I live in Upstate NY where there are cellular dead spots larger than some European countries. I'd feel like a chump if I paid for an expensive cellular plan which doesn't work where I live or where I drive on the weekend. There is WiFi at home, I'm about to set up WiFi in my rental house, my wife wouldn't mind setting it up in the barn, WiFi works at work, WiFi works at every gas station, on the bus, etc.
(To be fair my son has an Android Go phone with AT&T prepaid and that sends calls over WiFi when it has to, plus it comes up as a real mobile number so you can use it to register for WhatsApp, dating sites, and things like that.)
Overall I have no complaints about the quality of Skype-POTS calls, they aren't any worse than cellular calls (how the hell can a salesman spend all day talking on a cell without having their neck knot up from the stress of listening closely through a bad connection?) It's the other aspects of the UI that drive me nuts (particularly the calls that I can't hang up on)
My take is Google comms products are decidedly inferior to competitors when your connection isn't the best. On my DSL at home I have a reasonable experience w/ Skype, Zoom, Go2Meeting, Discord and Slack but every time I try Google Meet or any of the other 1357 me-too products from Google people ask me "Is your internet connection really that bad?" It makes me really feel excluded.
I did take a look at Twilio but it came across as more of a construction set for voice applications and not a softphone for general use though I guess I could build or find that application. Building something big with Twilio looks like it would be a lot of fun though.
> I did take a look at Twilio but it came across as more of a construction set for voice applications and not a softphone for general use though I guess I could build or find that application. Building something big with Twilio looks like it would be a lot of fun though.
I think it's just a "bring your own softphone app" situation, like find any generic SIP app on the app store and hook it up to Twilio or SignalWire. You don't necessarily have to build your own.
> My take is Google comms products are decidedly inferior to competitors when your connection isn't the best.
Yeah, I'd avoid the Google stuff in this area. (Although I do really like Google Fi, their cellular MVNO. But that probably won't help your reception issues.)
> To be fair my son has an Android Go phone with AT&T prepaid and that sends calls over WiFi when it has to
Calling over WiFi (both sending and receiving) is a pretty standard feature for any carrier now, I think, and it would solve your need to have a separate VOIP line. You'd still get reception anywhere you have WiFi, as you do now, but can also use it as, well, a cell phone.
Google Fi for example only costs $20/mo for unlimited calls and texts (metered data, but who cares since you're on WiFi anyway).
No doubt. I would say it may be different today. Particularly with TMobile — they utilized Sprint spectrum really well and made a laughingstock service credible. (But that varies by region!)
In very rural areas, as I’m sure you are well acquainted with, terrain drives everything they don’t try to fill gaps caused by hills etc.
I live in Upstate NY where there are cellular dead spots larger than some European countries. I'd feel like a chump if I paid for an expensive cellular plan which doesn't work where I live or where I drive on the weekend. There is WiFi at home, I'm about to set up WiFi in my rental house, my wife wouldn't mind setting it up in the barn, WiFi works at work, WiFi works at every gas station, on the bus, etc.
(To be fair my son has an Android Go phone with AT&T prepaid and that sends calls over WiFi when it has to, plus it comes up as a real mobile number so you can use it to register for WhatsApp, dating sites, and things like that.)
Overall I have no complaints about the quality of Skype-POTS calls, they aren't any worse than cellular calls (how the hell can a salesman spend all day talking on a cell without having their neck knot up from the stress of listening closely through a bad connection?) It's the other aspects of the UI that drive me nuts (particularly the calls that I can't hang up on)
My take is Google comms products are decidedly inferior to competitors when your connection isn't the best. On my DSL at home I have a reasonable experience w/ Skype, Zoom, Go2Meeting, Discord and Slack but every time I try Google Meet or any of the other 1357 me-too products from Google people ask me "Is your internet connection really that bad?" It makes me really feel excluded.
I did take a look at Twilio but it came across as more of a construction set for voice applications and not a softphone for general use though I guess I could build or find that application. Building something big with Twilio looks like it would be a lot of fun though.