I work from home and in my home office I have terrible reception. I don't know anyone calls unless they leave a voicemail at which point I call them back. Does anyone know a way that I can use my phone to make/receive calls using the internet rather than cell towers while in my office? I would like any calls made over internet to come across as my phone number so anyone that i'm calling or is calling me doesn't know that i'm using internet to make call. I looked into Google Voice but that appears that my number is going to change.

See image below for my terrible 1 bar reception in my office.

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28709 posts

Posted on 4/10/15 at 12:51 pm to CHiPs25

Who do you have? I think T-Mobile and Sprint do wifi calling already, and AT&T and Verizon plan on doing it soon.

I made a similar post yesterday. I just use Google Voice, and I ended up setting my not reachable forwarding number with AT&T to my Voice number. So when people call my cell number, I answer on Voice and they don't know the difference. But as far as I know there is no way to make your cell number appear in caller ID when you use Voice.

If this is only a problem in your home office, why don't you just buy a signal booster?

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Posted by CHiPs25

ATL

Member since Apr 2014

2903 posts

Posted on 4/10/15 at 1:17 pm to Korkstand

I have Verizon.

With google voice, can I use my current cell phone or do I need to get a new landline phone to use?

My company wanted to charge my team $250 for the signal booster and my boss never responded to any of my requests for this. Are there good boosters for cheaper than $250?

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Posted by AlxTgr

Kyre Banorg

Member since Oct 2003

81658 posts

Posted on 4/10/15 at 1:30 pm to CHiPs25

I just use our free micro cell at the office.

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Posted by GFunk

Denham Springs

Member since Feb 2011

14966 posts

Posted on 4/10/15 at 1:45 pm to AlxTgr

My old office used to have terrible reception for calls but I could get texts just fine. Data was also terrible.

Then again my old office was designed by Earl Long as an Atomic Fallout Shelter as well.

This post was edited on 4/10/15 at 1:45 pm

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28709 posts

Posted on 4/10/15 at 3:35 pm to CHiPs25

quote:
With google voice, can I use my current cell phone or do I need to get a new landline phone to use?

You use whatever phone you want, or no phone at all. Here is a quick Voice rundown:

You get a free number that is your Google Voice number. Whenever somebody calls this number, any device that is signed into your Google account rings. For example, the Hangouts app (or Google Voice app) rings on both my phone and tablet, and on my computer I see the incoming call in gmail in my browser. You can also set Voice to forward calls to multiple other numbers, and it rings them all at once. Whichever phone you answer first gets the call, and the others stop ringing.

It's free and pretty neat, and comes in handy sometimes, so it can't hurt to sign up and play around with it.

quote:
My company wanted to charge my team $250 for the signal booster and my boss never responded to any of my requests for this. Are there good boosters for cheaper than $250?

There are some for less than $250, but I'm not sure about the quality. I have used a few zBoost models in the $250-350 range and they all work well.

If your boss/company is giving you the runaround, then you might just have to buy one yourself if it is impacting your ability to work from home. Maybe see if they'll go halfsies with you?

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Posted by Hammertime