This is a question we get quite frequently from our customers: can you connect a VoIP phone to an analog phone line?
No, there is no adapter that will allow you to connect a VoIP phone directly to an analog phone line. Put another way, there is no device that lets you plug a VoIP phone into a telephone wall jack (i.e., a standard RJ11 port) and get a dial tone, like you would get with a traditional telephone.
(Actually, there is one exception, which we cover at the end of this blog.)
The reason for this is that you’re trying to connect two dissimilar technologies. VoIP telephony uses internet-based technologies. Traditional telephony uses analog and digital technologies.
Now, you might have noticed that we italicized the word “directly.”
You can connect a VoIP phone system to an analog phone line. You could then connect a VoIP phone to the VoIP phone system, which would be connected to the analog line. We cover this idea in more detail in our recent blog: Can you use a VoIP phone system with analog phone lines?
You can also do the opposite, that is, connect an analog phone to a VoIP phone system. To do this, you need to use a VoIP gateway or analog telephone adapter (ATA).
If you want to learn more about the differences between VoIP and traditional telephony, check out our clear, detailed VoIP Phone Systems Buyer’s Guide.
The exception...
There actually is one adapter out there that we know of: Yealink CPN10 is an IP-to-analog adapter. But it only works with specific Yealink IP conference phones (e.g., CP965). If you want to use your compatible conference phone over the PSTN, giving you excellent group call audio quality over traditional phone lines, CPN10 is there for you.