Can I use Wireless phone features when connecting from a Smartphone without a Landline

[Charles_I]

I am in Canada using a Rogers system. I have had a Landine with Bell for years which they are shutting down, so after a lot of research I have decided to move the phone number to a Smartphone and forward the calls with Bluetooth to a Home Phone 3-phone system so it is not connected to the Internet.

When connected with Bluetooth I would like the Home Phone to use:
visual call display of the incoming name and number (rather than "Incoming Call")
Call Blocker
the Home Phone answering machine to record messages (rather than the Smartphone)

The Home Phone manufacturing choices appear to be Panasonic, AT&T and VTech but finding feature comparisons (instead of "best of" articles) is proving very difficult. My own criteria here is to have good sound quality. Can anyone recommend a phone that will work the way I want it to?

My plan is to buy a new iPhone (SE being the cheapest) and use Apple's Link To Cell to transfer the calls to the Home Phone. I see that there are some phones that have Android only features, like texting and social media alerts, but these are irrelevant to me.

Your expert feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Charles

[Serial Port]

You might contact Rogers directly to address those questions/concerns. Hopefully some folks on this forum may offer additional suggestions.

[Charles_I]

I have spoken with several people at various Rogers stores and on the phone. They have no idea what I'm talking about. Neither do the people at the Apple store. They look at me like I'm from Mars. The Apple employee suggested I buy an Apple Watch!

Actually, I don't think this is a provider question. All mobile phones will be able to do these things with a regular text and data plan (call display, call blocker, answering) the question is whether these can be transferred via Bluetooth to a Home Phone, so it's more a question of the Home Phone receiving the data than the provider sending the data to the phone.

[Serial Port]

I suppose if it is a product that they do not specifically sell/offer their users that is why you are getting those reactions. Hopefully somebody might offer the name to such an application or specific phone make/model if it is available. Best wishes. If you find a solution, please share with the community.

[TadMorose]

I have spoken with several people at various Rogers stores and on the phone. They have no idea what I'm talking about. Neither do the people at the Apple store. They look at me like I'm from Mars. The Apple employee suggested I buy an Apple Watch!

Actually, I don't think this is a provider question. All mobile phones will be able to do these things with a regular text and data plan (call display, call blocker, answering) the question is whether these can be transferred via Bluetooth to a Home Phone, so it's more a question of the Home Phone receiving the data than the provider sending the data to the phone.

None of this is possible over Bluetooth. Bluetooth protocol does not support any kind of "forwarding". If you want to continue using your home phones, sign up for Rogers Ignite package, which includes home phone service and port your Bell number.

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using HoFo mobile app

[bobdevnul]

None of this is possible over Bluetooth. Bluetooth protocol does not support any kind of "forwarding". If you want to continue using your home phones, sign up for Rogers Ignite package, which includes home phone service and port your Bell number.

It is possible with cordless phone systems that have Bluetooth link to cellphones. Panasonic calls it Link2Cell. I have one it works. It allows you to use your cellphone as the connection to the phone network and the cordless phone system as your handsets.

[Serial Port]

This link to Amazon might help in finding the right phone: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=panasonic...l_1u6tpjjmf4_b

[TadMorose]

It is possible with cordless phone systems that have Bluetooth link to cellphones. Panasonic calls it Link2Cell. I have one it works. It allows you to use your cellphone as the connection to the phone network and the cordless phone system as your handsets.

Huh, interesting. Never heard of it. Haven't used a home phone in years.

[bobdevnul]

I am in Canada using a Rogers system. I have had a Landine with Bell for years which they are shutting down, so after a lot of research I have decided to move the phone number to a Smartphone and forward the calls with Bluetooth to a Home Phone 3-phone system so it is not connected to the Internet.

When connected with Bluetooth I would like the Home Phone to use:
visual call display of the incoming name and number (rather than "Incoming Call")
Call Blocker
the Home Phone answering machine to record messages (rather than the Smartphone)

The Home Phone manufacturing choices appear to be Panasonic, AT&T and VTech but finding feature comparisons (instead of "best of" articles) is proving very difficult. My own criteria here is to have good sound quality. Can anyone recommend a phone that will work the way I want it to?

My plan is to buy a new iPhone (SE being the cheapest) and use Apple's Link To Cell to transfer the calls to the Home Phone. I see that there are some phones that have Android only features, like texting and social media alerts, but these are irrelevant to me.

Your expert feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Charles

A cordless phone system with Bluetooth link to cellphone may do all of this. Panasonic calls theirs Link2Cell. This is pretty arcane stuff. It is no surprise that many don't know about it.

I have a Panasonic one, but it has been a while since I used it. It don't recall if it passes CallerID with name. Also not sure if the cordless phone answering machine would work. My guess is probably if the answering machine is set to low enough rings so that it got it before the cell system did.

I don't have time right now to set it up to check those things.

My experience with using it was that the call audio quality was pretty bad, but my Panasonic is pretty old, like 15 years. Don't know if they are better now.

There is another device that does similar: Cell2Jack (https://www.cell2jack.com/). With that you have to plug in your own analog phone. It is probably just running the same chipset as the cordless phone systems.

[abcanguy_eh]

after a lot of research I have decided to move the phone number to a Smartphone and forward the calls with Bluetooth to a Home Phone 3-phone system so it is not connected to the Internet.

When connected with Bluetooth I would like the Home Phone to use:
visual call display of the incoming name and number (rather than "Incoming Call")
Call Blocker
the Home Phone answering machine to record messages (rather than the Smartphone)

Can anyone recommend a phone that will work the way I want it to?

Thanks
Charles

I have a Panasonic Linc to Cell system. You cannot "forward" your calls to the home phone system however both will ring simultaneously upon incoming calls and the home phone system will alert you to texts (can be toggled on or off). You will only have call display on your home phone for your contacts as you are not connected to a land line or the internet. It is a reasonably easy to sync your cell phone contacts to your home phone and all currently saved contacts on your home phone will remain. You can create a call blocker system but only by blocking unwanted callers when they occur. The least number of rings before your home system answers is 2 so you will have to set your cell phone for more rings than 2. I found call clarity to be very good although it will be no better than the call clarity of your cell phone. I have had my system for a few years so there may have been changes/improvements/"un" improvements of the system since.

[Charles_I]

By transfer the calls, what I meant was transfer the information, not actually forward the call.

Having call display for my contacts is good enough for me, that is if the incoming number is recognized by the Home Phone and it displays the text of the corresponding number in it's address book. The key point here is it will transfer the text of the phone number to the Home Phone and if the Home Phone has the same number in its address book it will display it. But will Caller ID work on iPhones? (I think I've seen it described for AT&T phones as being android only).

Actually, I forgot that I can use the Call Blocking on the Smartphone so it doesn't need to be enabled on the Home Phone, since it will ring the Smartphone first.

Good to know about the number of rings. Thanks.

Interesting that call quality depends on the Smartphone - I was thinking that may be the case. That's why I plan to buy a new phone and not use an old one.

And as for the answering machine, it would be more convenient to be able to play back messages (and see that you actually have a message) on the Home Phone. I'm thinking that if the Home Phone is picking up the incoming call and it's not answered that the answering machine on it would kick in like it normally would (but then you would have to disable the answering system on the Smartphone if that can be done).

Part of the problem here is which phone to buy, other than having Link2Cell there are other critical options plus determining how old a phone is - which is proving to be very difficult. Which model of Panasonic do you have (abcanguy_eh)?

Thanks bobdevnul for your input. I have seen cell2jack in my research and it looks very promising as well. Has anyone out there used one? As you say, 15 years is a long time so I'm thinking some of your comments like poor sound quality (which I have also seen online) don't apply to new equipment.

Charles

[Rojniles]

Transfer the number to a VOIP provider and get an ATA (analog telephone adapter) to connect the 2.

Sent from my moto g stylus 5G using Tapatalk

[Digital Rules]

Interesting that call quality depends on the Smartphone

Part of the problem here is which phone to buy, other than having Link2Cell there are other critical options plus determining how old a phone is - which is proving to be very difficult. Which model of Panasonic do you have (abcanguy_eh)?

I've used various Panasonic Link to Cell phones with both Motorola and iPhones. I consider the sound quality to be just adequate, especially if you're used to how good a real HD call sounds. Quality varies depending on the Bluetooth connection of each call and can be bad at times. The type of cell phone doesn't really seem to matter from my experience.

I tried one of the newer HD audio Panasonic models and the sound is noticeably better, but I still wouldn't consider it HD quality.

All the models I have used require a reboot every now and then to keep working. The units work flawlessly on landlines and only require rebooting for cell phones.

If you decide to get one make sure you get from somewhere you can return it if you're not happy.

Sent from my SM-A526U using HoFo mobile app

[bobdevnul]

[QUOTE=Charles_I;17243395]...And as for the answering machine, it would be more convenient to be able to play back messages (and see that you actually have a message) on the Home Phone. I'm thinking that if the Home Phone is picking up the incoming call and it's not answered that the answering machine on it would kick in like it normally would (but then you would have to disable the answering system on the Smartphone if that can be done).

Most cell services won't allow you to disable their voicemail or change its time to answer. You will probably need to set the number of rings on the answering machine to pick up first. Personally I turn the answering machine off and let the cellphone take care of voicemail rather than have to keep track of it in two places when my cellphone is away from home and the answering machine.

Part of the problem here is which phone to buy, other than having Link2Cell there are other critical options plus determining how old a phone is - which is proving to be very difficult. Which model of Panasonic do you have (abcanguy_eh)?

I don't know of cellphones having link to cell. AFAIK that is something in the cordless landline phone set. It just uses Bluetooth that is built into every cellphone.

[abcanguy_eh]

But will Caller ID work on iPhones? (I think I've seen it described for AT&T phones as being android only).



And as for the answering machine, it would be more convenient to be able to play back messages (and see that you actually have a message) on the Home Phone. I'm thinking that if the Home Phone is picking up the incoming call and it's not answered that the answering machine on it would kick in like it normally would (but then you would have to disable the answering system on the Smartphone if that can be done).

Part of the problem here is which phone to buy, other than having Link2Cell there are other critical options plus determining how old a phone is - which is proving to be very difficult. Which model of Panasonic do you have (abcanguy_eh)?


Charles

Sorry I cannot speak to your question regarding iPhones as I have always used Android with mine. I don't think you would have to disable the Smart phone voice mail; once the call is forwarded it should not pick up (I may be wrong here though). I have the model KX-TG7873C. I won't get into the bluetooth and call quality debate as I agree that there are more factors involved than I mentioned earlier. I'm just fortunate that in my home I have always been satisfied with the different combinations of cell phone and blue tooth I've tried over the years. You may benefit from contacting Panasonic (or whatever system you eventually determine best fits your needs) support.