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anon86290
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Thursday, January 27th, 2022 11:13 PM

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Ooma and the XB7 (Arris TG4482A) Gateway

I've got a home in the woods where mobile cell service is inadequate.  I have to walk up the street or drive a mile away to get a decent signal.

The home does have Xfinity service that includes the XB7 (Arris TG4482A) gateway, and two X1 TV boxes.  Wifi signal within the home is fine, and I connect to laptops easily.  

I need to have reliable phone service at the home, and if I understand how to put the hardware together, I see a few options with the following questions.

1) I could plug an old corded phone into one of the telephone ports on the back of the XB7.  Does this port just adapt the old phone connection, internally, to ethernet, and I'd still have all ethernet ports available?  I assume I'd then have to get a VOIP plan from Xfinity, or does it have to be from Xfinity?

2) I could get a VOIP phone, from any vendor.  Do I connect this to the telephone port, or an ethernet port? I assume I'd then have to get a VOIP plan from Xfinity, or does it have to be from Xfinity?

3) There are phone jacks around the house.  I could plug in corded phones, and then connect the XB7 to any wall jack using telephone cord, and get a VOIP plan from Xfinity, or does it have to be from Xfinity?

As I compose this note, I see that my primary question is if I use the XB7 as my VOIP 'interface', do I have to get VOIP service from Xfinity.  I ask because I'm looking at the Ooma Telo and Ooma Telo Air.  I could abandon the XB7 and get a separate modem and router, if needed, or if it makes things easier.  I do prefer separate modem and router.

Basically, is the XB7 compatible with VOIP services from other than Xfinity?

All help, education is appreciated.

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3 years ago

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user_67e981

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264 Messages

3 years ago

I am not an Xfinity employee, just a user like yourself who saw this post and thought I would answer what I could.  

First, the phone jack port you see on the back of the gateway I am pretty sure will only work with the Xfinity Voice service.  I've had the service for years and am familiar with the jack you are referring to as I have my cordless base unit plugged into it to use with my Xfinity Voice service.

Second, I haven't used Ooma or other VOIP services so I can't say which ones work using one of the ethernet ports on the back of the gateway (not the phone jack port).

Something you may want to consider doing if your cell phone is a smartphone is connect it to the in house WIFI and then find out from your cell phone carrier how to activate WIFI calling on your cell phone/account.  Some carriers have it active as a standard part of the account, some carriers require a special election on your account settings, and of the carriers that I have used none have charged extra for it but never hurts to ask to be sure so there are no surprises later on.  I have my smartphone connected to my WIFI as the cell service inside of my house can sometimes be spotty but with my strong WIFI signal I can still make and receive calls just fine.

Hope this information helps.

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anon86290

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@irarichardsmith​ 

Hi,

All my cell phones are smartphones and do have Wifi calling.  I've not enabled it, but I certainly can.  I assume the signal goes from my phone, to the Wifi router (gateway in this case) and then out over my ISP (Comcast)?  How does the person on the other end get their signal to me? 

If Wifi calling is enabled, does the phone only use this when there is no mobile signal?


Thanks for the reply.

3 years ago

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user_67e981

Problem Solver

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264 Messages

Correct on the part that the signal goes from your phone through the WIFI connection over your gateway.  I don't know all the technical aspects behind it but I tend to think of it at that point as voice-over-ip.  To the party you called it appears as a normal cell phone call and it just communicates back to your phone through the WIFI connection on your end.  The party you called, or the party that called you, have no clue that you aren't on a cell signal at that point.  Pretty seamless.

On your second question, that is one best left to your cell service provider for the specifics as I can't speak specifically to it as some do it differently.  The cell provider I have and the ones I have had in the past have done it differently.  One provider did prefer to use WIFI whenever it was available in order to reduce the amount of cell data that was used.  The other two providers I have had, of which I still use one of them, have it set so that if your cell signal is weak and your WIFI signal is stronger it will default to the WIFI option to give you the better quality call experieince.

Hope this helps.

3 years ago

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anon86290

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384 Messages

Guess what!  Wifi calling solved the problem!

My daughter was home for the past few days, and I told her to configure wifi calling on her Galaxy S10, because she was going up to the home in the woods the following day. That's the home that has wifi, but an unusable mobile signal.

Today my daughter went to the home in the woods, and whenever she's been up there, she's been so frustrated and felt alone because she can't contact anyone by phone.  Well, she called me on her wifi calling configured phone, and the audio was ABSOLUTELY the BEST I've ever heard.  Better than mobile, on both ends.

She told me that her phone had a wifi calling icon showing on the icon ribbon.  My phone, a Samsung J7, which does show a wifi calling icon if wifi calling is in use, did not show the icon, because my mobile signal was fine.  This goes to show what someone else said, that only the person with the weak mobile will automatically switch to wifi calling, if enabled.

Everything worked just like you described.

I can't thank you enough.

Thanks !!!

3 years ago

user_67e981

Problem Solver

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264 Messages

I am so happy to hear that everything worked out for you with WIFI calling for you.  It is a really nice ability to have for those times when the cell signal is weak to non-existent.  Wishing you continued success and have a great day. 

3 years ago

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