Limited features on landline plans, customer neglect, and poor support have forced several Smithville customers to look for affordable landline alternatives.
Wireless landlines are the best Smithville VoIP alternative as they offer the same great features but with the added convenience and flexibility of being wireless. This article provides information on the drawbacks of having the Smithville Voice-only phones, their bundled services, and the best alternative.
Drawbacks of Smithville Landlines
1. Limited Features
The Smithville Voice-only plan, an unbundled landline service, offers only unlimited local and long-distance calling. All other calling features are add-ons, and you must add them to the basic plan to utilize them. Your phone bill will increase considerably if you want features like call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, etc.
Get Community Phone, the best wireless landline service with features like call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID, landline texting, and more at affordable prices. Talk to their specialists at 866-415-4764 to learn more!
2. Patchy Connectivity
Smithville phones need more bandwidth than normal browsing. So, you need a high-speed internet connection for good call quality. Since the internet is inconsistent throughout the day, you may have patchy connectivity, leading to poor call quality.
3. Questionable Reliability
Your Smithville landlines will go down:
- If you or the company have a power outage
- Smithville has internet issues
- Network outages
- Scheduled or unscheduled maintenance.
These issues make internet-based phones highly unreliable if you want to stay connected with loved ones or emergency services.
4. Your Smithville VoIP Number May Be Marked as Spam
VoIP numbers are the highest source of unwanted calls. Studies have shown that over 66% of high-risk and 61% of nuisance calls originate from VoIP numbers.
A Smithville VoIP number may sometimes lead to your number being mistaken for spam and blocked by the provider. Or, your loved ones and friends may ignore your call, fearing it to be spam.
5. Phone Lines Down During Power Outages
Smithville’s internet-based phone lines will go down during a power outage. Investing in a battery backup unit can be an option, but it is expensive and is not the perfect solution. Backup power units can help you only if you have a power outage, but if your VoIP provider has an outage or other issues, your phone lines will be down.
6. Safety and Security Issues
Calls made through Smithville’s internet-based phones will leave you vulnerable to hacks, attacks, malware, and internet-related threats. Hackers may intercept your data when you use the internet for communication, leading to data and identity theft.
For example, you may be liable for credit cards, expensive purchases, and loans you never took.
7. Poor Call Quality
Call quality and clarity of Smithville landlines depend on the strength of the internet connection. Internet speeds depend on various factors like network congestion, time of the day, your device, surrounding vegetation, etc., and are inconsistent throughout the day. This fluctuation can lead to call drops, latency, and poor call quality.
8. Geographical Limitations
Smithville provides services only in Indiana, which means you cannot continue their landline service if you move out of Indiana.
Switch to Community Phone and take your landline with you anywhere across the US, as all you need is a power outlet, their landline base, and a phone. You don’t need to change your phone number, as the base works off local cell towers. Read on to learn more or talk to Community Phone specialists at 866-415-4764!
9. Lack of Flexibility
Smithville boasts of “no call drops” and uninterrupted service. However, call quality and connectivity depend on your internet's strength, allowing it to be consistent only in some places.
Blind spots at home, the distance from the modem/router, and the number of obstacles between you and the modem/router will influence call quality and connectivity. These scenarios can lead to call drops, jitter, latency, and poor call quality, even if you have a high-speed internet connection.
10. Installation Costs and Challenges
Smithville requires their internet installed at your home to provide landline service. The expertise required for the installation and their customer response will determine the speed and accuracy of the installation and the subsequent working of your phones. Be ready to face several technical issues if the installation is incomplete or incorrect.
11. Specialized Hardware
To start using your Smithville landline, you must buy a router, special ethernet cables, and a VoIP-compatible phone. You will be stranded without a phone if the technician does not install the hardware correctly or the setup is incomplete.
Community Phone - The Best Alternative to a Smithville Landline
Community Phone, the best home phone service in the US, is fighting to keep the landline alive. The company’s wireless landline base connects your home phone to local cell towers, eliminating the need for internet or copper connections.
The unique design of the landline base and partnership with carriers nationwide ensure you get solid coverage with Community Phone across 99% of the US, including rural areas.
Enjoy excellent voice quality, the reliability of a landline, and wireless access at affordable prices. With features like call waiting, 3-way calling, spam call blocking, caller ID, call history, and landline texting, Community Phone is the best landline service for you.
How It Works,
The Community Phone landline base does not tie your phone to the internet as it works off resilient cell towers. The company's partnership with nationwide carriers and the unique design of the landline base ensure connectivity across 99% of the U.S., including rural areas. The built-in antennas on the base amplify signals from mobile towers to ensure superior voice quality in low-reception areas.
The 12-hour backup battery in the base ensures your phones continue working during a power outage or blackout in your area.
What Makes Community Phone Better Than Smithville?
Here are some salient Community Phone features that make it better than Smithville landlines:
1. Connectivity
Community Phone has partnered with nationwide carriers to ensure coverage across 99% of the U.S. Since the wireless landline base does not need an internet connection to work, you will not face issues such as call drops, jitter, or latency.
2. Reliability,
Resilient and intelligent technology make your Community Phone landline the most reliable option to stay connected with loved ones and emergency services. Their landline base works off resilient cell towers with power backups to support them during a massive outage. The base also has a 12-hour backup battery that keeps your phone working during a power outage or blackout in your area.
3. Security
Since Community Phone does not tie your landline to the internet, it does not leave you vulnerable to hacks, attacks, data, or identity theft. You get an additional layer of security as the wireless landline cannot be wiretapped like conventional landlines.
4. Call Quality
Community Phone has partnered with carriers nationwide to ensure robust coverage and clear voice quality in rural areas. The landline base has built-in antennas that amplify mobile signals to ensure crystal-clear voice quality in poor-reception areas.
5. Geographical Limitations
Community Phone's landline service covers 99% of the U.S., including rural areas, making geographical limitations and the monopoly of certain carriers a thing of the past. You can take your Community Phone landline anywhere in the US, as all you need is a power outlet and a phone to have a landline.
6. Flexibility
Community Phone's partnership with nationwide carriers and the unique landline base design ensure excellent voice quality and connectivity across 99% of the U.S. Experience extreme flexibility with your Community Phone landline, as you can take it anywhere without changing the number. Plug it into a power outlet and a phone, and your landline will work as well as new!
7. Installation
You do not need a technician or advanced skills to install your Community Phone landline. You can set up your landline in 30 seconds with the following steps:
1. Unwrap the landline base
2. Connect the base to a power outlet. Do not turn it on yet.
3. Hook your phone to the base per instructions in the manual (Phone 1/Phone 2 port)
4. Toggle the ON/OFF switch to the ON position
5. Turn on the power and wait for 5 mins. Once the base finishes setup, make a test call to ensure your phone works as intended.
8. Emergency Tracking
First responders can easily track your location in an emergency, as they can trace the data originating from the cell tower and zero in on your location.
9. Hardware
You don't need fancy equipment for your Community Phone landline, except the landline base and a SIM. You will receive the SIM with the base when you sign up with Community Phone.
The landline base is compatible with all phone models, saving you the hassle of buying new phone equipment. Save time and money with the zero-cost installation of the landline base.
Community Phone Landline Features
Spam Call Blocking
43% of phone scam victims invest in spam-blocking services only after falling prey to scams once or twice. Scammers have devised several deception techniques, like neighbor spoofing, to target unsuspecting people, rendering manual spam blocking ineffective. According to reports, con artists have discovered techniques to get around the STIR/SHAKEN regulations that the government has implemented for customer safety.
Get the Community Phone in-built spam blocker, your one-stop solution to barring unwanted and unlawful calls. The spam blocker challenges robocalls and blocks them before the call can ring your phone, ensuring protection against scams and fraud.
The "Safelist," a new Community Phone feature, allows you to list the numbers you want to accept calls from. Your phone will ring to let calls from these numbers through and block all others before the phone rings. You can update your allowed list anytime to add or delete numbers, or Community Phone specialists will be happy to assist you.
To balance protection from spam and legitimate calls, Community Phone is launching another iteration of the Safelist. This feature will allow you to accept calls from numbers you want and route the rest to voicemail. You can check your voice messages and respond to legitimate ones.
The soon-to-be-launched "blocklist" is an aggressive spam blocker that blocks over 6 million spam calls based on an ever-growing database of spam numbers and a spam score. You can actively contribute to this database by adding a spam number to protect yourself and other Community Phone customers from scams and fraud.
Talk to Community Phone specialists to learn more!
Call Waiting
The call-waiting feature helps you handle two calls simultaneously. You will hear 2 beeps when there is an incoming call while you are engaged on one call. You can place the first call on hold, talk to the second caller, or route it to voicemail.
Call Forwarding
Enable call forwarding to forward important calls when you cannot answer them from your business landline. You can opt from one of the several Community Phone options to forward your business calls to a number of your choice.
Temporary Forwarding: Use the manual process to turn call forwarding ON/OFF if you are temporarily away from your business phone. Here's how you can enable it:
- Get a dial tone
- Dial **21*1
- Dial the 10-digit number you want the calls forwarded to and #
- Three beeps will indicate you have enabled call forwarding
Follow the same steps, but press ##21# to turn off call forwarding.
Unconditional Forwarding: Forward all calls from your landline to a cell phone or another number of your choice and ditch your landline.
Conditional Forwarding: You can program several phone numbers to ring simultaneously with one incoming call, allowing the person available to answer the call.
You can also have numbers ring in succession if the first number is busy or does not answer. For example, your cell phone can ring if you do not answer your landline within 20 seconds.
Call History
Enable the call history feature and access information on incoming and outgoing calls to and from your Community Phone landline.
You can use this feature to
- Return missed calls from known contacts
- Store legitimate contacts
- Check caller information against known contacts
- Send a message or
- Block spam calls.
Caller ID
On Outgoing Calls
Opt for the caller ID feature so the recipient can see your number or name when you make outbound calls. This feature can help loved ones answer your call or return missed calls without mistaking them as spam.
Incoming Calls
You will be able to see the caller ID of the person calling you if:
- The person has enabled caller ID
- Has registered in the national register
- Your phone can support the caller ID feature.
Community Phone does not use third-party apps to provide the caller ID feature.
Landline Texting
Studies reveal that millennials and later generations prefer texting to talking. Stay in touch with younger children or grandchildren by texting them from your Community Phone landline through the landline texting feature. The unlimited text feature and 2-way messaging enable you to see the messages from the recipient and continue the conversation.
3-way Calling
Connect with 2 or more of your loved ones simultaneously with the 3-way calling feature, spend some great moments, and create memorable experiences. You can connect with your loved ones on the same call and hear them speak simultaneously without worrying about free calling apps, internet bandwidth, or patchy and dropped internet calls.
Benefits of Switching to Community Phone
Besides having a reliable landline service that does not require internet, Community Phone members enjoy the following benefits:
Unlimited nationwide calling and text: Stay in touch with loved ones across the U.S. with Community Phone's unlimited talk and text.
No internet needed: The Community Phone landline base works off cell towers without tying your phone to the internet. Since your phones are not dependent on the internet, they will continue working during an internet outage or maintenance.
Number choice: You can get a new local number FREE when you sign up with Community Phone. You can also transfer your existing number through their unique hand-held porting process.
Zero-cost Installation: The landline base does not require a technician to install it. You or anyone in your business or household can install your Community Phone landline in under 30 seconds and be ready to make calls in 5 mins.
24/7 reliable customer support: Contact Community Phone customer support via phone, email, and live chat 24/7 to experience world-class support from live agents. Glowing customer reviews on BBB and Trustpilot are testimonies of their commitment to customers.
Works during power outages: Save the money you would invest on installing costly inverters or backup power, as the 12-hour backup battery in the landline base ensures your phones continue working during power outages and blackouts.
How to get a Community Phone landline?
Follow these steps to get a Community Phone landline:
- Call Community Phone at (866)-340-6256 and speak with a specialist.
- The rep will check your area for coverage. Since Community Phone covers 99% of the US, this should not be an issue.
- You get a local number FREE when you signup. Choose a new number or port your existing number. The specialist will help you get a similar number if your preferred number is unavailable.
- Choose a plan to suit your needs.
- Complete the signup process
- Wait for your landline base, and install it per instructions. You can contact Community Phone support if you have challenges or questions.
- Wait until the base completes the setup. Make a test call to check if your landline works as intended.
FAQs
What are the drawbacks of Smithville VoIP?
Here are some drawbacks of Smithville’s internet-based landlines:
- The basic plan - Voice-only, has no calling features except unlimited nationwide calling. You need to add the features to the basic plan, which will cost you extra.
- Internet connection required for landline service
- Landlines will not work during power outages
- Service is limited only to Indiana
- Poor customer support
What is the best alternative to Smithville VoIP?
Community Phone, the best wireless landline service in the US, is the best alternative to Smithville VoIP. Their landline base works off local cell towers, providing the reliability of a landline and the freedom of wireless access.
Enjoy unlimited nationwide calling and excellent features like call waiting, caller ID, call history, landline texting, call forwarding, voicemail, and more at affordable prices. Talk to a Community Phone specialist today at 866-415-4764 to learn more!
Conclusion
Though Smithville plans look inexpensive at the outset, the catch is in the hardware and the add-ons you will require to start using your landline.
Switch to Community Phone, the best wireless landline service that does not tie your phone to the internet. With excellent calling features, unlimited nationwide calling, and the freedom of wireless access, Community Phone is undisputably the best landline service.