Submitted by haystacks_ in AskRaddle

Hi!

I've been searching around for a way to communicate with the PSTN via VoIP. My goal is, ultimately, have a softphone (or some variation thereof) in lieu of a traditional cell phone in my daily life.

Background: my fiancee and I split up, and she isn't taking it very well. She's determined and smart, and generally making my life difficult from several states away. I've had to ditch my phone and distance myself from the few digital outlets I have.

That's all a story for another day, but it got me thinking about a privacy-focused phone alternative. I still need a public facing phone number for work and family, though. I know maybe 1-2 people that could get a hold of me via SIP calls if they wanted to, but this leaves out most of my family and friends.

I know Skype allows you to call/receive calls from the PSTN ... but I think I can skip over why that's a really, really bad idea. Unfortunately, it looks like all the termination services I've been able to find here in the US are geared towards enterprise/call center use, or require your own PBX. As much fun as setting up my own servers and IP-PBX sounds... I'm also homeless, so this shit needs to be hosted.

A virtual number <-> SIP gateway would really be all I need-- but what services are privacy focused out there?

I'm still looking around, and generally musing about this more than determined to make this happen. Figured I'd ask for some assistance.

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incendialhumano wrote (edited )

Sorry to hear about the marriage, going through similar things. Fire away any questions. Buy a phone and Straight Talk $35 card from Walmart. Magicjack and orbot might be an option for you.

Been doing off grid comms stuff for a while now if you have further questions. I have a PBX, Asterix isn't very tough. You've got a lot of options.

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haystacks_ OP wrote

I was planning on Straight Talk or something anyway. This just turned into a thought experiment -- maybe it'll happen, maybe not. The idea of having non-location based comms (ie, not tied to a landline or cell towers) that is still able to work with traditional phone networks is just an enticing idea at this point. I just figured the services for such a thing would already be in place. I mean, they are, but the providers are either Google, Microsoft, or Facebook. And that's just not okay.

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incendialhumano wrote

They are it's called mesh networks + PBX, just like you already said :)

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wastht wrote

I use Ekiga softphone with diamondcard.us but there must be others out there. Another soft-phone might have a different recommendation. Phone number cost is only a few dollars a month.

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