Nerd Vittles has a nice "dummy proof" tutorial explaining how to use Asterisk@Home in along with Sprint's plan to get unlimited wireless and unlimited wireline (using broadband VoIP) all for around $68/month. His recipe utilizes Asterisk@Home in combination with Sprints PCS unlimited FREE calls between your Sprint cellphone (or multiple PCS phones if you’re on a shared plan) and your residential phone number regardless of the wireline carrier for an additional $5/month. According to Nerd Vittles, "Here’s the math. A basic Sprint cellphone plan: $35. Sprint to Home service: $5. TelaSIP’s unlimited US48 VoIP calls: $15 a month. Home phone number transferred to BYOD plan at BroadVoice (here’s how) or AxVoice (here’s how) for unlimited incoming calls: $9. Unlimited nationwide Sprint cellphone calls: Priceless ... and FREE. Total cost for residential home and cellphone service with unlimited nationwide calling: $64 a month plus about $4 in Sprint add-on fees. Remember this gets you unlimited nationwide calling BOTH from your cellphone and your home phones."
$68/month for unlimited landline and wireless services? WOW! I always knew it was possible to do with an Asterisk system and thought about setting up a home Asterisk box to do this exact thing, but Mr. Vittles beat me to it. Nicely done Mr. Vittles, nicely done! :D
Nerd Vittles sent me a nice summary of his recipe via email:
The Nerd Vittles Recipe:
- Cheapest Sprint Cell Phone Plan - $35
- PCS to Home Add-On Service - $5
- Asterisk@Home Server for Linux or Windows – FREE!
- Home Phone Service Switched to BroadVoice or AxVoice BYOD Plan - $9 TelaSIP VoIP Unlimited Residential U.S. Calling Plan - $15 Nerd Vittles DISA Script – FREE!
- Unlimited Monthly Calls from Home OR your Sprint Cellphone – PRICELESS!
He even explains how to edit the extensions_custom in Asterisk to detect the CallerID of an incoming call to automatically detect your cell phone. When you dial from your cellphone to the Asterisk@Home number you immediately get 2nd dialtone (DISA) so you can then dial out using an unlimited VoIP plan. Of course with CallerID spoofing, you may want to add a password authentication so people can't call your Asterisk box and start making outbound calls. Vittles explains how to easily add the authentication method to the extensions_custom file. But really, the odds of someone discovering your cellphone number and your Asterisk@Home's phone number are astronomical. As Vittles said, just don't advertise the fact.
Of course, now that Nerd Vittles has made these easy tut that anybody can follow, I wonder how long it will be before the carriers add some disclaimer to their Terms of Service (TOS) saying they'll cancel your service for using such a workaround. Then again, I doubt the average person such as my dad or even my grandma is going to install Asterisk@Home even if it is easy to install. So this "unlimited" wireless minutes recipe is more for geeks and hackers or those people just technical enough to be dangerous. ;)
Check out the recipe.
