How to make a cell phone work with an old fashion land line type phone.

[JoeMoma]

My elderly mother has a hard time using her smart cell phone. Mom's short term memory sucks and her hands are not very steady. She has trouble swiping the face of the phone to answer the phone and she often, without knowing, turns the sound of the ring tone down or sets the phone to "do not disturb" so that she does not get incoming calls. Also, she is bad about loosing her phone. I've replaced her phone several times. I now have a tracking app on her phone which should help if she looses it.

I found a device called Cell2Jack that can connect a cell phone via bluetooth to a old fashion house "land line" type of phone. I am about to pull the trigger on ordering one from Amazon I also plan on ordering a set of wireless (land line-ish) phones to hook to the Cell2Jack so that there will be multiple phones for her to use in the house. This should make using the phone work just like an old fashion land line phone, except it will actually be using her cell service.

Before I buy this, I was just wondering if anyone has solved a similar problem and how you did it. You might have a better solution than my solution. Note, my mother currently does not have internet service at her house.

Note: I am also considering simply having a land line phone installed.

 

[deannalw]

My elderly mother has a hard time using her smart cell phone. Mom's short term memory sucks and her hands are not very steady. She has trouble swiping the face of the phone to answer the phone and she often, without knowing, turns the sound of the ring tone down or sets the phone to "do not disturb" so that she does not get incoming calls. Also, she is bad about loosing her phone. I've replaced her phone several times. I now have a tracking app on her phone which should help if she looses it.

I found a device called Cell2Jack that can connect a cell phone via bluetooth to a old fashion house "land line" type of phone. I am about to pull the trigger on ordering one from Amazon I also plan on ordering a set of wireless (land line-ish) phones to hook to the Cell2Jack so that there will be multiple phones for her to use in the house. This should make using the phone work just like an old fashion land line phone, except it will actually be using her cell service.

Before I buy this, I was just wondering if anyone has solved a similar problem and how you did it. You might have a better solution than my solution. Note, my mother currently does not have internet service at her house.

Note: I am also considering simply having a land line phone installed.

I love that you love your momma.

 

[Lisa558]

I had similar problems with my mother, and we got her a very simple flip phone that resembles something from 1996. We put a few numbers in her speed dial, and showed her how to place and answer calls. (She has dementia, and is having problems even with that some days.) I don’t know that we can make specific recommendations on this site, but the phone was cheap enough - around $40, I think - so we bought a back-up for when she loses it.

We decided against a landline due to the number of scam calls, and how gullible the elderly tend to be (which scammer realize, of course).

 

[Grumblenuts]

Yes, cell phone with huge numbered buttons if possible. No swiping. No little blue-tooth ear crap to easily fall in the toilet. Plan on nothing working out well and yes, scammers are of paramount concern.

 

[JoeMoma]

I tried the cell2jack with a nokia cell phone and it didn't work as intended. After some delay, I upgraded my mom's smart phone to a samsung galaxy. The cell2jack is now woking as intended. Mom now has the use of a landline phone that she use like a regular landline phone. To answer the phone she simply picks up the receiver and says hello. To make a call, the phone has a dial tone and she simply enters the phone number the old fashion way, except she does have to include the area code even for local calls.

 

[JoeMoma]

I tried the cell2jack with a nokia cell phone and it didn't work as intended. After some delay, I upgraded my mom's smart phone to a samsung galaxy. The cell2jack is now woking as intended. Mom now has the use of a landline phone that she use like a regular landline phone. To answer the phone she simply picks up the receiver and says hello. To make a call, the phone has a dial tone and she simply enters the phone number the old fashion way, except she does have to include the area code even for local calls.

I added several wireless landline type phones so that she has access in several rooms of her house. She has phone access points in several rooms and no problem with hearing the phone ringing or hearing it ring. Working great so far.