We currently pay about 11 USD a month for a personal phone exchange (Plays a message and let’s you pick one of three mobile phones to call). However, this feature is locked to phones from a specific cell provider. We are looking at switching to another provider, and thus need to replace it. We already have a connection to the POTS through our VoIP subacription (currently set up on some Gigaset phones strewn through the house). This is just standard SIP.
The ideal set up is
Call all the home phones for 30 seconds,
Play a pre recorded message.
If the caller hits 1 forward to cell number X, 2 cell number Y and 3 cell number Z.
1.(cont) If the home phone picks up but the person they want isn’t home the person who picked up the phone can hit the same keys (1 for X etc.) to forward the call to that person.
The SIP set up i have been able to google, but the specifics of setting this up has been hard to find, i’ve seen a bit about dial plans, but nothing specific.
(1) You need a SIP provider such as SIPStation from the makers of FreePBX, or SIPBound (my provider), or anybody else that offers SIP. Port your existing number to them, or get a new number. You should pay between 50¢ to $2 for a DID, a bit extra for a TFN.
(2) Set up a box with FreePBX on your home network - just about anything above a toaster will do.
(3) Configure using GUI; I’d go with an inbound route to a ring group containing all the home extensions with an unanswered destination of an IVR that redirects to cell phones using misc apps/destinations and a feature code to dial that IVR from one of the home phones. I’m available to do this for you and I would train you + not charge much. Alternatively, if you are tech-minded, it’s all pretty self-learnable; I knew nothing about this a year ago when I started working on it and now I’m pretty savvy.