Voice Bridge now lets you make calls with your landline from any Wi-Fi network

Bring up landlines, and you’ll probably hear “people still use those?” The smartphone revolution put wireless devices in our hands, and as technology has improved over the years it has all but eliminated the need to have a landline. But about 40 percent of U.S. households still use a landline, and Invoxia’s Voice Bridge them to play nice with our smartphones.

Voice Bridge is a little device that sits in your home and acts as a bridge, pun intended, between your smartphone and your landline. The product isn’t actually new — in fact it was unveiled by Swissvoice at CES 2014, a month after Invoxia acquired it. Currently, Voice Bridge forwards calls on your landline to your smartphone while on your home network. With the Android and iOS app, you can make and receive calls with smartphones and tablets, and get notifications for missed calls on your landline. You can add up to five people to a line.

Voice Bridge has Caller ID features that will pop up on your smartphone when someone calls your landline, and you can even choose how you want to call someone — through your smartphone or your landline. That’s especially helpful if you don’t have great cell signal in your house and a landline connection is the only solution.

But on June 30, Invoxia is releasing an update to Voice Bridge that will allow you to make calls with your landline number anywhere with Wi-Fi — you no longer have to be on your home Wi-Fi to be able to make a call with your landline. Whether it’s your work Wi-Fi or a Starbucks, you’ll be able to make a call with your landline number — a feature that is primarily being targeted toward small business owners.

Small business owners, for example, can take calls that come to their brick-and-mortar store anywhere without having to give up their private number. It can also be helpful if you’re in an area with spotty service, but can connect to Wi-Fi.

Swissvoice’s Voice Bridge was priced at $80 when it was released, but Invoxia says the Voice Bridge costs $99 on Amazon. Owners will have to head over to the company’s website to download the new feature on June 30.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/28RiiwS
Julian Chokkattu