Considering the great powers of today’s Smartphone, this would seem counterintuitive. However, it is important to examine the facts. In the absence of affordable telecommunication services, many homeowners wonder if they would be better off using mobile phones exclusively for their daily telecommunication needs. It is a legitimate question, as traditional landlines (non-VOIP) can be very expensive for the limited service and usage they provide. We will review some advantages and disadvantages of having a mobile phone (or smartphone) versus a VOIP-based landline here.
Every person over the age of 18 and probably even younger has a mobile phone, so in an average household, there will be at least 4 to 6 mobile phones, accounting for work-related mobiles. Many devices sold will be smartphones. Most people do not realize that modern smartphones, despite having the word phone appended to them, were not meant to be used for talking. Using a Smartphone, you can access a variety of apps, stream videos, order food delivery and get directions using a map and GPS. These large touch-screen devices get hot with just a few minutes of call. Also, the longer the call the faster the device’s battery drains.
The VOIP Advantage
VOIP phones can be used with any residential phone. Just add the VOIP adapter and you are good to go. You can talk for as long as you want. Chances are you will not ever have a battery issue. Battery life on residential or home office phones using VOIP is not an issue.
Smartphones or mobile phones often get forgotten/misplaced or stolen. With a residential or office phone using or without VoIP, that is very unlikely to happen.
Smartphones, especially those with full screens, are built to be handled with care and despite excellent design efforts are susceptible to having screen shatter. Residential/business phones are designed to endure use and abuse.
Calling plans associated with smartphones often allow local area calling, and they become expensive if you want nationwide unlimited calling. In Canada VOIP plans, most providers offer nationwide unlimited communication (although always a fair usage policy applies; each provider will set these differently, but we are inevitably talking about the 1000s of minutes per month) frequently paired with US and international minutes along with some international minutes.
Some of the most feature-rich VOIP providers in Canada also offer an app where you can have your landline number on your Smartphone to make and receive calls. Like the VoIP Much Home Phone plan.
Cost cutting
International calling using a smartphone or mobile phone is very expensive, regardless of if there is a monthly international calling plan; even if you subscribe to say a $50 monthly international calling plan you may end up paying 3-times that amount for reasons that defy logic (network access fee, and who knows what other service fee). VOIP providers offer very competitive rates, even in their most basic offers. For starters, VOIP plans have Canada-wide calling and in most cases, North America-wide calling is included too. For example, VoIPly and 1-VoIP
In short, having a VOIP residential and/or home office VOIP landline is an inexpensive solution to resolve the shortcomings of just having a mobile phone. A mobile phone must be seen for what it is: a complement to a VOIP landline.