CalTel, California's largest landline company, is facing customer displeasure due to several problems in recent months. Some of the problems customers have been facing include
1. Lengthy queues when customers contact support
2. Dropped calls
3. Customers reporting charges for services they never received
4. Inaccurate billing
5. Outdated technology and limited service
This article aims to outline the problems faced by CalTel customers and provide information on the best CalTel landline alternative.
Drawbacks of CalTel Landlines
1. Outdated Technology
The FCC Order 19-72 allows large carriers to stop providing copper wire service to smaller carriers like CalTel. As copper technology nears its sunset in phases, CalTel may want its landline customers to “upgrade” to expensive bundled landline services or unreliable VoIP services.
2. Expensive Plans
CalTel charges $25 per month to provide traditional landline services. This plan allows customers to make unlimited calls in local areas only. You have to pay additional to make long-distance calls. Long-distance calls are charged between 8-11 cents per minute, limiting your ability to stay in touch with loved ones across the country.
Switch to Community Phone, a company that provides reliable wireless landline service and unlimited nationwide calling at affordable prices.
3. No Calling Features
CalTel does not offer any calling feature with its phone plan, except for selective and complete call block. You must add any feature you need as an add-on to the basic plan at an additional cost. Basic features like call forwarding, call waiting, and 3-way calling will cost you extra, increasing your monthly phone bill.
4. Installation Charges
A one-time service installation charge of $46 will be applied to your account when CalTel first sets up your landline.
Get the Community Phone wireless landline with zero installation cost. Read on to learn more!
5. Downtime
Inclement weather with rain, lightning, and tornadoes can take out an entire landline network in no time, leaving you stranded without a phone during emergencies. Repairing these lines can be a hassle as CalTel technicians may not know where the problem started and how to fix it, leading to severe downtime.
6. Geographical Limitation
CalTel landlines tether you to a spot. Since they are tied to your physical address, you may have a problem when you move to another location. CalTel may not provide services in the new area, or your phone tariff might change.
Switch to Community Phone wireless landline service with reliable coverage across 99% of the US. You just need a power outlet and a phone to continue using your landline, as Community Phone’s landline base works off local cell towers.
7. Challenges in Procuring Replacements
Since conventional landline technology is outdated, getting a CalTel technician to repair your faulty instrument or a wall jack or procure replacement parts for your landline may be challenging.
8. Manual Spam Call Blocking
CalTel does not provide any spam-blocking services. Americans lost an average of $577 per person in 2022 to phone scams reiterating the importance of spam blocker services.
You need an automated spam blocker that automatically blocks spam calls before your phone rings. Switch to Community Phone to enjoy the reliability of a conventional landline and the protection of a robust spam blocker. Read on to learn more!
9. Maintenance
As per FCC order 19-72, large carriers can retire copper wire service nationwide, allowing customers to upgrade to expensive bundled landlines. Companies that do not want to retire or upgrade their connections can allow the POTS lines to deteriorate by not investing in maintenance.
Lines laid down in the 80s and 90s are bound to require extensive maintenance as they would have been damaged due to inclement weather and wear and tear. Since CalTel may not want to spend on the costly maintenance of the POTS lines, the company may ignore your complaints/requests for repair and maintenance.
Community Phone - The Best Alternative to CalTel 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 CalTel?
Here’s why Community Phone’s wireless landline is better than CalTel’s traditional landlines:
1. Higher Uptime Than Other Providers
The Community Phone landline base connects your home phone to local cell towers, eliminating the need for an internet or copper connection. These resilient cell towers are supported through backup power units to have 99.99% uptime, ensuring your phone lines stay working. The 12-hour backup battery on the base ensures your phones continue to work when there is a power outage or blackout in your area.
2. No Physical Limitation
The Community Phone wireless landline service gives you the flexibility and mobility required. The company’s partnership with nationwide carriers ensures connectivity across 99% of the US. You can take your landline with you anywhere without changing your number. All you need is a power outlet and a phone, and your landline will work as well as a new one.
3. Zero Installation Cost
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
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.
4. Lifetime Hardware Warranty
Enjoy a lifetime hardware warranty on the Community Phone landline base. Contact their customer support if you have questions about installing your landline base or its functionality. The reps will be happy to troubleshoot any errors or arrange a replacement if you need one.
5. Extensive Features
Community Phone combines the reliability of a landline, the freedom of wireless access, and excellent calling features in one. Enjoy outstanding calling features like spam call blocking, call waiting, caller ID, 3-way calling, landline texting, and more at affordable prices.
Talk to a Community Phone specialist today to learn more!
6. No Hidden Charges
Community Phone does not surprise its customers with hidden charges on their monthly bills. No installation fees or exorbitant equipment charges will crop up on your bills unnoticed. The company boasts transparency and you pay what you signed up for.****
7. No Fancy 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
More than 43% of phone scam victims invest in spam blocker services only after falling prey to fraud. Phone scams and fraud are likely to increase year-on-year with scammers making close to 200 million calls yearly and targeting unsuspecting people. According to reports, con-artists have figured out a technique to circumvent the STIR/SHAKEN protocols implemented by the government for consumer protection.
Get the Community Phone spam-blocker, your one-stop solution to barring unwanted and unlawful calls from ringing your phone. The spam blocker challenges robocalls and blocks them before the call can ring your phone, ensuring protection against spam.
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.
Studies report that several people miss legitimate calls fearing spam. Understanding the need to balance robust spam protection and legitimate calls, Community Phone is launching another iteration of the Safelist soon. 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 the ones you deem necessary.
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 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:
1. Get a dial tone
2. Dial **21*1
3. Dial the 10-digit number you want the calls forwarded to and #
4.. 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
1. Return missed calls from known contacts
2. Store legitimate contacts
3. Check caller information against known contacts
4. Send a message or
5. 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:
1. The person has enabled caller ID
2. Has registered in the national register
3. 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: 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:
1. Call Community Phone at (866)-340-6256 and speak with a specialist.
2. The rep will check your area for coverage. Since Community Phone covers 99% of the US, this should not be an issue.
3. 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.
4. Choose a plan to suit your needs.
5. Complete the signup process
6. Wait for your landline base, and install it per instructions. You can contact Community Phone support if you have challenges or questions.
7. 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 CalTel Landline?
Some of the drawbacks of having a CalTel landline are
1. No calling features, and Long-distance calls cost extra
2. Unresponsive customer service
3. Dropped calls
4. Inaccurate billing
5. Customers reporting charges for services they never received
6. Geographical limitation
7. Installation Fees
What is the best alternative to CalTel Landline?
The best alternative to CalTel Landline is the Community Phone wireless landline. Community Phone offers customers unlimited nationwide calling and features like call waiting, landline texting, caller ID, 3-way calling, in-built spam blocker, and more at affordable prices. The company does not have installation or deposit fees, and you can set up the Community Phone landline in under 30 seconds, saving you hundreds on installation costs.
Conclusion
Community Phone is the best alternative to CalTel Landline for several reasons. The company’s wireless landline works off cell towers, eliminating the need for copper wires. With exceptional customer support, a landline you can set up in 30 seconds, and reliable service in 99% of the United States, Community Phone is the best landline option.