People are looking for an alternative to Lumen service, formerly Century Link, because of the high prices and poor customer service. Lumen has been known to hike prices without warning and making it difficult for customers to get in touch with customer support. If you are a Lumen customer looking for an affordable and reliable alternative, look no further.
This article provides information on the drawbacks of having Lumen service and the best alternative - Community Phone. Read on!
9 Common Issues with Lumen Technologies’ VoIP Landlines
1. Patchy Connectivity
Lumen’s internet phones need more bandwidth than normal browsing. So, you need a high-speed internet connection for good call quality. Since the internet is unavailable or patchy in rural and suburban areas, Lumen’s internet-based phones are not an option if you live in one of these areas.
Fluctuating internet connectivity in urban areas and blind spots at home will lead to issues such as call drops, jitter, latency, and poor voice quality.
2. Questionable Reliability
Your Lumen phones will go down:
1. If you or Lumen have a power outage
2. Lumen has internet issues
3. Network outages
4. Scheduled or unscheduled maintenance.
These issues make your Lumen phones highly unreliable if you want to stay connected with loved ones or emergency services.
Investing in a backup power unit can be an option, but it is expensive and is not the perfect solution. Backup power units can help you only if you have a power outage, but your phone lines will be down if Lumen has an outage or other issues.
3. Safety and Security Issues
Using Lumen’s internet-based phone will make you vulnerable to hacks, attacks, malware, and internet-related threats. Hackers may intercept your data when you use the internet for communication, leading to data and identity theft.
For example, you may be liable for credit cards, expensive purchases, and loans you never took.
4. Poor Call Quality
Call quality and clarity on Lumen phones depend on the strength of the internet connection. The favorite catchphrase of all VoIP providers is "fast and stable internet," which means you will need expensive high-speed internet to have good call quality.
Since consistent internet connectivity and affordability are subjective, so you will face call drops and poor voice quality issues when using Lumen’s VoIP phones.
5. Geographical Limitations
Lumen does not cover many rural and suburban areas. With large carriers shutting down traditional phone service, you will be forced to get an expensive bundled landline, upwards of $50, if you live in a rural or suburban area.
However, you can still get reliable, affordable landline services in rural areas through Community Phone, the best wireless landline service. Read on to learn more!
6. Lack of Flexibility
Lumen boasts flexibility claiming you can make or receive calls with their VoIP phones anywhere. However, since call quality and connectivity depend on your internet's strength, it will only be consistent in some places.
Blind spots at home, the distance from the modem/router, and the number of obstacles between you and the modem/router will influence call quality and connectivity. These scenarios can lead to call drops, jitter, latency, and poor call quality, even if you have a high-speed internet connection.
7. Installation Costs and Challenges
Your Lumen phones need internet lines installed at home. Several customer reviews indicate that Lumen either does not send technicians or the incompetence of the technicians frustrates customers.
Several customers have canceled their orders with Lumen, former CenturyLink, before the installation or during, after waiting for days to get the phone up and running.
8. Challenges With Emergency Tracking
First responders, especially 911, cannot accurately trace your location if you use Lumen’s VoIP phone. Since the information comes from an IP address with no GPS data and is not from a physical address or cell tower, location tracking becomes difficult.
9. Specialized Hardware
When switching from a traditional landline to an internet-based phone, you must buy a specialized VoIP router, special ethernet cables, and a VoIP-compatible phone. Several reviews have indicated that this hardware will be useless if Lumen’s technicians do not install your phone or complete the setup.
Community Phone - The Best Alternative to Lumen Technologies’ VoIP Landline
Community Phone is the best wireless home phone service in the US, revolutionizing traditional landlines to combine reliability, flexibility, and excellent features. Their wireless landline base connects your home phone to local cell towers for a dial tone without tying your phones to the internet. The company provides solid coverage across 99% of the US for you to experience excellent connectivity and superior voice quality in rural and low-reception areas.
Enjoy unlimited nationwide calling, features like spam call blocking, call forwarding, call waiting, voicemail, 3-way calling, and more at affordable prices. With US-based support, no hidden charges, and flexibility, Community Phone is the best landline service.
How Does Community Phone Work?
The Community Phone landline base does not tie your phone to the internet as it works off resilient cell towers. Get solid connectivity across 99% of the US through the company's partnership with nationwide carriers and the unique landline base design. The base has built-in antennas to amplify mobile signals 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.
9 Reasons Why Community Phone Is Better than Lumen Technologies
Here are some salient Community Phone features that make it better than internet-based landlines from Lumen Technologies:
1. Outstanding Connectivity
Community Phone has partnered with nationwide carriers to ensure coverage across 99% of the U.S. Since the wireless landline base does not need an internet connection to work, you will not face issues such as call drops, jitter, or latency.
2. Fantastic Reliability
Resilient technology, and thoughtfulness make your Community Phone landline the most reliable option to stay connected with loved ones and emergency services. Their landline base works off resilient cell towers with power backups to support them during a massive outage. The base also has a 12-hour backup battery that keeps your phone working during a power outage or blackout in your area.
3. Great Security
Since Community Phone does not tie your landline to the internet, it does not leave you vulnerable to hacks, attacks, data, or identity theft. You get an additional layer of security as the wireless landline cannot be wiretapped like conventional landlines.
4. Superior Call Quality
Community Phone has partnered with carriers nationwide to ensure robust coverage and clear voice quality in rural areas. The landline base has built-in antennas that amplify mobile signals to ensure crystal-clear voice quality in poor-reception areas.
5. No Geographical Limitations
Community Phone's landline service covers 99% of the U.S., including rural areas, making geographical limitations and the monopoly of certain carriers a thing of the past. The landline base's unique design and revolutionary wireless technology provide superior voice quality even in low-reception areas.
6. Amazing Flexibility
Community Phone's partnership with nationwide carriers and the unique landline base design ensure excellent voice quality and connectivity across 99% of the U.S. Experience extreme flexibility with your Community Phone landline, as you can take it anywhere without changing the number. Plug it into a power outlet and a phone, and your landline will work as well as new!
7. Easy Installation
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 (Phone 1/Phone 2 port)
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.
8. Emergency Tracking
First responders can easily track your location in an emergency, as they can trace the data originating from the cell tower and zero in on your location.
9. No Specialized 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. You do not have to buy new phone equipment as the landline base is compatible with all phone models. Save time and money with the zero-cost installation of the landline base.
Community Phone Landline Features
Enjoy the reliability of a traditional landline, some of the best landline features, and the freedom of wireless access with Community Phone.
1. Spam Call Blocking
68.4 million Americans lost money to phone scams in 2022, a 23% increase since 2021. With scammers being persistent in their brutal attacks, manual call barring and phone features to block spam are no longer effective. According to reports, scammers have found a way around the STIR/SHAKEN protocols implemented by the government for consumer protection.
Get the Community Phone spam-blocker, your one-stop solution to block 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. Since Community Phone will not block other numbers, 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.
2. Call Waiting
The call waiting feature 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.
3. 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.
Use the simple 3-step 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.
Talk to Community Phone specialists if you want to enable conditional forwarding on your phones, or call forwarding without a phone!
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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. 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: Save money on costly inverters or backup power, as 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?
Here are the 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 3 disadvantages of VoIP?
VoIP can be affected by jitter, which can cause disruptions in the call.
VoIP requires a good internet connection to work properly. If your internet connection is unreliable, you may experience problems like call drops, latency, and poor voice quality.
VoIP does not offer location tracking for emergency calls. When you make an emergency call, your location may not be immediately available to the operator.
What is the best alternative to Lumen Technologies VoIP Landline?
Community Phone wireless landline is the best alternative to Lumen Technologies VoIP Landline. It is more affordable than Lumen and does not require an internet connection. Community Phone also has better customer service than Lumen.
Conclusion
Community Phone is the best alternative to Lumen Technologies’ VoIP landlines. Experience world-class support, great calling features, unlimited nationwide calling, affordable prices, and transparent billing when you sign up with Community Phone.
Switch to Community Phone today and see the difference!