provider and followed their general getting started guide as well as the handytone guide on their wiki.
It took me a bit to get right and I had to carefully set up and link the device, the phone number, and set the caller ID to the newly purchased DID number. Once this was all in place I could test the setup with a normal phone and could make and receive calls.
The final piece was to put this up in the garage where the landline connected and put an rj11 connector on the single stranded phone lines. I powered it all up and it worked!
VoIP.ms costs $0.85/mo. (Update 1 yr in: Price updated to $1.10/mo.) The calls are so short that they’re effectively free. We loaded the account in February and as of November have not had to reload.
Total setup costs:
- LTE Modem (Netgear LM1200-100NAS 4G LTE Modem) - ~$25
- Router (TP-Link AC1200) - $30
- Analog Telephone Adapter (Grandstream HandyTone 801) - ~$55
Option 4: $115 setup + $11/mo to operate
Price Comparison
| Item | Setup Cost | Monthly Cost | Annual 1st year | Annual ongoing | vs. original | vs. new AT&T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original | $0 | $160 | $1,920 | $1,920 | $0 | -$1,320 |
| New AT&T | $0 | $270 | $3,240 | $3,240 | +$1,320 | $0 |
| ButteflyMX | $1,200 | $160 | $3,120 | $1,920 | 0 | -$1,320 |
| Basic Box | $3000 | $60 | $3,720 | $720 | -$1,200 | -$2,520 |
| VoIP Setup | $115 | $11 | $247 | $132 | -$1,788 | -$3,108 |
Compared to the new AT&T rates we’re spending about $3000 less annually as an HOA! This project was a huge success!