[PLUG] VOIP, NOMOROBO, POTS, FAX

[Keith Lofstrom]

Today, 10 spam calls since 630 AM, and Frontier says (after
half an hour on hold) that they can't block fake phone
numbers or "Out of area".  It's like the submitting a list
to the police of the 10 name-badge-wearing people you don't
want to kill you.  Time for a change. 

Complications:  We've got a fax, which we use 3-5 times
per month, for HIPAA-sensitive stuff.  No internet fax
services are truly HIPAA compliant.

We've got Frontier FIOS;  QOS goes to hell on "Netflix
Nights", but there may be a way to fix that, too.

Nomorobo.com (which depends on a VOIP connection) looks
interesting.  That means a VOIP link to the network. 
Also, they are "free", which means somebody may be 
paying them to listen in.

My vague idea, feedback and consulting help welcome:

1) We move our 503-xxx-xxxx phone number of 30 years
to a VOIP service, and connect that to nomorobo.com .

2) We buy a magic box to connect the existing house phone
wiring (POTS) and the FAX to the IP network.  Suggestions?

 2a) We have a dozen wireless phones scattered around the
 house, and eventually the greenhouse, connected that way.

 2b) We have a Sangoma card than might work in a small
 format PC with Asterisk, but I would rather have a
 simple box with outside tech support.  Asterisk;
 been there, done that, got the scars.  Too much work!

3) PLUG puts together a SIG to think about how to do this.
Perhaps a few of us put together a businss.


4) We work to change the laws to make the carriers
responsible for the anonymous/fraudulent crap they insist
on passing through.  Their computers can (in principle) be
programmed to stop this crap if the end user requests it;
they steadfastly refuse.  These are $300/incident torts;
If every Oregonian gets 2 such calls per week, and 25%
are angry enough to do something about it, that is
100 million torts or $30 billion per year.  Frontier's
market cap is $1.1 billion, so Oregon owns them in two
weeks, other carriers with similar policies ditto.  We
sell the assets to new and responsible owners, and fund
the schools with the proceeds.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com