atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX VoIP & Cloud Phones, Hosted PBX, General IP Phones Western Electric Phones and VOIP - Questions

Hello everyone! I have a nice collection of old Western Electric phones that I use regularly. Most are 500 sets with a few Sculpturas, Trimlines and Princesses. Here is the problem I am having:

Currently I have both Vonage and Viatalk as my VOIP provider. I will likely dump Vonage in favor of Viatalk. My problem is this:

Many people I speak with complain that they do not hear my voice loud enough. I notice the same when I am calling home. I was attempting to figure out what the problem was and whet could be done. Some on the forum said I could have the adapter settings changed to make it louder for the other people. Then I was reading my "Old Time Telephones" book and came across some interesting information. The Western Electric network is designed to automatically adjust sensitivity of the transmitter based on voltages (for a short distance call or a long distance call-actually line length-not cost). I came up with the theory that the ATA may have high voltages that simulate a short distance call thus limiting the volume output of the transmitter. Any thoughts?

Thanks very much.

I wouldn't waste my time trying to get this to work. Vonage and any of the other ones are a crap shoot. If you want reliable phone service deal with a real phone company not something invented by the Nintendo generation. The people who run Vonage weren't even alive when those phones were made.

-Hal

have you tied a new "modern phone on your VOIP line ?

could be the low transmit is a VOIP issue and not phone compatibility

I'm with HAL , your using REAL phones , Get a REAL phone line

If you are using the ATA for "whole house" access disconnect it and go down to one phone. Place test calls with each phone. If the problem persists you can always ask a neighbor if you can do some tests with their landline. Purchasing an inexpensive phone from the five and dime will give the latest in technology. The basic differences are the transmitter and receiver. Should this fail to resolve your issue, then the ATA and/or the VoIP provider is the issue. Good luck and keep collecting!

I did grab a decent Nortel NT2N41 business style phone from work for a comparison. When trying this between the newer Nortel and the older WE, my buddy helping me with the comparison did say that the sound was better on the Nortel.

I definitely agree that a POTS line would fix all these concerns. Humorously, I no longer have the copper option as Verzion fiber has come to town (running FIOS internet right now). So there isn't really going back to the old days of copper.

Thanks for all the tips. I appreciate it.

Don't even use FIOS and Vonage in the same sentence. The latter uses the internet, FIOS POTS lines do not and actually work quite well unless you want to use a fax or dial up modem. Every customer I have that has switched still has copper for their fax lines. FIOS doesn't handle fax or modem data- yet at least around here.

And Verizon is not just offering FIOS, they are replacing their aging copper with it.

So you DO have a POTS option. Of course if you are using Vonage with FIOS internet service you gain absolutely nothing.

Here's the problem- consumers have no idea about the differences in carriers. They think that if it isn't copper it's VoIP and they all work the same way. WRONG!


-Hal