Sprint cell phone + Asterisk@Home = unlimited cell phone minutes

March 22, 2006

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!big grin

Nerd Vittles sent me a nice summary of his recipe via email:

The Nerd Vittles Recipe:


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.wink

Check out the recipe.



Post a comment

See this page in TechnoratiTechnoratibook mark in del.icio.usDel.icio.usSlashdot.comSlashdotSubmit to Digg.comDigg

Tags: , , ,

Search Technorati: , , ,
Related Tags: , , , , ,

Listed below are links to sites that reference Sprint cell phone + Asterisk@Home = unlimited cell phone minutes:

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt3/t.fcgi/24431

» Sprint cell phone +Asterisk@Home = unlimited cell from Cellular Heaven
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 comb... [More]

Tracked on March 24, 2006 10:07 AM

Comments to Sprint cell phone + Asterisk@Home = unlimited cell phone minutes


  1. Ron :
    March 23, 2006 4:20 PM

    Excellant post! I hope you don't mind my using it on my blog. With credits of course.


  1. David Beckemeyer :
    March 28, 2006 4:49 PM

    Nice tip. FYI, we now have a free public beta of this feature for PhoneGnome owners. PhoneGnome doesn't require Asterisk and is easy for ordinary end-users to setup and use.


  1. B. N. :
    April 12, 2006 8:23 PM

    Great idea you have but I took it a step further, and at a lower cost.

    Got myself a new Sprint account that has 300 min a month, 7pm evenings at $29.95 per month, add the Sprint to Home feature at $5 and junk fees of $4 for a subtotal of $39 per month.

    Then signed up for Voip at Voicestick.com

    They offer a bridge where you set up you cell number and so when you call you new "Home" number from the cell you can then dial out to anywhere in the USA. Then I set the call forward on my new "Home" number from Voice Stick to my actual cell number

    If you just want free incoming min. then incoming to Voice stick is free. Out dialing is 2.4 cents a min or an unlimited plan for $20 a month.

    Worst case is $59 a month for unlmited minutes!


  1. mike smith :
    April 22, 2006 11:07 AM

    Shop and compare free cell phone offers, Free Dish Network Satellite TV Systems, Free Home Alarm Systems


  1. B. N. :
    April 23, 2006 10:46 PM

    As un update, just saw that Alltel is doing a similar deal to Spint. You can have unlimited minutesin and out to a number.

    The Cellular Capable Voice Stick should work just as well. Kind of like turning Celllar into Cheap VOIP.


  1. harry :
    April 24, 2006 5:42 PM

    Voicestick call forwarding is charging me. I have a 732(NJ)# and I'm forwarding it to 718(NY)#. Is it because it's not local?


  1. B. N. :
    April 24, 2006 9:57 PM

    Just get the unlimited $20 a month plan. If you are being charged you MUST be on the 2 cent a min. plan


  1. Kevin :
    April 26, 2006 6:31 PM

    Hey I did the same thing. The www.voicestick.com site lacks much info on this. Just set the cellular bridge thing to your cell phone number, the call forward from Voicestick.com to you cell and when you get Sprint to home give them the voice stick as your home number.

    I even bought the $30 adapter. I can be on the cell phone with VoiceStick while the kids have their own number that works while I am using it. This is wild!


  1. Ward Mundy :
    May 3, 2006 6:32 AM

    Be very careful with the VoiceStick approach. If someone spoofs your CallerID of your cellphone (e.g. a disgruntled employee from Sprint or VoiceStick with access to your info), they can run up an incredibly large cellphone bill on your nickel making calls to cruise ships in the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean at $7.50 to $8.50 PER MINUTE. I've asked VoiceStick about blocking calls which aren't free and was told there wasn't any way to do it (i.e. they won't do it). With Asterisk, you can block such calls in about two seconds. That's worth putting up a free Asterisk server in my book. But some folks just like to sleep better at night than others. IT'S YOUR PHONE BILL!


  1. Kevin :
    May 7, 2006 1:09 AM

    Hmmmm, the culprit would need your cell number, your Voice Stick user id and password, plus your voice stick number, AND would need to know you were doing all of this. I think my ATM card has biggers risks


  1. chris :
    May 21, 2006 11:11 AM

    is there another service besides voicestick.com that can give you i2bridge feature???????????


  1. David :
    June 5, 2006 4:52 PM

    I just started with Sprint PCS two nights ago. I have the Sprint to home feature with voicestick. I have not received my first bill yet, but when I check my minutes online. The Sprint to home minutes are not increasing but the peak minutes are. Any feedback would be appreciated.


  1. voip review :
    June 6, 2006 3:39 AM

    Is there someone to take over a contract with Sprint PCS. The current plan is $35.99 for 500 anytime minutes and 3000 night

    Discuss this with VoIP experts at voip-traffic.com. Register for free at http://www.voip-traffic.com/terms.asp


  1. Ron :
    February 23, 2007 2:58 PM

    There are otherways to do this as well. I use a company called Speechphone at: www.speechphone.net where for $35 (use code 9496254447) I get unlimited minutes to USA and Canada. I get a new MANDI number and using T-Mobile I make it one of MyFaves. I have the cheapest plan and with the Speechphone I get Unlimited Minutes on my cell anywhere anytime to all of USA and Canada. (you could have done the same with Sprint2Home but I think that has expired) I also use 888-FREE-411 and make that a MyFave so I get unlimited 411 calls on my cell. Also, get this go to "www.callchinaforfree.com" and add one of those numbers as a MyFave and you get unlimited to 35 additional countries. Pretty Awesome !


  1. Benny :
    February 24, 2007 5:30 PM

    Other then paying $35 and putting your agent code in there, tell me again why this is better then Voicestick.com ? Lets see thier USA/Canada is $19.99, and you not only get the unlimited calls, BUT you get an incoming phone number that you can do free forwarding to the T-Mobil or Sprint 2 home.

    So it is now unlimited in coming and outgoing for $20.

    I don't get it. Other then it maybe is a deal for you?


  1. Ron :
    February 26, 2007 12:35 PM

    Hey Benny... if there is a better way I want to know. But I went to you Voice Stick and I still don't see how that site will work for me. All of my calls, inbound and out bound are routed through this one number so All I do is designate that one number and I get FREE UNLIMITED ANYTIME CELL MINUTES.
    I see that the Voice Stick shows the number called to your cell carrier and this will register as a number other than the one designated for unlimited usage, and thus you will be charged for these minutes.
    Strint 2 Home is no longer available and to get unlimited inbound costs more that the $15 less that you are paying for the Stick.
    Also on this system I have hands free voice activated dialing, it acts as my virtual personal secretary, it reads my emails to me and I can respond to them. When I listen to a voice mail I just say, call back because the number is stored on the computer andlinked to the message, pretty cool stuff - and I just touched the surface of what it does.
    But hey, if there really is a better way, I am all ears my friend.
    Ron


  1. dlogan :
    July 20, 2007 11:56 AM

    Okay, assuming what Ron states is correct, here is a way to get free incoming and outgoingwink

    1) Sign up for Grandcentral.com . It is free, but you will need an invite to get in.

    2) Setup Grandcentral to forward calls from your cell phone number to your Voicestick number.

    3) Setup Grandcentral to send all other calls to your cell phone.

    4) In Grandcentral, setup your callerid information to show up as your Grandcentral number.

    5) On Voicestick, setup your bridge with your Grandcentral number.

    As a result incoming calls will be routed to your cellphone with the callerid of your "home phone". At the same time if you call your Grandcentral number you will be able to call out via Voicestickwink.


  1. komteks :
    July 27, 2007 5:28 PM

    I did all the following steps based on dlogan's steps above.

    1) Signed up for Grandcentral.com a few weeks ago. Got a very easy to remember number (818-264-4464)

    2) For $5 a month, I signed up for "Sprint to Home" on my Sprint cell phone and set Grandcentral number as my home number for unlimited calls to and from my Home/Grandcentral number.

    3) I setup Grandcentral to forward calls from my cell phone number to my Voicestick number.

    4) I setup Grandcentral to send all other calls to my cell phone.

    5) In Grandcentral, I setup caller ID information to show up as my Grandcentral number.

    6) In Voicestick, I setup i2Bridge with my Grandcentral number.

    As a result incoming calls will route to my cellphone with the caller id of Grandcentral.

    But the problem is when I call my Grandcentral number from my cell phone, so it forwards to my Voicestick to call out, I hear a few rings then a message that Grancentral customer could not be reached please leave a message.

    When I forward a different number in Grancentral to forward to Voicestick the same things happens that I hear a few rings then a message that Grancentral customer could not be reached please leave a message.

    I chatted with Grandcentral support and they told me that the Grandcentral call forward to my Voicstick number, is recognizing that the call does not ring at the Voicestick end and that it is just being sent to voice mail so then you get the message that Grancentral customer could not be reached please leave a message. This I guess happens because Grandcentral wants to be the voice mail container for all of your calls.

    Is there anything that could be done to work around this?

    To allow a call forwarded from Grandcentral, to then be picked up by Voicestick to be able to call out via Voicestick?


  1. ExpandMyWealth.com :
    December 8, 2007 12:01 PM

    This sounds like a great idea, but I am working on an easier way to get free unlimited cellphone calls that does not involve the complexity of setting up a linux server. One simple remote control box should be able to handle the call transfering.


  1. kc corbett :
    January 21, 2008 2:31 AM

    Hey how can you use this same idea to get free text messaging? Also is it possible to program the phone to automatically call the voip and enter the number to call. The reason I ask is I dont want to have to memorize my numbers, I want to be able to go to my contacts and press call.


(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)