Home Phone Anywhere: Whether you are a soccer mom, or a frequent international traveler till now getting a home phone to forward voice mail by email was pretty much impossible. Similarly forwarding calls on the home number were expensive. Add the new SoftGnome feature and you get your Home Phone number ringing on every PC. It’s an extra extension, or your home phone away from home. It also provides three way calling etc. My home phone just got smarter.

Installing PhoneGnome and using it? Alex Saunders says it succinctly.

Once powered up, it takes about 5 minutes for PhoneGnome to go through it’s registration sequence. Then you’re ready! Pick up the phone, and make a phone call. The way it works is as follows:

1. If you’re making a local call, it simply routes the call over the local phone lines. This ensures the best quality, doesn’t interfere with 911, and lets you keep your existing phone number.
2. If you’re making a long distance call to another PhoneGnome user, the call is routed over the internet, and is free to both users.
3. If you’re making a long distance call to a non-PhoneGnome user, then you can specify a long distance carrier to use. The one I chose is charging two cents per minute.
4. If you are receiving a call, from either the PSTN, or the Internet, PhoneGnome simply routes the call to your ordinary phone.

The rest of the setup was pretty simple. I visited http://my.phonegnome.com, obtained a password and logged in. Then I chose a long distance provider, activated the telemarketer block feature, and was done.
Alec Saunders

Using SoftGnome I had access to my home phone from my PC all last week. I could access the voicemail and take the calls. The only difficulty was picking up a call for my daughter when in another time zone. I couldn’t just call out and get her to come and get the phone. I also had the issue of Skype and Softgnome ringing while in a call on one. The whole time I had the dialing (seven digit local) (1- area – long distance) I was used to. There’s nothing new to learn.

I’ve put it on both my kids PC’s. I’m going to see how that goes. In our household finding the PC is often easier than the handset.

The Cost Conundrum: Many VoIP packages are sort of screwed up. They bundle rate plans with local plans and while they are all becoming much much cheaper, their fly by night nature encourages you to treat it as a second line. If not you are probably still incurring charges on your traditional landline. More later on how I cut my costs.

SkypeGnome? I’ve been asking myself whether every Skyper should also own a PhoneGnome? The answer is not everyone. If you don’t have a home phone then PhoneGnome isn’t going to help very much. However, if you have a home phone number, and want additional services then PhoneGnome may be perfect for you.

Here’s a solution that’s perfect. I can’t get my home number into Skype. If Skype would just let me PointGnome at it then I’d have what I want. My home number as one of my SkypeIn numbers. I’d also switch my long distance minutes and international minutes to my SkypeOut account…. if I could. The Skype rates are better than I’ve managed to find so far and still get good quality calls.

How to get your costs down.
First I had had two lines in my house. A business line (until recently Vonage) and PSTN home phone complements of SBC. To cut costs I cancelled my Vonage line which I had been subscribing to for 500 minutes at 14.99 before taxes per month. I have replaced the business line with Skype, uConnect and a cordless handset. So I’m not always tied to the PC.

Second on my SBC account I called and cancelled both the long distance plan $5 and the International saver $4 plans. Thus I cancelled the “protection money” for anyone who makes a long distance call from my home phone. I also put a toll bar on the home phone. About 1.50 per month extra. Thus if PhoneGnome fails I won’t be automatically ringing up international calls at $1.50 per minute or whatever outrageous rate they try to charge me. Thus my SBC account will be approx $17/ month now. I don’t have caller ID on it or any other extra features. Between Vonage and SBC I have cut my costs by approx $25 per month. In that I’ve lost a few LD minutes on SBC and I should calculate for the SkypeIn number cost approx $3.00 per month. This also excludes all the international calls we do as a family. Frankly none of the services match the rates I now have. Plus for the $20 in savings I could buy 1000 minutes at 2 cents per minutes. That’s a lot of minutes. So I have a lot more phone for less money.

Simple Installation:
For PhoneGnome ($119) I installed it by plugging it in to the telephone jack and a broadband connection off my router. The phone base station (two handsets) plugs into that. After PhoneGnome connected itself I went to my.phonegnome.com and logged in and opened my account. I then added InPhonex (one of their ITSP options) and I now have a prepaid calling system similar to SkypeOut to handle any long distance or international calls dialed via PhoneGnome.

Conclusion:
It’s real easy to think about PhoneGnome as just another electronic appliance. However, it is really much much bigger. It’s an open network of individuals migrating to VoIP. On the network all calls are free. However unlike Skype, PhoneGnome has an interconnect strategy. For competitors the question will become “Is your network open enough?” As the PhoneGnome network grows more and more calls will be free In the meantime you can take control of you home phone number cut your costs and point it towards the future of telephony.

I’m happy just to be able to wave my PhoneGnome at SBC. It’s part of taking control and managing my communications the way I want them to be managed.

A few others have written on PhoneGnome too.
Om Malik
Joi Ito
Voxhilla
Silicon Beat
VoIP Blog
PC Mag