Newbie Questions

[CFoote]

Hi Everyone,

A current frustrated MagicJack user here - MJ works OK, but for business calls it is frustrating to use since MJ cuts off calls after ~1 hour or so.

Anyway, I am on the hunt for a new VOIP provider and heard about Obi and how people love it.

I heard Google Voice will be retired and Hangouts will be taking its place? Is that still happening and will that affect Obi at all?

What is the typical configuration that Obi users are setting up - Google Voice for incoming/outgoing calls and CallCentric or Anveo for 911?

I was looking at Callcentric for plans but it looks like you need both a incoming and outgoing plan, which raises the price quite a bit.

Chris

[TonyTib]

I'd recommend getting a Obi 200 or Obi 202, since more service provider slots is good.  I have an Obi 202, with all 4 slots filled.  In my opinion, the Obi is a good mix of fairly easy setup (harder than Ooma, but still pretty easy) and flexibility (much more flexible than Ooma and such).

GV is not going away; it just requires a different (OAuth) authentication method, which is easy to do if your Obi is up to date.  On newer Obi units you can also use Ring.to for free voice calls; opinions on ring.to vary.

If all you want is E911, Anveo is pretty cheap at $0.75/month IIRC, but you have to put in $20 at a time.  I had Anveo for several years for a DID (incoming number) and E911.  Their pricing for unlimited person DID is pretty good, but you don't get CNAM (Caller ID name lookup).

IIRC Callcentric has free DIDs in certain area codes, and it's popular service for Obi users.

VoIP.ms is another popular service provider.

I ended up dropping Anveo since I have 2 other E911/911 providers and ported my Anveo DID to Ring.to (the porting was free and quick).  My Obi doesn't support Ring.to, but I've had GrooveIP for a long time.  I haven't had any major problems with them.  Neither Ring.to nor GV support CNAM.  Ring.to can port in land line numbers, GV won't (you have to port to a cell phone first).

[ceg3]

If you want a full-feature premium service that is simple to set up take a look at PhonePower.  I just recently signed up and I'm liking it.  Support is good and for 60.00 a year you get unlimited and 60 minutes a month of international calling.  Just click on one of your SP setups(ex SP1) when you get your OBi for details.  It's cheaper for us OBi users setting up BYOD accounts than if you sign up on their site and get one of their devices.

[jnmarshall]

I also recommend PhonePower. They came thru at the last minute to get my number ported and service started before I had to renew my old service for another 2 years. Ring.TO and Anveo have too many issues and wasn't able to provide the services due to a busted website and other issues. It is only $15/year for the Anveo 911 service but with all the issues trying to signup, mostly on Ring.To's part, I figured it wasn't worth the savings.
I got PhonePower's basic service for $35/year for inbound calls and it includes everything you could want. If you are porting a number, their signup page doesn't match their FAQs and you have to obtain new service first, then port your number. Their billing department took care of the port and waived the fee as per their FAQ. It takes about 2 business days to start new service though in my case it was available within 24 hours (weekends not counting). Porting takes about 7-10 business days. They told me 3-5 at first and when I called back I was told it's 7-10 and I was misinformed. But it was all done on the day my old service expired.
For unlimited outbound calls I'm using Google Voice for now.
The voice quality for everything is excellent. Can't tell any difference over a landline or cell call.

[ceg3]

I'll go you one better.   I signed for PP through my OBi and I was using the service, with my Google Voice number spoofed in about 15 minutes.  I'm not porting, but just to get a number and get started is immediate.

Based on past experience, I was amazed how quickly and easily it just worked right out of the box.  I've had a voicemail issue fixed, but other than that it worked perfectly from day one.

[LTN1]

I also recommend PhonePower. They came thru at the last minute to get my number ported and service started before I had to renew my old service for another 2 years. Ring.TO and Anveo have too many issues and wasn't able to provide the services due to a busted website and other issues. It is only $15/year for the Anveo 911 service but with all the issues trying to signup, mostly on Ring.To's part, I figured it wasn't worth the savings.
I got PhonePower's basic service for $35/year for inbound calls and it includes everything you could want. If you are porting a number, their signup page doesn't match their FAQs and you have to obtain new service first, then port your number. Their billing department took care of the port and waived the fee as per their FAQ. It takes about 2 business days to start new service though in my case it was available within 24 hours (weekends not counting). Porting takes about 7-10 business days. They told me 3-5 at first and when I called back I was told it's 7-10 and I was misinformed. But it was all done on the day my old service expired.
For unlimited outbound calls I'm using Google Voice for now.
The voice quality for everything is excellent. Can't tell any difference over a landline or cell call.

Great to hear that things worked out with PP. A few questions--first, what did you have to do to get the porting waived? I was told that it normally is waived if you signed up through their site (costs more) and if you signed up through OBi (cheaper), you would have to pay the $15 port fee. So did you make a fuss to get that waived is what I'm really asking...and so what did you specifically say?

Second, have you tested PP to see how the line fairs with faxing--not so much to their online voicemail option but if you had the PP line connected to your fax machine. I'm just wondering if it can handle longer faxes of 10+ pages. Sometimes you do a test and only fax 1 or 2 pages and it looks great because it went through but the real test is to see how stable it is for longer faxes. Any way you can test that and report back?

[jnmarshall]

Great to hear that things worked out with PP. A few questions--first, what did you have to do to get the porting waived? I was told that it normally is waived if you signed up through their site (costs more) and if you signed up through OBi (cheaper), you would have to pay the $15 port fee. So did you make a fuss to get that waived is what I'm really asking...and so what did you specifically say?

When I signed up for service there is a drop down box on their registration page that had options like Assign new number and use existing. This seemed consistent to their FAQs page. I selected use existing and entered the number I wanted to port. When I tried to complete the process their site barfed all over and wouldn't let me complete the signup. I called their help line for assistance. You will want the option for billing. I told them what happened. They had me start all over and select assign a new number. When I asked about the porting and the fee for not doing at sign up they simply said don't worry about it we will waive it.

Second, have you tested PP to see how the line fairs with faxing--not so much to their online voicemail option but if you had the PP line connected to your fax machine. I'm just wondering if it can handle longer faxes of 10+ pages. Sometimes you do a test and only fax 1 or 2 pages and it looks great because it went through but the real test is to see how stable it is for longer faxes. Any way you can test that and report back?

Sorry got nothing to test faxes with.
The one call feature I discovered with phonepower is the full caller id with name. My phone actually announces the call so I don't have to look at the headset anymore. Voicemail is also excellent. They have apps for apple and google that let me listen and manage voice mailanywhere and anytime very easily.
The only disadvantage is that my outbound calls, handled by google, displays the google number and not my primary number. This is a limitation of google and not phonepower.

[Taoman]

The one call feature I discovered with phonepower is the full caller id with name. My phone actually announces the call so I don't have to look at the headset anymore. Voicemail is also excellent. They have apps for apple and google that let me listen and manage voice mail anywhere and anytime very easily.
The only disadvantage is that my outbound calls, handled by google, displays the google number and not my primary number. This is a limitation of google and not phonepower.

Why wouldn't you have your outbound calls routed thru PhonePower so your outbound CID can be your primary number?

Although PhonePower does support full CNAM I find that to be useful only if the caller is calling from a landline. If someone is calling from a VoIP or cell number chances are the CNAM won't be very meaningful. Unfortunately, PhonePower does not support CNAM override which I find very useful and why I don't use PP for incoming calls. In fact, all I use PP for anymore is E911 and my subscription is free (thru referrals).
Another issue I have with PP is their complete lack of support for SIP URI which I use extensively.
It was the CNAM override function and extensive SIP URI support which moved me over to VoIP.ms. I've never looked back.

PhonePower provides a good service at a decent price point. But depending on your needs it can also be quite limiting on what you're able to do.

[CFoote]

This has been great info - thank you all so much! My Obi200 finally arrived, and I got GV working for now. Debating what to do for e911 - I'd like to find a provider that will give me CNAM with 911 service, but I know databases from providers are so out of whack it may not even be worth it.

EDIT: Just signed up with CallCentric free inbound service for CNAM, and paid the 911 fee. Nice!

Now that GoogleVoice is forwarding to Callcentric, who is ultimately handling my inbound calls now, is Google simply handing off to CallCentric?

Chris

[SteveInWA]

This has been great info - thank you all so much! My Obi200 finally arrived, and I got GV working for now. Debating what to do for e911 - I'd like to find a provider that will give me CNAM with 911 service, but I know databases from providers are so out of whack it may not even be worth it.

EDIT: Just signed up with CallCentric free inbound service for CNAM, and paid the 911 fee. Nice!

Now that GoogleVoice is forwarding to Callcentric, who is ultimately handling my inbound calls now, is Google simply handing off to CallCentric?

Chris

Here's how you should have things configured:  On Google Voice Settings:

https://www.google.com/voice#phones

• Remove the check mark next to Google Chat, and place a check mark next to your Callcentric inbound number (I assume that you have already added and verified that Callcentric number with Google Voice).
• Configure your OBi such that one Service Provider (SP) is assigned to your Google Voice account (let's assume it is SP1), and another SP, (assume SP2) is assigned to your Callcentric account.  The order doesn't matter, as long as you perform the following steps accordingly.
• Configure the OBi to use SP1 as the primary line for outgoing calls.
• Configure SP2 to be the SP used for E-911

All the above steps can be performed from the OBiTALK web portal; there is no need to get into expert/manual configuration mode.

This setup will use Google Voice for outbound calls,  sending your GV caller ID, and inbound calls will be forwarded from GV to CC, to your OBi, providing caller ID name (for what it's worth).  E-911 calls will go out via CC.  You should test this after you're done, by picking up the phone and dialing 933 (NOT 911), and wait for the recorded voice announcing that your service is working.  Note that CC maps your 911 calls' outbound caller ID to an arbitrary, different telephone number, to ensure that the 911 call center can call you back if disconnected, so the recording will tell you a different telephone number than you expect.  This is by design.

[CFoote]

This setup will use Google Voice for outbound calls,  sending your GV caller ID, and inbound calls will be forwarded from GV to CC, to your OBi, providing caller ID name (for what it's worth).  E-911 calls will go out via CC.  You should test this after you're done, by picking up the phone and dialing 933 (NOT 911), and wait for the recorded voice announcing that your service is working.  Note that CC maps your 911 calls' outbound caller ID to an arbitrary, different telephone number, to ensure that the 911 call center can call you back if disconnected, so the recording will tell you a different telephone number than you expect.  This is by design.

Thanks Steve, this worked great! I did test with 933 and I am good to go. GV has much better voice quality than MagicJack.

So quick question - on inbound calls that are forwarded to CC to get CNAM, which featureset do I have for things like three way calling, call waiting, etc? Is it GV or CC?

Chris

[SteveInWA]

This setup will use Google Voice for outbound calls,  sending your GV caller ID, and inbound calls will be forwarded from GV to CC, to your OBi, providing caller ID name (for what it's worth).  E-911 calls will go out via CC.  You should test this after you're done, by picking up the phone and dialing 933 (NOT 911), and wait for the recorded voice announcing that your service is working.  Note that CC maps your 911 calls' outbound caller ID to an arbitrary, different telephone number, to ensure that the 911 call center can call you back if disconnected, so the recording will tell you a different telephone number than you expect.  This is by design.

Thanks Steve, this worked great! I did test with 933 and I am good to go. GV has much better voice quality than MagicJack.

So quick question - on inbound calls that are forwarded to CC to get CNAM, which featureset do I have for things like three way calling, call waiting, etc? Is it GV or CC?

Chris

The basic concept to understand, is that using an OBi device with Google Voice is actually somewhat of a hack:  GV was originally designed to forward calls to other telephone numbers, not to Chat.  The Chat feature was added later, and it is what OBi devices use, when GV forwards its inbound calls directly to an OBi (not through a telephone number).  Outbound Google Voice calls on an OBi are actually using Chat.

So:  when you are forwarding an inbound call to the Callcentric (CC) number, which is provisioned on the OBi, Google Voice treats it exactly the same as if it is being forwarded to a traditional land line phone.  All the features you can read about on the Google Voice Help Center work as described.

For example, since CC supports call waiting, GV will forward the call to your CC number, and, if another call comes in, it will forward the second call to that same CC number, and you'll get the typical beep telling you you can press flash to flip to the other call...same situation with 3-way conference calls (inbound only).  So:  the two services are working together to support the features.

Everything you want to know is here:  https://support.google.com/voice/#topic=1707989