My recommendation would be:

1) get a Fritz Box, e.g. a 7530. These sell for as little as £25 on eBay. You get a built in answerpfone and DECT Base station and you can plug in one analog corded phone as well. Fritz Boxes work well with Gigaset DECT phones but should also work with most other makes, although you may not get the full functionality.

2) Port your number to A&A for incoming and 999/0800 calls, £1.44 pcm.

3) Set up an account with Freevoipdeal (or another Dellmont label) and top up with €10 (+ €2 VAT and €0.50 servide charge added, so €12.50 in total), at todays exchange rate £10.74.
Set the caller ID for the account to your landline number so even when making outbound calls via freevoipdeal, people will see your correct number.
The €10 topup gives you 120 days of free calls (FUP applies) to UK geographical numbers and landlines in over 30 other countries (and mobiles in some countries as well),
After the 120 days, you pay appr. 1p per min to UK landlines and 1.2p per minute to UK mobiles.
See here for rates https://www.freevoipdeal.com/calling_rates/

I have been with frevoipdeal for over 10 years now and rarely had any problems. I switched incoming calls from analog POTS to A&A VoIP at the beginning of the year, fairly hassle free as well.

In reply to a post by MHC:

As a specific item teh N300A may not be available - however they also named it teh GO box a few years back when supplied with specific handset.

On te Giigaset website are several equivalents:

https://www.gigaset.com/hq_en/gigaset-as690-ip/ for example

Wow that is good to know.

The Gigaset GO Box 100 is still available from Amazon and from other sellers.

The thing that I really like about having all Gigaset Phones with a Gigaset Base Station is that it links together flawlessly and it was easy to set up.

Mixing different makes and systems can sometimes work OK and costs a bit less but it can be flaky in operation and sometimes does not function properly if at all. (eg. I am with Zen but I would not use the Zen supplied Fritzbox 7530 in some type of lashed together gaffer tape setup but that is a personal choice).

No doubt there are other equipment makers that can do the same as Gigaset and it is a pity that Panasonic do not make a device to link with their Panasonic Phones.

Older people can cope: As a 70 year old who is now older and unwilling to change - I find the Gigaset easy to use from the handset.

In reply to a post by Fido:

That is how the N300a works. (however, the N300a does seem to be discontinued and is in now limited supply).. - The N300a has two ports and as i recall. one port s for an RJ45 lead to your internet connection and one port for a RJ11 lead to your copper line, (if you have one).

When you say “and one port for a RJ11 lead to your copper line” it makes me question if the N300a still needs a traditional telephone line to allow the traditional handsets to work?

This would be no good for me as the plan is to only have 1 FTTP connection coming into the house. Nothing else.


I did take the advice to call someone.

I called voipfone and had a good chat with one of their sales guys.

They recommended the Grandstream HT-801.

According to them it will allow me to plug in my existing answering machine like it’s connected to a traditional telephone line. This is good.

However, what I then found out was that i can’t then have another VoIP base unit be registered on the same account/number without paying for a second unlimited package as they consider doing this to be two users and the HT-801 only supports traditional phones, not VoIP ones.

This is a little annoying because what i was hoping to do at this point was buy the HT-801 along with a Gigaset base unit with 3 handsets allowing me to just use the answering machine as an answering machine while having modern compatibility with the handsets.

Instead it looks like I’m going to have to use all my old handsets + answering machine while only using the HT-801. Ultimately, provided everything works like it does now i could live with this.

However, this is a little frustrating because i feel like it is going to significantly limit my ability to upgrade or change anything in the future because I will always want a traditional style answering machine which for some reason no one seems to manufacture as a VoIP enabled base station allowing multiple handsets to register with it. This is what I ultimately want.

So with that said: Does anyone know if there is a device that combines the ability of the HT-801 to allow the traditional answering machine to work while simultaneously working in parallel alongside new VoIP handsets that wouldn’t require 2x unlimited packages be paid for or continuing to pay for a traditional phone line?

Or, going back to the start of this post, is that what you’ve been trying to tell me the N300a does?

You can’t use “traditional” wired analogue handsets with any Gigaset base like an N300 IP - it’s *not* an Analogue Telephone Adapter (ATA) - it’s a DECT base with VoIP and analogue incoming line capability, for use with DECT wireless handsets be they from Gigaset (full function) or third party DECT like BT wireless handsets (partial functionality, basic calling essentially)

Clear as mud 👍

Ah, ok so it seems like my only options then are to use the HT-801 with my existing answering machine and handsets and hope they continue to work as they currently do or I pay double each month to have the answering machine on the HT-801 and a Gigaset VoIP base unit linked to 3 handsets working parallel together?

Can I ask why you are so set on using the existing analog answer machine?

You are taking te step to VoIP so why not move to digaital answermachine too?

In reply to a post by MHC:

Can I ask why you are so set on using the existing analog answer machine?

You are taking te step to VoIP so why not move to digaital answermachine too?

A good point you make there MHC. No need to mess around with local answering machines as you have better facilities using the hosted VoIP service which not only can store very many more messages than a local setup bit will also send a copy of the message left to your email account.

So whatever hardware you get, try to purchase something that does not have a local answering machine facility.

BTW, with a hosted arrangement, in the event of a local power cut your answerphone service in the cloud will still kick in.

That question was answered earlier in the thread I think

Having now read about the N300a having an inbuilt answering machine is good but ultimately not helpful to me as when I say “answering machine” I mean a physical device my Dad can walk up to, press a button to activate it and turn it off and other buttons to play and go back to previous messages.

He is old and unwilling to learn new stuff and has never been great when dealing with technology to start with. “Hidden” menu options and “fiddling” around on a handset isn’t going to be an answering machine he will get on well with and I would prefer to keep the same functionality he currently has with large dedicated buttons and a speaker voice telling him things like “Answer Set” “You have 3 new messages. Message 1. Beep. Blah blah blah, Friday Two Fifteen, Message 2, etc...” All from a dedicated answering machine device.

As I understand it with an ATA you can simply plug your present phone base station, (which has an intergrated answering machine), into it and it will work as it does now with a copper line and that was why I originally planned to use an ATA.

However, I could not get an ATA to register with my sole VOIP provider at the time Sipgate; possibly because Sipgate had not properly set the Sipgate Account up.

In reply to a post by Fido:

When I first went to VOIP my original plan was to use a Grandstream HT-812 ATA with my Panasonic KX-TGJ324EB phones but I could not get it to work.

An ATA may work for the OP as a lot of people do use them but when I first went to VOIP I did a few types of ATA and I could not get an ATA to work at all. - At the time it may have been something to do with Sipgate, (my sole VOIP Provider at the time), not having been set up properly to start with by Sipgate or the ATA not being compatible or the my router firewall settings/my not disabling SIP ALG but I put it in a demilitarized zone and made no difference as it would not work so I gave up on an ATA and I chose an N300a which was very easy to set up and it worked out of the box.

An ATA may work for the OP and it is worth considering and the Grandstream HT-812 seemed to be a good ATA.

We only have one FTTP connection with no copper line but your Router will have more than one RJ45 port and you can get unmanaged hubs/switches to create more RJ45 ports if you need more.

If a person cannot press a few buttons on a handset they cannot place telephone calls and if a person can make telephone calls they can use the handset to access an answering system in the base device in the same way that they can use a TV remote.

Speak with Voipify and ask LIGo about your equipment options.

On a separate point: you seem fixated on Voipfone because of the £20.00 call package, (which is fair enough), but it is plus VAT which brings it up to £24.00 and for some reason it does not seem to be per calendar month but is for a 30 day period which is much harder to keep track of and there are, (as all have), exclusions.

I am with Zen and they have Zen Digital Voice at £6.00 per month with 1,000 minutes of free calls but I have never used it as I do not want a VOIP service tied to the ISP but that may suit you.

I hope VOIP works out for you.

I would argue that there is no need for an answering machine with VOIP providers such as Voipfone.

If I don't answer a call, and the caller leaves a message, I get an email with a sound file containing the message. I can listen to this on my laptop or mobile phone. There will be a light on the Gigaset Dect phones showing that there has been a call which I could listen to if I wanted.